Integrated Media Assignment briefing June and September 2013 Mike Berry Senior Examiner CAM

Objectives of this presentation To help you to get better marks for your assignment by helping you understand: What the brief is asking for. What examiners will be looking for. How to tackle the Assignment. What a great Assignment Submission looks like.

Overview The CIM “Magic Formula”. The assignment tasks analysed. Key command words and how to handle them. From the examiner’s point-of-view.

The CIM Magic Formula Evaluation 20% Presentation Application 30% Concept 40% 10%

Introduction Four Tasks: all are compulsory Task One: Media Planning, Buying, Research and Controls 25%. Task Two: Media Buying and Budgeting 25%. Task Three: Integrated Media and Measurement 25%. Task Four: Managing Media 25%.

Important to: Choose an appropriate organisation …which you know well. Don’t contact the organisation for ‘insider info’. You don’t need to use any confidential information. Read all of the Assignment Brief thoroughly (including the Guidance Notes and the Mark Scheme).

Task One: Media Planning, Buying, Research and Controls

Scenario: you are a Marketing Assistant; prepare a report for your chosen brand relating to ONE advertising campaign. Discuss the chosen campaign: audience, objectives content and creative. Identify and explain the various processes and timescales for producing advertisements. Explain how media is purchased; specifically print and electronic (=digital). Identify research methods for post-testing. Evaluates the chosen channels (especially print and electronic). Format: report. Appendices: backgrounds to organisation and brand.

Task One: Media Planning, Buying, Research and Controls While sections such as introductions can be helpful - keep them brief, keep a clear focus on addressing each element of the task. Make good use of headings and sub headings; lay your work out clearly. Standard Business English; neither too chatty nor too formal. Be ruthless in removing repetition; make the most of the available word count.

Task Two: Media Buying and Budgeting

Scenario: you are a Media Assistant. This task focuses on buying and budgeting media. Choose a brand. Discuss realistic objectives for various media. Recommend a Media Plan and justify it. Explain and justify chosen levels of reach and frequency. Include a proposed budget. Format: report.

Task Three: Integrated Media and Measurement

Scenario: You are a Communications Assistant. This Task is all about Integration. Include a still to illustrate the Creative. Describe an integrated campaign (including benefits and importance). Discuss the roles played by various media tools and how they communicated brand values. Evaluate the success of the campaign in terms of its objectives. Recommends how the campaign might be improved for the future. Format: report. Format: PowerPoint Presentation with speaker notes

Task Four: Managing Media

Scenario: You are a Marketing Assistant. Your organisation is reviewing its approach to organising and managing its marketing/ media agencies. Produce a presentation which: Defines your marketing communication objectives. Describes and justifies the current marketing/ media mix. Describes the role/ structure of the media department of a full- service agency. Evaluates the agency’s role in achieving communications objectives. Justifies the inclusion of THREE agencies on the pitch list. Format: Presentation (e.g. PowerPoint).

Task Four: A PowerPoint slide about PowerPoint slides Just stand back for a moment and take a look at this side. It is intended to be an example of a poorly-designed slide. It is absolutely full of text. In fact the only way it has been possible to get all this text onto a single slide has been to take the font size right down. But at what cost? The author clearly has no self control whatsoever and also no sense of design and, more importantly, of legibility. This slide probably can’t be read by the person in the front row of the audience, never mind the person at the back of the room. There is very little impact as the audience will be overwhelmed by the amount of text and consequently they are unlikely to be able to absorb any of it. The obvious conclusion (whether or not the audience is conscious of it) would be that the person who has prepared the presentation has not effectively identified and summarized the key points that they want to make; rather they have just shoved all their rambling thoughts onto the slide, as a stream of consciousness which might be appropriate in some media but absolutely not in the case of PowerPoint presentation designed to communicate and motivate. Worse still, the author apparently has an unhealthy obsession with PowerPoint gimmicks such as animations and transitions which should be used sparingly, if at all; don’t use effects toabsolutely not in the case of PowerPoint presentation designed to communicate and motivate. Worse still, the author apparently has an unhealthy obsession with PowerPoint gimmicks such as animations and transitions which should be used sparingly, if at all; don’t use effects to show off; they will just distract your audience from your content which should always be the start of your presentation. As for the colours, the author is either colour blind or is attempting the create the illusion of an LSD trip which is unlikely to assist the transmission of the content of the presentation.show off; they will just distract your audience from your content which should always be the start of your presentation. As for the colours, the author is either colour blind or is attempting the create the illusion of an LSD trip which is unlikely to assist the transmission of the content of the presentation. Lastly the author has found a cheesy piece of Clipart and slapped it on. This might indeed engage the audience's attention but only to make them sneer with derision. Another fail. Use good-quality photographic images instead. &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& Good use of speaker notes can help ensure that slides to not need to be this cluttered and can effectively communicate key points to which the speaker can then add value. Keep the design clean and professional. Uses images to enhance the message; one per slide is a good rule. This Assignment Brief does not require candidates to actually deliver the presentation. (Although presenting is a key business skill and it is important as a presenter to ensure that you communicate effectively to your audience). Good speaker notes can be an invaluable help in many ways. As an example they should enable the presenter to focus on the audience rather than than spending all their time looking at and reading from the slides.

Overall: Top tips Read the assessment criteria and use the weightings to guide the amount of effort to spend on each task. Study the Mark Scheme thoroughly prior to approaching the assignment so that the structure of each task can be correctly determined. Be aware that different sections carry different weightings of marks, identify these and assign word count and effort accordingly. Work on knowledge and understanding of key concepts so that they can be understood in a variety of contexts and markets. Work to develop evaluative skills. Identifying strengths and weaknesses, or benefits and limitations, using appropriate frameworks is an important skill. Explore ways to improve on both application and evaluation where required in each task through an improved understanding of the command words. If a concept, model or theory is not asked for then do not include it. There are clear instructions in the brief, the assessment criteria and the guidance notes. Ensure that title pages, appendices, referencing and bibliographies are in accordance with CIM standards. Reference all theory and concepts throughout the assignment.

Remember those command words Analyse. Define. Describe. Discuss. Evaluate. Explain. Outline. Question: so where are these all explained on the Learning Zone? about-taking-assessments-by-assignment about-taking-assessments-by-assignment

Some final thoughts Take the time to read all of the Assignment Brief. You should always blend theory with context. Use the Mark Scheme to allocate your word count. Assignments containing significantly less than the word count are unlikely to contain sufficient detail. Show your reading around the subject (online and offline) via your Bibliography. “The examiner wants to give you the marks”; it’s your job to demonstrate your knowledge and understanding. No ‘trick questions’; just adopt systematic, logical approach. Professional formatting and presentation help everyone. Take the time to read all of the Assignment Brief!