A year ago, during the Internet Economics seminars held by Professor Paolo Cellini, the company Venere.com presented its first contest with LUISS Guido Carli. The hotel reservation site asked students in the seminar to research its brand and online positioning; the winning answer would receive a university scholarship. Of approximately ten projects, the winner was the one submitted by Daniele Saurini, a master’s degree student in Economics.
"It wasn’t easy to decide which seminar to take, as there were several that intrigued me," says Daniele. "My interest in this course, combined with the chance of winning a scholarship, clinched it for me. The topics turned out to be interesting, current and above all, really useful. During his lectures, Professor Cellini always made us think. He focused less on concepts and instead sought to help us understand the logic and functioning behind the internet industry."
This practical and analytical approach gave him the key for approaching the task set before him by the Venere.com team, that of planning a viral campaign on social media that would stimulate users to create content. He started with the Facebook page of the site and a blank slate: "I tried to ask the right questions before looking for the right answers. 'What would make me want to write something on Venere’s page?'; 'What does Venere get out of my post on their page?' Once I was done asking questions, I began looking for the answers."
Over the course of those weeks, Daniele came up with various ideas, and after continuously discussing them with the people closest to him, he was able to condense them into one. In the end, he decided that the best way to get users to post quality content on social media began with asking the right questions: "The idea is to create a competition among users, who send their best photos in response to questions published by Venere in regular intervals on Facebook."
Now that Venere.com has announced a second contest for 2014/2015, Daniele is personally asking students to go for it: "These are the kinds of experiences that are fundamental to our education. They offer us the opportunity to begin really addressing some of society’s problems."