At Centennial College, applied learning and industry connections help students turn ambition into careers. For graduate Yashita Atmaram, the Marketing – Digital Engagement Strategy program provided the practical skills, real-world experience, and professional network that helped her launch a career in media.
Today, she’s a Communications Designer (or Media Planner) at an advertising company called Initiative, working on campaigns for major brands, and even seeing her name featured on a digital billboard at Yonge–Dundas Square. Her story shows how Centennial College’s mix of hands-on training and industry exposure can open doors.
Finding her path in marketing
“I kind of always knew I wanted to get into it,” Yashita says about marketing. “If I could think of an origin story, in high school, I was the president of the yearbook club, making content in print. I enjoyed doing it, and I wanted to do more content stuff, so I got into marketing, which is why I did my masters in that.”
Her academic journey took her from the Netherlands, where she completed a Bachelor’s in Business and a Master’s in Marketing, back home to Saint Martin during the pandemic, where after two years of work, she decided that she needed a more specific marketing education.
“My Masters in Marketing was very foundational, top level, very broad learning, and it didn't really drill deep into anything,” she admits. “I decided I wanted to get a bit more into digital marketing.”
Choosing a program focused on real skills
Yashita’s search led her to Centennial College’s Marketing – Digital Engagement Strategy program.
“It was the only program that I found in Toronto that had what I was looking for,” she says, “which was a focus on digital marketing, a focus on working in and learning more about digital channels, and the advertising potential within those. So, I applied, and I moved to Toronto.” Through her coursework, Yashita built practical skills she could apply immediately.
“What was great about the program was that it allowed us to work in platforms,” she says. “Having that hands-on experience really put me in the driver's seat to see how things might work. This program allowed me to really go behind the scenes and be more granular in the work that could be done in advertising.”
Turning classroom connections into a career opportunity
An important part of Centennial College’s Digital Engagement Strategy program is how it gives students a direct pathway into the industry, which Yashita discovered when her instructors told the class about the residency program at Initiative.
“They told us in class that they were starting the residency program soon, and that there’d be an information session,” she says. Eventually, that led to an interview to take part in the residency, which she initially assumed she’d done poorly on.
“I went through an interview with a group account director, and a couple of senior folks on that team, and I thought I bombed it,” she admits. “I left the room thinking that I definitely did not get it. But I did talk about everything that I learned at Centennial.” But that wasn’t so, and after several more interview rounds, including one with Initiative’s CEO, she secured a spot in the 16-week residency.
Capstone learning that mirrors the workplace
“The residency is 16 weeks of intense training and onboarding,” Yashita explains. “The goal is to pass on as much information as possible, for everyone to understand the holistic process of what it takes to get an ad on a billboard, from receiving a brief from the client, all the way to delivering the creative to those who own the billboard, and then getting that up live.”
“All of that culminates in something that they call the Perfect Pitch, which is a brief that we get from a real-life client,” she says. “Ours was from Bell, and it was about their Bell Let's Talk campaign that they do every January for mental health. You get a real budget to work on with a real client, and then you come up with a plan and get assigned a team. At the end of 16 weeks, you have to use everything that you've learned, as well as all the tools that you were introduced to, to build out a plan for this campaign.” She thrived at this, and the reason she did so was because she’d already done the same thing at Centennial College.
“What helped me from my Centennial education was the Capstone program,” she explains, “where we’d work with a real-life client and their brief, and we’d get an actual budget to work on a problem. Mine was with a brand that was based in Lithuania, called Lynxmonadas. We basically had to create a plan for how we were going to launch this Lynxmonadas beverage in the Canadian market, and how we would bring that to life.”
“That really helped a lot,” she says, “because I was working with an actual client and figuring out what they need, what they're looking for, what their deliverables are. And that translates to the work that I do now.”
What does a Media Planner do?
“Once those 16 weeks are over, you just continue working with your team,” Yashita says about her transition into employment at Initiative. Today, she works as a Communications Designer (more often called a Media Planner) on campaigns for brands under TJX Companies, including WINNERS, HomeSense, and Marshalls, as well as Air Canada. Here’s what the role entails, in her own words.
“We get a brief that our clients present to us that says we want to run a campaign about this, this is what we want to promote and achieve, this is the budget,” she explains. “I take the brief, and then I reach out to partners that I think would fit that brief, and fit the channels that I'm looking at, whether that’s TV, radio, digital channels, social channels, billboards or transit shelters. My job is to reach out to all of these partners, get their rates, get suggested placements from them, then analyze all of those proposals that I get from partners.”
“I put together a plan that might say, for social, we should do this,” she says. “We should invest this much for radio. We should run radio for four weeks. We should spend this much. I do that for all the channels that I think are a good fit for the client's campaign, and then that gets presented to the client. Once that gets approved, my job is then to secure all of these tactics.”
“After that, I would receive creatives from the client, so they would provide us with the ads, and then I have to get that delivered,” she continues. “Once the ads are live, the partners will let me know how it performed. My job is then to put together the report in a way that's meaningful for the client.”
“I'm a middle person between all of these teams, clients, partners and anyone who's helping me get my client’s ad up in the market,” she says, summing it up.
A billboard moment
Courtesy Yashita Atmaram
Yashita’s enthusiasm and contributions would eventually be recognized with the Spark Award at her company’s Showstopper Awards.
“This year, they had a new individual award called the Spark Award,” she continues, “for someone who brings great optimism, great culture, and reminds everyone why we love the work that we do. And I was awarded that, which I'm really grateful for.”
“One way for the company to give us a little bit of extra fame was to have a list of all the winners from the Showstopper Awards at a screen at Young and Dundas, which was crazy to see in person,” she says. “It’s just really surreal, because I haven't even been living in Toronto for three years, so I would have never believed that my name would be on a billboard at that square. It was a moment of fame for just loving the work that I do.”
Advice for future students
“Get involved. Be proactive,” Yashita says. “A lot of what I've done leading up to where I am now is reaching out to people on LinkedIn. Having conversations with the people who might be working at companies that you're interested in, that’s a really big key.”
“I always try to put myself out there and volunteer in any way possible,” she adds, “and it helps me grow. It helps me get in touch with new people, work with new teams, and try different things outside of the work that I do.”
Reflecting on her experience, she says that Centennial College’s education gave her clarity and confidence.
“Before I did my program at Centennial, I didn't really understand the media industry at all, or any of the digital channels to that depth that I do now,” she says. “The Digital Engagement Strategy program gave me a really good foot in the door to understand what this industry is about.”
Start your story at Centennial College
Yashita’s journey shows how Centennial College’s Marketing – Digital Engagement Strategy program combines hands-on learning, real clients, and industry connections to prepare graduates for meaningful careers. If you’re ready to build in-demand digital marketing skills and gain practical experience before you graduate, explore the Marketing – Digital Engagement Strategy program at Centennial College, and take the first step toward your future.
By Anthony Geremia