Creative Advertising BA(Hons)

In your first year, you’ll be introduced to the fundamentals of advertising and marketing communications. Through workshops, tutorials and studio-based activities, you’ll build skills in art direction, copywriting, planning, pitching, and creative problem solving. You’ll also have the chance to visit advertising and marketing agencies in London, gaining an insight into how creative agencies operate and the key steps involved when developing an advertising campaign. 

Modules

Copywriting

In this module you’ll learn the fundamentals of copywriting. Considering different channels and how best to speak to your target audience, you’ll focus on varying your copywriting for mediums like social media, digital ads, websites, branded content and games. 

Creative Problem Solving

In this module, you’ll explore industry methods, tools and frameworks used in the creative process. 

Design and Art Direction

You’ll learn the core principles of design and art direction in the context of advertising. 

Adland

What can advertising history teach us today? In this module, you'll explore the stories from Adland's past and create a student newspaper. 

Agency Life

This module will give you an overview of agency life, the roles and responsibilities common across agencies and the processes and ways of working you can expect upon graduating. 

Strategy and Planning

You’ll consider strategy within the creative process and the thinking that underpins all choices made within advertising campaigns. This in turn will enable you to create effective campaigns that deliver on a brand’s needs. 

This year is all about applying your skills from year one. You’ll progress beyond ad creation to multimedia, multichannel campaigns. You’ll take a deeper dive into what makes a brand and practice important marketing and research skills like data collection and analysis.  

You’ll learn to use behavioural science and psychology to drive social change. Responding to a live brief set by a charitable body, you’ll have the opportunity to pitch to industry and see your campaign idea go into production. 

You’ll 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

Media Lab

You’ll consider a wide range of media channels and their role in delivering effective marketing communications. You’ll examine the pros and cons of different channels and their relevance to varying audiences. This will allow you to develop effective marketing campaigns that deliver results. 

Brand Creation

In this module you’ll examine what it takes to create a brand. From researching and defining a brand’s purpose and values, to designing and implementing new assets and launching a campaign. You’ll gain the expertise needed to build a strong and successful brand. 

Behaviour Change for Good

You’ll explore the fundamentals of behavioural economics and how to apply a range of research methods and frameworks to your own campaign ideas. Responding to a live brief, you’ll create a campaign pitch that tackles important social and environmental issues through behavioural change. You’ll then pitch your idea to a panel of industry professionals with the winning campaign being selected for development by the client.

Campaigns

In this module, you’ll develop the necessary skills to plan and develop creative and campaigns for brands such as Pizza Hut, Starbucks, Seasalt and St Ives Brewery. You’ll look at how to build an effective campaign to meet brand goals, connecting the campaign across channels and audiences. 

Global Creators

You’ll learn about what a career in the global creative industries means and how to carve your place within it.

You can choose to take an optional professional placement after your second year on a three-year programme, or after your third year if you’re studying for a degree with an Integrated Foundation Year.

You’ll be responsible for finding your own placement, with support from the Employability Team. Most placement opportunities for marketing and marketing communications are based in cities like London, Bristol, Bath, Manchester, Birmingham and Cardiff. There is also a small but mighty network of advertising, marketing and PR agencies in Devon and Cornwall. 

Choosing this option will enhance your industry experience and skills while studying.  

How you’ll study during your professional placement

You’ll spend time working in a professional context, as part of a business or organisation. This can be in one role, or up to three, and must be for a minimum of 24 weeks.  

You’ll develop in-demand workplace skills, deepen your insight into industry and grow your network of contacts, all of which could help you get ahead in your career after graduation.  

Throughout this year, you’ll develop a portfolio of work that includes critical self-reflection on what has been learned from the experience. You’ll be required to evidence your experiences, the skills you’ve learned and your professional growth.

Your final year is all about creating a career-launching portfolio. Supported by tutors, you’ll tackle real industry briefs and enter global competitions like D&AD New Blood in London. You’ll complete a final-year integrated marketing communications project accredited by the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) and sharpen your professional and self-employment skills, empowering you to start your own business or freelance journey. 

Modules

Final Year Project - Development

You’ll research, plan and develop a self-initiated final year project based on a brand or topic of your choice that reflects your creative passions or professional aspirations. 

Advanced Campaigns

You’ll create a series of campaigns in response to briefs set by industry professionals and take advantage of placement opportunities. 

Final Year Project - Showcase (CIM accredited)

You’ll create a Final Year Project that showcases your critical thinking and creative practice, while learning key marketing principles and how to apply them creatively.

In this module, you’ll have the option of further gaining Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) professional qualification before graduation. 

Final Portfolio

You'll develop an industry-ready portfolio that showcases your knowledge and skills across the three-year degree. 

Why study an Integrated Foundation Year route?

If you’re taking on a new subject that you haven’t studied in depth before, have been out of education for a while or have a non-standard educational background then an Integrated Foundation Year degree may be the right choice for you. It is a four-year degree with an Integrated Foundation Year to start, which allows you to explore the primary elements of your subject before progressing on to the remaining three years of the BA(Hons) degree.

What you'll study in your Foundation year

If you choose this pathway, you'll study five core modules in your Foundation year. These are all designed to help you explore the foundational elements of your subject. You'll gain relevant technical skills, learn to experiment and take risks, develop an understanding of professional practice, have opportunities to work across disciplines and collaborate with other students on live project briefs.

Modules

Explore

You'll begin your foundation year by working collaboratively with others to explore themes of the future. You'll take risks, experiment through play and be supported to break through barriers.

Technique

You'll take subject-specific workshops and develop essential technical and practical skills in your area of study. You'll also enhance your analytical and organisational abilities.

Apply

You'll work with your peer group to think beyond discipline by addressing a societal or global issue. You'll then showcase your work to your peers and deliver and accompanying evaluation of your process.

Industry

You'll enhance your creative and practical skills in your subject specialism by responding to typical industry briefs, underpinned by focused research and experiments. You'll also gain industry insights through guest lectures and workshops.

Launch

You'll develop your unique identity in your specialism through the production of a self-initiated body of work. Your final project will be the bridge to your next year, fully supported by evaluative reviews and critical analysis of the work you have created.

After the Foundation year, you progress into Year One of the full three-year degree, equipped with a deeper knowledge of your subject, a clear understanding of your strengths, and develop a practical and technical skillset and the confidence to excel in your chosen subject. 

If you apply for and enrol onto a degree with an Integrated Foundation Year, you’ll have the option to switch onto a five-year version including a placement year. That means you’ll complete the first three years of your course before completing a placement in industry in your fourth year and returning to Falmouth for the fifth year of your programme. 

This practice-based course mirrors life in a creative agency. You'll learn through crits, individual tutorials, peer group discussions, and technical workshops, while leading your own efforts in pitches and presentations. You may also benefit from guest lectures or take advantage of optional study trips.

A typical week begins with introductory workshops to creative tools and frameworks, then you will be given guided briefs to apply these tools. Directed practice and supervised studio sessions will be self-led; this will include working on your own practice, developing your projects, research and critical reflection.

At Falmouth, we use a 'digitally enhanced learning & teaching' approach. Your experience will always be predominantly in-person, including seminars, tutorials and studio teaching, with some, more targeted elements, being online either live (synchronous) or pre-recorded (asynchronous). You can read more here.

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