• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, November 4, 2021

Adobe announced a collaboration with The Walt Disney Company on Thursday as part of an effort to address the growing talent gap in the technology and digital fields.  

The Adobe Analytics Student Challenge, a global competition, enables college students to win prize money, while learning in-demand skills.

The program supports careers in fields ranging from data science and product management to consulting and marketing. Finalists, presented virtually, will be announced on November 9.

It’s not the first year that Adobe ran the challenge, but it is the first year that it has partnered with Disney to advance digital literacy.

Disney is a leading international family entertainment and media enterprise with an expansive portfolio that covers everything from theme parks and film studios to direct-to-consumer streaming services, consumer products, and more.

Its digital audience has grown throughout the years. This year’s central theme focused on nurturing loyalty online, with insights that can better profile customer intent.

Teams from universities and colleges worldwide are given several weeks to analyze real data provided by a brand partner, and tasked to help the organization solve a pressing business challenge.

Using Adobe Analytics, students learn to produce actionable insights that can drive their recommendations.

Teams will present ideas that aim to help Disney deliver a “magical” online experience.

Students will recommend ways to drive repeat and multiple purchases online. They also will be asked to conduct a deep analysis of the online shopping cart. Cart abandonment will be considered this year too, exploring ways to recover ecommerce baskets that shoppers walk away from.

Lastly, teams will be asked to analyze the customer journey across mobile and desktop channels, uncovering new ways for Disney to approach these properties.

After a record-setting year with more than 8,300 student applicants -- representing about 700 institutions across 22 countries -- six teams have made the final round.

They come from schools like Willamette University, Yale School of Management, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, University of California (Davis), Brigham Young University, and Université d’Angers.

The finalists are the latest to join an alumni network that leveraged the experience to join organizations like The Home Depot and the Boston Consulting Group.