Advertising Communication Course

Lesson 1 • Ethics and Social Responsibility in Advertising

Examines truthfulness, stereotyping, and vulnerable-audience concerns. Establishes an ethical framework students apply throughout the course.

Lesson 2 • Advertising Within the Marketing Mix

Positions advertising as one promotional tool among many. Clarifies when advertising is the right lever versus other mix elements.

Lesson 3 • The Advertising Communication Model

Applies sender-message-channel-receiver theory specifically to advertising. Students map how noise, encoding, and feedback affect campaign outcomes.

Lesson 4 • Defining Advertising and Its Purpose

Establishes what advertising is, distinguishing it from PR, propaganda, and sales promotion. Grounds all subsequent study in a precise, shared vocabulary.

Lesson 1 • Social and Cultural Influences on Consumers

Analyzes reference groups, culture, and subculture as shapers of consumer response. Prepares students to craft culturally resonant messages.

Lesson 2 • Motivation and Needs-Based Theories

Applies hierarchy-of-needs and drive-reduction models to advertising appeals. Students match product benefits to underlying consumer motivations.

Lesson 3 • Attitude Formation and Change

Explains how attitudes form through cognition, affect, and behavior. Students use this to design messages that shift or reinforce brand attitudes.

Lesson 4 • Decision-Making and the Purchase Journey

Maps the consumer decision process from need recognition to post-purchase evaluation. Identifies where advertising can intervene most effectively.

Lesson 1 • Building Consumer Personas

Synthesises research data into vivid, actionable audience personas. Personas serve as the creative brief's human anchor throughout the course.

Lesson 2 • Segmentation Frameworks and Variables

Introduces demographic, psychographic, behavioural, and geographic segmentation. Students apply each framework to real product categories.

Lesson 3 • Audience Insights and Data Analytics

Introduces first-, second-, and third-party data sources and analytics dashboards. Students interpret audience metrics to refine targeting decisions.

Lesson 4 • Targeting and Positioning Strategy

Covers undifferentiated, differentiated, and concentrated targeting approaches. Links targeting decisions to positioning statements and brand perception.

Lesson 1 • Advertising Objectives and Goal Setting

Distinguishes awareness, consideration, conversion, and loyalty objectives. Teaches students to set measurable, time-bound advertising goals.

Lesson 2 • Writing the Creative Brief

Deconstructs every element of a professional creative brief. Students draft and critique briefs using real brand scenarios.

Lesson 3 • Brand Strategy Fundamentals

Covers brand identity, positioning, and promise as strategic inputs. Students learn to protect brand consistency across all advertising outputs.

Lesson 4 • Competitive Analysis for Advertising

Teaches systematic competitor message auditing and whitespace identification. Students use competitive gaps to sharpen their own positioning.

Lesson 1 • The Big Idea and Campaign Concept

Defines what makes an idea 'big' — scalable, ownable, and emotionally resonant. Students develop and articulate a campaign concept in one sentence.

Lesson 2 • Art Direction and Visual Communication

Introduces layout, typography, colour theory, and image selection as persuasive tools. Students evaluate visual executions against strategic and aesthetic criteria.

Lesson 3 • Insight Mining and Creative Springboards

Teaches how to extract a human truth from research that sparks creative ideas. Connects the brief's single-minded proposition to generative creative thinking.

Lesson 4 • Concept Presentation and Selling

Prepares students to present creative work persuasively to clients and stakeholders. Covers rationale structure, handling objections, and protecting the idea.

Lesson 5 • Ideation Methods and Creative Thinking

Introduces structured brainstorming, lateral thinking, and analogical reasoning. Students practise divergent and convergent thinking in timed exercises.

Lesson 1 • Media Landscape and Channel Overview

Maps paid, owned, and earned channels across traditional and digital media. Establishes a shared taxonomy that students use throughout media planning exercises.

Lesson 2 • Media Budget Allocation and Scheduling

Covers continuous, flighting, and pulsing scheduling strategies with budget trade-offs. Students build a media flowchart for a simulated campaign.

Lesson 3 • Media Planning Fundamentals

Defines reach, frequency, GRP, CPM, and other core planning metrics. Students calculate and compare media efficiency across channel options.

Lesson 4 • Audience-to-Channel Matching

Connects audience personas to channel consumption habits and media indices. Students justify channel selection with audience data rather than intuition.

Lesson 1 • Print and Out-of-Home Production

Covers specifications, file formats, and vendor briefing for print and OOH formats. Students learn to quality-check artwork before it goes to press.

Lesson 2 • Budget Management and Vendor Relations

Teaches cost estimation, purchase order management, and supplier negotiation. Students practise reconciling production budgets against actual spend.

Lesson 3 • Digital and Social Content Production

Addresses asset sizing, format variations, and platform-specific requirements. Students adapt a single concept into a suite of digital executions.

Lesson 4 • Broadcast and Audio Production

Introduces TV and radio production roles, scripts, and technical requirements. Students evaluate storyboards and scripts against brief and budget constraints.

Lesson 1 • A/B Testing and Creative Optimisation

Teaches hypothesis-driven testing of headlines, visuals, and audience segments. Students design valid tests and interpret results to improve creative performance.

Lesson 2 • Tracking and Attribution Models

Explains pixel tracking, UTM parameters, and multi-touch attribution logic. Students evaluate which attribution model suits different campaign types.

Lesson 3 • Measurement Frameworks and KPI Setting

Establishes how to select KPIs that map directly to campaign objectives. Students design a measurement plan before a campaign launches.

Lesson 4 • Return on Investment and Campaign Evaluation

Calculates advertising ROI, ROAS, and brand lift metrics. Students present a post-campaign evaluation that justifies future budget recommendations.