Creative Advertising

Turn your ideas into powerful advertising campaigns.

This Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) accredited course will help you become an imaginative and media-savvy advertising professional. Blending theory with hands-on learning, on this course you’ll graduate with a standout portfolio to showcase your ideas and strategic thinking across advertising, brand strategy and campaign delivery.

Learning in a studio environment that mirrors real industry practice, you’ll plan and develop creative advertising campaigns in response to industry-aligned briefs for brands, which have previously included Peloton, Starbucks and Seasalt.

In a rapidly evolving industry, staying ahead of the curve is essential. You’ll build core skills in areas such as digital storytelling, art direction and creative problem solving, while exploring behavioural research and gaining a thorough understanding of the contemporary advertising landscape and your place within it.

Whether you’ve got ambitions to be an art director or creative strategist, this dynamic course will give you the practical skills, resilience and industry awareness required to not only turn advertising into a successful career, but to help shape its future.

Why study this course at Falmouth?
Work on industry-aligned briefs and become an expert in pitching your ideas, just like you would to a client.
Explore how generative AI is affecting the strategic choices made in advertising and media campaigns, how to harness its potential and avoid its pitfalls.
Learn to use behavioural science and psychology to design creative campaigns that drive social change.
Prepare for your future career by collaborating in industry-simulated environments with students from other courses.
Have the chance to interact with guest speakers and industry professionals, laying the foundations for your future professional network. Students have previously worked with global agencies including Sky Creative, Ogilvy London, McCann Central, Accenture Song, Iris Worldwide, and We are Social.
Have the opportunity to showcase your work at industry awards like D&AD New Blood in London and the South West Design + Digital Student Awards in Bristol.

Creative Advertising BA(Hons) is accredited by the leading professional marketing body, The Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM). This means students who successfully complete the full undergraduate degree are part-accredited for qualifications CIM offers professional marketing practitioners.

On this Creative Advertising degree, you'll have the opportunity to gain a BA(Hons) degree over three years or the option to study Creative Advertising BA(Hons) with Integrated Foundation Year and/or a placement year.

Through this career-focused Creative Advertising degree, we'll help you become an imaginative, change-making and future-focused advertising professional.

You’ll learn to generate and pitch innovative ideas for a range of channels including social media and other digital platforms. You’ll also learn how to utilise emerging technologies in the creative process, and how to utilise these tools in your professional practice.

You’ll also explore the magic of radical creativity and storytelling – the kind of human imagination that AI can’t replace.

Year one:
In your first year, you’ll be introduced to the fundamentals of advertising; exploring the steps involved when developing an advertising campaign and building a set of core skills as a professional foundation. Through workshops, tutorials and studio-based activities, you’ll build skills in art direction, copywriting, planning, pitching, and creative problem solving. You’ll also look at how research and insights underpin impactful campaigns, as well as the opportunities and ethical challenges posed by AI.

Modules:
Writing Studio
Creative Problem Solving
Design and Art Direction
Adland
Agency Life
Strategy in the Age of AI

Year two:
This year is all about starting to define your own creative approach. Applying the skills you’ve already learned, you’ll progress beyond ad creation to multimedia, multichannel campaigns. You’ll take a deeper dive into the inner workings of brands and develop important planning and research skills like data collection and analysis.

You’ll develop advanced knowledge of behavioural science and psychology and how they drive social change. Responding to an industry-aligned brief, you’ll have the opportunity to pitch your ideas and potentially see your campaign idea go into production.

In preparation for your future career, you’ll get to grips with the inner workings of the advertising industry. You’ll also hone your teamworking skills and deploy your visual and written skills for different media, as well as reflect on the implications and impact of new media.

Modules:
Social Media and Digital Cultures
Creating Brands
Behaviour Change for Good
Campaigns
Work Futures

Year three:
Your final year is all about creating a standout portfolio that reflects your creative passions and professional aspirations. Underpinned by thorough research and critical thinking, you’ll produce campaign plans, pitches and digital content ready to launch your career.

Supported by tutors, you’ll tackle industry-aligned briefs and enter global competitions which might include D&AD New Blood in London & Southwest Design + Digital Student Awards in Bristol.

Modules:
Major Project - Development
Advanced Campaigns
Major Project - Showcase
Industry Portfolio

As part of our process of continuous improvement, we routinely review course content to ensure that all our students benefit from a high-quality and rewarding academic experience. As such, there may be some changes made to your course which are not immediately reflected in the content displayed on our website. During your course, module content may be updated or optional modules withdrawn in order to maintain the best academic experience. Any students affected will be informed of any changes directly.

Assessment is based on a combination of:

100% of your assessment will be coursework.
Practice-based modules will be assessed on the presentation of visual work, including sketchbooks to show process
Theory-based modules will be assessed on a mix of written reports or illustrated essays
In the final year, you’ll be assessed on your final year project and your portfolio - culminating in an exhibition of your final-year work

You will receive feedback in a range of formats:

In-class discussion with tutors about work-in-progress
One-to-one tutorials with your module tutors
Informal group presentations
Group discussion and crits to get peer feedback on ideas
Academic support and feedback on written assignments are available in tutorials or with academic skills tutors
Asynchronous feedback offered through emails or ‘soft’ deadlines of practical work
Opportunities to get feedback from visiting guest speakers from industry or portfolio crits