AMN 425 Digital Workshop Series Getting inside my

AMN 425 Digital Workshop Series Getting inside my digital mind

Hi I’m … • Background • Expectations • Contact me by

Six Modules • Each Module consists of two weeks. • A Lecture Week in Weeks 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 and 13. • A Workshop Week in Weeks 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12. • Plus a Tutor Week in Weeks 2, 7, 9 and 12.

The Tutor Week • Week 2 – Meet your tutor and workshop on the Digital Audit • Week 7 – Feedback on the Digital Audit and workshop on the Blogs • Week 9 – Feedback on the Blogs and workshop on the Digital Strategy • Week 12 – Help on the Digital Strategy

Three assessment items • Digital Audit – March 28 at 12 noon (Week 5) – 20% • Blogs - which tests your understanding and application of theory to an industry practice – May 9 at 9 pm (Public Holiday in Week 10) – 30% • Final assignment – which brings together all the digital strategy and skills you have learned – June 5 at 9 am (Week 13) – 50%

One great client • Indira Organics – Will present a Brief in week 3 • Organic skincare range made in Brisbane • Looking at doing a major launch when full testing and accreditation comes through in October 2017 • Currently doing a soft approach to their social media to keep it ticking along.

AMN 425 Digital Workshop Series How to do a Digital Audit

A Workshop and an Assessment Item • • Digital Audit is first assessment item Due Week 5 1, 000 words Worth 20%

Start with your CRA Sheet 7 100 to 85 marks 6 84 to 75 marks Knowledge and Skills Depth and You demonstrate a well. You demonstrate a good quality of developed approach to research approach using a information research using a wide range of information sources of current, well-respected sources that are highly information sources that are relevant to the product, strongly relevant to the consumer and marketplace. product, consumer and the You identify the key digital environment. You assets. identify and analyse all important digital assets. Critical Thinking and Problem Solving Critical thinking Using critical thinking, you You present a good analysis present a clear understanding of the brand, understanding and analysis including its relation to the of the brand – its essence target market and its connection with the extension across digital target market across all platforms. Your analysis is digital platforms. Your very good. analysis is outstanding. Quality of You have interpreted the You provide a good Recommendati digital audit to highlight summary of key outcomes ons important and insightful from the digital audit. You outcomes. You think deliver a number of creatively and deeply and important recommendations. deliver key recommendations for strategic development. Professional Communication in an Intercultural Context Clarity and You communicate Well communicated! You persuasion of professionally and organize content written persuasively, by organizing concisely and expression and content clearly and concisely persuasively and make appropriate use and making no technical very few technical errors. of references in errors. Your arguments flow You consistently justifying your logically and are supported by your argument. You argument. strong justification. You correctly use APA referencing. 5 74 to 65 marks 4 64 to 50 marks 3 -2 -1 49 to 0 marks You demonstrate a research approach that uses a variety of information sources that are both credible and relevant. You identify most digital assets. You research using a range of information sources. You identify some digital assets. You fail to demonstrate a research strategy using a range of information sources You describe the digital activities of the brand, offering some analysis. Your analysis is good. You summarise the digital activities of the brand. Your analysis is acceptable. You fail to provide a description and analysis of the digital activities of the brand. You identify key outcomes of the digital audit and make some sound recommendations. You provide limited interpretation of the digital audit and make some recommendations. You fail provide any interpretation of the digital audit or deliver any recommendations. You organize content clearly and make few technical errors. You mostly provide justification for your argument or decisions. You correctly use APA referencing. You attempt to organize content clearly and make some technical errors. You provide limited or weak support for your argument or decisions. You correctly use APA referencing. You present content in an incoherent way and make frequent technical errors. You do not justify your argument or use the correct APA referencing.

What you will be marked on • Depth and quality of your information sources – your research which most probably will be current industry research. Not looking for theory here. • Your critical thinking and analysis. What the research means for your client. • The quality of your recommendations. • Your communication quality – clarity of expression and referencing. No grammatical errors.

What is a digital audit and why are we doing it? • An audit is an evaluation of a person, brand system or process. • It is a commonly used starting point in any planning activity. • In this case, its aim is to identify what a company is trying to achieve by using digital media and how successful it is.

A digital audit can provide • Insights into brand competitor performance • Sentiment of the brand its perception through digital media • Content that resonates well • Most commonly used words around the brand • Data that can be used for planning • Identifies potential gaps in the market • Greater understanding of how the brand is positioned in the digital world

Think about … • What is the purpose of the digital investment? • What is the company trying to say or be? • Is the digital strategy about awareness (new customer), customer service (building relationships), research (finding out new information) or activation (getting sales or driving them to a website)?

The 5 Step Digital Audit

5 steps to success • Step 1: Research of (1) the company and (2) digital assets. • Step 2: Comparison between the two. • Step 3: Analysis. • Step 4: Interpretation of analysis. • Step 5: Recommendations.

Step 1: Research

Step 1: Research • The measure of any decision-making is its research. • You need to research well, think well and then make decisions.

First research the Company • Start with what you know. Who is your client? What contact have you had with them? • What kind of messages are they sending out through their assets – such as their stores or offices, their logo and corporate colours, their staff or CEO? Their in-store or customer service? Their loyalty programs? Their traditional advertising? • What research can you do to make sure you have the whole picture?

Then research the Digital Assets Paid, Owned and Earned Media • What kind of paid digital platforms do they communicate through – search ads, Facebook ads, display ads? • Owned – Website, Facebook, Twitter, Linked. In, Instagram • Earned – Blogs, social media forums • Who is the content curator? • What is the message?

Step 2: Compare

Step 2: Comparison • How do the traditional corporate assets and messages compare with the digital ones? • Is there synergy or confusion? Is this across all platforms or do some platforms reinforce the message, while others say something different? • Does there appear to be a consistent strategy across all messages? • How does this contribute to the corporate image?

Step 3: Analyse

Step 3: Analysis

Step 3: Analysis • Now go to the digital audit framework. • Think about each of the following questions. • Give some examples or observations based on your research. • Rate the company’s achievement, where 0 means no achievement and 10 means they could do no better.

What’s the big picture? • How would you describe the company’s use of digital media? Does it achieve business objectives or contribute to corporate vision? Is it transforming the company? Or working counter to the corporate vision?

Is it integrated with the marketing and IMC strategy? • Is digital used to enhance or even drive the marketing and IMC strategy? • Or is it used in isolation as a stand-alone activity?

What do you think the strategy is? digital • Obviously this is a guess, but the better your research and thinking, the more informed this guess will be. • If you were writing a digital strategy statement based on the evidence of what the company is doing in the digital area, what would you say? What are they aiming to do with digital? How are they using digital to solve what problem? • Strategy tell us “how to” solve a problem.

Is there any evidence of search? • What happens when you google the category? Do any paid search ads appear? • After you have been on their website, do any paid ads appear on your browser? • Is the company tracking you?

What about the messages? • Are the messages strategically consistent with each other? And with the traditional marketing communication executions? Are they all saying the same thing?

What about the community management? • Again this is likely an informed guess. • Based on your research, how well are they managing their online communities? Are they responding to questions? To negative comments? To UGC?

What digital platforms do they use? • List all the digital platforms that the company regularly use.

How frequently do they use those platforms? • Rank each of the identified platforms in terms of frequency. • Is their a favored platform?

Examples of content creation • List the type of content created by the company. Is it photos or messages or articles or research or reports or something else entirely?

How strategically is digital being used? • Is the digital activity well targeted to the potential target market? • Who is it targeting? Or even retargeting? And how effectively? Is it targeting a type of person or a product user or a geographic area?

Is anything being measured? • Look at the activation. What are receivers being asked to do? • Can any of this be measured? Website hits, cost-per-click, requests for information. • Is there any attempt to capture information?

Step 4: Interprete

Step 4: Interpretation of Analysis – What does it mean? • Add up your scores. What does it tell you? • Is the score high or low? Is there an element/s that lets the score down? Or elements which raise the score? • What is it telling you about the company’s digital strategy?

Step 5: Recommend

Step 5: Recommendations • On the basis of your interpretation, what recommendations would you make for the company’s digital strategy? • How can they improve? Is there a gap or opportunity? Is there something they could be doing better? Or different?

My Advice • Don’t wait for the brief. You can start your audit now. • It is a scoping document to form recommendations for your Digital Strategy, so keep your strategy in the back of your mind when you do the audit. • Keep it short and sharp. Only 1, 000 words. And it is only 20%.