Social Impact Week: Dance, penguins and robots

4 min read

What’s in a brand? At IE Business School, it’s about going beyond pretty visuals and healthy sales reports. Top MARCOM professionals should understand that engaging an audience means engaging a community. And that’s exactly the purpose of our Social Impact Week.

Interested? Let’s find out more.

From the classroom to Cape Town

At least, that was the main takeaway for our students after this year’s Social Impact Week. It lets participants tackle communal challenges hands-on to find practical, innovative solutions. More than just a fun trip to the other side of the world, it’s a chance to see marketing know-how applied to improving people’s lives in real time.

Overall, 23 learners from various Marketing, Communication & Sales programs took part in this once-in-a-lifetime experience. They got to work with actual companies, provide a unique brand of support to different social initiatives and explore Cape Town’s most vibrant townships in the process. Some of these students included:

Michelle Bogaert Tavares, Dual Degree Master in Management + Master in Strategic Marketing & Communication

Riccardo Magnifico, Master in Strategic Marketing & Communication

Simona Petrova, Dual Master in Management + Master in Market Research and Consumer Behavior

We caught up with these three to learn more about their experience. 

Inspiring the next generation through STEM

Michelle Bogaert Tavares is all about solving complex problems. She leverages her public relations background to manage crises and make reputations shine. But, with her training in psychology, she’s built a unique profile that allows her to adapt to diverse environments—a skill that came in handy when she was selected to work with Kids Innovate Africa (KIA) during Social Impact Week.  

“KIA is a STEM education program that creates inclusive learning spaces for all children, including neurodivergent learners,” explains Michelle. However, not many South African parents knew about the organization or the fantastic learning opportunities it provides kids. So, Michelle and her team were tasked with finding ways to boost not just visibility, but also student enrolment and corporate sponsorship.

Through meetings with the founders and the KIA community, Michelle’s team was able to develop strategic solutions that would address these challenges. But their biggest lesson? “I witnessed how marketing can be a powerful tool for creating real-world impact and building meaningful connections between brands and communities.”

Making hospitality more inclusive

Simona Petrova explored the theme of inclusivity in a different way. 

She and her team consulted for LiveABLE, a hospitality firm that aims to reimagine physical spaces through inclusive design, transforming travel for people with disabilities. She says, “My group and I found a dissonance between the businesses’ big ambitions and what they were doing in practice.” Closing this gap involved restructuring and unifying LiveABLE’s strategy and marketing initiatives, leading to better results.

For Simona, this project was a chance to explore the true meaning of impact. What she learned was that “impact is not created and measured in isolation, but through collective progress and mutual care.” 

Collective progress, collective prosperity

“We do well when we take care of each other. We succeed if we all succeed together.” 

–Ian Calvert, founder of FURTHER

Meanwhile, Riccardo Magnifico spent his week working with FURTHER, an NGO supporting personal development for some of South Africa’s fastest-scaling entrepreneurs. “Our project was to create a marketing plan to bring awareness about the programs they offer,” he states. But just as importantly, Riccardo and team had to think up innovative ways to improve retention rates in FURTHER’s growing community.

From the beginning, their biggest challenge was understanding the entirely new culture. Like Riccardo, this was the first time most of the team had traveled to Africa, and building community in such a new setting required total immersion. Luckily, local guides provided plenty of opportunities to do so, resulting in marketing ideas that resonated and insights that inspired growth. 

Inside Langa: hands-on impact

As part of Social Impact Week, our students also visited Langa township, a place where South African history and culture collide. Despite its tumultuous beginnings, Langa today is a beacon of hope—and proof of the resilience of the human spirit. Riccardo explains, “It helped me understand how people live and think in another part of the world and that anything is possible if you have the right mindset.”

Simona remembers the visit warmly, too. A special highlight from Langa wasn’t just connecting with local entrepreneurs, who help this community support itself; it was touring the Happy Feet Youth Project, where they were introduced to the iconic gumboot dance. “The emotional and insightful tour our guide, Siviwe, gave us was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”

A complete experience

For Michelle, the most memorable moment from the entire trip was interacting with a flock of wild penguins on the beach. “I even had the chance to watch them swim right next to me!” 

But she also enjoyed learning from the unique strategies employed by local entrepreneurs. Besides connecting with founders at KIA, LiveABLE and FURTHER, our students met leaders at companies like Babylonstoren, GrowBox and marketing giant, Ogilvy South Africa. It wasn’t just an opportunity to expand their networks, but to broaden their perspectives, both personally and professionally. 

Throughout Social Impact Week, Michelle, Simona and Riccardo reinforced their commitment to “purpose-driven work” that creates “sustainable and meaningful change.” All agree that the experience proved just how valuable the skills they’re developing are, and the growing importance of the MARCOM professional in today’s world. As Michelle says, “It was a reminder that our diverse skills, experiences and backgrounds are exactly what inspire new ideas and drive innovation.”