Ellie Harrison reports on her co-creation project ‘Be on topic, be on brand, be on time: Exploring whether the content is king in driving user engagement in the context of television brands’ with  Elvira Bolat as her academic partner:

When you think of a dissertation, the first thing that comes to mind is “how am I going to write 10,000 words?”. There’s no denying it, it’s hard. It requires a significant amount of effort, interest and passion around a subject, but at the end of the day it is extremely rewarding and leaves you with a feeling of achievement as university comes to an end. One thing is for certain – you need your supervisor. Not only do they become an amazing support system, but you’re given the opportunity to co-create a detailed and insightful piece of work, utilising their knowledge and expertise.

I was lucky enough to have a supervisor who already had a wealth of knowledge about the digital world and its practises. Almost instantaneously, the conversation started flowing and ideas were being thrown around. They made me believe in my topic and believe that is was possible to execute, having just as much passion in my question as I did. Your supervisor is there from day 1, and picking their brains on anything you can think of becomes integral to a successful project.

I spent my placement year at a global corporate company, where I worked on the television networks. I already had a passion for television and film, as well as an interest in marketing, so this role was perfect for me. I learnt so much during my year, so much so that It really inspired me to take an in-depth look at social media and television brands. The process itself was difficult and wasn’t without challenges. I went in with such a clear direction, without consulting existing literature, and so my project had to be tweaked along the way to ensure it was feasible and purposeful.

The project itself has a well-detailed set of guidelines, that help define each section. I personally struggled with the methodology. After reading around the subject a few times from different sources, I couldn’t correctly relate the philosophy and practice to my research project. This is where I really appreciated the relationship built with my supervisor; she sat down and talked me through it, not just to help my writing, but to ensure I understood it as well.

I finished my project with an overwhelming sense of achievement. Not only were the findings extremely positive (favouring my hypotheses!), but I feel like it verified some questions I had surrounding television and social media which I do believe I can use in the future. I am now working as a social executive at an extremely successful media agency, and hope in a few years’ time I’ll be managing one of the top TV channels or blockbusters!

To access more information about the project, please contact Ellie Harrison here!