Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management launched a fully-enrolled influencer marketing course this fall, signaling continued interest in specialized digital marketing education among MBA (Master of Business Administration) students. The course, co-taught by Professors Tim Calkins and Linda Kim, reached its 70-seat capacity with additional students on a waitlist, according to Kim.

As reported by The Daily Northwestern, the five-session course covers the importance of influencers, brand alignment strategies, partnership models, campaign development, and risk assessment. Each session runs for three hours per week and is designed to help students understand the rapidly evolving digital marketing landscape.

“It’s such a different way to do marketing,” said Kim, who also serves as Senior Director of Marketing Retention and Lifestyle at Lululemon. “It’s a totally different approach from the old model of spending months developing a piece of advertising. This couldn’t be further from that.”

Students from various professional backgrounds enrolled in the course. Second-year MBA candidate Connor Blaul, who works as a PwC manager, maintains a lifestyle content account with over 3,000 Instagram followers. Isha Khanna, co-president of Kellogg’s Marketing Club and incoming PepsiCo brand manager, views the course as critical to contemporary marketing education.

“In my undergrad university, there were no such courses like influencer marketing,” Khanna said. “That’s a testament to just how at the frontier of marketing Kellogg really is.”

The course features guest speakers, including pelvic floor physical therapist Dr. Sarah Reardon, who has amassed more than 700,000 Instagram followers as “The Vagina Whisperer.” Calkins, who previously worked at Kraft Heinz before joining academia, notes that these presentations highlight specialized community development across social platforms.

Building on Previous Offerings

This marks Kellogg’s third iteration of influencer marketing education, following similar courses in 2022 and 2023. The school first established executive education in this field in December 2021, launching an eight-week online program in partnership with Emeritus, focused on helping professionals leverage influencer relationships for brand growth.

The influencer marketing industry has expanded significantly since that initial offering, when global market value stood at $13.8 billion, according to program materials from 2021.

Calkins said the course may become a regular part of Kellogg’s core curriculum if successful. “The thing about creating a course is it’s a lot of work the first time you teach a class, but each time it gets a little bit easier,” he said.

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