The Digital Transformation of Advanced Marketing Management
At the Fall Marketing Management Association Conference in Kansas City I will present at a session on Alternatives to Textbooks and speak about using my own materials in our Advanced Marketing Management class at St. Edward’s University. Not using a text allowed me to create a unique course experience involving a IMC Plan, a simulation and a service-learning project for a real-life client involving Google Ads. I explain the rationale behind the course, how it was developed and then present some reflections and learning from the experience.
Background
First, it is important to understand the history of the
course. Over the last few years, we have incorporated digital marketing in to
all of our courses and developed a digital marketing minor. These changes mean that students are not only
learning the basics of search, social, email and web/mobile design but that
they are receiving certifications in Google Ads and Analytics and other third
party vendors such as HubSpot and Hootsuite.
Because of these changes, we wanted our Advanced Marketing
Management course to be more than a traditional case-based course. This past spring was the first semester that
most of the students had been through the new curriculum and most were coming
in to the course already Certified in Google AdWords (now Ads). St. Edward’s also believes strongly in action
and service learning and in the use of real-world projects to involve students
in the Community.
We had used the Marketing EDGE Collegiate ECHO Marketing
Challenge to provide the experience of consulting for a real client. We had eliminated the Integrated Marketing
Communications (IMC) course as an
elective to make room for more digital options such as Marketing Metrics and
Analytics and moved much of that content in to the Advanced Marketing
Management course, using the ECHO as the main project, supplemented by the Kelly/Jones
IMC Handbook. This spring the students were ready for another challenge.
The Course Outline
The objective of the course was to have the students apply
the knowledge learned through our entire marketing plan of study. I used two
projects, one an IMC project for a company of the student’s choosing, and one a
real-life paid search project using Google Ads.
During the IMC project, students also participated in the Stukent
Digital Marketing Simulation to get used to writing text ads and seeing the
impact of having a well-designed web page.
Most, but not all, of the students were Ads certified entering the
class. Those that were not were required
to complete the Google Ads Fundamentals exam during this time period. The IMC project lasted approximately eight
weeks and students presented their plans at the end of that time frame.
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| The Course Outline |
The students then applied their knowledge of planning a
campaign to a project where they ran an Ads campaign with a budget of $250.00 for
21 days over a 31 day period, with ads serving and receiving clicks on at least
seven calendar days. The project
companies were solicited by both me as the instructor as well as by the
students. I found the project companies through contacts with other professors and a social media network called Alignable. Many of the students had their own
side businesses or chose to help family members with small businesses. We did two projects for two different product
lines for a startup in town. I sourced
many of the clients through a local small business network. Typically, in these
projects, it is small businesses and not-for-profits that can benefit the most
from the help the students provide.
The Project Process
We modeled the project on the former Google Online
Marketing Challenge and used some of the materials from the Appendix to Zahay
and Roberts, Internet Marketing:
Integrating online and offline strategies in a digital environment (4e). Students were familiar with the book but had
not used the Appendix material in their Digital Marketing and Analytics class. The material provides coaching tips for
instructors and project tips for students.
The process was that students selected a client, prepared a
pre-campaign report and had a Scope of Work document signed by the client. After the campaign, they produced a report
and reflection and presented their results in class. The Scope of Work document
is required at our University for projects where students work with outside
firms and includes basic information such as the dates of the project and the
deliverables. Also in that document, and
key to the success of this second course project is that there be a designated
person to work with the team and answer questions.
Students then ran their campaigns in class, with the class
becoming for three weeks a coaching session and a seminar series with
appropriate guest speakers in digital marketing. We analyzed particular campaigns and provided
feedback. I used a Master Account so I could see all the groups in one
place. We would see that one ad had a
lot of impressions and few clicks and suggested changes to the ads or the use
of more focused keywords to improve the CTR, as was the appropriate for each
case.
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| Class working on Google Ads for clients |
For example, we had one client who
was an energy healer, among other things.
The term ‘energy’ would be too broad for this type of campaign and
keywords would need to be focused more to produce results. I also brought in a ‘consultant’
for the teams in terms of a real-life Search Specialist from a well-known company
in Austin. One successful innovation was
the use of a prepaid Visa account to fund the campaign so the client did not
have to worry about going over budget.
The Search consultant was helpful because Google changed the
AdWords (Ads) interface just as we were beginning class. So I was learning and
teaching simultaneously and it was good to have support. I have used coaches for each team in the past
but this time brought in just one coach that could be a resource for all. I
also brought in a Power Point presentation expert from our University, Billy
Ernest, to help the students create meaningful final presentations that used
more images than words.
The Results
The students reported in general that they enjoyed learning
paid search in a ‘safe’ environment and that they liked not having a book. They thought the digital marketing simulation
helped them practice skills before they had to run a paid search campaign for a
client. They did think that two projects could be rushed so next time I would
probably have them do the IMC campaign and the paid search campaign for the
same company.
Some students did not like the emphasis on digital marketing
and had not been through the new curriculum.
Some did not come in to the class having taken AdWords Fundamentals exam.
This was definitely a transition year, but next year’s students should all be
qualified for this type of project.
One thing I noted was that students required more direction
from the last time I had done this type of project. There is some support for the idea that the
Millennial generation has a need for low ambiguity and this type of project is
of necessity ambiguous. To combat this
problem, I required several project worksheets to help the students prepare
their pre-campaign report. I often had them coach each other’s teams in class
and used other techniques to share information to reduce ambiguity about this
project.
In terms of teaching without a textbook, although I have
used client projects in class previously, I learned again that textbooks can
help organize the course and save time.
I developed my own materials for teaching the IMC plan and coaching this
project and can use most of them again when teaching this course, even if it is
in a different format.
