[MUSIC] We're living in a world that is increasingly mediated by communication technologies. According to recent data provided by Nielsen, a company that has tracked media audience around the world since 1923, American adults now spend nearly 12 hours per day listening to, watching, reading, or generally interacting with various media content. The number is shocking, right? Does that mean we all stare at a screen for more than half of each day? Most of you will probably disagree with this interpretation of the data. Modern consumers indeed spend most of their day interacting with digital information on various screened devices. However, these media platforms and communication devices provide more than just passively displayed and curated information and entertainment content. Today, we carry our media and communication devices everywhere we go. Through these devices, we are literally connected to knowledge and information of the whole world. We perform nearly all types of social activities on our devices, meeting new friends, learning new skills, researching a product we like to buy, and completing banking and legal transactions. Before the digital era, media communication merely carried and delivered information and provided entertainment to audiences. The traditional mass media outlets offered only a few options for marketers to disseminate product information and directly reach consumers, often at a high cost. Specific marketing activities including promotion, sales, communication, customer relations and brand management are typically managed by different teams under separate departments in a business. Each of these marketing functions had its own goals and objectives, budgetary considerations, performance indicators and measures for success. Given the high cost of limited media channels, and the large scale marketing campaigns, most businesses would turn to third party service providers, such as media companies, or marketing and communication agencies to design, develop and carry out marketing campaigns at scale. Today, companies can leverage the power of digital and social media platforms to directly but cheaply engage billions of prospective customers. Data analytics and marketing automation offer businesses unprecedented opportunities to personalize marketing tactics for each individual customer at a global scale. More and more brands are creating their own in-house agencies and managing their own media outlets. At a minute's request, millions of online influencers in every corner of the world can be mobilized to build brand awareness, promote a product, or defend a brand's reputation. Disruptions from digital technologies have forced marketers to reevaluate the tactics and the effectiveness of marketing communication strategies from the mass communication era. They're also forced to question the fundamental assumptions behind the functions of marketing communication. Instead of asking, should I invest my business resources in an email marketing campaign or a social media strategy? Or, how can I successfully conduct an email campaign? Digital marketers today should ask, why do I need to conduct an email marketing campaign or develop a social media presence to begin with? What strategic goals would these activities achieve? Given these business goals, are there alternatives and more effective means to achieve the objectives? To become a creative and strategic digital marketer, you need to know more than how to perform specific marketing tasks, using a specific tool on a specific digital platform. You must understand the underlying assumptions, principles and processes of marketing communication in the marketplace powered by digital technologies. Instead of thinking about communication and media platforms as channels for delivering marketing information and messages, today's businesses must think about technology mediated world as a virtual market. In such a digital world, marketing is communication, and all communications should be parts of your marketing effort. This course is designed for business managers in marketing professionals who wish to look beyond the endless and ever changing platforms, tactics and technological tools available in the world of digital marketing today. Upon the completion of this two part course, learners will have the ability to develop an integrated digital marketing strategy by selecting the right media platform and communication channels to reach and engage with the right consumers, with the right message, at the right time, on the right scale, and evaluate the success of their digital marketing campaigns. In this course, I'll introduce an integrated digital marketing framework from a strategic communication perspective. You'll first learn about the fundamental principles and key concepts of digital media and marketing communication. Next, you will learn about the impacts of digital communication on the functions, goals and practice of marketing. I'll then introduce and discuss a few dominant digital marketing channels within this integrated framework. We will end the first part of the course with insights into how to leverage the unique features offered by the different digital media platforms and select the appropriate communication channels to reach and engage our consumers.
