Portfolio

Digital Marketing
Learning Portfolio

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Table of Contents
Executive Summary .................................................................................................................2
Section 1: Instagram and Pinterest Marketing .....................................................................3
1.1 Introduction:.........................................................................................................................3
1.2 Overview of Activity: ..........................................................................................................3
1.3 Findings: ..............................................................................................................................5
1.4 Conclusion: ..........................................................................................................................6
Section 2: Blogging...................................................................................................................7
2.1 Introduction:.........................................................................................................................7
2.2 Overview of Activity: ..........................................................................................................7
2.3 Findings: ..............................................................................................................................9
2.4 Conclusion: ..........................................................................................................................9
Section 3: Email Marketing ..................................................................................................10
3.1 Introduction:.......................................................................................................................10
3.2 Overview of Activity: ........................................................................................................10
3.3 Findings: ............................................................................................................................12
3.4 Limitations:........................................................................................................................12
3.5 Conclusion: ........................................................................................................................13
Section 4: Gamification .........................................................................................................14
4.1 Introduction:.......................................................................................................................14
4.2 Background to Dublin Bikes and bike schemes: ...............................................................14
4.3 Market Research: ...............................................................................................................19
4.4 Overview of Game:............................................................................................................21
4.5 Conclusion: ........................................................................................................................25
Section 5: Google Online Marketing Challenge..................................................................26
5.1 Introduction:.......................................................................................................................26
5.2 Overview of Activity: ........................................................................................................26
5.3 Findings: ............................................................................................................................27
5.4 Conclusion: ........................................................................................................................28
Conclusion ..............................................................................................................................29
Bibliography ...........................................................................................................................30
Appendices..............................................................................................................................31

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Executive Summary
The purpose of this portfolio is to showcase various digital marketing activities which were
carried out independently as part of my postgraduate degree: MSc in Digital Marketing. The
portfolio includes five activities detailing what was completed as part of each activity and any
main findings discovered. While three activities were completed on an individual basis, we had
to work as part of a team to carry out two of these activities. Teamwork was needed to complete
the Gamification and AdWords sections.
Section one details with how Instagram and Pinterest can be used in marketing. I carried out a
test to see which photo sharing platform was more effective in advertising products and
services. While conducting this study I adhered to best practices which include the quality of
pictures to be posted and how many pictures to post a day.
Blogging is outlined in section two. Music was chosen as the topic for the blog and eight
different blogging styles were used. Included in this section are the types of content I posted
and which blogging style was most effective in targeting music lovers.
The third section highlights the importance of email marketing in attracting and engaging
consumers. The aim of this study was to analyse whether or not email marketing is ‘dead’, or
can it still be used to encourage consumers to interact with brands.
Section four investigates the use of gamification in marketing to consumers. This was the first
activity which required a group effort. This game was based on encouraging the people of
Dublin to use the Dublin Bikes as a means of transportation.
Finally, I was afforded the opportunity to work with a live client to complete the Google Online
Marketing Challenge (GOMC). This was the second activity where we had to work as part of
a team to carry out an AdWords campaign. Our client for this campaign was P1 Nutrition, a
company who specialises in providing racing drivers with nutritional supplements entitled
“race fuel”.

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Section 1: Instagram and Pinterest Marketing
1.1 Introduction:
This section deals with the use of both Instagram and Pinterest as a means of marketing. I
wanted to analyse the power of social media, in particular photo sharing, for the promotion and
sale of products and services. Both platforms were chosen because I wanted to test whether
there was a difference between the two in terms of effectiveness. Hence, the objective of this
section is to determine whether consumers are more likely to purchase a product after seeing
them promoted on Instagram or Pinterest. To do this consumer interactions such as likes,
comments and followers were examined. ‘Fashion’ was chosen as a topic as I am an avid lover
of fashion and wanted to see what results fashion bloggers get from posting on Instagram and
Pinterest.
1.2 Overview of Activity:
I began this activity by choosing a topic which was of interest to me. Once a topic was chosen,
in this case ‘fashion’, I set up both an Instagram and Pinterest account. Although I already have
an Instagram account, it was preferable to set up one entirely separate to my personal one and
which was dedicated solely to fashion and style. The username chosen for these accounts were
‘catwalk_culchie’.
Both Instagram and Pinterest require the user to upload and share pictures to a platform on a
regular basis. Videos can also be uploaded. However, photo sharing is more popular and videos
have a limit of approximately 60 seconds (previously 15 seconds). The user can comment and
like on other users’ pictures on Instagram but on Pinterest the user has the option to ‘pin’
pictures to your own board. Pinning a post is similar to retweeting whereby a picture gets posted
to your page for your own followers to see. Boards on Pinterest are similar to folders. Users
can create categories and pin or upload pictures under these categories. The categories for my
Pinterest account include ‘clothes’, ‘make up’ and ‘shoes’.
To search on Instagram the user clicks on the search icon on the menu bar. Alternatively,
one can click on hashtags under a post and search by hashtags. On the other hand, Pinterest is
searched via categories. When a user clicks on a ‘pin’ a list of related pins are displayed.

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The process of adding a picture to an account includes:
Instagram Pinterest
1. Log in to account 1. Log in to account
2. Click camera button in centre of
menu bar
2. Navigate to profile page
3. Choose pictures from saved photos or
take a new one
3. Click on + icon at top of screen
4. Add filter 4. Choose to ‘create new board’ if you
wish to save picture to a new folder
5. Write caption, add hashtags and
locations, tag people and share to
social media
5. Select ‘pin from photos’ to upload
new photo
6. Click ‘share’ 6. Select photo
7. Click ‘pin it’
8. Write a short description of the new
photo and select board to add it to
9. Once a board is selected picture is
automatically uploaded
This activity cannot be completed within a few days or weeks. It is an ongoing activity. Pictures
should be uploaded frequently i.e. at least once a day. Best practice recommends 2-3 posts per
day. In terms of average time spent on the social platforms, more than the recommended length
was spent navigating between both apps per day. This time was spent checking notifications,
following users and liking or commenting on other photos.
Although Instagram and Pinterest can both be accessed via desktop it is preferable to use the
apps as they contain more functionality and facilitates ease of use.

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The images used were obtained from friends, celebrity profiles and fashion blogs. Hashtags
used were altered depending on the picture in the post but #fashion #style and #catwalkculchie
were used in every post.
1.3 Findings:
After testing various hashtags on Instagram I found that #fashion and #style produced the most
interactions from users. #nofilter is also an effective hashtag. It is easy to gain followers
organically by following and interacting with other users’ posts. However, I also found that by
following certain accounts i.e. accounts with thousands of followers, it resulted in interactions
with my account from people using bots. The use of bots may skew results in terms of
marketing because they result in automatic follows. The person behind the account may not
have necessarily seen your account or posts and may not have no real interest in what you are
posting. I also found that more females interacted with my account than males. Although I have
posted about male fashion, the fashion industry is female-orientated.
As part of my study I asked people to start using a hashtag I made up as part of the account,
#catwalkculchie. I used this hashtag for every post to try and motivate users to use it. The aim
of this hashtag was to encourage user-generated content. For example, if someone were to use
the hashtag it would allow me to feature them in one of my posts. Although it took a while for
this to catch on, people have recently started using the hashtag. I found that Instagram is a very
effective platform in marketing. Although I was not selling anything via my account, many
people were commenting under my posts asking where they could purchase the products.
In terms of Pinterest, I determine that it is less effective at marketing than Instagram. During
the course of my study only four pins got reposted. I found that Pinterest is good for consumers
to get ideas but it is not a platform where they can comment to seek where products can be
purchased. However, many pins come with links which direct consumers to websites where
products can be bought. Having said this there is still little interactions on these pins compared
to Instagram. In terms of searching for posts and pins, it is also easier to search using hashtags
on Instagram than categories on Pinterest.
Finally, I tested time frames of when to post and discovered that evening times resulted in more
feedback and interactions compared to the morning and afternoon.

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1.4 Conclusion:
It can be deduced that Instagram can be an efficient means of marketing goods to consumers.
My findings have shown that comments are very powerful when it comes to advertising and
selling products via social media. Many consumers comment asking information about the
product and where it can be purchased. Hashtags are also a useful means of finding out what
is popular and what consumers seek. Pinterest, on the other hand, is less successful in attracting
consumers to purchase goods and services. Although links to website can be included in pins,
it is hard to get people to interact with these pins.
The use of photo sharing social media platforms were invaluable to me. It gave me the
opportunity to enhance my social media marketing skills and allowed me to explore Pinterest,
which I had no previous experience. I also learned that social media marketing cannot be
achieved within a short time frame. It needs to be completed over a long period of time, with
frequent updates.
If I were to do this activity again, I would perhaps spend more time posting on Pinterest. I
would try to link my pins with a website and test the click-through rates. Secondly, I would try
to test more hashtags other than ‘fashion’ and ‘style’ to see what other ones are popular. Finally,
I would like to see is it possible to gain followers on Instagram by solely posting pictures, and
not following anyone.

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Section 2: Blogging
2.1 Introduction:
This section describes how blogging can be used in content creation and marketing. I chose to
do blogging because I thought it would be an effective way to enhance my content marketing
skills. Although content can be created through the use of eBooks, eNewsletters and case
studies, I had no previous experience in blogging. The objective for blogging was to analyse
whether it is an effective method of distributing content to consumers. The goal I set to help
achieve this objective was to get people to my blog. This was measured through the use of
Google Analytics which I had set up at the beginning. I hoped to have attracted at least five
people to my blog after new posts had been released.
I chose ‘music’ as a topic as it is something I am passionate about. As blogging requires
multiple posts on the same topic I found that I would enjoy blogging about music. It is hard to
blog about something if you do not have an interest in it.
Firstly, I researched blogging platforms. Even though WordPress is the most popular platform
for bloggers, I decided to create an account with www.wix.com as their themes and design
appealed to me. After setting up an account I began to design the layout of my blog which I
entitled ‘Biddy Blogs’.
After the blog was set up I decided what type of blogs I would post before writing my first blog
post. I established that my blogs would be informational blogs to offer readers information on
the music industry. Other types of blogs could have been educational or entertainment blogs. I
kept my first post simple and wrote a list blog. The list blog was entitled ‘Top Hot Songs of
the Week’ and as the title suggests, contained a list of songs which were the most popular at
the start of November. For every list blog posted I tried to include a video of the number one
song to try keep readers engaged. Out of the eight styles, list blogging and link blogging were
the easiest. People love lists and I found that my latest link blog received a great response with
11 views. In total I did eight styles. These included:

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1. List blog
2. Piggyback blog
3. Live blog
4. Link blog
5. Interview blog
6. Photo blog
7. Guest blog
8. Review blog
Piggyback blogging involved writing about news related to music which was popular in the
media in a given time period. Examples of this were when Kanye West’s prank audition video
for American Idol got released in January and when Olly Murs made a few mistakes on the X
Factor. I found these types of blogs the easiest and most interesting to write about because
people were actively looking for these topics, and I could read other blogs and articles to see
what they were saying. I found live blogging and interview blogging the most difficult to do as
I did not have the opportunity to go to much music related events during the year and found it
hard to find people who were willing to take the time out of their schedules for an interview.
With respect to the guest blog one of my friends, who also has a music blog, blogged on my
behalf. Her blog is about up-and-coming artists so I thought it would be a good idea for her to
share her thoughts and ideas with my followers. In return I wrote a piece for her blog on tips
to surviving concerts and gigs.
To gain subscribers I shared my blog on music forums and Facebook groups. I also set up a
Twitter account dedicated to my blog, @biddyblogs. I began following people who were big
into music. I especially targeted the boyband lovers such as The Vamps and One Direction as
my blog is targeted towards these personas. Initially I sent out tweets asking people to subscribe
but then began sending direct messages to those who followed. To increase response rates I
decided to offer an incentive for people to subscribe. After analysing my target audience I
discovered that they enjoy winning prizes. Therefore, I decided to offer them the chance to win
some music merchandise if they subscribed. Competitions are said to be the most popular
means of enticing consumers to subscribe to emails, blogs, etc. The use of email marketing
outlined in section three below was used in attracting people to subscribe.

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Blogs were sent out in the evening time as this was the most popular hour for my target
audience to be active on social media. It also meant that those who were working during the
day were in a ‘private mindset’ and not a ‘working mindset’, thus being more open to receiving
personal emails.
2.3 Findings:
Blogs posted in January received the most views. Blogs released this month included three
piggyback blogs and a list blogs. As previously mentioned, list and guest blogs were the most
popular but the blog resulting in the most responses was the interview blog due to the email
marketing campaign (Section 3). When the campaign was first launched in April 11th,25people
visited the blog in the space of two weeks. When the reminder email was sent out this number
increased to 61 between April 25th and May 10th.
In relation to the most popular time frame for people to visit and be active on my blog, 21:00
proved to be the most popular. Referrals were also more effective at bringing people the site
rather than organic searches. However, this was not unexpected as the blog has only been set
up less than a year and it may take some time for it to appear on the first page of the SERPS
for certain keywords such as ‘music blog’ and ‘top songs’.
2.4 Conclusion:
Although blogging may be an effective form of communicating with consumers for successful,
well-known organisations, I did not find my blog to be hugely successful. An incentive was
needed to motivate readers to interact and share my blog. Even Ireland’s biggest bloggers such
as So Sue Me offers incentives occasionally to her followers by giving away pamper weekends
and make up goodie bags.
I also learned that blogging takes time. It requires frequent updates. Stale content loses
consumer interest. If I were to do this activity again I would adhere to best practices in terms
of when to post and how many times per day to post. I found it hard to keep my blog up-to-
date daily but if I were blogging professionally it may be easier to source new content.

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Section 3: Email Marketing
3.1 Introduction:
This section outlines an email marketing campaign I carried out. The objective of the campaign
was to analyse whether email is still effective in targeting consumers or if it is ‘dead’. The goal
I set was to increase interactions such as comments and shares of my blog, with the hope of
creating brand awareness among those who are connected to my subscribers via Facebook.
Although I send out newsletters each time my blog is updated, I wanted to enhance my
relationship with subscribers and say ‘thank you’ for them subscribing by offering them a
limited time offer. It is thought that regular newsletters and limited time offers are popular
methods of helping businesses achieve their objectives.
I chose to do an email campaign because I wanted to improve my email marketing skills and
see for myself whether or not email can still be used in marketing and drawing consumers to a
website. As part of our Practicum we are carrying out an email campaign for Enable Ireland as
well as an AdWords campaign and Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). By completing the
email campaign as part of my portfolio I hope that it will be of benefit to me during the
Practicum and it will allow me to learn from my mistakes in going forward.
The first step to carrying out this email campaign was to set up a MailChimp account.
MailChimp was the software used to create, send and track the email campaign. Once a
MailChimp account was set up, the email addresses gathered from my blog had to be imported.
To do this a new list had to be created. The emails which were previously downloaded as a
CSV file were then uploaded to MailChimp. After emails had been imported, the following
process was used to create the campaign:
1. Click ‘create campaign’
2. Select ‘regular campaign’
3. Select list to use for campaign i.e. the emails to be used
4. Enter campaign information such as name of campaign and whether personalisation is
to be used or not
5. Choose theme to be used. Alternatively, no theme can be chosen and a basic email can
be sent out

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6. Design email- add in text and images
7. Select ‘confirm’ to send out email
There are many different emails to send out with the use of MailChimp. An A/B test campaign
could have also been used but I only had a limited number of email addresses which would
have produced ineffective results. An A/B test campaign would have involved splitting the
email list in two and sending out the same campaign to each group but with only one altered
element. The most comment elements to test in A/B testing include the position and colour of
call-to-actions (CTAs) and subject lines. All emails were permission-based and no emails sent
out were unsolicited. They were also direct response emails as subscribers were encouraged to
elicit a response by clicking the link in the email.
The content of the email was to inform subscribers of the competition which I had set up as an
incentive to get people to subscribe to my blog. It included instructions for the subscribers of
how to go about winning the prize which was to interact with the blog.
It was decided to personalise emails to engage recipients with the hope of producing better
results such as more clicks on the CTA in the email. Personalisation in emails improves click-
through rates by approximately 14%. Additionally, all emails made efficient use of subject
lines and design. Keywords were used in subject lines and a minimalistic design was used to
attract consumers. The overuse of design and images is said to take the recipients attention
away from the main purpose of emails, which in this case is to get them to click the CTA and
interact with the blog post to increase brand awareness and interactions.
The first email for the campaign was sent out on Monday the 11th April after a new blog had
been posted. After one week a second email was sent out on 18th of April to remind them of
the first email. I chose to send the reminder out after seven days as this is the recommended
length of time lag. One email is not enough to engage consumers. A second email has to be
sent out to remind them about the offer. As well as reminding those who had not opened or
clicked on the link, reminder emails can be used to motivate those who did to check up on my
latest blog posts and interact some more.
A third email was also sent out when the campaign ended. This email was not used as a means
to increase interactions with my blog or did not include a CTA. The final email was only sent
out to inform consumers that the limited time offer had finished. It was also used to declare the
winner of the competition.

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As all recipients were in the same time zone and shared the same interests i.e. music, emails
were sent out at the one time. The first email was sent out at approximately 09:00 on Monday
11th April while the second one was mailed at 18:00. I decided to send the emails out at different
times to see which time was more effective. This may be useful feedback if I were to do another
email campaign.
3.3 Findings:
Open rates, clicks and click-through rates (CTRs) were used as metrics. Open rates highlight
the effectiveness of the subject line of the email while CTRs allowed me to assess whether the
content of the email, including the personalisation and CTA, were effective in bringing people
to my blog. There were 17 opens and 9 clicks in the first email. This can be compared to the
second email which received slightly more opens and clicks at 18 and 11. The average CTR
for both campaigns was 53% for the first email and 61% for the reminder. These figures were
obtained by dividing the numbers of clicks by the number of opens. Although the industry
averages for opens and clicks are significantly lower, this may be because only 41 emails
addresses were used for the purpose of this campaign.
18:00 showed to be the optimal time to send out emails for this campaign. Most of the recipients
were secondary level or third level students. Their ‘private mindset’ is when they read personal
emails which may be after their day at college. It has been discovered that direct marketing
campaigns are more effective outside of the working environment. If this email were to contain
content related to business-to-business (B2B), the optimal time to send out the email may have
been during the working day when employees are active on their work email accounts.
3.4 Limitations:
The campaign was only active for a period of 30 days. Well executed campaigns take 60 days.
Aforementioned, it was not possible to make the campaign last 60 days because the number of
subscribers was low and the response rate was high compared to the industry average. While I
tried to take advantage of the spacing effect, I did not see it fit to send out a second, third and
fourth reminder due to the campaign only lasting 30 days instead of 60. If it were possible to
gather more emails, it would have produced an even better response rate in terms of comments,
shares and new subscribers to my blog.

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3.5 Conclusion:
Finally in line with the objective of the email campaign, I proved that email marketing is not
‘dead’ and that it can be used as an effective method of targeting consumers. My campaign
performed better than expected and as a result there was more engagement with my blog.
Within the first two weeks of the campaign I received 14 new subscribers. The blog also
received six new comments within two days of sending out the reminder campaign.
I learnt that email marketing cannot be done within a short space of time. Successful email
marketing campaigns have to be carried out over a period of 60 days depending on the target
audience. Reminder emails must be designed to entice people to open and engage with the
email if they have not already done so. The spacing effect ensures the projected forgetting
curve is avoided.
I now realise that 41 people is not an efficient number of individuals to send an email campaign
out to. The more emails gathered, the better for a campaign to gain more feedback and
responses.

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Section 4: Gamification
4.1 Introduction:
The segment outlined below describes how the incorporation of some form of a game into a
mobile app can be used in marketing a business. This is the first exploratory section of the
portfolio which was a group activity. I chose to partake in this activity as I had never heard of
gamification and sought to improve my knowledge of the concept. My personal objective for
the group project was to learn how to apply game principles and design to non-game contexts.
Primary and secondary research was conducted before developing the app. This research was
used to gain insight into the Dublin Bike scheme and consumers’ perceptions of the scheme.
4.2 Background to Dublin Bikes and bike schemes:
City bike sharing schemes evolved in the mid- 2000s with the development of mobile and GPS
tracking technology which enables both consumer engagement and the distribution and
availability of bicycles. In just over ten years they have become a key element in transit policy
planning for most major cities in the developed world with almost one million bicycles now
publicly available for shared use in 855 cities worldwide (Petronzio, 2015).
The Dublin Bike scheme (now branded as Coca-Cola Zero Dublin Bikes) was officially opened
in September 2009 as a public- private partnership between Dublin City Council and the
advertising company JC Decaux, which is largely responsible for operating and maintaining
the service. Today (from Dublin Bikes, correct as at 29 February 2016) the scheme has:
 59,018 Current Valid Long Term Subscribers :
 Acquired 1,390 Short Term Subscribers. YTD - FY 2015 c. 18,000
 609,350 journeys. YTD – 3.7m in 2015 – (2015 average 10,136 per day)
 14,027,948 journeys since launch
 14 minutes average duration of bike journeys. YTD – same as FY 2015
 96% journeys free (i.e. under 30 minutes). YTD – no change on average over 2015
 Busiest day of usage ever - Thurs 8/10/2015 at 17,222 journeys

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The scheme currently provides 1,555 bikes across 101 stations that are concentrated largely in
the centre of the city as set out below (Figure 1). The blue area noted is a proposed area of
planned expansion (Dublin Bikes, 2016).
Figure 1
The scheme costs approximately €1.9 million a year to run and is funded though subscription/
usage charges (€1.2 million) and sponsorship of €312,000 from Coca Cola with Dublin City
Council paying the rest - €376,211 last year – as a subvention (Kelly, 2016).
The annual subscription charge for long term subscribers is currently €20 with plans to increase
it to €25 this year and then €30 next year which would generate an extra €580,000 (if all long-
term members remained in the scheme) and enable the council to stop its subvention.
Further funding will then be required for the planned expansion noted above to bring the
scheme to the suburbs, which the Council say will require a €100 million investment over ten
years and increasing the number of bikes to 5,000.
Dublin Bikes – user profile: Murphy (2011) notes that such schemes introduced the bicycle as
a means of everyday travel to a new group of travellers, increase transit use, decrease
greenhouse gases, and improve public health. He also noted that bicycle- sharing requires less
investment and is less expensive than other modes of transport.
The operators of the Dublin Bike scheme make a range of data available to the public and
developers that allow for the profiling of users. In the first detailed qualitative assessment

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published, Delve (2011) noted that “use of the bike scheme is overwhelmingly dominated by
males” (Figure 2).
Source: (Delve, 2011)
A more recent measure published on irishcycle.com looking at the period July/ August 2015
which shows similar results in terms of gender usage (Figure 3).
Figure 3
This is not an Irish phenomenon and is consistent with findings in other markets quoted by
Murphy (2011) who noted that “the majority of studies conducted find that males cycle much
more frequently than their female counterparts”. Ogilvie (2012) likewise found that females

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and residents in deprived areas are underrepresented among users of London's public bicycle
sharing scheme.
Murphy (2011) also discovered that cycling numbers decline with age. The most frequent users
are those aged between 25 and 45 with a significant drop off beyond 55 years of age. This is
reflected in mid- 2015 data for DublinCycles which shows that over 70% of users are aged
between 25 and 45 (DublinCycles, 2015) (Figure 4).
Source: irishcycle.com
Murphy (2011) also found that “users of the scheme come overwhelmingly from middleclass
and upper middleclass backgrounds”. His study looked for a possible association between
cycling and income and found conflicting views in literature as to its significance, concluding
that there does not appear to be a definite association one way or the other.
Fishman (2015) noted that “bike share users have demographic characteristics that differ from
the general population”, noting that in addition to a prevalence to be male and of higher average
incomes, they are also more likely to live and work in the inner city and close to or within the
BSP (Bike Sharing Programme) catchment area.
Communicating with Dublin Bike users: In his study Delve (2011) found that almost 75% of
Dublin Bike users had used the Dublin Bikes app to plan their journey with. This was
unsurprisingly true for the younger target audience (Figure 5).

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Figure 5
Source: Delve (2011)
In the five years since then the use of apps has grown by a factor of 4.5 (Statista GmbH, 2016)
and the age profile is rising with new young adults emerging as digital natives (Figure 6).
Figure 6
Source: Statista
In that context, the opportunity to further engage Dublin Bike users with communications
technology stands out as a natural addition to their existing experience and one that would be
of first nature to them.

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The potential for technology to play a greater role in the value to consumers from bike sharing
is already being explored by other bike sharing schemes. The Economist (2013) reported that
GoBike in Copenhagen, one of Europe's latest bike- sharing schemes in 2013, were looking
at bicycles with built- in tablet computers that could direct cyclists to local amenities and
offers. Likewise, it noted that in Berlin cheaper "dockless" bikes were available which could
be found by mobile phone. It concluded that such innovations could help broaden the appeal
of bike-share schemes “beyond their current users, who are mainly young, relatively well-off
men”
4.3 Market Research:
Survey: We created a survey consisting of 32 questions to examine the potential of the proposed
gamified app and to gain insights of our target. The first nine questions concern the general use
of bikes, cycling behaviours and attitudes towards the described app. Next, we applied the
Houston & Smither competitiveness scale (1992) by using all 20 proposed questions. We
finished the survey with three demographic questions. The team gathered 21 responses to the
survey, the analysis of which revealed the following findings:
Demographics
There was a fairly even split between male (52%) and female (47%) participants. The most
common profession was students (81%), followed by employed (10%), self-employed (5%)
and other (4%). The lowest age of the participants was 22 and the highest was 30. The median
age was 24, followed by the average at 24.9. We tried to disseminate the survey amongst
individuals that fit the description of our target audience via Facebook.
Competitiveness
The competitiveness items were answered on a True/ False scale. All participants answered
every item, so there was no data missing.
As for the males the mean was located at 14.37, compared to the mean of the females at 11.79.
Both genders then are above the average competitiveness as proposed by Houston & Smither
(1992) and are therefore very competitive. Thus, we feel that our target audience would
appreciate a gamified approach, which includes multiple leaderboards and the possibility to

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compare performances. This will increase the engagement with our application and the general
motivation to do well in it.
Cycling Behaviour
Of our 22 participants, only 7 people (33%) owned their own bike. Reasons for not owning a
bike were the preference for public transport, 61%, because it was either faster or safer. Safety
in general was a problem, as many participants considered this to be a major reason for never
trying Dublin City bikes in the past. However, of the people who currently do not own a bike,
85% answered that they would consider taking up cycling if there was an extra incentive. The
most popular extra incentives were “being more active and healthy” (73%), “free products or
services” (63%) and “helping the environment” (47%). This is a very promising result for our
product. For one, offering free products or services can attract new customers and this exactly
is the core of our gamified app. Also, our app includes health statistics, such as burnt calories,
that accumulate over time to display a motivating number to the user. Although this does not
solve the problem of safety concerns, it does create multiple extra incentives for the user.
The individuals who own a bike mostly cycle 1-5 times a month (50%) for various reasons.
Most active participants cycled 6-10 times (15%) or 11-15 times (25%) a month. The reasons
for frequent cycling are fairly widespread. Leisure activities lead the charge with 46%,
followed by collegiate reasons at 23% and job or unspecified reasons at 15%.
Lastly, we asked whether or not our participants used Dublin City bikes in the past. The
majority of people (81%) have never used them at the date of the survey.
The open answer box revealed various reasons for this neglect. For one, people do not see the
necessity to use the bikes, as there are faster and safer alternatives. Answers such as “Not
necessary” indicate that the bikes are not seen as the first choice in transportation. Another
issue is that it “seems a hassle to set up” or that customers are “not sure how the payment
works”. The insights gained from this survey will be used to inform our approach to the game.

21
4.4 Overview of Game:
The purpose of this Gamification application is to promote the usage of Dublin City Bikes.
The benefit it will bring to users include reduced costs, a sense of achievement by moving up
the levels, being healthy and receiving the feeling of satisfaction knowing the use of bicycles
leads to a more environmentally friendly society.
Through this application our goal is to motivate those living in Dublin to utilise the bikes more
frequently whether it be for commuting to work or exploring the city in their spare time. With
the increased usage of Dublin Bikes this will not only benefit consumers but the environment
as well.
The target audience for this app will be adults in work and students, keeping in line with profile
of the Dublin Bike user community as previously outlined. Targeting the working population
is particularly important because employers are increasingly looking to implement programmes
that encourage employees to choose a more environmentally friendly transport option in getting
to and from work. More and more companies are partnering up with bicycle organisations to
encourage their employees to use bikes as a means of transportation. Students are very
competitive individuals. They like the idea of competing with their friends and out performing
others. Personas for each user group are presented in Appendix D1.
In accordance with Bartle’s Test, the players of the game will be achievers. Achievers with this
particular game can compete with others through the leaderboard and win prizes by moving up
the level. For those who are the most competitive, they have the opportunity to partake in a St.
Patrick’s Day road race to win a top prize. This race will see the top 10 cyclists of each
leaderboard compete against each other. The race will be on the same route as the parade and
take place before the parade commences so people are engaged. Whoever wins this race will
win a prize of €500.
We have come up with actions we want players to take during the game as a means of trying
to promote Dublin City Bikes. These actions include recommending and sharing their progress
to their friends via Facebook. As well as recommending and sharing their progress with others,
players can show off and compete against others, and explore by being the furthest person to
travel based on kilometres. These actions have been organised based on order of importance
and are included in Appendix D2. Recommend and share have been included as the most
important actions as these will be vital in increasing brand awareness for Dublin Bikes.

22
There will be several different leaderboards for the game. For each leaderboard, points and
levelings are accumulative over the lifetime of using the app. One of the leaderboards will
level players based on how frequently they will use the Dublin Bikes. Frequency is based on
trips. Points are related to the levelling system. One trip is equal to one point, two trips is two
points and so forth. A trip has to be a genuine journey on the bike. For example, one trip can
be a journey to and from work. The second leaderboard we will have will be one for distance
travelled. Again the points system is based on one point per kilometre. Once the user gains a
certain number of points they will move up to the next level. Considering that everyone uses
the Dublin Bikes for different purposes we thought it would be appropriate to have several
different leaderboards to encourage more people to utilise the bikes. In addition, users have the
opportunity to earn extra points if they share their progress and recommend the game to their
friends. A maximum of three extra points will be allocated for each share and recommendation
sent. Those within level one to three will be categorised under “Fred & Doris”, these are the
newbie cyclists and may not have had much experience when it comes to cycling. Level four
to seven will be known as “Chaser”. Chasers see themselves as go- getters. Once they have a
feel for the game they will be encouraged to outperform others. Finally, those who are ranked
between levels eight to ten will be given the title “Roadie”. These players are devotee cyclists
and seek to stay ahead of their competitors at all times. Avatars for each category are given in
Appendix D3.

23
Rewards given at each level:
Cyclists
Category
Level Points Rewards
Fred
&
Doris
Level 1 1 Tea/ Coffee Coupon
Level 2 10 Free Smoothie at Jump Juice
Level 3 25 Free packet of energy bars
Chaser
Level 4 50 Free Salad at Chopped
Level 5 100 Free backpack with water bottle and weatherproof
jacket
Level 6 200 Voucher for Penneys
Level 7 400 Discount at local cycling shop
Roadie
Level 8 600 Zoo Voucher
Level 9 1200 Dinner for Two
Level 10 2000 Spa Treatment

24
Events
Events will only be held seasonally akin to scavenger hunts. There will be scavenger hunts
implemented for each holiday. The scavenger hunt will vary based upon the holiday and will
encourage users to explore different parts of the city and carry out fun tasks. These tasks will
be either checking in at various places or purchasing specific items. These scavenger hunts do
not interfere with the leaderboards but are meant to encourage group activities and encourage
a more competitive side to our users. In essence, the events throughout the year pose an extra
element to the game which present variety and extra challenges to long time users and
newcomers alike. There will be different rewards at the end of each scavenger hunt. The reward
will be related to the holiday. Cyclists must complete each task of the scavenger hunt to be
eligible to earn extra points which will contribute to their position on the leaderboard.
Technical Execution
This Gamification will be part of the current Dublin Bikes App. To track the user on their
journey, the user needs to activate the app by using it to get the bikes. The app will then track
their route using GPS information on their phone. Checking in at the target location will end
the tracking. The information about the progress and general account information will be stored
in the cloud at a local server, hence users need to create an account to participate.
Wireframes

25
4.5 Conclusion:
My personal objective has been achieved. I now understand how to make a mobile app
dedicated to marketing purposes. I have also learned that Gamification is different to a typical
mobile application. Both are different in the sense that they incorporate different elements and
different objectives. The purpose of a gamified app is for promotion while the typical app is
for entertainment.
Gamification has been valuable to me as it afforded me the opportunity to enhance my
knowledge in marketing skills which I had no prior experience of.
If I were to do this activity again, I would like to create an app and monitor its results.
Unfortunately, we did not have the time or expertise to create the app but I thoroughly enjoyed
designing it.

26
Section 5: Google Online Marketing Challenge
5.1 Introduction:
The Google Online Marketing Challenge (GOMC) was the second group project of this
portfolio. The GOMC is a programme which encourages third level students to use their
analytical skills and create an AdWords campaign for a live client. The provision of a $250
budget is used to develop and run this campaign. Similar to the email marketing campaign, I
chose to take part in this activity because, as part of our Practicum we have been asked to carry
out an AdWords campaign for our client. As AdWords involves the use of money to be spent
in ensuring ads are shown, it was vital that I had prior experience in allocating the budget across
the campaign before being given money from our Practicum client. Secondly, I have completed
the Google AdWords Certification and wanted to put what I had learned into practice. My
personal objective was to see how effective AdWords is in advertising companies. The goal
was to increase impressions and clicks to our client’s website: www.p1nutrition.com.
The first step in carrying out this campaign was to apply to Google to enter the challenge. After
we were selected we were allocated a client. Our client were P1 Nutrition, a company who seek
to be the “Red Bull” of motorsport. Their aim is to be the leading brand in terms of motorsport
nutrition through the offering of ‘race fuel’ to racing drivers. Once allocated our client, we met
as a group to brainstorm potential questions to ask P1 Nutrition in our first meeting. After
questions were proposed we contacted our client and organised a Skype meeting. Once we had
all relevant information needed we submitted a pre-campaign report to Google for approval.
After being given a budget of $250 it was then time to set up the campaign.
Setting up the campaign required the following steps:
1. Outline campaign objectives and goals the objectives for this campaign was to
increase sales and conversions by increasing traffic to the website and increasing brand
awareness. As for goals we hoped for five conversions, five email sign- ups and a 25%
increase in website traffic per month.
2. Select which network to run campaigns we selected the Search Network to target
those searching directly for motorsport nutrition to increase sales. The Display Network

27
was used to place advertisements on websites related to racing supplements to increase
brand awareness.
3. Create ad groups the ad groups we chose were ‘race fuel’, ‘pre- race fuel’, ‘shake
and take’, ‘drink bottle’ and ‘shaker’.
4. Select keywords we added keywords related to motorsport nutrition and motorsport
supplements. We added ‘sport’, ‘nutrition’ and ‘supplements’ as negative keywords are
these a very broad keywords.
5. Design the advertisements the text ad for the campaign was created. This ad
contained a headline, a meta description and a URL linking consumers to the ‘product’
page for the sales campaign, and the ‘about’ page for the brand awareness one.
6. Advanced settings are applied we chose to use geo-targeting and target those in
London, where the majority of their target market are based. We also targeted laptops
as their website is not mobile optimised. Ad rotation was set to ensure the best
performing ads were shown so as not to waste the budget on unproductive ads.
7. Allocate budget we sought to allocate the least amount of budget to the first week
and increase it in week two and three. As this was our first AdWords campaign, we did
not want to assign the most budget in the first week to mitigate the risk of an exhausted
budget and the campaign failing. However, the budget was not adhered to as some ads
and keywords performed better than others, thus making us adjust the budget to cater
for this.
After the plan had been drafted, we set up our campaign and let it run for three weeks until the
budget was exhausted. During the three weeks we ensured the account was checked every
second day to assure ads and keywords were performing as expected. When they were
performing poorly we adjusted the bids.
Following that we had to submit a post-campaign report to Google which detailed results of
our campaign, including key metrics.
5.3 Findings:
The brand awareness campaign did better overall than the sales campaign. It achieved 628,320
impressions and 478 clicks with a CTR of approximately 0.08%. In contrast, the sales campaign
only received 84,223 impressions and 152 clicks. The campaigns had an average cost-per-click

28
(CPC) and cost-per-impression (CPM) of $0.37 and $0.49, respectively. The brand awareness
campaign also used up most of the budget, $175.98, but this is a given as the campaign received
the most impressions and clicks.
For the awareness campaign, the second week performed the best with 398,320 impressions
and 302 clicks. However, for the sales campaign the last week, week three, received the most
impressions and clicks (Table 2).
Campaign Clicks Impressions
Weeks 1 2 3 1 2 3
Brand Awareness 18 302 158 31,967 398,320 198,033
Sales 57 44 51 18,550 28,502 37,171
Table 2
The pre-race fuel ad group was the most popular for the brand awareness campaign with
628,152 impression and 478 clicks. On the other hand, the race fuel ad group proved most
successful for the sales campaign generating nearly 45,000 impressions and 87 clicks.
With regards to keywords, the top three were ‘motor racing’, ‘motor sport’ and ‘motorsports’
with a CTR of 0.04%, 0.17% and 0.22%, accordingly.
5.4 Conclusion:
Our client did not have conversion tracking set up on their Google Analytics. We were therefore
unable to track conversions. We should have made sure that this was set up before
implementing the campaign. Knowing how many conversions the campaign led to would have
been vital in measuring the success of our campaign and informing future campaigns.
The GOMC proved invaluable to me in experiencing AdWords before setting off to run a big
campaign for one of Ireland’s leading charities, Enable Ireland. With AdWords students need
to take a “learn by doing” approach. As the activity is very mechanical, theory and completing
the AdWords certificate is not enough to gain knowledge into the PPC (pay-per-click)
environment.

29
Conclusion
Completing this portfolio has proven beneficial to me in learning new digital marketing skills
and enhancing previously learnt ones. I feel that this portfolio will be of importance in trying
to find employment. It details some, not all, of the skills I acquired over my time at Dublin City
University in the MSc in Digital Marketing programme. Previously learnt skills include Search
Engine Optimisation (SEO), the creation of an eBook and a digital marketing plan.
One of the main values received from this project was the application of theory to a real life
scenario. The application of theory proved vital in ensuring activities could be carried out
effectively and ensured best practices were adhered to where possible.
Working as part of a team for Gamification and the Google Online Marketing Challenge
(GOMC) allowed for shared knowledge and skills between each team member. By working
with a live client it also gave me the opportunity to work in a professional environment whereby
meetings had to be organised frequently with the client and there had to be open communication
in terms of how the campaign was progressing.
Finally, I have proved that the activities outlined above are all useful for marketers, in particular
digital marketers, in attracting consumers and getting them to interact with a brand. I found
that photo sharing social media platforms and email marketing are the most effective in
targeting consumers but AdWords and online advertising is effective in attracting individuals
as a paid medium.

30
Bibliography
Delve, 2011. Dublin Bikes Survey, Dublin: Dublin City Council.
Dublin Bikes, 2016. Coca-Cola Zero dublinbikes - latest figures. [Online] Available at:
http://www.dublinbikes.ie/ [Accessed 10 May 2016].
Fishman, E., 2015. Bikeshare: A review of recent literature. Transport Reviews, pp.1-22.
Houston, J. M. and Smither, R.D., 1992. The nature of competitiveness: The development and
validation of the competitiveness index. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 52 (2),
407-418.
Kelly, O., 2016. DUBLIN BIKES SUBSCRIPTION FEESET TO INCREASE BY 50%. [Online]
Available at: http://www.irishtimes.com/news/environment/dublin-bikes-subscription-fee-set-
to-increase-by-50-1.2619913 [Accessed [Accessed 10 May 2016].
Murphy, E. and Usher, J., 2011. An Analysis of the Role of Bicycle-Sharing In a European
City: The Case of Dublin, Ireland. Irish Transport Research Network.
Ogilvie, F. and Goodman, A., 2012. Inequalities in usage of a public bicycle sharing scheme:
socio-demographic predictors of uptake and usage of the London (UK) cycle hire scheme.
Preventive medicine, 55 (1), pp.40-45.
Petronzio, M., 2015. Bike-sharing is taking off around the world. [Online] Available at:
http://mashable.com/2015/04/07/bike-sharing-systems-worldwide/#JvoCiFe43ZqE [Accessed
07 May 2016].
Statista GmbH, 2016. Number of paid mobile app downloads worldwide from 2011 to 2017 (in
billions). [Online] Available at: http://www.statista.com/statistics/241589/number-of-paid-
mobile-app-downloads-worldwide/ [Accessed 10 May 2016].
The Economist, 2013. How do bike-sharing schemes shape cities? The Economist, 22 October.
[Online] Available at: http://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-
explains/2013/10/economist-explains-14 [Accessed 10 May 2016].

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Appendices
Section 4
Appendix D1 (target personas):
John is a 28-year-old single professional who works in Dublin city centre
and lives in Glasnevin. He dislikes public transport for getting into town
every day and is looking for alternatives. Taking the car is impractical due
to the price of parking and expenses associated with owning a vehicle. John
works as a Digital Marketer with HubSpot.
Martha is a 24-year-old single mother who works as a healthcare assistant
in her local nursing home. As she is the only source of income in her
household and has a young child who needs looking after, she cannot afford
to buy a car or spend money on the bus and Luas daily. She prefers to walk
places but as the factory is a 40 minute walk she feels it is faster to cycle.
As cycling is not a passion of hers she feels it would be worth trying it out if there were an
incentive.
Sarah is a student at University College Dublin but lives in the city centre.
She must travel to college everyday by bus. However, she does not like the
bus as it is often unreliable, especially in the mornings when there is loads
of traffic. She is currently seeking alternatives to the bus. By integrating
some form of game into the Dublin Bikes app, she feels it will make her
cycle to college more interesting as she loves competition and out performing others. 84

32
Mark attends Trinity as a part- time student. During the day he works as a
finance consultant but in the evenings he attends classes. He finds it hard
to get from one side of the city, where he works, to the other in the evenings
with the traffic. He mostly uses the Luas to get from place to place but with
the recent construction he finds it a nuisance. He is debating whether to
sign up to Dublin Bikes or purchase his own.
Appendix D2 (player actions):

33
Appendix D3 (cyclist categorisation):
Fred & Doris
Chaser
Roadie

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