GRA 6443 Topics in Digital Marketing
GRA 6443 Topics in Digital Marketing
Rapid developments in digital technology and available data have transformed how companies and other organizations communicate with their audiences. Digital marketing activities are nowadays established in the daily routines of marketers in addition to traditional marketing techniques to achieve a wider reach and closer connection to the audiences of interest. Companies interact with audiences in new ways, develop new products and services, and expand into new markets leveraging digital technologies and vast amounts of data. Consumers now regularly interact with each other and with brands on social media and through mobile devices sharing information about products and brands. This has changed how they approach and interact with products, services, and brands and the way they search for information. In addition, younger generations of consumers are hard to reach through traditional marketing channels. At the same time marketers are struggling to coordinate their digital marketing activities, to build a unified (digital) marketing strategy, and to evaluate the effectiveness of their digital marketing activities.
This course addresses some of the challenges that marketers face today, by providing an overview of digital marketing activities, the assessment of their effectiveness and how to strategically align them to increase reach, facilitate actions, and enable engagement on digital platforms. In addition, it covers selected aspects of how digital technology and the availability of big data impact the digital customer journey as well as reflection on potential problems and ethical considerations of digital marketing practices (e.g., consumer privacy and data integrity).
On completion of the course, students will:
- Acquire knowledge on current practices, challenges, and opportunities in digital marketing.
- Gain an overview of the digital customer journey.
- Know relevant digital marketing activities and how to utilize them to create value for the customer and the business.
- Understand how to measure and improve digital marketing effectiveness.
- Know how marketers can leverage online social media to listen to and communicate with (potential) customers.
Upon completion of this course, students will be able to:
- Apply relevant scientific research in the field of digital marketing to improve marketing decision-making.
- Critically evaluate and communicate scientific insights in the field of digital marketing.
- Critically assess digital marketing activities from the perspective of a marketer, consumer, and from an ethical perspective.
- Make informed decisions about the effectiveness of digital marketing activities by analysing relevant data.
- Reflect upon potential problems and ethical considerations of digital marketing practices (e.g., consumer privacy and data integrity).
Upon completion of this course, students will learn to:
- Assess alternative solutions and derive strategic implications.
- Lead and moderate a discussion.
- Critically evaluate own work and the work by others.
- Develop a mindset for data-driven digital marketing assessment.
Digital marketing is a fast-developing field in marketing. This course will cover some selected topics in digital marketing but is not intended to give a comprehensive overview of the field. The topics will centre around the following five aspects. The specific aspects are exemplary and subject to change.
- Digital customer journey
- Digital information search behaviour and digital decision aids
- Current trends that are shaping/changing digital customer behaviour
- Overview of digital advertising activities
- Forms of digital advertising: display ads, video ads, mobile ads, search engine advertising, programmatic advertising, native advertising etc.
- Factors that influence the success of different forms of digital advertising
- Measuring the effectiveness of digital advertising
- Metrics to evaluate digital advertising
- Attribution, AB field testing, selection bias, etc.
- Social media marketing and social listening
- Analysing social media conversations
- Participating in social media conversations
- Social media engagement and outcomes
- Influencer marketing
- Ethical reflections around digital marketing
- Data privacy vs. targeting/personalization, etc.
In addition, we may take deep dives into more specialized and state-of-the art fields of digital marketing research.
The course combines lectures, in-class discussions and presentations, and out-of-class exercises. The classes will be organized around discussing selected topics illustrated by state-of-the-art empirical marketing research and practical business cases in digital marketing. The students are expected to be well prepared and highly involved in the discussions.
Students will be assigned to present either a case study or an empirical research article during the course. Groups of 3-5 students prepare the presentation and one randomly selected student from the group will present. All group members are expected to contribute equally in developing the presentation and to participate in the discussion that follows the presentation. For each presentation, there will be additional students assigned as moderators/discussants that lead the discussion and some students that are assigned to write a two-page summary of formative feedback.
Please note that while attendance is not compulsory in all courses, it is the student’s own responsibility to obtain any information provided in class.
This is a course with continuous assessment (several exam components) and one final exam code. Each exam component is graded by using points on a scale from 0-100. The components will be weighted together according to the information in the course description in order to calculate the final letter grade for the examination code (course). Students who fail to participate in one/some/all exam elements will get a lower grade or may fail the course. You will find detailed information about the point system and the cut off points with reference to the letter grades when the course starts.
At resit, all exam components must, as a main rule, be retaken during next scheduled course.
All courses in the Masters programme will assume that students have fulfilled the admission requirements for the programme. In addition, courses in second, third and/or fourth semester can have spesific prerequisites and will assume that students have followed normal study progression. For double degree and exchange students, please note that equivalent courses are accepted.
Covid-19
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, there may be deviations in teaching and learning activities as well as exams, compared with what is described in this course description.
Teaching
Information about what is taught on campus and other digital forms will be presented with the lecture plan before the start of the course each semester.
| Assessments |
|---|
Exam category: Activity Form of assessment: Presentation and discussion Weight: 30 Grouping: Group (3 - 5) Duration: 1 Semester(s) Comment: 15 minutes presentation of a case study or empirical research paper. Exam code: GRA 64431 Grading scale: Point scale leading to ECTS letter grade Resit: All components must, as a main rule, be retaken during next scheduled course |
Exam category: Activity Form of assessment: Class participation Weight: 20 Grouping: Individual Comment: Participation during class-discussion, moderation of discussions, and other activities that evaluate successful engagement with class materials. Exam code: GRA 64431 Grading scale: Point scale leading to ECTS letter grade Resit: All components must, as a main rule, be retaken during next scheduled course |
Exam category: Submission Form of assessment: Written submission Weight: 10 Grouping: Individual Duration: 1 Semester(s) Comment: Two-page peer-feedback on a presentation. Exam code: GRA 64431 Grading scale: Point scale leading to ECTS letter grade Resit: All components must, as a main rule, be retaken during next scheduled course |
Exam category: Submission Form of assessment: Written submission Invigilation Weight: 40 Grouping: Individual Support materials:
Duration: 3 Hour(s) Comment: Written examination under supervision. Exam code: GRA 64431 Grading scale: Point scale leading to ECTS letter grade Resit: All components must, as a main rule, be retaken during next scheduled course |
| Activity | Duration | Comment |
|---|---|---|
Teaching | 36 Hour(s) | |
Prepare for teaching | 36 Hour(s) | |
Group work / Assignments | 42 Hour(s) | |
Student's own work with learning resources | 43 Hour(s) | |
Examination | 3 Hour(s) |
A course of 1 ECTS credit corresponds to a workload of 26-30 hours. Therefore a course of 6 ECTS credits corresponds to a workload of at least 160 hours.