Ready for the AI Marketing Era: How Simulations Can Transform Student Learning
- Clark Boyd
- Dec 5
- 3 min read
We’ve all been there. Reading a student’s essay, you get déjà vu. It feels familiar, almost eerily similar to something you’ve read before. You can’t quite put your finger on it. And then you read another nearly identical essay and it clicks. ChatGPT wrote it.
I once taught a Principles of Marketing course at a business school in London. Students came from 15 different countries, all speaking English with their own unique tones and syntaxes. The night before one assignment was due, they began to sound exactly alike. Everyone in the class either got the same tutor — or used the same prompt.
Pandora’s Box is open. Two-thirds of students are using ChatGPT in their work. It’s no longer cheating; it’s practice. AI skills have become among the most sought after skills in the real world. Since last year, marketing job listings requiring AI skills has increased by 71%.
It’s not as simple as pressing the “AI” button and turning it on. As the marketing industry changes, so must the way we evaluate students’ work. How do we evolve the way we assess?
I recently explored the answer to that question during a webinar with Clara Courage, an Account Manager at the Digital Marketing Institute.
The simulations students need today
Simulations have been around for decades. As a professor, I’ve tried them all. None quite worked because they don’t mirror the reality of a practitioner. They tend to be overly simplistic and abstract. It’s obvious they weren’t built by people who have done the work.
When I worked at digital marketing agencies, we wouldn’t hire anyone who didn’t know how to use the tools we used. With AI transforming the industry (and job market), expectations are higher than ever. Students can’t graduate with some theory and a little practice on an unrealistic simulation, and expect to get a job.
That was the genesis of Novela. Akanksha Tiwari and I cofounded the company because of that perfect storm facing higher education.
Another challenge is that AI evolves so rapidly. You can’t plan a syllabus five years ahead because who knows what will happen in five months? Think back to December 2020. ChatGPT didn’t yet exist. Anthropic’s seven co-founders still worked at OpenAI.
Simulations help solve for that because they allow students to move from passive theory to active execution. Rather than consume slides and videos, students experience the simulated reality of top-tier brands and agencies. People remember 5% of what they hear and 75% of what they do, which helps with retention.
We’ve also found that students will voluntarily replay Novela simulations 37 times. The more they play, the more they retain.
Key learning: The brand authority pivot
Here’s an example from our Search simulation, which teaches students about Google Ads. The first scenario, based on real Burberry data, involves paid search for the brand’s signature trench coat. Scenario two centers on a new product launch.
The trench coats have a high quality score and a low cost per click. The second scenario is more challenging. Old tactics fail. Students have to bid higher and hunt for more niche long-tail keywords.
There’s the Aha! moment: Brand matters in PPC.
I love seeing that land. They’ll realize that the first scenario made them think they were natural search marketers. The first scenario was designed for an easy win, designed to help students become comfortable with the mechanics of the interface. Because Burberry’s trench coats are so well-known, they practically sell themselves.
Every simulation is based on learning moments like this — moments that wouldn’t happen without the simulation.
Novela AI Marketing Simulation
Our newest simulation is all about — what else? — AI. The simulation hones in on four skills:
Effective prompt engineering: Crafting clear, specific prompts to get relevant, accurate outputs — and not generic, jargony fluff
AI-assisted market research analysis: Using LLMs to simultaneously analyze multiple data sources
Generating and refining content: Learning the iterative process of generating multiple creative options, and evaluating and refining outputs
Implementing strategic AI integration: Developing the skills to measure AI’s impact on marketing performance, optimizing the approach to human-AI collaboration
Students work with AI copilots, generate content, and create ads. To make the simulation as realistic as possible, we’ve even included a few hallucinations. The idea isn’t to trick them, but to train them to always verify AI’s output.
How does it translate to the classroom? As Jim Lecinski, a Clinical Professor or Marketing at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management put it, “The Novela AI Marketing simulation is a highly effective way for marketers (and aspiring marketers) to experience building an end-to-end fully AI-powered marketing campaign, in a very realistic ‘hands on the steering wheel’ manner.”