Following a first edition in late 2016 with French Tech Rennes Saint-Malo, Digital Campus Rennes and Jonathan Grandin, founder of Tokamaq, organised a new Growth Hacking Challenge on 16 January 2018 in partnership with six start-ups hosted at the Village by CA in Rennes.
With the support of Emmanuelle Auréart, the village's programme manager, 24 second-year Bachelor Web students were called upon to propose original growth marketing levers to help these start-ups grow their user base.
What is Growth Hacking?
Growth hacking — or growth marketing as it could be translated — is far from a gimmick or a passing trend. It lies at the root of the success of web giants like Dropbox and Airbnb, which would not be the behemoths we know today had they not used these innovative digital marketing techniques to reach the wider public. Whether you are a young start-up from Silicon Valley or anywhere else, growth hacking is indispensable if you want to survive the "valley of death" — the dreaded rite of passage for every start-up founder.
Growth Hacking: digital marketing, yes — but creative, bold and original
Working with Jonathan Grandin, a guest lecturer at Digital Campus, students explored the most effective ways to drive growth for "their" start-up, starting from its expressed needs. Should the focus be on acquiring new users? Activating new accounts? Or retaining existing customers? A complex challenge, especially since the aim is not to replicate standard marketing actions by simply creating a new social media page, running SEO optimisation or launching Adwords campaigns. Growth hacking demands a strong dose of creativity to devise bold, original approaches that can only work for that specific company and its product.
For the start-up Pro Spare — which connects industrialists to resell slow-moving stocks of equipment and supplies at low prices — students devised a post-purchase survey system to measure the savings made on both the supplier and buyer sides, paired with a global counter displayed on the homepage to highlight the cost savings enabled by the company. A solution that was "simple, but you had to think of it" — a powerful way to demonstrate the added value of Pro Spare's service to potential clients. "The proposals are relevant and align with the client approaches we had been planning to implement," confirms Laurent Béliot, founder of Coachenko, a start-up specialising in sports coaching that combines personalised support from a coach with a mobile app for training outside of sessions.
A professional immersion in real-world conditions
By presenting their work at the Village by CA to the founders of each start-up, students were also able to confront their future professional reality. Addressing a business leader — sometimes for the very first time — with strategic recommendations is an intimidating exercise that demands both humility and composure. A challenge prepared in class that Digital Campus students passed with flying colours. "Their attentiveness, their understanding of our expectations, and the quality of their suggestions fully justify my encouragement," attests Laurent Béliot.
And that is not all. The perfect growth hacker's toolkit would not be complete without an essential but less visible — and yet indispensable — component: measuring the performance of one's actions. To validate the relevance of a lever — and prove the source of a start-up's success if it works! — growth hackers rely on precise metrics: traffic analysis on Google Analytics, key performance indicator (KPI) tracking… Methods and tools that students will later find indispensable in their professional lives, even when evaluating more traditional marketing actions.
An immediate gateway to a meaningful internship
The reward for this university challenge? No trophy, but an opportunity that is arguably far more valuable: five out of six start-ups declared themselves very satisfied with the proposed levers and plan to implement them shortly — and three of them approached students about internships on the spot, right after their presentations! A chance to take the experience further by putting their original ideas into practice and training in real conditions for the emerging role of growth hacker.
Growth hacking — or growth marketing as it could be translated — is far from a gimmick or a passing trend. It lies at the root of the success of web giants like Dropbox and Airbnb, which would not be the behemoths we know today had they not used these innovative digital marketing techniques to reach the wider public. Whether you are a young start-up from Silicon Valley or anywhere else, growth hacking is indispensable if you want to survive the "valley of death" — the dreaded rite of passage for every start-up founder.
Growth Hacking: digital marketing, yes — but creative, bold and original
Working with Jonathan Grandin, a guest lecturer at Digital Campus, students explored the most effective ways to drive growth for "their" start-up, starting from its expressed needs. Should the focus be on acquiring new users? Activating new accounts? Or retaining existing customers? A complex challenge, especially since the aim is not to replicate standard marketing actions by simply creating a new social media page, running SEO optimisation or launching Adwords campaigns. Growth hacking demands a strong dose of creativity to devise bold, original approaches that can only work for that specific company and its product.
For the start-up Pro Spare — which connects industrialists to resell slow-moving stocks of equipment and supplies at low prices — students devised a post-purchase survey system to measure the savings made on both the supplier and buyer sides, paired with a global counter displayed on the homepage to highlight the cost savings enabled by the company. A solution that was "simple, but you had to think of it" — a powerful way to demonstrate the added value of Pro Spare's service to potential clients. "The proposals are relevant and align with the client approaches we had been planning to implement," confirms Laurent Béliot, founder of Coachenko, a start-up specialising in sports coaching that combines personalised support from a coach with a mobile app for training outside of sessions.
A professional immersion in real-world conditions
By presenting their work at the Village by CA to the founders of each start-up, students were also able to confront their future professional reality. Addressing a business leader — sometimes for the very first time — with strategic recommendations is an intimidating exercise that demands both humility and composure. A challenge prepared in class that Digital Campus students passed with flying colours. "Their attentiveness, their understanding of our expectations, and the quality of their suggestions fully justify my encouragement," attests Laurent Béliot.
And that is not all. The perfect growth hacker's toolkit would not be complete without an essential but less visible — and yet indispensable — component: measuring the performance of one's actions. To validate the relevance of a lever — and prove the source of a start-up's success if it works! — growth hackers rely on precise metrics: traffic analysis on Google Analytics, key performance indicator (KPI) tracking… Methods and tools that students will later find indispensable in their professional lives, even when evaluating more traditional marketing actions.
An immediate gateway to a meaningful internship
The reward for this university challenge? No trophy, but an opportunity that is arguably far more valuable: five out of six start-ups declared themselves very satisfied with the proposed levers and plan to implement them shortly — and three of them approached students about internships on the spot, right after their presentations! A chance to take the experience further by putting their original ideas into practice and training in real conditions for the emerging role of growth hacker.