BA (Hons) Digital Marketing

Advertising has been around for centuries, but it was in the mid-20th century, with the advent of television, when it truly boomed. Since then, it’s continued to evolve, adapting to every leap in technology and shift in public attitudes. In this module, that’s just what we’ll explore: how has advertising changed, and where will it go next?

We’ll start with a brief history of advertising, looking at different cultural, political, sociological, technological, and economic contexts. You’ll then explore the different ways advertisers have communicated their messages since the 50s, evolving from traditional media like print and television through to the more interactive and ever-present formats of the modern day.

We’ll consider how culture and public opinion influences advertising creative, and vice versa. Finally, you’ll look to the future: in the context of current affairs, public attitudes, and technology, what do you think might happen next?

This comprehensive introduction to digital marketing covers everything you need to know about the purpose of marketing, best practice techniques for attracting your target audience, managing your reputation, working with influencers, and analysing your online performance through data.

We’ll also touch on wider principles of general marketing, teaching you about its role in building relationships with customers, and explain how to understand — and satisfy — those customers’ needs. You’ll discover the power of customer insights, and learn how market research can help you to plan a more effective and targeted strategy. And towards the end, we’ll show you how to apply all that knowledge to a digital context, using product, service, pricing, distribution, and promotion strategies to attract attention and drive action.

Your online presence, and the content you create, are intertwined; in the digital world, making and posting content shows you’re active and helps you to connect with your audience.

In ‘Content Creation & Social Media’, we’ll teach you how to create assets and content that fit your goals and suit your audiences. You’ll consider why a compelling online presence is now such an important part of any business’s marketing plan and explore the various social and digital platforms, considering how content should be tailored to fit. You’ll also learn about the technical side of social — management tools, analytics, social listening, outreach, and more — and learn how SEO (search engine optimisation) and digital and social advertising can help your content to reach a bigger, and more specific, audience.

Finally, you’ll touch on social media governance and reputation management, and look at creative ways to stand out and get noticed online. In the end, you’ll have the tools and understanding you need to attract the attention of your audience and tell them what to do next. And to expand your practical content marketing skills in your second year, there’s the ‘Digital Storytelling’ module, too.

Social media, blockchain, 3D printing: behind every brilliant invention and unique idea, there’s an entrepreneur — someone who stepped off the beaten path and created something of their own. It’s not just technology billionaires or maverick inventors; every self-employed person is an entrepreneur, too.

Here, we’ll explore what it means to be an entrepreneur, considering how new ideas are formed; the process of turning those ideas into reality; and what makes some people better entrepreneurs than others. We’ll look at where entrepreneurs fit into commercial, non-commercial, start-up and established organisations, and teach you about the challenges of entrepreneurship at individual, organisational, and societal levels.

We can all learn from the creativity, determination, conduct, and commercial acumen of people who run their own businesses. When you finish the module, you’ll have a better idea of entrepreneurship, from taking risks to managing money, problem-solving and creative thinking.

The best digital marketing plans are rooted in thorough and thoughtful research. With the right insights you’ll know where to find your audience, and what to say to them; which customers are worth pursuing; and what they think about your brand, product, or service. Without them? Your content might not get results.

That’s why market research is so important. In this module, we’ll teach you about the steps of market research, including problem formulation, research design, data collection instruments, data analysis methods, and how to present your findings. You’ll learn how to design quantitative and qualitative research, and explore different data collection and analysis techniques. And most importantly, we’ll look at how to use all the insights you collect as the foundation for your marketing plan, turning all the data into information that informs your strategy.

Building on your previous modules on content creation and digital marketing, this module will show you how to put creative content to work as part of a campaign. It explores where content fits into your digital marketing strategy; how to develop effective content for social media and other digital platforms; and what makes a successful content plan.

Over the course of the module, you’ll develop valuable skills in producing and managing digital content, building brands, and running digital marketing campaigns. We’ll teach you how to devise a strategy and what factors you should consider, from business goals and budget to how best to reach your target audience.

At the end, you’ll create a social media content plan for a high-quality digital marketing campaign, putting everything you’ve learned into practice. In your second year you’ll move onto the ‘Digital Storytelling’ module to begin creating content of your own.

A creator’s intellectual property (IP) is their unique work and style. It’s what sets them apart from others in their industry and allows them to make a living. So when that IP is stolen or copied — whether that’s a photograph, an illustration, or an innovation — it can both damage their reputation and lose them business.

That’s why, in this module, we’ll show you how to understand and protect your own rights as a creator, or your clients’ rights and avoid copyright infringement. It’s an introduction to the three main areas of intellectual property law: copyright, patents, and trademarks. You’ll learn how to manage your rights and protect your work — and we’ll show you what to do if it’s stolen or copied.

You’ll explore real life case law examples from the industry, looking at how creators use and defend their copyrights. And we’ll also explain the importance of the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) Advertising Codes, which protect the rights of individuals and organisations in advertising.

Attracting the attention of your audience is only the first step. Once your customer is looking in your direction, you need to ensure you send the right message, in the right way — and that means carefully planned marketing communications.

A brand’s marketing communications can include advertising, direct marketing, sales promotion, public relations, guerrilla promotion and more, all of which can take place online. In this module we’ll explore all those aspects of digital marketing communications and discuss how, and when, to use them. 

We’ll also look at how best to achieve different marketing objectives through those communications, whether the goal is to convert to a sale, change perception, increase brand recognition, or develop customer relationships. On completion of this module, you’ll understand the broad range of comms that go into a brand’s marketing plan and how they work together. Next, the ‘Digital Marketing Strategy & Campaign Planning’ module will take a focused look at where marketing comms fit into a digital strategy.

What’s it like to work in an organisation? And how can you use your understanding of people and environment to work better with others — or even manage a team? In this module, part of our theoretical pathway, we’ll look at how organisations and the people within them behave, exploring the major psychological processes of personality, perception, motivation, and satisfaction.

We’ll look too at communication, teamworking, leadership and negotiation, which are the four factors that underpin and influence working relationships. It’ll give you a clear understanding of how organisations work; what affects their behaviour, decisions, and culture; and how you can use that information to work better.

With good data, you’ll make better marketing decisions. Building on your introduction to market research and data analysis techniques in your first year, this module looks at how to collect, process, and analyse consumer and market data, and explores how that data can then drive your strategy.

Overall, it’s a much more detailed look at the world of data analytics, particularly focusing on social media analytics. You’ll learn about the technical language, concepts, and models, and explore how industry standard analytics tools can help you measure the success of your digital marketing. You’ll examine real-life scenarios and problem-based case studies, looking at how data could be used to find a solution. In the end, you’ll have a thorough understanding of how to turn data into meaningful insights, and turn those insights into actions.

This module is a culmination of all the tools and principles you’ve learnt from our other modules, and allows you to see the bigger picture - your digital marketing strategy. Within this, we’ll show how to bring together every single communication, message and piece of content to achieve your objectives.

We’ll first teach you about how to build a successful strategy, touching on value proposition development, customer acquisition and conversion. We’ll then share how to engage your audience, looking at segmentation, targeting and brand positioning, and how to use this information to plan an effective campaign.

Finally, we’ll explore converting your audience, and how to build a competitive advantage. For more on the strategic side of digital marketing, you will study ‘Brand Development and Management’ in your final year. You’ll take a more comprehensive view of the different types of marketing comms, and how they might feed into a digital strategy, in our ‘Marketing Communications’ module.

In this project-based module, you’ll get hands-on experience of creating your own content, learning both the theoretical and practical sides of digital storytelling. Beginning with an introduction to the effect of various digital media and technologies, we’ll look at how they impact consumers, creators, distributors, publishers, brands, and platforms.

You’ll explore how people communicate and engage with storytelling in the digital domain, and learn about digital strategies and social networking. Then, on the practical side, we’ll teach you about video editing and how to construct a compelling narrative, giving you the opportunity to experiment with digital content.

In the final project you’ll put all you’ve learned into practice, producing an engaging video blog that shows you can turn information into an engaging narrative that connects emotionally with others. Then, in your final year you’ll explore how storytelling is applied in the world of advertising in the module ‘Digital Advertising’.

Whether it’s a social media advertising campaign or digital PR, every part of your marketing activity should align with the business strategy of your organisation — and that’s exactly what we’ll explore in this module.

A business strategy is, in essence, a company’s overarching roadmap: the objectives, plans, actions, and decisions that help it to compete and succeed. We’ll teach you about the four, interconnected dimensions of business strategy: content, context, process, and purpose.

You’ll learn how to develop a business strategy; why it’s different from other functional strategies like marketing, HR, and finance; how it can be influenced by a company’s market, industry, and country; and how organisational and environmental issues can feed into strategic decisions. At the end of the module, you’ll know how and why a company needs a business strategy, and understand why it’s valuable in the context of digital marketing.

When crafting a digital marketing strategy or planning online content, you need to understand the consumer: how they think, what motivates them, what they buy, and more. That means getting to know your target audience — because it’s only by knowing the consumer that you can decide how to reach them.

While you will have touched on target audiences in other modules, in this module we’ll dive much deeper, teaching you about consumer demographics, consumer psychographics, perception, consumer learning, and consumer culture. You’ll then learn how to use this understanding to inform digital marketing and brand positioning, ensuring you present an organisation, product, or your personal brand in a way that connects with the right people.

A brand is much, much more than a logo. It’s the public manifestation of an organisation, product, service, or individual, and comprises everything from name, language, and visual identity to behaviour and values. And however a brand looks and whatever it represents, it must work within industry regulations and stay true to the company’s strategy.

In this module, we’ll show you what’s involved in building and managing a brand in the creative industry. You’ll learn about the different models of brand building and what makes up a brand’s architecture, including the name, visual identity, messaging, positioning, values, and more. We’ll also examine celebrity brands; look at how brands are launched and change over time; learn how to create native ads and content for a closed network; consider the role and impact of regulatory bodies; and explore international brand strategies. Finally, we’ll discuss the importance of personal branding — what’s your brand, and how is it perceived by others?

Advertising is a fast-moving, creative, and multi-faceted discipline — and with the wealth of formats and platforms online, it’s even more so in the world of digital marketing. Here, we’ll look at both the academic and practical sides of advertising, from understanding regulatory bodies to putting together a creative pitch.

Focusing specifically on online advertising, you’ll study theoretical topics like social and ethical issues; advertising around the world; and how advertising is regulated. And on the practical side, we’ll show you how to conceptualise, implement, and manage integrated advertising projects from a client perspective. That includes pitching ideas and strategies, following briefs, the importance of brand guidelines, and how to plan advertising campaigns.

After three years studying digital marketing, your final project brings together everything you’ve learned. It’s an opportunity to research and solve real life marketing problems from start to finish, including research design, data analysis, and full-scale implementation of a strategy.

You’ll draw from each of your digital marketing modules to design quantitative and qualitative research, including sampling techniques, surveys, interviews, and focus groups, then outline the steps necessary to succeed in a new market with a go-to-market strategy (or GTM).  Altogether, it’s an opportunity to immerse yourself in the interconnected disciplines of digital marketing, and prepare for a career in the creative industries.