Digital Campaign Planning and Content Management Assessment -Report

Assessment Brief / Instructions for Students

Your assessment for this module is an individual report of 3,000 words. This assignment is worth 100% of the marks for this module.   

Assignment Details

Bradford City AFC (https://www.bradfordcityafc.com) have hired you to create a digital marketing and communications plan that will help drive business growth amongst 10–25-year-olds (Generation Z).

As the lead Digital Marketing Manager, you must create a multi-channel digital marketing strategy and communications plan that will help acquire new supporters, especially those that are Generation Z. Known for being tech-savvy and digitally minded, Generation Z will need more than just positive performance on the pitch to engage. As such, you must ensure your plan is creative, compelling and well targeted.

As with most Digital Marketing proposals, your plan must consider the companies short-term and long-term objectives. These have been highlighted by Bradford AFC below:

· Short-term Objectives

o Capture fans at a young age to begin building lifelong loyalty

o Increase in ticket sales (revenue) for Generation Z

o Increase in positive PR

o Increase in engagement amongst the Generation Z audience

· Long-term Objectives

o Overall club and business growth

o Increase in lifelong supporters

o Ability to cross-sell merchandise and other products, not just ticket sales

o Compete with local teams such as Leeds, Huddersfield Town and even as far as Manchester with United and City (easy commuter links)

You must make sure your plan addresses Bradford City AFC’s noted objectives, is well justified and persuasive, and contains enough information for them to easily implement your plan without having to ask you additional questions.

Your ideas/recommendations/strategy/plans will serve as the basis for Bradford City AFC to have informed discussions and adopt the most suitable approach for their marketing activities.

Your report should cover the following:

a. An executive summary of Bradford City AFC. This should contain, at minimum, the name of the organisation, target customers (B2B, B2C etc), number of employees, main competitors, website and social media presence, and annual turnover

b. A discussion on the impact of the digital micro and macro environment.

c. A clear digital marketing strategy developed using the SOSTAC (situation analysis, objectives, strategy, tactics, action and control) framework. This must include a thorough details on your chosen digital marketing strategy and outline implementation plans with a specific focus on the digital marketing (e-marketing) mix.

d. An evaluation of the digital communication tools and channels applicable to your selected organisation (i.e., search engine marketing, online PR, online partnerships, display advertising, opt-in email, and social media marketing).

e. Justification for your strategic recommendations on digital tools for generating business growth amongst 10–25-year-olds.

In assessing your digital marketing report, your module leader will allocate marks for the following:

1. An executive summary of the organisation (5 marks)

2. A discussion of the impact of the components of the macro-environment on the digital communications plan (Political, Social, Technological, Economic etc) (15 marks)

3. A discussion of the impact of the components of the micro-environment on the digital communications plan (Consumers, suppliers, intermediaries, competitors) (15 marks)

4. The successful use of the SOSTAC planning framework in creating your digital marketing strategy. This should include the situation analysis, objectives, strategy, tactics, actions, and control (35 marks)

5. An evaluation of the digital communication tools and channels which will be applicable and utilised within your chosen strategy (i.e., search engine marketing, online PR, online partnerships, display advertising, opt-in email, and social media marketing) (10 marks)

6. Strategic recommendations on digital tools for engaging Generation Z and driving business growth (10 marks)

7. A description of the potential impact of your proposed strategy on your chosen company. (5 Marks)

8. Use of academic literature, good academic writing, correct referencing in-text throughout the essay, good structure, and appropriate reference list (5 marks)

Your report should follow the standard report structure as follows:

1. Executive Summary

2. Introduction

3. Digital environment (micro- and macro- environment)

4. Application of the SOSTAC planning framework

5. Evaluation of Digital Communication tools

6. Strategic recommendations and potential outcomes

7. Conclusion

8. Reference list

9. Appendices

Submission Details

The referencing style used is Harvard.

Please use Arial font, size 12. Text should be double-spaced.

Submission of the essay will be via Canvas. A submission link will be set up within the Assessment folder. Your essay should be submitted as a Word document.

Work that is over the stated word length will attract a penalty in proportion to the additional words (e.g., 5%). Executive summary, Tables, Figures, Cover page, Reference list, and Appendices (maximum 5 pages – remember your module leader is unlikely to read all the information in the appendix, so make sure all the important details to develop a justification for your recommendations are included in the body of the report) are excluded from the word count.

All submissions are checked by Turnitin plagiarism detection software. A separate link in Canvas allows you to review your essay prior to submission. Please note that there is no permitted Turnitin score percentage.

If you have any questions about this assignment, please speak with your module leader in good time before the deadline.

Please ensure you allow enough time for completing your work. Avoid submitting it very close to the deadline in case of technical issues (e.g., broken Wi-Fi). It is your responsibility to ensure you submit the correct file and on time.

Report Writing Tips

Executive summary

The executive summary is a short 1–2-page section that outlines your report’s key recommendations (i.e., strategy, target market, marketing program, evaluation). It is called the executive summary because the target audience is busy executives who are time poor and may not actually read the entire report. Think about what the key recommendations are that you need to get across to the busy executive who you must convince to adopt your recommendations and support the proposed marketing strategy.

Introduction

The introduction is a short 1-2 paragraph section that usually provides some background information that helps to orient readers regarding the need for the report. It will also usually outline the report structure.

Strategy creation

Follow the SOSTAC model – Situation Analysis, Objectives, Strategy, Tactics, Actions, Control

Begin your report with a situation analysis that highlights the internal and external environment, including but not limited to Bradford FC’s background, the industry in which it operates, its product or services, how and where it operates and perhaps what are its vision and mission.

Based on your situation analysis, move on to develop SMART objectives that address the 5Ss and align with your overarching strategy. Additionally, use your situation analysis to highlight opportunities and develop your digital marketing strategy accordingly. Use the tools and channels mentioned in the lectures and be sure to provide some justification for the chosen target market.

Your proposed digital marketing strategy and campaign should help you achieve your SMART objectives and will serve as a clever and creative marketing program that addresses the aims of Bradford FC. Once you’ve developed your strategy, move on to define the finer details and tactics, including the e-marketing mix, and the detailed actions you propose for each. Without this justification, it will be difficult to convince the wider Bradford FC team that you have proposed the most suitable marketing program.

Recommended controls and KPIs

To evaluate the effectiveness of your digital marketing strategy and campaign you will need to propose some controls, KPIs and means of measuring success. As a marketer, it is crucial you measure whether/to what extent your marketing program is achieving your marketing objectives. For each marketing objective, you should have at least one control.

For example, if you say that you want to increase social media interaction by 5% within a 1 month of launching the new campaign, then your control for that objective will need to explain how and when you plan to measure interaction. If you can’t think of how you will measure a marketing objective, then it probably isn’t SMART (I.e., measurable). You should consider whether you should delete the marketing objective in question.

Note: All KPIs should be linked to marketing objectives. Anything that does not link to marketing objectives is not a control and should not be included in this section.

Conclusion

The conclusion should draw out the main point of your report. You should try and end your report with a punch. The conclusion gives you a final opportunity to tell your module and the Bradford FC team leader why your proposed marketing program is so great and should be implemented.