If you’re looking to take a leap into a career in advertising, acquiring a solid educational background is key to succeeding in this highly competitive business. Advertising education has become widely popular with many universities now offering bachelor, master and doctorate diploma programs.
For advertising job positions, many employers prefer a bachelor’s degree in advertising or journalism with specific training in marketing, consumer behavior, market research, sales, communication methods, technology, visual arts, art history and photography.
Diploma programs prepare you for an exciting career in advertising or marketing communications. Using the latest industry-specific software, the main focus of advertising programs is on finding innovative ways for the creative and planning processes to work together to produce powerful advertising campaigns.
Students will learn how to develop advertising strategies, design creative concepts, interpret market research data, calculate media placement costs, estimate and evaluate advertising outcomes and how to become job-ready upon graduation. The course load typically involves studies in Advertising Planning, Media Planning, Integrated Marketing Communications, Media Buying, Account Management, Advertising Sales, Creative Advertising and Concept Development, Producing, Writing Scripts for Broadcast and Developing Creative Integrated Marketing Communications Solutions.
A unique model that most educational institutions utilize for teaching advertising is the student-run advertising agency where advertising students are expected to create campaigns for real companies.
Many institutions now offer separate programs in digital advertising, i.e. promotions that use online vehicles and mobile platforms to deliver advertising and marketing messages to attract customers. Examples of online advertising include social network advertising, contextual ads on search engine results pages, banner ads, rich media ads, online classified advertising, advertising networks and e-mail marketing.
Digital advertising has a competitive advantage over traditional advertising in terms of delivering messages and measuring results. The immediate publishing of information and content is not limited by time or geography and an advertiser’s investment can be measured almost instantly by analysing the metrics of a campaign.
In order for students to gain valuable agency experience, many advertising school programs offer students in either their second or third year of studies with the opportunity to participate in an optional unpaid internship within the advertising industry.