Simulation Report

Lawrence Kindlin School of Business

MKTG-5050: New Media Marketing
Professor: Jack Michienzi
Paris Stokes, 1124241
March 31, 2025

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 Overview

The Mimic Stukent Social Media Simternship is a simulator-based practical exercise that
helps develop online marketing skills by applying them to social media campaigns. The primary
goal of the simulation was to reproduce real-world marketing tools, including content planning,
campaign development, budget allocation, segment targeting, and analysis of results. This report
will examine the success factors, strategies, and goals that led to a 10th rank among 90 students
in the Mimic Stukent Social Media Marketing Simternship.

Campaign Performance

During the social media management and campaign implementation for Buhi Supply Co.,
the main goal was to implement a mix of influencer, organic, and paid social media
advertisements. Within organic social media rounds 1-3, I found extreme success ranking 1st
place with the highest conversions, engagement, impressions, clicks, shares, and followers
(Figure 1.1-2). By the end of round 3, I had yielded significant results by gaining 26,706 new
followers, who made 44,653 engagements, 33,833 share impressions, and 36,185 clicks,
resulting in 44,6595 impressions and $30,760.00 in profit (Figure 1.2). During the initial phases
of the campaign, it was easy to find an algorithm with the number of posts and best performance
days. The following round for paid advertisements was introduced where I found difficulty
balancing the number of posts with ad spend. While revenue and conversions doubled in Round
4 to $72,440.00, analytics showed a drastic negative change in engagement (16,967),
impressions (157,930), and clicks (12,367) compared to previous rounds (Figure 1.3). As for
round 5, I saw growth in the impressions again, gaining a total of 157,930 with a minimal
increase of $7,200 in revenue while other analytics stayed relatively the same (Figure 1.4).
However, in the following round 6, overall analytics decreased showing a revenue of $75,600.00,
which is much less of an increase compared to so far in simulation’s performance. Thus, this
resulted in the team not being in the best standing, with a rank of 30th place (Figure 1.5). This
was due to repeating past results mistakes with minimal changes to decision-making tactics.
Developing into the first influencer marketing round (7), selecting influencers such as World
Travellers with branded content and Missy Meegan as a brand ambassador showed a substantial
rise in impressions of 326,038, and an average ranked revenue amounting to a total of $7,105.73
(Figure 2.1-2) . However, round 8 results in revenue decreased drastically to $1,923.43 due to the

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choice to gift products with no return on investment (Figure 3). While results at an 83rd rank for
this round were drastically low, there was a high impression level of 1,424,892 that could be
used for retargeting campaigns (Figure 1.7). Since branded content showed the best investment,
this was the campaign choice for round 9 with influencers Olivia Grey and Jerry Gee. With this,
impressions stood at half from the previous round but revenue was at $12,481.55 and I was able
to see an increase in ranked position at 26 (Figure 1.8). During the following social media
rounds, I wanted to test out which influencers, organic, and paid posts yielded the best results. I
decided to incorporate each of these strategies to optimize results in Round 10. My findings
concluded the best results on sponsored posts with a substantial increase to paid TikTok with that
alone bringing in a revenue of $86,360 (Figure 4). I was able to complete this round in 2nd place
with $104,080 in revenue, analytics showing 2,602 conversions, 17,315 engagements, 179,097
impressions, and 14,803 click-throughs (Figure 1.9). While in round 11, I focused solely on paid
advertisements by cutting out influencers and platforms such as Pinterest, and Twitter that
showed minimal profit. I decided to adjust content spending to 25% while 75% since the budget
was only $5,000 and purchasing videos was at least half of this budget. However, the
expenditure did not show results as I had planned, completing the round with half of the previous
revenue of $51,400.00 and very low analytics (Figure 1.10). While I had been exceeding the
platform's tasks during paid social media rounds, I wasn’t able to find as much success as my
other classmates. By round 12, I decided to solely invest in a sponsored TikTok post since it
showed the most promise. While I was able to increase to 18th rank with an above-average
performance and $79,920 in revenue (Figure 1.11). Completing the Stukent Social Media
Internship at 10th place with 13,329 conversions, 165,533 engagements, 3,816,043 impressions,
134,039 clicks, 127,183 shares, and 97,209 with a revenue of $544,310.71 (Figure 1.12). A key
comparator to examine success since I was unaware of other classmates' decisions was to
examine past performance. I found that in early rounds organic and influencer marketing worked
well to increase analytics such as impressions, while sponsored posts showed an increase in
revenue. However, when I shifted heavily to paid ads in round 11, my revenue dropped
significantly. This shows initial success came from organic engagement and influencer marketing
rather than a reliance on paid ads. Learning from past strategies could have helped allow for
better allocation of budgets in later rounds.

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 Key Metrics

The main key metrics used to increase performance were engagement, conversions, and
revenue. Using these metrics to analyze results and the effectiveness of campaigns throughout
each round. I was able to find early success by optimizing campaigns that gave the most
conversions by testing out different strategies, adjusting spending allocation, and aligning to
specific target segments based on audience preferences.
To drive the platform's engagement, I continuously refined content scheduling with
frequency and time of post. Based on scenario reports for social media audit, I was able to
schedule posts at the best times and create content based on platform preference. Additionally,
each round required specific tasks such as promoting engagement, increasing awareness, holiday
content type, answering inboxes, or revenue goals. As I started to understand these metrics,
following these objectives while resonating with the target audiences allowed for increased
ranking and drove key performance indicators.

Strategy and Process

To create an engaging and effective content strategy, I focused on choosing only

travel-inspired with nature that looked aesthetically pleasing. This selection was based on
personal experience and targeting key markets. I made sure all social media posts were
grammatically correct through Grammarly before submitting since this would most likely
influence performance. My initial objective to increase conversions was by only selecting
high-performing content such as items in use or nature-inspired, prioritizing posts tagged
“promotes” designated items on the focus of task per round, as these consistently showed
positive results. A key strategy was following recommended prompts in reports such as utilizing
3-5 hashtags, post timing, and character limits in my post captions to increase discoverability and
engagement. Using CTA, asking questions, and making the post less professional and more
authentic. By using the round-specific tasks, I was able to make decisions based on data to better
align with the target audience.
Analyzing metrics by closely tracking platform analytics to refine targeting, using reports
insights into segment profiles, social media audits, and post characters. I was able to familiarize
myself with the customer segment by writing down the percent of the market, age, gender, and
interests for each persona and using the social media audit to find the most effective gender ratio

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and age group for each social media platform. Additionally, maintain a structured content
schedule when it comes to organic posting: 10 Pinterest, 15 Twitter, 1 Youtube, 1 TikTok, and
1-2 Facebook and Instagram posts. Based on increased revenue for travel content, I prioritized
City-Hopper Sue, Energetic Jill, and Daypacker Tom segments during paid posts since they align
best with lifestyle content. Overall, analyzing performance metrics based on each round's
decisions and writing it out in Excel allowed me to easily refine strategies and understand how to
fix decisions.

Key Learnings

The Mimic Stukent Social Media Internship taught me the importance of making
data-driven decisions in social media management and marketing. Shows that content
consistency, audience targeting, and performance metrics help marketers better understand the
landscape so they aren’t making blind decisions that could potentially negatively affect the
designated brand. If I had to continue this simulation, I would invest in mega influencers to see
performance, leverage TikTok and Pinterest more effectively, balance paid with organic posting
instead of shifting heavily towards one, and refine ad spending to increase content spend.
The best decision to be made in this simulation is to find a balance between all influencer
partnerships, paid, and organic posting while utilizing data further.

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 Appendix

Figure 1.1: Round 2 Ranking

Figure 1.2: Round 3 Ranking

Figure 1.3: Round 4 Ranking

Figure 1.4: Round 5 Ranking

Figure 1.5: Round 6 Ranking

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 Figure 1.6: Round 7 Ranking

Figure 1.7: Round 8 Ranking

Figure 1.8: Round 9 Ranking

Figure 1.9: Round 10 Ranking

Figure 1.10: Round 11 Ranking

Figure 1.11: Round 12 Ranking

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 Figure 1.12: All Final Ranking

Figure 2.1: Influencer Impressions

Figure 2.2: Influencer Impressions

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Figure 3: Influencer Gifting to Missy Meegan

Figure 4: TikTok Revenue