Units

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Sample subject outline - Semester 1 2013

Note: Subject outlines often change before the semester begins. Below is a sample outline.

Rationale

Copywriting and art direction are fundamental to creative advertising practice. Both tasks exist at the front end of advertising: copywriters and art directors help to bring advertising campaigns to life through creative concept development, writing, and liaising with both clients and producers. This unit builds on the introductory creative advertising unit to develop your practical and analytical skills. It examines contemporary advertising theory and practice and develops skills in writing and art directing.

Aims

This unit aims to provide you with creative advertising skills, with a particular focus on the relationships between words and images. In this unit, you will develop an understanding of the work involved in copywriting and art directing, and build your skills in completing the tasks involved in these roles.

Objectives

On completion of this unit you should be able to demonstrate:
1. Copywriting skills - including skills in planning a message strategy, writing creatively, writing to meet a client brief, and writing to target an audience.
2. Art directing skills - including skills in planning and managing the visual side of a creative campaign, and working with and briefing producers
3. Skills needed to plan and direct creative content in different contexts, including an understanding of audience research and testing
4. An understanding of the relationships between words and images and the skills required to manipulate those relationships
5. An understanding of the techniques involved in testing advertisements, drawing on audience responses and contemporary advertising theory.

Content

This unit covers the following:
- The roles of copywriters and art directors
- Understanding and measuring audience involvement
- Developing and implementing the message strategy
- Developing advertising copy
- Developing advertising imagery
- Design and aesthetic issues for art directors
- Understanding and using audience research
- Evaluating ad campaigns
- Advertising in non-product environments

Approaches to Teaching and Learning

The unit will combine lectures, seminars, and workshops to develop practical skills in creative advertising. Guest lecturers from industry will discuss current case studies and work experiences. You will participate in group creative idea generation sessions, critiques of contemporary advertising and peer review of creative work. Case studies will examine a wide range of advertising campaigns, including campaigns to sell products, corporate reputations, and not-for-profit organisations.

Assessment

LATE ASSIGNMENTS
An assignment submitted after the due date without an approved extension will not be marked. If you are unable to complete your assignment on time, you should submit on time whatever work you have done.

Faculty Assessment Information
To access complete Creative Industries Faculty Assessment Information please refer to the Blackboard site for this unit.FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT
You will receive formative feedback on your progress in this unit during tutorials and discussions throughout the semester. Weight: 0%

Assessment name: Concept & Copy Exercises
Description: (Formative and Summative)
Exercises in developing advertising concepts and copy. Five exercises - three developed in advance and brought to class for discussion, two written to a deadline during class time.
Relates to objectives: 1, 2, 4, 5
Weight: 40%
Internal or external: Internal
Group or individual: Individual
Due date: Weeks 3 to 9

Assessment name: Advert Campaign & Presentation
Description: (Formative and Summative)

Identify an advertising opportunity for a client of your own choosing. Develop a Creative Brief to deliver a minimum of three executions as part of an integrated creative campaign. You will need to provide a Creative Strategy for the campaign and a Creative Rationale for each of the executions developed. You will present your Creative Strategy as a pitch to the class showcasing your final executions.

• Print, Outdoor and Direct Marketing executions should be developed to mock-up stage;


• Digital, Television & Radio executions should be developed as complete scripts, storyboards and image boards.

A minimum of six quality references are required as part of the written assessment.

Presentation: 5 to 7 minutes, worth 15% due in Week 12.
Written: 2000 words, worth 45% due in Week 13.

NB It is an academic requirement that you cannot recycle assignments and therefore you must base this campaign on a different product/service than what you are doing for other subjects/units.
Relates to objectives: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Weight: 60%
Internal or external: Internal
Group or individual: Individual
Due date: Weeks 12 and 13

Academic Honesty

QUT is committed to maintaining high academic standards to protect the value of its qualifications. To assist you in assuring the academic integrity of your assessment you are encouraged to make use of the support materials and services available to help you consider and check your assessment items. Important information about the university's approach to academic integrity of assessment is on your unit Blackboard site.

A breach of academic integrity is regarded as Student Misconduct and can lead to the imposition of penalties.

Resource materials

Required Text

Felton, G. (2006). Advertising concept and copy. (2nd Edn.) NY, London: W. W. Norton and Company.

Landa, Robin (2004). Advertising by design: creating visual communication with graphic impact. Hoboken : J. Wiley & Sons, 2004.

Recommended References

Ward Burton, Philip (1999). Advertising copywriting. McGraw Hill/Irwin.

Felton, G. (1994). Advertising concept and copy. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall.

Jewler, J. & Drewniany, B. (2001). Creative strategy in advertising (7th ed.). Belmont: Wadsworth.

Moriarty, S. (1991). Creative advertising: Theory & practice. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Schudson, M. (1993). Advertising, the uneasy persuasion (3rd ed.). London: Routledge.

Risk assessment statement

There are no out of the ordinary risks associated with this unit. No responsibility will be taken for absence incurred in other QUT course units as a result of this program.

Disclaimer - Offer of some units is subject to viability, and information in these Unit Outlines is subject to change prior to commencement of semester.

Last modified: 28-Mar-2013