Program Overview

Creative Advertising MA

Master the contemporary craft of advertising.

Key details

• Location: Falmouth Campus
• Course duration: 1 year
• Attendance: Full-time

Course overview

In the wake of artificial intelligence, automation, and machine-made decisions, creativity and intuition have never been more important. On this innovative master's course, you’ll enter an intensive studio replicating a professional advertising agency, where you’ll develop a strategic and conscious practice ready for the rapidly changing advertising and media environment.

With a sharp focus on the impact of developments in AI and big tech, you’ll learn the tools and principles essential to any creative advertising role – from powerful copywriting and art direction to technical multimedia finesse. Working individually and collaboratively in teams, you’ll take on briefs provided by our industry partners as well as specially designed tasks enabling you to build your personal brand and professional skillset.

You’ll graduate with a unique and stand-out portfolio of creative campaigns, a deep strategic understanding of the industry, and the ability to devise progressive, impactful ideas for a diverse range of communications objectives.

Why study this course at Falmouth?

• Get under the skin of the contemporary advertising industry, learning how to respond to the latest media technologies.
• Carve out a conscious professional practice and personal brand, supported by industry-seasoned tutors.
• Sharpen your creative ideas generation and research skills in a collaborative studio environment.
• Have the opportunity to exhibit your work, potentially at the D&AD New Blood Awards, where you could meet key industry figures.

Course details

Modules

• Concept Creation: Explore the craft of advertising through a future-facing lens. You'll be introduced to the advertising industry and the agency landscape and engage with the techniques and vocabularies used in the creation of advertising, developing advanced approaches to concept creation and interpretation of briefs.
• Strategic Approaches to Creativity: Develop your grounding in advanced communication strategy. Through both modeling and studio work, you will explore behavioral economics; audience, brand, and cultural analysis; and key advertising theories and other advances in marketing science.
• Sustaining Practice: Build on the strategic thinking skills you have accrued to further explore creative concepts for a different range of communication objectives.
• Digital Media and Critical Futures: Explore and analyze the impact of technology on the advertising landscape; how it has fundamentally altered patterns of media consumption and where further technological advancements may be leading us.

Study blocks

• Study block 1 & 2: Get to grips with the contexts and histories of modern advertising and the industry’s professional cultures through collaborative workshops, tutorials, and studio-based activities.
• Study block 3: Hone your professional and creative identity by developing a unique portfolio of creative work in response to a variety of both self-initiated and industry-led briefs.

How you'll learn & be assessed

• How you'll learn: This is a one-year, full-time course delivered over 45 weeks and divided into three 15-week study blocks. Working in small groups, you’ll learn in seminars, workshops, and through individual and team tutorials.
• How you'll be assessed: Assessment at the end of each study block. Combination of visual, verbal, and written assignments. Final, external assessment takes place in September.

Facilities

• Full IT facilities
• Course-specific computer suite
• Large Mac suite where most of the IT lectures take place

Staff

You’ll learn from a variety of industry professionals with experience working for agencies like Y&R, Grey, DDB, and Saatchi & Saatchi, as well as for brands like VW, Audi, Dyson, BBC, Cadbury, Heinz, Sky, Jeep, and Honda.

Careers

Graduates of Creative Advertising MA could go on to work in roles such as:

• Art director / Creative director
• Strategist
• Producer
• Media planner
• Digital designer
• Market researcher
• Freelance creative

How to apply

• We welcome applications from those with relevant equivalent Level 6 qualifications, or relevant equivalent experience, and a demonstrable interest in the subject.
• Language requirements: If English isn’t your first language, you'll need to demonstrate English language skills that are sufficiently developed for successful completion of your studies. We accept a range of recognized English language qualifications that are equivalent to the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) Academic minimum score of 6.5 overall, with a minimum of 6.0 in Reading, Writing, Speaking, and Listening.

Fees, costs & funding

• Tuition fees: £9,200 per year - full-time UK (£250 acceptance fee payable. This is deducted from tuition fees.) £17,950 - full-time EU/international (£500-£2,500 acceptance fee payable depending upon your status. This is deducted from tuition fees)
• Typical course costs: £170 - Pencils, marker pens, and layout pads, £15-£100 - Optional competition entries, £500 - Essential study trips, Optional study trips where possible with variable costs

Postgraduate funding

There are loans, awards, graduate discounts, and alternative funding sources for postgraduate studies. Read about them on our Postgraduate Funding page.