Big Brands Sponsor College Classes to get Social-Media Help - WSJ.com

• MARCH 9, 2011
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• Here, Tweeting Is a Class Requirement

By KATHERINE ROSMAN

Emerson College instructor David Gerzof teaches students to design online marketing for Sprint and other companies.

Businesses including Sprint Nextel Corp., Levi Strauss & Co. and Mattel Inc. are sponsoring college classes and graduate-level research to get help with their online marketing from the young and hyperconnected. 

Fox Sports Net, a group of regional sports channels, works with schools such as USC and the University of Florida as part of a program it calls Creative University, which launched in 2008 and will be rolled out to 10 schools by the fall. 

Last semester, Kyle Daly took a Creative University class at Arizona State University's Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. The class broke into teams to vie for the right to revamp and generate buzz around FoxSportsArizona.com, the website for the network's affiliate there.

Mr. Daly and his team presented an idea to Fox Sports Net executives, calling for viewers to build their own pages. Viewers would post photos and videos of themselves and friends celebrating their favorite local athletes, with links to Fox Sports Net's team-news feeds and statistics.

The network is working to implement the strategy, says Chris Hannan, senior vice president of marketing.

"I've already updated my résumé," says Mr. Daly.

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