Advertising, Public Relations and Branding BA Honours

In the first year, you will learn how brands shape and are shaped by culture. You’ll explore the art and science of key skills in communication and creative industries. Additionally, you will develop your creativity and practical skills in concept development and content design for advertising, PR, and branding industries.

This module develops your abilities in industry-relevant communication tasks or assets related to illustration or graphic design or fashion communication and styling or advertising, public relations and branding or digital media.

It will equip you with a range of digital and/or analogue practices, analytical approaches and tools by which to create, curate, direct and produce content required to deliver impactful communications achieving the required objectives. The module also encourages the exploration of individual style through a series of introductory projects and to explore possible career trajectories in the creative industries.

This module introduces you to the position of illustration, design, brands, and media in contemporary society and issues of equality and responsible production and consumption. It fosters critical understanding of images, texts, and objects in various contexts.

This module extends and deepens your understanding of the relationship between your developing practice and the practices that have developed at other times and at other places. Additionally, it equips you with transferable skills for autonomous learning at degree level encouraging exploration of theory and practice fostering independent research and reflective practice. Engagement with academic and contemporary media resources will enable you to develop critical and practical vocabularies in preparation for the second and third years of your degree. 

This module introduces you to design disciplines, such as design thinking, life drawing, digital design, moving image, video editing, photography, design for print, and styling. Through hands-on exploration, you will develop a diverse set of practical and technical skills applicable across different design fields, focusing on process, production, and presentation. You will engage with the latest tools, technologies and processes enabling you to develop adaptability and technological agility. You will learn the skills, knowledge and literacies needed to thrive in this environment. Also, you will learn to critically evaluate the design processes and develop appropriate solutions to communication briefs, resulting in project-specific outcomes that demonstrate your creativity and proficiency in design. 

This module encourages innovation through the exploration of design methods and cultivate conceptual thinking and creative confidence. It will enable you to generate creative ideas adept at addressing diverse communication challenges. Emphasis on visual communication ensures that you will understand the principles of design across various formats. Through hands-on exploration, you will learn to respond imaginatively and effectively to given design briefs by sourcing reference material, applying technical skills, and developing skills in experimentation and reflection.

In the second year, you will deepen your expertise in analysing audience behaviours and conducting audience research, creating strong brand identities, developing effective strategic campaigns, and crafting compelling content for promotion and engagement. This year will prepare you to excel in the dynamic field of advertising, PR and promotional industries.

In a world where social media and mobile usage have become the norm, it is essential for brands and companies to observe their audience's everyday practices and engage with their shared culture. To seamlessly integrate grassroots consumer culture into their advertising, branding, and PR processes, companies and organisations need to employ traditional market and social research methods. More importantly, they need to augment these methods with new and digital-based methodologies capable of accessing and providing insights from an ever-expanding range of digital data sources. 

This module equips you with the essential knowledge and skills to understand, analyse, and engage with target audiences effectively. Through workshops, case studies, and practical group learning sessions you will explore various tools, techniques, and strategies to create comprehensive customer personas, conduct audience research, and develop engagement strategies using both traditional and digital methods. You will learn how to connect these insights to advertising, PR, and branding strategies, as well as audience engagement.   

Brands have become integral to all aspects of social life, from the constantly evolving ways in which people use brands as a means of constructing their identities and creating social bonds, to the political as well as commercial value they hold for companies, public institutions and even individuals. 

In a context where such a diverse range of organisations and individuals are required to imagine and communicate themselves as brands, as a set of symbols, values, and emotions that convey a certain narrative vision of the world, the creation of brand identities has emerged as a key discipline that integrates a range of competencies from across the spectrum of the promotional industries. 

This module provides you the tools to understand how brands build value through connecting with their audiences and to apply that understanding in the development of a set of guidelines for their own brand. 

This module explores the practical process of campaign planning and how best to communicate awareness of a product, service, idea or societal issue in an effective and engaging way. The module will develop your practical campaign planning skills based on briefs set by industry organisations providing you with direct experience of working for clients. Emphasis will be placed on problem solving and over the course of the module you will undertake primary and secondary research into the audience and demographics, develop measurable and achievable goals, conceptualise and develop creative ideas and prepare a media strategy. You will then create and execute mock-ups and media assets to present a cohesive and a compelling IMC (Integrated Marketing Communications) campaign plan to an industry client.

In the third year, you will keep updating with the new cutting-edge AI tools in digital communication and marketing industries, and their applications in the fields. You’ll advance from creating and designing brand images and identities to managing brands. Simultaneously, you will apply all the key skills gained from the programme to implement your major project, focusing on branding, re-branding, or self-branding, enriched with your entrepreneurial knowledge.

The module bridges the evolving landscape of digital communications strategy with the transformative power of Artificial Intelligence (AI), specifically tailored for aspiring advertising, PR and branding professionals. It delves into the intersection of AI, digital marketing and contemporary communications campaign strategies, unravelling opportunities and challenges that arise from this dynamic relationship. 

This module fosters a comprehensive understanding of the intersection between digital marketing, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and communication strategy. It investigates the ethical considerations surrounding AI-driven communications practice. The module prepares you to navigate the evolving digital landscape with agility and adaptability. 

In this module, you will explore the fundamental principles and strategies involved in effectively managing brands within the context of the advertising, public relations, and branding industries. Through theoretical discussions, case studies and practical exercises, you will develop a comprehensive understanding of brand identity, positioning, communication, and equity management.

This module will provide a crucial step in your learning journey by fostering the high-level critical and practical skills necessary for navigating the diverse landscape of screen production processes. It aims to encourage creative, ambitious, and innovative approaches to creating screen media. By providing an environment that mirrors current industry processes and conditions, the module will help you gain practical insights into bringing major projects to realisation. Additionally, the module empowers you to develop and execute major projects with a clear understanding of the project’s purpose, intended audience, and contextual relevance. It also equips you with the skills and confidence to present your work effectively and professionally to others, both in its developmental stages and as a completed project, which will enhancing your readiness for professional engagement in the field. 

This module will develop your understanding of the dynamic career landscape within advertising, PR, branding and beyond. This module focuses on fostering the development of essential skills and knowledge crucial for success in these industries. 

It will provide an in-depth exploration of the evolving career opportunities, emphasizing current trends and future prospects. You will be guided in the cultivation and management of your personal brand, leveraging the power of social media platforms to enhance visibility and professional presence, as well as networking and interview skills, project management proficiency, and  developing an entrepreneurial mindset.  

You will gain a well-rounded understanding of the industry, hone your practical skills, and develop a strategic mindset necessary for navigating the advertising, PR, and branding and promotion industries.  

The three-year degree is taught through: 

• Interactive seminars with tutor-led and small-group seminar discussions 
• Practice-based workshops 
• Developing creative solutions in response to industry briefs 
• Critical reflection on personal and cultural experience 
• Engagement with recorded key concept videos 
• Group work and presentations  
• Collaborative digital platforms  
• Independent and group research project work 
• Guided and independent study and research 
• Writing in academic and professional formats.   

You will have regular one-to-one tutorials with your lecturers and a range of tutors from services such as the Learning Enhancement Team and the Library. 

All students will benefit from personalised support from their academic advisor.

The course will offer you an immersive and practical learning experience to help you excel in the dynamic fields of advertising, PR, and branding.

Through direct engagement with real-life scenarios, you will gain insights into these subject areas, honing your skills in strategic planning and execution. With a strong emphasis on hands-on learning, you will collaborate with real clients to develop media campaigns and benefit from interactions with industry experts through guest lectures. Throughout the three-year journey, you will work closely with academic and professional mentors, crafting quality portfolios that prepare them for future study, work, and their own business or self-branding. At the same time, the course introduces emerging technologies such as AI and their applications in the promotional industries, to foster your understanding, application and critical thinking about new technologies, practices and humanities.

You will be studying at our north London campus in Hendon.

Whether you are studying full or part-time – your course timetable will balance your study commitments on campus with time for work, life commitments and independent study.

We aim to make timetables available to students at least 2 weeks before the start of term. Some weeks are different due to how we schedule classes and arrange on-campus sessions.

Typical weekly breakdown

You will typically have ten to twelve hours of timetabled classes per week. 

Outside of teaching hours, you’ll learn independently through self-study which will involve reading articles and books, working on projects, undertaking research, and preparing for assessments including coursework, presentations and exams.

Here is an indication of how you will split your time:

Year 1

Year 2

1. If you don't take the work placement module, your teaching, learning and assessment hours will increase to 392 hours.

Year 3

Our excellent teaching and support teams will help you develop the skills relevant to your degree from research and practical skills to critical thinking. Our Sheppard Library is open 24 hours a day during term time. And we offer free 24-hour laptop loans with full desktop software, free printing and Wi-Fi to use on or off campus, even over the weekend.

Your learning will be assessed regularly and is made up of 100% coursework. It comprises a variety of assessment formats, ensuring you will have ample opportunity to showcase what you have learnt and what you can do. These might include individual and group research projects and campaign proposals in professional formats (decks and reports), individual and group pitches and presentations, essays, critical reflections and portfolios of creative work.

The three-year degree is entirely coursework-based, with no exams.  

Assessments include: 

• Creating personal branding elements like portfolios, CVs, and online profiles 
• Completing group and individual writing and creative projects 
• Conducting research projects and presentations 
• Designing and implementing campaigns 
• Producing promotional media texts such as brand identities, press releases, advertisements, and social media content 
• Engaging in critical reflection culminating in a major project.  

This comprehensive approach ensures that you will develop practical skills and industry-relevant experience. 

To help you achieve the best results, we will provide regular feedback.