Vijay Setlur, Schulich Instructor of Marketing, offers innovative ‘real-world’ marketing opportunities both inside and outside of MKTG 4320, Tourism Sport & Leisure Marketing. In addition to teaching, Vijay founded and has helped stage Schulich’s annual Sports, Media and Entertainment Career Fair that has helped bring course content to life through exposure to internship and career opportunities in the industry. It is a unique university-based career fair and in January 2020 reached the milestone fifth edition.

Throughout MKTG 4320, students gain knowledge and experience in the North American sport industry, working through real-world case studies and interacting with senior-level organisation officials. Students get a closer look into the popular industry, learn trends, and apply best practices to solving marketing challenges facing various companies from teams to brands to venues. Third and fourth-year students work in teams to address marketing issues while interacting with company officials over a two-month period, culminating in a final in-person or Zoom presentation and report to the client organisation. Clients then offer students feedback on their solutions, creating a valuable learning experience that will help prepare students for career success.

To further capture the essence of MKTG 4320 projects, view the Toronto Star’s profile video, “Sportonomics: York University students present case studies to real sports executives“.

Some highlights of MKTG 4320 include:

  • Students have completed 115 real-world marketing consulting projects for 103 companies across three continents since 2009. The above image shows the first 100 academic project partners / clients, a milestone reached in winter 2020.
  • Experiential marketing-centric business case tours of Scotiabank Arena and Rogers Centre help bring course concepts to life and provide insights into career opportunities in sport industry.
  • External guest speakers from tourism and leisure-related organisations (e.g. Wet ‘n Wild Toronto, Little Canada, Stackt) integrate interactive activities into their presentation, solving a marketing challenge facing the business and to help hone students’ critical thinking and analytical skills.

“Everybody wins! The students win, the organizations win, and the industry wins in terms of having a new pipeline of talent.” – Vijay Setlur