Accredited by the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM), our Masters in Advertising and Marketing allows you to gain specialist knowledge in marketing communications and advertising, alongside comprehensive understanding of key areas of marketing such as strategy, consumer behaviour and research.
Taught by specialists with professional experience and research expertise, you’ll gain the skills and knowledge to prepare for a successful career in marketing communications.
The course offers a balanced academic and practical programme, giving you the opportunity to apply your knowledge to genuine business situations. You’ll explore contemporary developments in marketing and marketing communications theory and practice.
Dedicated modules will introduce you to key concepts, frameworks and approaches, whilst equipping you with the skills you need to work in a professional marketing communications or advertising environment. You’ll also select optional modules allowing you to focus on areas that suit your career plans.
Academic excellence
The Marketing division at Leeds University Business School is one of the leading centres of research in marketing in Europe. As part of our research, we engage with companies, senior executives and academics across the globe.
Our research makes an important contribution to your learning on the MA Advertising and Marketing; our academics bring their world-leading expertise to you in the classroom. The Global and Strategic Marketing Research Centre is the Business School’s established and esteemed centre of excellence for scholarly research work.
This programme is accredited by the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM), giving you the opportunity to gain professional qualifications through CIM Graduate Gateway. This means you can work towards CIM qualifications during your studies, and will receive exemptions from selected assessments.
CIM is the leading professional body for marketers worldwide and exists to develop the marketing profession, maintain professional standards and improve the skills of marketing practitioners.
CIM qualifications are highly sought after by employers, which ensures you are equipped with the best opportunities for a successful marketing career.
Throughout the year you’ll study core modules covering different aspects of advertising and marketing.
You will build your understanding of the ways in which brands communicate with their audiences with modules in marketing communications and PR and corporate communications. From there you’ll explore theories and practices of different types of advertising, and examine how organisations plan and develop their media strategies in a changing media landscape. In addition you’ll also gain an insight into important marketing functions of marketing which support brand communications.
Optional modules will give you the chance to shape the programme to suit your interests or career plans. You could focus on sales promotion, brand management and other fields such as social media, digital and interactive marketing.
The course culminates in a final project, which allows you to demonstrate the knowledge and skills you’ve gained while focusing on a single topic in-depth. Two options are available – you could complete either a standard research dissertation on a topic of your choice, or a consultancy project, allowing you to work with an external business on a real marketing problem.
Throughout the course you’ll also benefit from a Professional Skills and Employability module, dedicated to developing the key skills employers are looking for when recruiting marketing graduates. Read what our students say about the opportunities for professional development.
Compulsory modules
You’ll take eight compulsory modules, plus your dissertation, which can be either a research dissertation or marketing consultancy project.
Optional modules
For more information on typical modules, read Advertising and Marketing MA in the course catalogue
We use a range of teaching methods so you can benefit from the expertise of our academics, including lectures, workshops, seminars, simulations and tutorials. Company case studies provide an opportunity to put your learning into practice.
Independent study is also vital for this course allowing you to prepare for taught classes and sharpen your own research and critical skills.
Assessment methods emphasise not just knowledge, but essential skills development too. You’ll be assessed using a range of techniques including exams, group projects, written assignments and essays, in-course assessment, group and individual presentations and reports.
Graduates of the MA Advertising and Marketing can expect to have a wide and varied range of career opportunities in marketing communications agencies and in-house marketing departments.
Previous graduates have become brand managers, research managers, account executives, business development specialists, sales managers and even started their own businesses. Employers include marketing agencies within the advertising and communications sector, retailers, communications groups, commercial banks, education and recruitment agencies.
An increasing number of graduates are working within the rapidly expanding digital, direct and interactive marketing industry.
Our dedicated Professional Development Tutor provides tailored academic and careers support to every student. This means you will develop the academic skills to successfully progress through the course, and also the professional skills you will need to secure employment and start a successful career.
You can expect support and guidance on career choices, help in identifying and applying for jobs, as well as one-to-one coaching on interpersonal and communication skills.
Read more about our careers support.
The MSc Marketing and Brand Management focuses on planning and applying brand management strategies. You will learn about the importance of brand management within an overall framework of marketing and business management.
If you begin your course in September you have the choice to apply for an 8 month paid work placement in a marketing role instead of completing either a dissertation or client project. By gaining this professional experience you will be well prepared for your future career.
You will develop a strong foundation in marketing theory and practice, combined with a specialist perspective on brand management, including brand values and a wide range of related communication channels.
This course will prepare you to work for a branding or marketing agency or for a marketing, branding or communications department within an organisation. With practical case studies and live scenarios, you will apply brand management theory and analyse and critique what makes a successful brand. You will enhance your employment and future career prospects, through developing your knowledge of marketing and brand management theory and how it is applied in practice.
Compulsory Modules
You will study eight compulsory modules and a module which helps develop your professional and academic skills. In addition, you will choose two optional modules and you also have the opportunity to apply for an 8 month paid work placement in a marketing role, or you can complete either a dissertation or client project. If you choose not to take a work placement, the course lasts 12 months. If you start in September and take the work placement the course last 17 months. Please see the September entry and January entry course structure charts.
Please also refer to the course structure chart for January entry.
Please also refer to the course structure chart for September entry.
Optional Modules
You must choose one of the following:
Much of the teaching on the course takes the form of interactive workshops, but there are also lectures from staff and visiting speakers. Lectures, discussions, role-play exercises and seminars are linked with selected case studies and assessments to strengthen your practical analysis and decision-making skills. You will develop your skills in working as part of a team through structured group assignments and an online group-based marketing simulation.
You will gain practical experience and put your knowledge of marketing approaches and theory into practice during live research projects for an organisation. Teaching staff at the Business School are engaged in academic research and/or come from an industry background with in-depth practical experience of marketing and brand management issues. Visiting speakers from the world of marketing and branding, consultancies and research bodies augment the programme through leading edge discussions and specialist events.
We're investing over £30m to create a modern teaching and learning facilities and creating a new home at Headington for the Oxford Brookes Business School.
Set to be complete in 2017, you'll see:
Our library provides specialist business resources (both hard copy and via online access) to UK and overseas companies' annual reports, statistics on all aspects of business and management, a wide range of constantly updated key texts, and postgraduate MA, MBA, MSc and PhD theses.
If you are starting your course in September 2017 you are likely to experience all your teaching at the Headington Campus.
We offer an International Business in Practice Study Trip module. The purpose of this study trip is to give postgraduate students a hands-on, intensive experience with the ideas and practices of global business. The programme will include presentations from local management executives and experts. Students will have direct interaction with management executives and practices through site visits to major corporations and agencies.
This study trip is voluntary and all costs associated with the trip will need to be funded by you. It is not linked to university assessments in any way. If you successfully complete this module you will have the following non-credit bearing module recorded on your transcript: P58335 International Business in Practice: Study Trip.
Leicester Castle Business School - created by De Montfort University to meet the needs of 21st century business
