IMC in the Digital Age

This report discusses Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) in the digital age, using Transit Southwest as an example. The report focuses on creating a marketing campaign to promote the company's new hydrogen buses, including a mock-up ad and specific objectives. The target audience is divided into geo-demographics, behavior, and psychographics. The report also discusses traditional and digital tools for campaign launch, including handouts, billboards, print advertisements, social media marketing, email marketing, and search engine optimization.

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
SECTION 1 - Campaign Plan..........................................................................................................1
Problem Statement..................................................................................................................1
Target Audience for the Campaign........................................................................................2
Campaign Objective...............................................................................................................3
SECTION 2: Campaign Creative.....................................................................................................3
Advertisement: Mock Up Ad.................................................................................................3
Ad effectiveness.....................................................................................................................5
SECTION 3 Campaign Launch.......................................................................................................5
Traditional Tools for Campaign Launch................................................................................5
Digital Tools for Campaign Launch.......................................................................................6
Media Planning.......................................................................................................................8
Measuring Success.................................................................................................................9
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Integrated Marketing Communication is basically a approach which is usually used by the
companies for the purpose to coordinate and brand their communication skills. In context to
organisation, the primary idea behind using IMC strategy is to create the various types of
customers across the different marketing mix and aspects. The organisation’s messaging and core
image are reinforced as various marketing communication channel basically works together. In
this report, the organisation chosen is Transit Southwest. The company is basically a
Warrnambool Bus Lines. In this report, the organisation is basically focusing on creating a
marketing campaign design for the purpose to promote their new hydrogen busses which will
soon be the part of the public transport system in the warrnambhool community. For the purpose
to aware consumers regarding the new hydrogen buses, the company will be carrying out the
IMC Campaign which will further comprise the specific objectives or goals in relation to the
organisation current marketing problems with the help of developing an IMC campaign which
will help in addressing these objectives. In addition to that, it will involve a mock up ad with the
entire campaign plan which will involve the tools, media planning and marketing mix.
SECTION 1 - Campaign Plan
Problem Statement
In reference to organisation, the company is seeking to ensure that the bus users and the
community are well aware of the launch of the new hydrogen bus and wants that the audience
feel much more excited about this transition. In addition to that, the members of the organisation
must see these new technologies as reliable, safe and should feel positive in relation to their
community being leaders for this energy transition. In context to Transit Southwest, the
organisation is more specifically the Warrnambool Bus Lines who have a longstanding
connection to the Warrnambool Community. In context to the organisation, their main objective
is to become more socially responsible transition towards the cleaner and greener energy sources.
In addition to that, for the organization, innovation plays a very significant role in maintaining
the long term outlook according to what best suits to the community ( Rishi and Kuthuru, 2021).
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In context to aim of the organization, in the current only 0.7% of the residents in the Warrnabool
commute to work by public bus. The majority drive via car with the other options such as
cycling, walking and being passenger. In addition to that, these data do not involve community to
education or school and does not provide any kinds of insights into the ridership for the non-
commute reasons. In context to organisation, the major reason behind developing and creating
the campaign is to increase the ridership among the various residents in the community. In
order to fulfil this aim and objective, it is very important for the organisation to analyse its
trends, industry factors and competitors. In addition to that, it is very important to use the
advancements and technological changes that will help the organisation is understanding the
problem in a better manner ( Carty and Reynoso Barron, 2019).
Target Audience for the Campaign
Target Market is basically a group of the potential customers that are being identified for
the purpose to sell the services or products to. In reference to target market, each group can be
divided among small segments. In context to potential campaign target market, it is basically
divided into three categories which is geo demographics, behaviour and Psychographics. In
reference to Geo-demographics it basically ranges from 15-25 with the limited disposable
income( Tuten, 2019).In context to Psychographics, it basically comprises of the values,
students, technologically literate, values which further involves security, universalism,
benevolence and AIO which further is divided into independence, sustainability and education.
In context to Behaviour, it comprises of the purchase occasion which involves regular users. In
context to alternate potential campaign target market, it basically comprises of the Geo
demographics which is categorised into an age range of 23-60 with budgeted income and
families and workers. In context to Psychographics, it comprises of the Family, values which is
further divided into security, universalism and benevolence and AIO which comprises of the
reliability, sustainability and community. In addition to that it comprises of the regular users,
purchase occasion and occasional users.
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Campaign Objective
In context to organisation, in reference to the Warrnambool Commute only 0.7% residents
uses public bus. The majority of the people use car or other means such as cycling, passenger and
walking. The major objective of this campaign is to increase the ridership among the various
residents in this community. The major objective of the organisation is to increase awareness and
introducing hydrogen fuel buses and making the residents more excited about the public
transport. In context to these buses, the organisation is planning to integrate the fuel cell electric
buses which are basically powered by the hydrogen. The preferred configuration involves the
fuel cell bus with the large fuel cell and small batteries. In reference to the Hydrogen Tanks on
board the vehicle which are majorly located in the roof section are filled and basically supplies
hydrogen to the fuel cell when actually needed. In addition to that the fuel cell uses this chemical
reaction between the fuel cell membrane and charged hydrogen for the purpose to create the
electricity to power the motor. Furthermore, the battery in turn saves the generate electricity and
also acts as a support when driving. For the target audience, the company wants that the audience
think more in a eco-friendly manner and rather than using their own vehicles the company wants
the public to use the hydrogen gas buses at the end of this campaign. With the help of this
campaign, the company wants to change the attitudes of the consumer towards the public
transport. The major action which the company wants to take as a result is to start using these
buses instead of any other transportation means.
SECTION 2: Campaign Creative
Advertisement: Mock Up Ad
In context to organisation, the mock up ad is basically a high quality photomontage which
is basically used in the world of the advertising and the design while presenting the design to the
client where it comprises of the product, logo and the packaging of the product.
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The above mock up contains six views in the 6 PSD files which will help in presenting
the organisation and it new objective in a more professional manner (Martinelli, 2021).
In context to Advertising, it is basically a marketing communication that helps in
employs an openly sponsored, non-personals form of message for the purpose to sell or promote
an idea, product or any kind of service. In context to organisation, it will using the mock up ad
and the promotional tools for the purpose to promote their hydrogen buses. With the help of this
ad, the organisation is focusing to increase its ridership among the various residents in this
community and it not only involves convenience, leisure and education. In addition to that, the
major objective comprises of the awareness and introducing regarding the hydrogen fuel buses
and making the residents much more excited about the public transport (Yurdakul and Bozdağ,
2018). In context to advertisement function, the major objective of the organisation is to
communicate the activities and messages that could help the organisation to explain the potential
and current customers for the purpose to stimulate the sales. With the help of advertising
function it helps in creation of the messages that helps in paying emphasize the benefits of the
organisation and its unique selling differential. In context to the universal value of the
advertisement, it helps in providing various opportunities for the purpose to differentiate them
and also highlighting the company’s unique selling points. In reference to the organisation, the
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company is focusing to differentiate themselves from the other through introducing hydrogen bus
gases and also focusing on keeping their products values in terms of lower prices and high
quality ( Hayes and Kelliher, 2022).
Ad effectiveness
In relation to the Ad effectiveness, it is basically the process to learn if the ads by the
company are successfully targeting the right audience through the advertisements. With the
support of the AD effectiveness, it helps the organisation in identifying the weakness and the
strengths of the various marketing campaigns. As per the advertisement it is more CPM. CPM is
basically a marketing term that basically refers to the cost which is paid by the advertiser one per
thousand advertisement impressions on a web page. In context to organisation, yes it uses
Elaboration likelihood model of persuasion for the purpose to understand the changing attitude
of the consumers and with the help of this model, it helps in understanding various ways of the
processing stimuli and the result in the changing attitude( Ahmed, AbouHashish, Aly and Okab,
2019).
In context to the Model, it basically uses TEARS model which can be described as the
TRUST worthiness, Expertise, Attractiveness, similarity and respect as the major variables that
helps in driving the effective endorsement. In reference to the organisation, it basically uses the
emotion of care towards the environment. In context to the advertisement, it will definitely
appeal to the target customer as it helps in understanding how the various public transports can
result in harming the environment and moreover, the campaign will definitely accomplish its
goals.
SECTION 3 Campaign Launch
Traditional Tools for Campaign Launch
Traditional marketing tools help to reach a greater audience for building greater brand
value and establish authenticity for attracting the maximum number of customers towards a
given product or service. Understanding different types of traditional marketing campaigns can
help to utilise them for developing effective strategies so that better positive campaign results
can be obtained. Traditional marketing consists of those promotional materials that are featured
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directly to the customers through offline sources. Traditional marketing can be considered very
authentic for reaching customers who spend their time away from gadgets, devices, computers
and mobile phones (Chakraborty and Jain, 2022). Traditional tools for campaign launch for
hydrogen cell buses can be used by the organisation includes:
 Handouts: It refers to a printed form of document that is like a flyer or brochure that can
be used by the manufacturer of hydrogen cell buses so that the customers visiting the
shop can have a look at the product portfolio for greater awareness.
 Billboards: These are the huge posters that are displayed to advertise the organisation's
product and enhance its brand image. It includes posters and billboards about hydrogen
cell buses that grasps the attention of all the customers very easily and attracts them
towards the product and services.
 Print advertisement: It allows the organisation to reach more prospective with the help
of print media like newspaper and magazines (Hayes and Kelliher, 2022). It consists of
grabbing the audience's attention with the help of exclusive advertisements about
hydrogen cell buses in the newspaper and magazines.
 Event marketing: It can create better views for the products and materials of the
organisation with the help of showcasing their products in the events. The hydrogen cell
buses are very rare and events can help to enhance the awareness and interest among the
customers.
 Broadcasting: It refers to a means of communication with the help of commercial
broadcasting channels like radio and television. With the help of broadcasted
advertisements the hydrogen cell buses can intrigue the audience towards its products.
Digital Tools for Campaign Launch
Digital marketing refers to the use of digital tools such as internet, social media, electronic
mails, graphic creation, search engine optimisation etc. for performing the promotion and
marketing activities of the organisation (Ahmed and et. al., 2019). Some of the digital marketing
tools that can be used by organisation for its campaign launch are given below:
 Social media marketing tools: Social media is a broader platform for building business
relations, gathering valuable data, marketing activities, etc. for the organisation.
Managing all the moving pieces and continuous shifts in social media is highly difficult
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and requires alignment of efforts through the organisation to put themselves on the top
list of social platforms. Sprout social can help to put the organisation on the top list and
improve the control of the business and its presence on social media (dos Anjos and et. al.
2021). It is a social medium management platform that can help to organize the content
and schedule the multiple platforms to attract maximum followers. Loomly is a brand
success platform that can aid the navigation activities and provide no frills interface to the
customers so that easy access and better social presence can be developed by the
organisation. Audience is another social media tool that can help to discover the trends
and target those customers who are necessary to get success for campaigns of the
hydrogen cell buses of Warrnambool Bus Lines.
 Email marketing tools: Email is helpful for improving the delivery of campaigns and
improving the marketing efforts of the organisation (Senecha and Srivastava, 2022).
Hubspot is known for its CRM and inbound marketing software that can help to provide
greater marketing tools for improving the email marketing activities. SendGrid is another
email marketing tool that provides flexible options for designing like visual, drag-drop
editing, coding and combinations of these to enhance email marketing. The company can
use this for enhancing their digital marketing campaigns for hydrogen fuel cell buses of
Warrnambool Bus Lines.
 Search engine optimisation tools: SEO is becoming increasingly competitive and
companies are struggling to increase their presence on the World Wide Web. There are
many search engine optimization tools like Ahrefs that can help to explore the digital
traffic and number of people coming to the company's website compared to the
competitors. Clearscope is useful to improve the content and provide detailed
recommendations so that data can be optimised on the web. SEMrush is another search
engine optimization tool that can help to improve the ranking of the website and create
better online performance of the organisation's products.
 Landing page and lead capture tools: These are very important to increase the number
of customers and improve the visit of customers on the site. It helps to ensure that the
traffic of visitors on the page remains constant and does not run out. There are certain
tools that are helpful in improving the landing page and lead capture like OptiMonk that
allows the organisations to attract the attention of customers and keep them and Tangled
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through personalised pop ups. Typeform is a sleep tool for marketers for creating the
most attractive pop ups that can help to increase the attractiveness of the website and
keep the customer traffic engaged.
 Graphic creation tools: Visuals are very important for improving the social marketing
and digital marketing activities of the organisation (Childers and et. al., 2019). Without
visual graphics, digital marketing activities for hydrogen fuel cell based buses of
Warrnambool Bus Lines may fail and it is important that organisations must use certain
tools like Canva for creating eye-catching visuals for the customers. With the help of
Createtopi, Visme and Venngage the company can enhance the visual graphics and create
better visual graphics with fresh data to attract customers towards the hydrogen fuel
based buses.
Media Planning
Media planning refers to the process of determining what the customers or audience must
be delivered through proper branding and advertising messages. The organisation's media
planning is based on three pillars of effective media plan that consist of reach, audience and
purpose that are highly interconnected and must be separately considered for improving an
effective marketing plan.
 Purpose: The main goal or objective of the campaign is to generate brand awareness
about the hydrogen fuel cell based buses by Warrnambool Bus Lines. The main purpose
will go to encourage the user to use such vehicles that are more sustainable and this will
be the main part for the marketing strategy.
 Audience: The main target consumers of the product will be the private bus driver as
well as the public transportation systems that are using the non-conventional fuel based
buses. It will help to develop long term relations with the customers by providing highly
sustainable means of transport and better quality buses at reasonable rates (Wiktor and
Sanak-Kosmowska, 2021).
 Reach: The primary target customers by the social media and digital marketing will
include ten thousand followers, thousand prospects and the hundred customers for the
hydrogen fuel cell buses in the six months of its launch.
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Measuring Success
The success of the campaign will be assessed by undertaking the user experience
functional testing, performance testing, and security testing and product sales within the given
time. With the help of SMART objectives the real performance of the campaign by
Warrnambool Bus Lines can be measured and success can be evaluated.
 S (Specific): the specific criteria to be achieved by the campaign was to reach ten
thousand followers, thousand perspectives and the hundred purchases that can be checked
and identified to fulfil the campaign goals and objectives.
 Measurable: The measurement of the overall performance of the campaign could be
done by evaluating the overall earnings and the number of traffic on the website, total
purchases of the product and return on investment for the campaign.
 Attainable: The achievement of the overall campaign can be identified by evaluating the
returns on investment and identifying whether the product has gained positive feedback
and has further chances for growth in the future or not.
 Realistic: The relevancy of the campaign can be evaluated by the performance of the
company's campaign on the social media and other digital platforms with the use of
campaign.
 Time bound: The performance of the campaign can be checked after tracking its
performance for 6 month and evaluating its growth rate and overall statistics.
SECTION 4 CONCLUSION
It has been concluded from the above report that the process of developing different digital
marketing activities in regard to a given product can help to plan and outline the requirements for
effective marketing activities. It has been examined in the above report that in order to make a
marketing campaign successful it is important to use various campaign plans that can help to
identify the problem statement and develop effective plans for positioning the product in the
market. It is highly important that segmenting, targeting and placing of the product is done
critically after evaluating the competitiveness, trends, industry factors, technology and
development for improving the brand positioning and communication strategies of the
organisation. Moreover, it has been discussing the creation of mark-up advertisements for
marketing campaigns of the organisation with the help of graphical and other software for
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improving the overall campaign. Furthermore, it has discussed the effectiveness of the
advertisement in persuasion and message strategy to communicate with the customers in an
effective and efficient manner. Campaign launch has also been discussed with the help of
traditional tools such as billboards, mass media, print media, etc. Along with this, it has been
discussing digital tools such as social media, email marketing, search engine optimisation and
show on that are helpful two enhance the media planning and marketing campaign. Finally, it has
provided smart objectives for measuring the success of the campaign and demonstrating positive
return on investment for the campaign.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Ahmed, E.O., AbouHashish, M.A., Aly, N. and Okab, R., 2019. IMC Awareness Campaign
about the protection methods of Children’s technology Addiction.
Carty, V. and Reynoso Barron, F.G., 2019. Social movements and new technology: The
dynamics of cyber activism in the digital age. In The Palgrave handbook of social
movements, revolution, and social transformation (pp. 373-397). Palgrave Macmillan,
Cham.
ERA, I.I.T., PRE-CONFERENCE SESSION IMC IN TRANSMEDIA ERA: VOICES FROM
INDUSTRY.
Hayes, Ó. and Kelliher, F., 2022. The emergence of B2B omni-channel marketing in the digital
era: a systematic literature review. Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing.
Kaser, K., Femininities and Masculinities in the Digital Age.
Martinelli, D., 2021. Strategic Communication Planning in the Digital Age. In The Practice of
Government Public Relations (pp. 99-116). Routledge.
Rishi, B. and Kuthuru, N.R., 2021. A review for managerial guidelines for social media
integration of IMC in digital era. In Digital Entertainment (pp. 187-212). Palgrave
Macmillan, Singapore.
Tuten, T.L., 2019. Principles of Marketing for a Digital Age. SAGE.
Yurdakul, E. and Bozdağ, A., 2018. IMC: Integrated Marketing Communication. In Marketing
Management in Turkey. Emerald Publishing Limited.
Chakraborty, A. and Jain, V., 2022. Leveraging Digital Marketing and Integrated Marketing
Communications for Brand Building in Emerging Markets. In Marketing Communications
and Brand Development in Emerging Economies Volume I (pp. 281-305). Palgrave
Macmillan, Cham.
Hayes, Ó. and Kelliher, F., 2022. The emergence of B2B omni-channel marketing in the digital
era: a systematic literature review. Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing.
Ahmed, E.O. and et. al., 2019. IMC Awareness Campaign about the protection methods of
Children’s technology Addiction.
dos Anjos, E.A. and et. al. 2021. MASSA CORPORAL E IMC. Medidas Antropométricas:
Saberes e Parâmetros aos Profissionais de Saúde.
Senecha, N. and Srivastava, R., 2022. Mentorrd EduTech: charting new territories through social
media marketing. Emerald Emerging Markets Case Studies.
Childers, C.C. and et. al., 2019. # Sponsored# Ad: Agency perspective on influencer marketing
campaigns. Journal of Current Issues & Research in Advertising, 40(3), pp.258-274.
Wiktor, J.W. and Sanak-Kosmowska, K., 2021. Information asymmetry in online advertising.
Routledge.
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