Average rating: 4.2/5
From all customers who have written a review on this site.
Extremely Disappointed – No Deliverables, No Accountability
We are a nonprofit foundation that hosts a major music festival—run largely by high school students—so every dollar we spend must directly support our mission. That’s why we were excited to partner with the Student Marketing Agency, whose model claimed to provide real-world marketing experience through students enrolled in or having completed marketing courses. This aligned perfectly with our values, and we were hopeful this would be a meaningful and mutually beneficial collaboration.
Unfortunately, this experience has been nothing short of disappointing and unprofessional.
Since our initial conversation in March, we have received no deliverables from the team assigned to Phase I of our marketing plan. I have had to repeatedly follow up, chase down team members (especially Stephen), re-upload materials, and try—unsuccessfully—to get clarity from Roberto on the social media strategy that was supposed to launch May 1st.
Despite multiple assurances that things were “in motion,” nothing tangible was produced. Our goals, direction, and launch timeline were clearly communicated from the beginning and remained unchanged. Yet no one on their team moved forward with implementing any part of the plan.
Out of concern, I scheduled a call with Kevin, who confirmed what I feared—very little had been done, aside from a couple of vague video posts using our content (which I have still never seen). More troubling was Kevin’s inability to explain how anything could have been created without a solid understanding of our objectives.
We’ve worked with many student-led teams and marketing professionals over the years. We understand learning curves. But this was not a learning curve—it was a complete lack of follow-through, accountability, and basic professionalism. Our festival’s May 1st launch was time-sensitive, designed to build momentum leading into the event. This missed opportunity has placed our ticket sales and outreach efforts at risk.
To date, we’ve paid $503.07 with absolutely nothing to show for it:
• 3/18 – $275.60
• 4/16 – $150.37
• 4/18 – $77.10
Finally, we were forced to send a termination email to Trevor—and to date, we have heard nothing in response. The silence only underscores the lack of professionalism we’ve experienced throughout.
This experience has been frustrating, stressful, and incredibly disappointing. We cannot recommend the Student Marketing Agency, and we sincerely hope they re-evaluate their internal systems before taking on additional clients.
________________________________________I have been working SMA since 2019 and find their work quite thorough and transparent. No mysteries and no corporate buzz words to make themselves sound smarter than you. The work has been data driven. Their model of providing students the opportunity to work on real business issues while having oversight from an experienced manager is not only beneficial to the student but also provides a value opportunity for my business. My Marketing Manager, Marcela Kaiserova is smart, dedicated, and balanced. She pushes back appropriately with valid arguments and has kept our projects within budget and hitting expected performance metrics. As a skilled communicator she ensures that updates are timely and problems are solved (which are few – students do make mistakes) quickly. Highly recommend.
I’ve been a successful DJ for over 30 years. Obviously marketing has changed over those years and has become increasingly more complicated than just putting flyers on cars. lol Recently I realized that in order to insure that my new DJ brand is successful I would need help. I have many friends in the marketing business and they all gave me the thumbs up on using SMA for my startup. I was shown an incredible amount of care and understanding in dealing with these hard times. Going that extra mile for me made a huge difference in making me a loyal customer and should be commended. Thank you Hannu, Melanie and everyone else working there for what you do. I can’t imagine trying to do it all myself. Now I can focus on being an artist! Much love to SMA.
I find the idea of the student marketing agency terrific. It is difficult to find people of their abilities when searching alone. In my case Melanie Laing has been so attentive to my goals and is always positive and shares what the students are doing and motivates them for achieving.
I’ve found the Student Marketing Agency to be honest in the time it takes to set up a professional marketing strategy and backend. It doesn’t happen over night and they where very clear about set-up time expectations. I’ve found my account manager, Marcela, to be outstanding in her service, speed, knowledge of her field and willing to serve. The team she works with is vast. Specialists who work in a very organized manner. Records of all work performed is instantly in sight for review. I give them my highest recommendation without any reservation.
We have been using the Student Marketing Agency since 2018, mostly for ad-hoc tasks on an as-needed basis. We appreciate that the team is always on call and there are no minimums. Whenever we call, they jump into action and solve the problem. As a small business owner I’ve look at a number of other vendors- often not cost effective. Student Marketing Agency is like having your own I.T. team & marketing team on call 24/7. They have helped us with a wide variety of initiatives, issues and projects over the years. We’ve always been extremely satisfied with the results. Having a whole team on call, without any overhead cost, makes this a better arrangement.