This year, about 90 Otago marketing students opted to take a third-year marketing paper on sales and sales management.
They divided into 25 small groups, and all focused on trying to increase the size of the council's email community consultation panel, called the Dunedin People's Panel.
In March, each group prepared a plan and later actioned this through field work, before making presentations to fellow students. Three leading student groups this week made presentations about their experiences to Dunedin Mayor Dave Cull and about 60 fellow students.
The students had used innovative networking methods, made effective use of social media, and connected with a wide range of Dunedin young people, including some from educationally disadvantaged backgrounds.
Mr Cull praised the ''fantastic outcomes'' the students had achieved, in greatly increasing the size of the People's Panel, as well as helping add more young people and making it more representative.
One group, comprising Kate Robertson (22), Victoria Watt (22) and Erwin Testard (23), the latter a French exchange student, produced a promotional video clip which has since been adopted by the city council's internet site.
Dr Mathew Parackal, the paper's academic leader, said the students had worked on a ''zero budget'' basis, and had showed that marketing principles could be used to advance community projects effectively.
This was the fourth year students taking the paper had undertaken projects to benefit charities or otherwise advance the public good, he said.
