Working with TikTok and Elon alumna Julia Denick ’15, students in Professor Lee Bush’s Strategic Campaigns courses spent the spring semester developing campaigns designed to help brands and businesses better understand the platform’s influence on consumer discovery and purchasing decisions.
In the midst of finals week, inside a second-floor conference room in Schar Hall overlooking the Historic Neighborhood, Elon University seniors presented communications campaigns for one of the world’s most recognizable digital brands: TikTok.
The May 15 presentations marked the culmination of a semester-long partnership between students in Professor Lee Bush’s Strategic Campaigns course, TikTok and Elon alumna Julia Denick ’15, a brand partnerships manager in media and entertainment for the company. A second class taught by Bush shared its presentations remotely with Denick via Zoom a few days later.
Throughout the semester, students were challenged to think beyond TikTok’s identity as an entertainment platform and instead position it as a powerful marketing tool capable of driving discovery, engagement and purchasing decisions for brands and small businesses. For students, the project offered an opportunity to tackle the kind of real-world strategic communications challenge they may encounter after graduation.
“Elon gave me so much,” said Denick, explaining her decision to partner with current students. “This felt like a small way to give some of that back. I also remember being in their shoes and how much I would have loved working on a project like this.”
A 2015 graduate of the Martha and Spencer Love School of Business, Denick now works with NBCUniversal and other major media partners, helping brands develop creative and data-driven campaigns on TikTok.
“I’m responsible for building strategic partnerships with NBCU and helping them drive business results on TikTok,” Denick said. “Much of that work is blending creativity and data – advising on media strategy, measurement, creative and building custom campaigns around their biggest tentpole moments.”
Bush explained that the partnership challenged students to look beyond their everyday use of the platform and consider how brands strategically connect with audiences through TikTok.
“Students are, of course, prolific users of TikTok,” Bush said. “This was a great opportunity for them to experience the platform from a different perspective – that of a business or brand manager who needs to reach their customers through the platform.”
Bush said the project reflected the experiential learning focus that defines the Strategic Campaigns course, which serves as the capstone experience for strategic communications majors.
“We are so grateful to Julia for agreeing to be the client for not just one, but two Strategic Campaigns classes and for flying in from New York to see student presentations in person,” Bush said. “What a thrilling culminating experience for our graduating strategic communications seniors.”
For Tori Tyson ’26, one of those graduating seniors, the class project highlighted both the strategic thinking and collaboration required to develop a successful campaign.
“Our assignment was to work with TikTok to create a strategic campaign that repositioned the platform as more than just an entertainment app,” Tyson said.
Tyson noted that one of the most rewarding aspects of the semester was working alongside classmates who each brought different ideas and strengths to the campaign process.
“Everyone on our team brought different strengths, perspectives and ideas to the table, which made the project more creative and well-rounded overall,” Tyson said. “Teamwork played a huge role in our campaign, especially when it came to brainstorming, problem-solving and refining our ideas into one cohesive strategy.”
She also credited Bush with encouraging students to think creatively while maintaining a professional approach to client work.
“Professor Bush created an environment that encouraged collaboration and pushed us to think more strategically and creatively throughout the semester,” Tyson said. “She gave us the confidence to take risks with our ideas while still guiding us in a professional and supportive way.”
The experience also challenged students to narrow broad research and ideas into focused, achievable strategies.
“TikTok is such a fast-moving platform with so many opportunities,” Tyson said, “so it took a lot of collaboration and problem-solving to create a campaign that was both creative and strategic.”
For Denick, the project reinforced the value of experiential learning opportunities before graduation and offered a meaningful way to give back to her alma mater.
“Group projects don’t end after college – life is one big group project,” she said. “And what better prep for post-grad than the real thing.”