Integrated Marketing Communications
Campaigns Course
IMC students don’t just sit in classes, listen to lectures and take exams. They learn by doing.
The capstone campaign class is a required senior-level course taught by faculty with significant experience in the marketing and communications profession, students work on real projects for real clients.
IMC 455 Campaigns. It’s where the real-world begins.
How it works
Step 1
Students form teams that become agencies. Each student within that agency defines what their position will be as it relates to a real-world marketing firm.
Step 2
The agencies learn client goals and analyze the market (looking at trends, competitors and more).
Step 3
They identify a target audience and do extensive research based on the info they find.
Step 4
Insights are used to develop big ideas, and then come up with powerful communication strategies to reach the target with the right message at the right time, using the right media.
Step 5
The agency teams pitch their ideas. It’s a win for all – the client has concepts to implement, and the students gain portfolio-worthy experience.
Campaign Project Elements
Research & Analysis
One of the largest components of a campaigns class project is the research that goes into the company before the marketing strategy goes into effect. Students identify the weaknesses within the client’s brand and assess how to improve it.
From a Kengro Biosorb Campaign Project
Fun Fact: In 2019, Students in an IMC Campaigns class visited Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Feb 27 – March 3. While there, they toured the Ethiopian Airlines headquarters and met with company leaders to discuss ways to increase brand awareness of the airline in the U.S. market.
Communication Strategy
Students utilize social media campaigns as a marketing strategy for their clients. In an example for Kengro, the agency included platforms such as Pandora, Facebook and QVC to increase brand awareness. The students mocked up images of how the newly branded elements would appear in different social media scenarios.
Here is a clever communication strategy example that one group pitched to Baptist Memorial Hospital. The “Mobile Health Bus” was a way for Baptist to become more prevalent in the minds of the community.
Budget & Media Rationale
Campaigns class projects also require students to pitch a budget and media rationale. The teams break down the cost of things such as print and digital advertising, social media advertising, events and the overall return on investment.
In this course, offered in spring semester, students work as a creative agency team to develop a comprehensive integrated marketing campaign and compete with other colleges in the National Student Advertising Competition. Student teams then pitch their campaign to a panel of judges composed of leading professionals in the communications field. As part of the competition, students gain valuable hands-on experience working on a national brand and receive feedback from the judges.
One team pitched a website overhaul in order to improve ease of use. They evaluated consumer behavior on other airline websites and made their improvements based on what they found.
Appendix & Conclusion
Students conduct focus groups in order to evaluate the public awareness of the brands. I need a couple more sentences for the conclusion.
Past Campaign Clients
