We’re excited to launch Collaborative Connections, a new Manchester Digital series shining a light on the partnerships and collaborations that make our community thrive. For our first instalment, Soap Media share details of their ongoing relationship with UA92.
By Jack Oddy, Managing Director, Soap Media
To date, Soap Media has partnered with UA92 across three sessions to deliver industry insight, skills development, and career guidance in marketing, web development, and business cohorts.
Most recently, Soap Media’s Paid Strategy Lead, Kris Boorman, delivered a hands-on session on paid media, taking students from the basics of “what is PPC?” through to real purchase journeys, Google’s auction model, and how AI-driven bidding and the “messy middle” of online decision-making actually work in practice. The session used live polls, A/B testing of landing pages and interactive tasks to get students thinking like PPC specialists rather than just hearing about it.
Kris Boorman, Paid Strategy Lead, delivers a session.Before this, Front End Lead, Ryan Noon, spoke with first- and second-year web development students about navigating the 2025 job market and landing that first developer role. Ryan’s session covered everything from portfolios and technical skills to networking, interviewing and what agencies like Soap really look for in candidates.
This collaboration began with Operations Director, Paige Coulthurst, speaking at UA92 Business School on “Finding your path & looking after yourself whilst you walk it”. Paige’s session combined career storytelling with practical exercises around LinkedIn optimisation, side-hustle ideas, productivity (including the GTD “inbox zero” method) and wellbeing frameworks to help students think about the long game of their careers, not just their first job title.
Ryan Noon, Front End Lead, speaking to students at UA92.Across all three sessions, the collaboration has helped bridge the gap between classroom theory and day-to-day agency life:
- Kris’ PPC workshop gave multi-channel marketing students a much clearer picture of how modern paid media actually works. This generated strong engagement and discussion, with students feeding back that they left with a far more realistic view of PPC as a career path and discipline.
- Ryan’s session helped web development students connect their studies to real hiring expectations. By sharing his own route from university, he was able to give practical advice on what to prioritise, how to present projects, and how to approach networking in a way that feels genuine rather than forced.
- Paige’s talk had a broader but equally important impact. Her focus on wellbeing, boundaries and sustainable performance landed particularly well, with students feeding back that it was refreshing to hear an agency leader talk openly about health, mental load and “real life” alongside ambition.
Paige Coulthurst, Operations Director, shares wellbeing tipsBeing part of the Manchester Digital community has made it much easier for both sides to find the right partners. For UA92, the network provides a credible way to identify agencies that are active in the region’s digital ecosystem and willing to invest time in the next generation of talent. For Soap Media, membership creates visibility and trust; it signals that they are serious about the city’s digital economy, not just their own client list.
That shared context helped open the door to UA92 in the first place and gave confidence that these wouldn’t just be one-off guest lectures, but part of an ongoing, mutually beneficial relationship between education and industry.
To find out more about Soap Media, click here.
