Hopkins students create ad agency with help from Starbucks

by Aliza Worthington

February 24, 2025

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Hutzler Reading Room, JHU, 2012. Much nicer than when the author studied there in the late 1980s, relying on Mountain Dew and a bag of pretzel rods to get her through the night. Photo via Wikimedia Commons.

Certain things just go together. Springtime and baseball. Trees and birds. Rainy days and cozy blankets. And of course, bleary-eyed college students and coffee. At Johns Hopkins University, some students are bringing real life to the classroom as they put together an integrated marketing campaign for Starbucks.

The Advertising & Integrated Marketing Communications course at Hopkins involves a partnership with Starbucks K-Cup and Nestlé Coffee Partners. The 28 students have created a working advertising agency called “Homewood Horizons,” which is researching, implementing, and evaluating the integrated marketing campaign. The project will give them real-world industry experience in skills like media outreach, brand strategy, and marketing execution.

When the spring semester began, students in the class chose two CEOs, then divided the class into six agency departments responsible for different aspects of the campaign.

The research department, for example, will conduct surveys and interviews with Hopkins undergrads and parents about their coffee drinking habits and decision-making processes. Students will then implement a strategic marketing campaign with the help of a $2,000 budget.

Max Hsu, a junior with a double major in writing seminars and political science, is one of the two co-managers of the PR and social media team. He explained that the entire class is based on this project, with readings mostly completed outside of class and class-time spent on project-related activity.

“Basically, every team, once a week, will submit a report of what their team has been up to to the agency coordinators, and then they will send over a report of what the whole the whole team has been doing, over to our contact at Nestlé, who is also a Hopkins alum,” Hsu told Fishbowl in an interview.

Once the campaign is over, the students will present their findings to executives from Nestlé and Starbucks. The presentation is set for the week of finals, likely to occur around May 5.

Hsu said that Starbucks and Nestlé are focused on students’ findings as they relate to marketing approach.

“[T]hey’re interested in exploring and trying to reach new market options that they haven’t really been able to reach in the past,” Hsu said, referring to the age demographic of college students.

Hsu told Fishbowl that they have stuck primarily to interviewing other Hopkins students and their parents, and more specifically, to Hopkins undergraduates. They received at least 100 survey responses and conducted in-depth interviews with approximately another 30 people.

“There’s something special about taking what we’ve learned in the classroom and applying it in a real-world setting,” said Athena Zhao, a sophomore and Biomolecular Engineering and Economics double major, and one of the agency’s CEOs. “Homewood Horizons is more than just a student agency—it’s a dynamic, collaborative team that’s proving what’s possible when passion, creativity, and teamwork come together.”