Two recent Katz School graduates drew enthusiastic praise for a marketing plan they developed to help launch Piggy, a mobile content creation app, as part of their student capstone project.

Abagail Berkowitz and Joseph Hafez, both of whom graduated this year with an M.S. in Digital Marketing and Media, were tasked with helping Piggy identify potential use cases and target audiences, and developing a marketing strategy to reach those audiences. Piggy, an early-stage startup that recently raised $7.7 million in seed money, enables people to easily create documents, presentations and invitations on their mobile phones.

Abagail Berkowitz

“It was a really special experience, for sure,” said Berkowitz. “We had a voice in helping them figure out where they could grow and how they could become a stronger online presence.”

Under the guidance of faculty member Asaf Hochman, Berkowitz and Hafez conducted rigorous market research, developed test campaigns on Facebook and TikTok, and provided Piggy with a wide range of recommendations on targeting, positioning and messaging across different customer journeys.

“This is the kind of stuff that companies usually pay McKinsey $2 million for, and it takes six months and is not as good,” said Shaul Olmert, Piggy’s CEO and co-founder.

Berkowitz and Hafez chose to target the travel industry, since it’s one of the most popular topics for content creators and greatly influences people’s travel decisions.

"For travel-focused content creators who are looking to share information and fully express their creativity, Piggy is an all-in-one app that is easy to use and offers public sharing, as well as being home to a place of long-form storytelling," said Berkowitz.

Joseph Hafez

Ehud Basis, head of growth at Piggy, said that the students “really nailed it.” Olmert added that the students working without his direct input turned out to be a “big advantage” and that their marketing plan had a “profound infrastructure behind it.”

Hochman said the student capstone project has created great potential for future collaborations between the Katz School and tech industry.

"It was an excellent learning experience for Abagail and Joseph," said Hochman. "They gained confidence in their skills and abilities, and it's the type of project that will solidify YU's long-term relationship with Israeli startups."