Report: Mimic simulation – Digital marketing performance

Report: Mimic simulation – Digital marketing performance

BUSMGT 755: STRATEGIC DIGITAL MARKETING

Quarter One 2022

Overview

This assignment counts 30% for your overall grade. In the Mimics simulation, you will imagine you are a digital marketing manager for Kent’s Camera Castle. You will familiarize yourself with your new job at Kent’s Camera Castle and you will learn about the company, the situation, and the tasks you have been assigned. You will run several rounds of the simulation, with tasks including: researching keywords, reviewing SEO and website, creating ads and email campaigns and reviewing campaign success, budget and marketing goals.

After the final round of the Mimics simulation, you will write a performance report to your direct line manager (general manager (GM) marketing of Kent’s Camera Castle. From your report, the GM marketing should gain insights into how your campaigns performed over several months and what decisions you made to improve your results. Further, from a more general lessons learned reflection over the entire period of trials and testing with various digital marketing campaigns, the GM marketing should getmore strategic insights of what works and what does not, when running digital marketing campaigns for Kent’s Camera Castle.

On the scoreboard after each round of the simulation, you will see how you and each of your peers performed and on an analytics dashboard, you will see how each of your campaigns performed. Good marketers use this data to help them determine what adjustments they need to make to their digital marketing campaigns (data-driven decisions). Look for big issues and determine what to adjust there first. (For example: Do you have a campaign that saw little to no conversions? Ask yourself questions like, do you have low CTRs (click through rates) on some keywords? Did you bid too low? Is your ad position worse than rank 5 in the search engine? Are the keywords being used in the ads you wrote? Etc.)

Make sure that you finish all rounds of the simulation in time, delayed submissions may cause penalties in the overall grade of this assignment.

Content guidelines (3 components):

The following components should be considered:

· Showcase and explain your data-driven decisions for each round

· Include arguments grounded in the results from your scoreboard and analytics dashboard (part of in the Mimic simulation) and theoretically grounded in digital marketing concepts and frameworks

· Reflect on the lessons learned from the simulation, meaning for example: What were most important learnings for digital marketing practice? What were the most important success factors to perform well in the digital marketing environment? What worked and what did not work? Back this section up with relevant references from your textbook and additionally, if needed, with recent digital marketing blogs.

Specifications report

1. Intended audience: The report should be written as if you are submitting a performance report as a digital marketing manager to your direct line manager, the GM (general manager) marketing of Kent’s Camera Castle. Use professional language and show proper usage of marketing terminology.

2. Word count and references: This report should be 1000 ± 10% words. Your word count will begin with the executive summary and will end before the references. Figures, graphs, tables, and the appendix are not considered for the word count. Reports over the word limit will be penalized. Your references should follow APA 6 format.

Your main reference will be the textbook:

Larson, J. and Draper, S. (2021) Digital Marketing Essentials. Edify Publishing. Rexburg. Idaho. Other sources, such as recent digital marketing blogs can be used additionally.

3. Structure of your report: Make sure to structure your analysis wisely. There is no given structure that you have to follow. It is part of the assignment to decide for a structure, that: a) provides an overview of your results and decisions based on these results and b) includes a detailed reflection of the lessons learned from your digital marketing tasks and c) is useful and intuitive for a line manager to evaluate the performance of your campaigns. Consider managers very often do not have time to read such reports word by word. Make sure a manager gets quickly an overview of the most important facts, in the executive summary, but also throughout the report.

This report assesses the following learning outcomes:

LO3 and LO4 Use a range of digital marketing activities, channels and technologies to reach, activate, convert and engage users; and develop measures to track the success of the applied digital marketing activities.

This assessment meets the following graduate attributes:

1. Disciplinary knowledge and practice

5a. Independence

2. Critical thinking

Grading Criteria

	Exemplary	Competent	Needs Work
Executive Summary (5%)	The executive summary gives on clear one page convincing overview of the most essential insights of the report.	The executive summary is presented succinctly and clearly in no more than one page.	The executive summary provides some structure, but is not presented succinctly.
Justification of decision making process in the simulation (35%)	Evidence of in-depth analysis and reflection on issues related to data-driven decisions for all relevant rounds of the simulation. Decisions process clearly outlined with all necessary information. Provides insightful details through facts and suggestions presented. Clear, coherent linkage of knowledge gathered from the analytics dashboard and decisions based on this data. Excellent linkage with the theoretical concepts of digital marketing – including SEO and SEA, Ads, Emailing and Analytics.	Evidence of good analysis and reflection on issues related to data-driven decisions for all relevant rounds of the simulation. Decisions process outlined with some interesting information. Provides some details through facts and suggestions presented. Connections drawn between knowledge gathered from the analytics dashboard and decisions based on this data. Good linkage with the theoretical concepts of digital marketing – including SEO and SEA, Ads, Emailing and Analytics.	Shows only limited analysis and reflection on issues related to data-driven decisions for all relevant rounds of the simulation. Decisions process outlined, but some relevant information and details missing. Some attempt to create coherent connections between knowledge gathered from the analytics dashboard and decisions based on this data. Some basic linkage with the theoretical concepts of digital marketing – including SEO and SEA, Ads, Emailing and Analytics.
Depth of reflection, thinking and inquiry (25%)	Evidence of deep reflections on issues directly relevant to important learnings for digital marketing practice exhibiting an ability to examine complex and contradictory issues in a logical and systematic fashion. Reference to the theoretical framework used for the reflection and very well applied.	Reflections on learnings for digital marketing practice are examined systematically and in some depth. Some reference to the theoretical framework used for the reflection and well applied.	Reflections on digital marketing practice are expressed in a limited or superficial manner. Limited reference to the theoretical framework used for the reflection and little application.
Structure, presentation and visualization (15%)	Ideas and their presentation show a high degree of creativity and originality; report is well structured, precise, engaging, with an easy flow and varied sentence structure. Introduction and conclusion are relevant and cohesive.	Ideas and their presentation show some degree of creativity and originality; reasonably well structured, engaging, and the flow and language structure are acceptable. Introduction and conclusion are relevant and cohesive.	Limited amount of originality and creativity; needs a better flow, structure and language. Many aspects of the report do lack clear structure and flow. Introduction and conclusion are generally relevant and cohesive.
Writing, language and referencing (10%)	References show an ability to examine academic material to support critical analysis and meet correct APA format. Report contains no spelling errors, correct punctuation, is grammatically correct and uses complete sentences. The report is within the word limit.	There are sufficient quality references and citations, and these meet correct APA format with only a few minor errors. Report contains very few spelling errors, correct punctuation, is generally grammatically correct and uses complete sentences. The report is slightly over the word limit or slightly under the word limit.	References and citations are included and generally meet correct APA format with some errors, but lack quality and/or are applied in a limited or superficial manner. Report contains occasional lapses in spelling, punctuation and grammar. The report is significantly over the word limit or significantly under the word limit.
Performance in the simulation (10%)	If your revenues are >250’000 after round 5, you will gain 10 points for performance in the simulation.	If your revenues are >200’000 after round 5, you will gain 5 points for performance in the simulation. If your revenues are >150’000 but < 200’000 after round 5, you will gain 2 points for performance in the simulation.	If your revenues are < 150’000 after round 5, you will gain no points for performance in the simulation.

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