Choose Advertising and Marketing Communications at Bedfordshire and:
- Learn essential skills in advertising and copy writing - using a mixture of traditional marketing and media communications and more modern tools such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram
- Study areas including PR, creating marketing communications, marketing communications practice, and marketing in contemporary contexts
- Develop your knowledge and experience in your final year by working with real companies on real issues
- Gain additional employability skills in communication, problem-solving and teamwork
- Challenge yourself with an optional sandwich placement year
- Benefit from a course that reflects the Business School’s commitment to practice based and research informed education and is accredited by the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM).
Why choose this course?
- BSc Advertising and Marketing Communications is an academic course grounded firmly in business practice. In your first year you study alongside other business students working on practical business problems and are introduced to the foundation level of Marketing Communications. At higher levels your study becomes more focused, especially on employment related transferable skills.
- At the conclusion of this course you will be a career-ready pre-professional, ready to start work in the marketing communications industry
- You will have acquired not just knowledge and understanding of marketing communications methods, such as digital strategy and account and media planning, but also the ability to apply your studies to practical examples and the critical skills necessary to keep learning in the changing professional environment.
Unit Information - What will I learn?
Units
- Business Practice Explored (BSS005-1) Compulsory
- Consumer Behaviour (MAR022-1) Compulsory
- Experiential Marketing (MAR019-1) Compulsory
- Introduction To Digital Marketing And Analytics (MAR020-1) Compulsory
- Principles Of Marketing (MAR001-1) Compulsory
- Using Data To Build Business Practice (BSS004-1) Compulsory
- Account And Media Planning (MAR029-2) Compulsory
- Brand Management (MAR016-2) Compulsory
- Career In Practice (MAR027-2) Compulsory
- Creative Advertising And Copywriting (MAR018-2) Compulsory
- Digital Innovation And Entrepreneurship (MAR038-2) Compulsory
- Marketing Communications In The Digital Age (MAR021-2) Compulsory
- Strategy And Innovation (BSS029-2) Compulsory
- Continuing Professional Development (MAR027-3) Compulsory
- Digital Communications Strategy (MAR013-3) Compulsory
- Marketing Ethics And Corporate Social Responsibility (Csr) (MAR028-3) Compulsory
- Preparation For Specialist Research Project (MAR029-3) Compulsory
- Specialist Research Project (MAR030-3) Compulsory
- Topical Marketing Communications Practice (MAR031-3) Compulsory
How will I be assessed?
In line with the Business School's commitment to practice based education and research informed teaching most of your assessments will focus on the demonstration of these two key areas as they are pivotal to your success within the advertising and marketing communications industry. We will want to see that you understand the theory and have developed critical thinking skills which help you evaluate the relevance of what you have learned. All of this comes together in being able to demonstrate rigorous marketing practice for a business, agency or organisation. The assessment strategy supports the course's focus on being an independent learner and employability. Your subject knowledge and key skills such as team work, communication, information literacy, research and evaluation, creativity and critical thinking are tested throughout the course using various relevant assessments to meet the learning outcomes as well as your different learning styles. The key subject themes increase in intensity as you progress to the next level and then to the final year, allowing you to build on previous knowledge. The assessments are therefore designed to support you to work both in a team and independently. The assessments reflects incremental learning as well as focus on being a confident independent learner by providing more group work opportunities at the start of your course to build your team skills and engagement, and progresses to more individual and guided assessments to challenge you academically and professionally. The variations of assessments you will engage with ensures that you accumulate all the skills necessary to interact efficiently within the world of marketing. To assess this range of integration of theory and skills into sound practice, we use a variety of methods: Reports: you analyse an advertising and marketing communications problem and propose solutions. Presentations: present proposals as if to your boss, a board or a client. Time-limited tasks: on a set day, you will be given a task which you will need to complete in a set time, such as 48 hours or five days. Academic writing: used to demonstrate clear, critical thinking, you might be asked to write an essay or a short summary of a theoretical debate. Appraisals: just as in business, you use appraisals to assess your own learning and to set your personal and academic development objectives. Projects: these are assessed in a number of ways depending on the task defined by our external industry contacts. Typically, you will need to prepare an analysis, report or presentation which is suitable for the agency or business partner and a longer piece of work which sets out the -behind the scenes work which underpinned the output for agency or business. It is in the longer work that we expect to see explicitly your application of theory and critical thinking which underpin good marketing practice. You will usually also prepare a project review. Project reviews: you analyse and evaluate the way you worked on a project and set out how you would work more effectively on a similar task in future. Exams: as well as conventional exams using set questions and case studies, exams can be the outcome of a group task. You might work on a large task together and then sit an exam to show your individual learning from the task. For all assessments, you will have an assignment brief which clearly sets out requirements and the criteria for grading your work; this develops your understanding of the assessment standards and what is needed to do well at a task. You will receive feedback on all your assessments to enable you to improve your learning. It is important that you use this feedback accordingly to maximise your performance on future assignments and to buttress your learning.
