IMPORTANT NOTES ABOUT THIS PRACTICE EXAM

These practice questions are drawn from previous exams. They should be used to familiarize yourself with the question style you can expect on your exam. The purpose of this practice is to benchmark your own understanding of the topics and to help you practice applying your knowledge.

Example answers will NOT be provided. This is to comply with requests from the Faculty not to post sample answers for any exam material, even practice. This is also because these are real exam questions from previous trimesters.

We will not mark/grade your copy of the practice exam.

If you are unsure of your understanding of any topic, you are encouraged to post in the Questions about Weekly Content discussion forum to ask for insight on a specific area of content.

You are also welcome and encouraged to make an appointment to meet with your instructor to go over any unit material you are unsure of, not only the topics in this practice exam, particularly once you have reviewed the relevant lecture content for the topic. 1:1 student consultation are available upon request.

Question 1.

Below are two images from a recent (2022 and 2023) domestic tourism ad campaign from the Northern Territories.

INCLUDEPICTURE "https://www.tourismnt.com.au/sites/default/files/styles/800_wide/public/uploads/images/2023/Corporate site banner.png?itok=WWcH0J8a" * MERGEFORMATINET

INCLUDEPICTURE "https://www.tourismnt.com.au/sites/default/files/styles/800_wide/public/uploads/images/2021/Seek Different hero.jpg?itok=EW5gdJKT" * MERGEFORMATINET

Question 1.

First, identify how these ads communicate using the three different types of benefits.

Then, analyse the message being communicated using at least one of the other messaging concepts/theories learned in class. Discuss the target market and the brand position being communicated as part of your response.

Finally, discuss how you would use one of the digital communication tools (search advertising, display advertising, SEO, or social media content marketing) to increase the effectiveness of this campaign. Explain your reasoning.

Question 2.

In January 2023, the candy/lollies company M&Ms announced it would be changing its approach to its brand mascots:

This was after changes to the mascots (spokescandies) to make them more inclusive in 2021-2022. These changes were politically polarizing in some cases. Many of those changes were focused on their female-personified spokescandies.

Less than a month later, M&Ms launched a series of ads making it clear that was a hoax, and maintaining its spokescandies after all.

Question 2.

Analyze and discuss these decisions from the M&Ms company with a marketing public relations perspective. Do you believe this was an effective strategy from the brand in response to controversy? Why or why not?

What else would you recommend the brand do and/or what tools should they use to respond to the controversy and to increase the effectiveness of this most recent campaign?

Question 3.

Imagine you have been hired to sell a new product: a new private supersonic flying car! This car is being produced by a small technology start-up agency, not by Tesla or any of the major car manufacturers.

A flying car is an expensive, highly innovative product. This means there is a large amount of risk because it is a new technology with many unknown factors, and also very costly.

Some IMC objectives include: increasing awareness, encouraging trial, and generating sales leads. Of these three possible objectives, which would you select as themostimportant to measure for the success of your campaign? Why? Justify yourdecision.

To persuade consumers to buy this flying car, would you use more central route or more peripheral route type arguments? Explain and justify your answer.

Your boss wants you to hire a good source to help communicate the benefits of this flying car. Who would you recommend using to communicate about this product? Explain and justify your answer.

Question 4.

Imagine youre the marketing manager for a prominent travel website. Your website collects information about hotels including the current price of a room, information about the room, reviews of that hotel, hotel amenities, information about its location and local attractions. (You may have been to similar websites like Trivago, Hotels.com, Booking.com, etc). Market research has indicated most consumers are not aware of your brand and do not know much about it.

Would you go with a more CPM focused message or a more HEM focused message? Explain your reasoning.

Justify whether you want to use your budget to maximize reach or to maximize frequency for this campaign.

Your ads are currently running on TV. Now your boss has given you budget to invest in additional to augment your campaign. You can put this budget in print advertising, radio/podcast ads, or out-of-home (OOH). Indicate which of these three channels you would use, which specific vehicle within that channel, and then justify your choice of channel and your choice of vehicle.

MMK295 Integrated Marketing Communications in the Digital Age

Trimester 1 2024

Final Assessment Task Open-book Take Home Online Exam

DUE DATE AND TIME: The start date is as per the University T1 2024 Exam timetable.

PERCENTAGE OF FINAL GRADE: 40%

HURDLE DETAILS: Must pass the exam (50%) to pass the unit

Description/Requirements

The final assessment will be an Open-book Take Home Online Exam.

The exam paper and answer sheet will be released on the unit Cloud Deakin site in the Exam tile on the Cloud Deakin home page OR the Content area, under Exam Important exam information at the date/time scheduled in the University Exam T1 2024 timetable (refer to your Student Connect account).

You must complete the task individually.

This examination comprises 4 scenario questions, each with multiple parts. You are required to answer ALL parts of all questions.

The exam will take you approximately 2 hours of working time, although you have 24 hours to complete and submit the answer sheet. Late submission will result in your exam submission not being marked.

The 24-hour deadline is well beyond the actual time required to complete the Open-book Take Home Online Exam. If you are well-prepared, the exam should take about the same time to complete as a two-hour problem-style exam.

The reason for the additional time in the 24-hour deadline is to allow you to complete the task at a time that suits your personal circumstances.

If you have more than one Online Exam within the 24-Hour period, this will not be grounds for any extra time or dispensation given to the length of time allowed.

It is your responsibility to check that you have uploaded the correct answer sheet to the DropBox.

Structure and Formatting

You will be provided with brief scenarios for some of the 4 questions.

All questions need to be responded to with the relevant question information or relevant scenario context in mind.

Students are required to have a good understanding of all topics to do well in the exam.

Completing the Exam

On the day and time of the exam, download the exam paper and answer sheet from the CloudDeakin site using the following pathway:

Content (from the navbar)OR the Exam tile from the home page

Exam

IMPORTANT Examination Information

T1 2023 MMK295 Exam

Download and save the exam on your computer as a Microsoft Word Document using the following file name: student id, unit code and the units name, for example 123456789_MMK295_IMC.doc (or .docx)

Type your responses on the provided answer sheet document.

Save your work regularly while responding to the exam questions.

There is a maximum word limit for your exam response of 2,000 wordsany words beyond that will not be marked. There is no 10% leeway on word count.

Be careful to respond explicitly to the questions asked. Do not copy large amounts of information from study guides, class and seminar powerpoint slides, textbooks, journals, or online sources as this is unlikely to address the questions and is likely to be identified by the electronic tool used for the purpose of detecting plagiarism and collusion.

You are not allowed to use generative AI (e.g., ChatGPT) for the exam. Doing so will be considered a breach of academic integrity.

You are allowed to use external research about brands, particularly if asked to mention or reflect on a specific brand in your answer.

For the scenarios provided in some questions, using external information about the brands or campaigns in the scenarios is not expected, and the core information will already be provided by the scenario. If for any reason you do use information from external sources, please ensure that you include a link to or reference for the source at the bottom of your answer. In-text referencing is not required.

It is important you respond to the questions using your own words as your submitted exam response will be checked by electronic or other means for the purposes of detecting collusion and/or plagiarism.

Submission

You must submit your work on the answer sheet provided as a single Word document into the relevant Dropbox on the unit site. Please do not submit files ending with .pages or .pdf.

You will have 24 hours from the time of the release of the exam to upload your response into the relevant Dropbox.

If you experience ongoing technical difficulties during the exam period, contact the IT Service Desk online or via phone please ensure you record your ticket number the IT Service Desk will provide as evidence of technical difficulties:

Internal phones: 888

Off-campus: 1800 463 888

International: +61 3 5227 8888

If you have completed your exam but experience difficulty uploading your response to the Dropbox on the unit site, you should email your response to the unit chair at virginia.weber@deakin.edu.au before the deadline as evidence of timely submission, as well as contacting the IT Service Desk. Please use exam submission as the email subject. Your unit chair will liaise with you for subsequent submission to the DropBox.

Preparation

A reliable internet connection is vital for the exam. You will also need to have the appropriate computer hardware for downloading the exam, completing the exam and uploading it to the CloudDeakin Dropbox on the day of the exam.

If you do not have access to a computer or the Internet, there may be limited availability to sit the exam on campus.

If you wish to sit the exam on campus you must formally apply for this in accordance with the specified timelines, to the University using the webform. A link to the webform will be made available on the CloudDeakin site.

The best way to prepare for the Open-book Take Home Online Exam is to:

Know the unit materials thoroughly.

Complete the revision as recommended by the unit chair.

Before the exam, think about the content covered in the unit. Think about the type of questions which could be asked and prepare notes related to those questions.

You are unlikely to have access to e-textbooks provided through the Deakin Library during your exam due to licensing constraints. You should prepare your own study notes in advance.

This Open-book Take Home Online Exam contains problem-based and application-based, not research, questions. You can base your answers on the unit resources. You will not be expected to access other resources.

Working and Submission Details

You must keep a backup copy of the exam response you submit until results are released.

Remember to save your work regularly to both your computer AND an external storage device (e.g., cloud, usb, external drive etc). This will avoid any loss of work if IT issues occur.

You can (but do not need to) make multiple submissions within the 24-hour period. All submissions will be retained. The submission that will be marked will be the last submission made by the submission due date/time.

When you submit your response in the Dropbox on the unit site, you will receive an email to your Deakin email address confirming that it has been submitted. You should check that you can see your submission in the Submissions view of the Assessment task Dropbox folder after upload, and check for, and keep, the email receipt for the submission.

Please ensure you upload the correct document.

If you fail to upload your response by the deadline, your response will not be marked.

Once the exam is released the unit team is not permitted to answer any further questions about it. If you feel there are errors or other issues on the exam, you should briefly explain in your response any such issue and how you have dealt with it in your response (for example, any assumptions you have made about the information provided).

Discussion boards will be closed 24 hours prior to the exam. Once closed, the Unit team will not answer any further content questions via e-mail. You will still be able to read the content.

You should not contact the unit team about the exam during or after the exam unless you need to email your submission to the unit chair due to a technical issue uploading to CloudDeakin.

Do not contact the unit team regarding any extension for this task. If you feel there are circumstances beyond your control that have affected your ability to complete this exam, then you must apply for Special Consideration via the faculty portal; information is available from this site: https://www.deakin.edu.au/students/studying/assessment-and-results/special-consideration.

Academic Integrity

All Deakin students are expected to act withacademic integrityin accordance with thestudent academic integrity policyandprocedure.

This means you must submit your own work without input or assistance from anybody else.

Your submission will be checked by electronic or other means for the purposes of detecting collusion and/or plagiarism.

You are not permitted to use Generative AI (e.g., ChatGPT) when completing this assessment.

For more information about academic misconduct, special consideration, extensions, and assessment feedback, please refer to the document Your rights and responsibilities as a student in this Unit in the first folder next to the Unit Guide of the Resources area in the CloudDeakin unit site.

Assessment Feedback

Final trimester results will be released as per the T1 University calendar. Exam results are not released.

Written feedback is not provided on exams.

You can make an online appointment with the unit chair to receive general feedback on their exam following the final results release for T1 2024.

Further Suggestions

Please check your exam timetable during the study period for date and starting time. Missing an exam because you misread the timetable is not grounds for special consideration.

A difficult choice for students concerns what materials to use in revision. Often it is easy to look for short cuts and try to use minimal materials to revise with. This unit requires a good understanding of all of the topics and materials used including your assignments.

Re-read your notes and summaries which you compiled throughout the trimester (again, if you want clarification you can re-listen to the seminar or post a query on Cloud Deakin), but don't try to cram new information.

Expect to feel a little nervous; nobody is immune from exam anxiety. Some adrenalin can be useful if it can be channeled into a drive to get you through the exam.

Please note that there are academic skills hints on exam preparation available:

https://www.deakin.edu.au/students/studying/study-support/academic-skillshttp://www.deakin.edu.au/students/studying/assessment-and-results