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Cynthia Dumont, class of 2019, isn’t new to running her own business. She launched True Blue Branding, her digital marketing and branding agency, back in 2009. Even then, she did things differently than other agencies.

“From the very beginning, we were fully remote,” she recalls. “I cultivated a list of go-to programmers and designers all over the world so when clients asked, ‘Can you do X, Y, or Z?’ I can always say, ‘Yes,’” she says.

She wasn’t looking for a career change when she decided to pursue her MS in Digital Innovation in Marketing (MS DIM). “I believe you’re never too old to learn,” she says. “I had been working with analytics to shape marketing strategy since Facebook came out, and I wanted to formalize the things I’d learned on my own.”

While still in the program, Dumont began implementing what she learned. “My class in User Interface (UI) design helped me to show clients the importance of user interface design details in a more efficient way,” she says. “It has been a lifesaver and has helped me to be more efficient and creative while staying on budget,” she says. Ultimately, she hopes to use her MS degree to teach brand strategy and marketing at the college level.

Cliff Feiring, class of 2019, launched his new agency, Grass Roots Digital Marketing Studio, with Matt Beauchesne, another MS DIM grad. “We were launching in the middle of the pandemic, and we’re now working with our first clients,” he says.

The agency is a side hustle for Feiring, who is already an accomplished Talent Acquisition Specialist and Advisor for General Dynamics Information Technology (GDIT). He’s used what he learned in the program both in building his new agency as well as in his day job.

When a new Vice President came on board at GDIT asking for fresh ideas to digitally transform the company, Feiring applied his knowledge to a comprehensive presentation that made it up through the ranks to the VP’s desk. When the pandemic lifts, he expects his strategies to be tested and hopefully rolled out company-wide.

Simultaneously, he’s focused on growing Grass Roots Digital Marketing Studio by attracting the right clients. “We’ve worked with different kinds of customers, including a nonprofit, a hotel-casino, and small businesses, but the common denominator is they are all extremely passionate about what they’re doing.”  

This fall, the Digital Innovation in Marketing program welcomes a new chair to its advisory council. Collie Turner moves into the role after several years as a council member and serving as a capstone mentor in the program.

“I’m thrilled to help my alma mater like this,” says Turner, an alumna of what is now the Klein School at Temple University. “When I was in college in the early 90s, there was no such thing as digital,” she says. But she honed her expertise on the job, gravitating to the newly formed digital team at a now-shuttered advertising agency.

“Back then, people called me to fix the printer because they didn’t understand the difference between IT and digital,” she recalls. From there, she found her way to innovative startups that worked only in the emerging digital media, including i-frontier. “We were a bunch of 20-somethings making it all up as we went along, and it sparked an entrepreneurial spirit in me,” says Turner. 

It was colleagues on the advisory council who asked Turner to become involved in 2016. “I was so impressed by how they found people who were just the right fit. I didn’t go to Fox, but I’ve been in this field for a long while,” she says. During her career, she’s been deeply immersed both in advertising and mobile. Today she’s a senior vice president at GSW Advertising.

She’s also the founder of an ambitious new nonprofit, Heroic Gardens, which provides military veterans access to gardening services. “It’s that entrepreneurial mindset that helped me launch Heroic Gardens. It gives me a sense of pride to say I’m a woman business owner, and I’ve learned a lot that I can share with students, many of whom plan to start their own businesses after graduation,” she says.

As the new council chair, Turner’s focus is on program growth. “We’re all ready to roll up our sleeves and get to work,” she says. “We’re making personal commitments to participate in recruitment and leverage our networks.”

Now that this program is not brand new anymore, it’s time to really get the word out about a master’s degree in business that is unique and on the cutting edge of the field, according to Turner. “Our faculty are big thinkers and have so much to offer students intellectually and professionally,” Turner says. “The feedback I hear from students is that they know they’re getting a one-in-a-million education with this curriculum.” 

With Turner at the helm of the advisory council, it seems like soon everyone else will know it too.

Clare Perretta, MS ’17, didn’t know what she wanted next in her career when she enrolled in the MS in Digital Innovation and Marketing program, but she had a hunch that the program would get her there. “I had been a writer and editor for years, but I was always drawn to marketing,” she recalls.

While she was a student, she worked full time as a communications specialist at NextGen Healthcare. Her colleagues in digital marketing turned her on to the magic of metrics, including Google Analytics. Making decisions based on data—not opinions—appealed to her, and she knew she needed more education to hone that expertise.

Professor Steven Sclarow’s Process Improvement class sparked a passion for project management. As part of that class, Perretta created a document that details every step a project goes through from idea to implementation at NextGen. After sharing it with a new NextGen vice president, the marketing department started using it as official reference material.

Another invaluable part of the program for Perretta was the network she joined. In fact, her social media instructor, Kimberly Jaindl, recently tapped Perretta to fill a new role of brand communications representative on her team at Lockheed Martin.

During the program, I learned what I want to be doing—more strategy and operations-level work—and now that’s exactly what I’m doing,” she says.

In his career before enrolling in the program, Anthony M. Pizzuto, MS ’18, had done a little bit of everything in the world of online marketing. “I worked with production teams, I’ve led creative teams, I’ve done coding and merchandising,” he says.

Pizzuto has served as the head of digital experience for Victoria’s Secret PINK brand, where he led the development of their app and oversaw user engagement. He’s also worked as the director of marketing for Prudential Financial.

What he learned in the program goes deeper than digital. “I learned to understand who the customer really is,” he says.

Since earning his degree, he has taken on a new role as head of brand marketing for Days Inn, owned by Wyndham Hotels & Resorts. Now he applies the principles of user experience he learned at Temple on a larger scale, overseeing a global marketing strategy that is both online and offline, including legacy formats like billboards and radio.

“I understand now that guiding a customer through a journey is the same whether it’s in the physical world or the virtual world. And that divide is getting smaller every day,” he says.

“Technology changes every three months, but the principles I learned at Temple can always be extrapolated to the bigger picture.”

In Spring 2015, the Fox School of Business will offer a brand new Master of Science degree in Digital Innovation in Marketing–delivering all of its classes entirely online. The program is one of only a handful of graduate degrees in the country that explores the intersection between information systems and marketing.

Students pursuing the degree will become well-versed in new marketing innovations that extend to the mobile, social, analytical, and online spheres, integrating marketing, advertising, sales, and logistics across physical and digital channels.

“The demand for people with this overlapping skill set is huge,” said Bruce Hohne, the program’s Director, whose career has led him from Rohm and Haas to hibu to teaching full-time at Temple. “The field is growing and there hasn’t been much of a source of talent generation—until now.”

By harnessing the far-reaching power of online learning, and not requiring any on-site residency, the program will be maximally accessible to students. Those enrolled will reap the benefits of an online classroom environment that is ideal for teaching and engagement.

“The learning objectives will be tied to the style of delivery,” said Hohne, as he described some of the powerful learning tools at Fox’s disposal. These will include:

“Learnathons,” which will foster intense, concentrated interaction by utilizing web conferencing and small group sessions; co-creative tasks and self-study, which require that instructors and students generate, share, and comment on course content interactively, but on independent schedules; meet-ups, which comprise informal online discussions; and professional development tools like e-portfolios, identity management, career development, and interactions with potential employers.

The roster of professors who have signed on to teach the new curriculum are both academic thought leaders and “real-world practitioners,” poised to train students in the most current generation of tools and techniques available today. “They will draw from professional experience that extends far beyond the classroom,” said Hohne.

Post-graduation, the career possibilities are abundant. Armed with the new Master of Science degree, graduates will be primed for an enormous variety of paths, from marketing analysis to online marketing management to data science.

The Master of Science in Digital Innovation in Marketing is presented jointly by the Department of Marketing and Supply Chain Management and the Department of Management Information Systems.

For more information on the program or enrollment please visit here.