Course Outline

CMN226 Creative and Interactive Advertising

Course Coordinator:Melanie Fawcett (mfawcet1@usc.edu.au) School:School of Business and Creative Industries

2026Trimester 1

UniSC Sunshine Coast

UniSC Moreton Bay

Blended learning Most of your course is on campus but you may be able to do some components of this course online.

Online

Online You can do this course without coming onto campus, unless your program has specified a mandatory onsite requirement.

Please go to unisc.edu.au for up to date information on the
teaching sessions and campuses where this course is usually offered.

What is this course about?

Description

This course explores what makes creative advertising effective in both 'traditional' analog formats and in online digital and social media. Building on approaches based on broader behaviour change communication, and drawing on insights from consumer psychology and other marketing disciplines, the course explores the science and craft of creating advertising campaigns across different media. Workshops focus on wrangling text and pictures and honing core copywriting creative skills, culminating in the creation of a multi-channel integrated advertising campaign. 

How will this course be delivered?

Activity Hours Beginning Week Frequency
Blended learning
Learning materials – Interactive online learning activities. 1hr Week 1 12 times
Tutorial/Workshop 1 – Scheduled face to face workshops. 2hrs Week 1 10 times
Online
Learning materials – Interactive online learning activities. 1hr Week 1 12 times
Tutorial/Workshop 1 – Scheduled online workshops (Recorded). 2hrs Week 1 10 times

Course Topics

  • Persuasive communication techniques and their application in different media
  • Strategy and the integration of  advertising campaigns as part of organisation’s broader marketing operations
  • Identification of techniques (and metrics) of persuasive communication’s effectiveness in advertising and marketing more broadly
  • Theories of Integrated Marketing Communication
  • Copywriting as craft and science; explorations of creative techniques in copywriting to achieve persuasive effects across print, broadcast media, social and search
  • Theories of behaviour change in creative and interactive advertising; action-orientated advertising including AIDA models and their digital/social extensions
  • Multi-media cohesiveness and integration: advertising efficacy across mediums
  • Professional conventions of written communication

What level is this course?

200 Level (Developing)

Building on and expanding the scope of introductory knowledge and skills, developing breadth or depth and applying knowledge and skills in a new context. May require pre-requisites where discipline specific introductory knowledge or skills is necessary. Normally, undertaken in the second or third full-time year of an undergraduate programs.

What is the unit value of this course?

12 units

How does this course contribute to my learning?

Course Learning Outcomes On successful completion of this course, you should be able to... Graduate Qualities Completing these tasks successfully will contribute to you becoming...
1 Demonstrate understanding of current advertising practice Knowledgeable
2 Demonstrate skill and originality in copywriting Empowered
3 Undertake the analysis of persuasive techniques in different media Creative and critical thinker
4 Demonstrate the application of persuasive techniques in different media Knowledgeable
5 Communicate effectively in advertising industry formats, including groups Empowered

Am I eligible to enrol in this course?

Refer to the UniSC Glossary of terms for definitions of “pre-requisites, co-requisites and anti-requisites”.

Pre-requisites

Not applicable

Co-requisites

Not applicable

Anti-requisites

Not applicable

Specific assumed prior knowledge and skills (where applicable)

Not applicable

Microcredential Information

Not applicable

How am I going to be assessed?

Grading Scale

Standard Grading (GRD)

High Distinction (HD), Distinction (DN), Credit (CR), Pass (PS), Fail (FL).

Details of early feedback on progress

Early assessment feedback will be provided in weeks 3 and 4 of the trimester in the workshop, with a particular focus on Task 1. Students will be provided with opportunities to get their drafts/conceptual overviews of assignments reviewed, to ensure they understand the task and are addressing the criteria of the assessment.

Assessment tasks

Delivery mode Task No. Assessment Product Individual or Group Weighting % What is the duration / length? When should I submit? Where should I submit it?
All 1 Report Individual 20%
1000 words maximum
Week 4 Online Submission
All 2 Artefact - Creative, and Written Piece Individual 35%
1500 words maximum
Week 10 Online Submission
All 3 Artefact - Creative, and Written Piece Individual 45%
15-minute audiovisual presentation, in any medium (Video, recorded PowerPoint, Canva, Prezi) to be submitted together with a written rationale of no more than 1500 words. Additional details and format will be supplied in a Task Information Sheet supplied in class (which will include the required Creative Briefs for the task).
Week 12 Online Submission
All - Assessment Task 1:Analysis of advertising technique
Goal:
To develop and demonstrate your understanding of advertising techniques, and drawing on the Task information sheet provided in class, please find and deconstruct two recent Australian advertising campaigns/ads, one evaluated by you as creatively ineffective and one as creatively and rhetorically effective and persuasive. This task asks you to identify and detail the key creative characteristics of effective advertising communication, with regard to the overall branding and positioning of the product or service, and the assumed target audiences.
Product: Report
Authorship Statement:
Format:
The task requires you to demonstrate your ability to critique and identify characteristics of an advertising campaign's effectiveness and/or ineffectiveness, by unpacking what can be discerned about the branding strategy of the product or service, who the target audiences are, and, especially, by deconstructing the creative rhetorical techniques through which persuasive calls to action are made in chosen campaigns. Please see the supplied Task information for details are formatting and submission requirements.
Criteria:
No. Learning Outcome assessed
1
Application and justification of relevant theories, sources and research
1 3
2
Critique persuasive techniques in advertisements.
3
3
Identify and explain communication strengths and weaknesses in advertisements.
1 3 4
4
Application of academic conventions to written communication
5
Generic Skills:
Communication, Problem solving, Information literacy
All - Assessment Task 2:Copywriting Exercises
Goal:
To develop your knowledge of and skill in copywriting in different mediums, you will create and design high-impact print advertisements for a product/s or service/s specified in class (and shared via Creative Briefs in the Task Information Sheet), devising attention-attracting headlines, engaging body copy, and striking and appropriate images, fit for specified mediums.  You'll then adapt these print advertisements to specified online or social media channel focusing on more precise audience segmentation. Additionally, you will provide a commentary and rationale to explain your strategic and aesthetic choices and to critically examine your advertisements' call to action and potential efficacy.
Product: Artefact - Creative, and Written Piece
Authorship Statement:
Format:
The task requires you to demonstrate your ability to develop an effective advertisement from scratch, based on a marketing strategy created in course workshops, clear target audiences and showing understanding of consumer behaviour, branding theory, the AIDA model and its digital analogs and extensions, and the synergistic relationship between copy and images in different mediums, including interactive social media spaces.
Criteria:
No. Learning Outcome assessed
1
Show skill, creativity and originality in copywriting
2 4 5
2
Explain relevance of final copy to set task in the selected mediums.
1 4
3
Application of persuasive techniques in different mediums.
3 4
4
Demonstrate impact of final copy in the selected mediums.
2 4
5
Application of professional conventions to written communication.
5
Generic Skills:
Problem solving, Organisation, Applying technologies, Information literacy
All - Assessment Task 3:Integrated advertising campaign
Goal:
The task requires you to demonstrate your ability to play to the strengths -- and avoid the weakness -- of various digital and analog mediums, as you integrate across media to deliver an effective advertising campaign for a client. You will devise a synergistic, integrated, interactive creative advertising campaign across multiple mediums including digital mediums. You will share your developing skill and creativity in copywriting and be able to explain your creative approaches.
Product: Artefact - Creative, and Written Piece
Authorship Statement:
Format:
In a scripted audiovisual presentation of no longer than 15 minutes, you will share your understanding of the positioning of the product, overall target audience (and specific segmentation of that audience required), based on your development of a 'big creative idea' of your campaign. With a focus on integration and multi-media synergy, demonstrate how you combine 'traditional' analog advertising with digital interactivity, and, if required, both above-the-line and below-the-line elements, to achieve a specified set of campaign goals. In your accompanying rationale, you will provide explanations for your creative choices and overall strategic approach.
Criteria:
No. Learning Outcome assessed
1
Show skill, creativity and originality in copywriting.
1 2 4 5
2
Explain relevance of final copies to the set task in the selected mediums.
3 4
3
Application of persuasive techniques in different mediums.
2 4 5
4
Demonstrate impact of each advertisement to overall campaign in the selected mediums.
1 4
5
Application of professional conventions to written communication.
5
Generic Skills:
Communication, Problem solving, Organisation, Applying technologies

Directed study hours

A 12-unit course will have total of 150 learning hours which will include directed study hours (including online if required), self-directed learning and completion of assessable tasks. Student workload is calculated at 12.5 learning hours per one unit.

What resources do I need to undertake this course?

Please note: Course information, including specific information of recommended readings, learning activities, resources, weekly readings, etc. are available on the course Canvas site– Please log in as soon as possible.

Prescribed text(s) or course reader

There are no required/recommended resources for this course.

Specific requirements

Nil

How are risks managed in this course?

Health and safety risks for this course have been assessed as low. It is your responsibility to review course material, search online, discuss with lecturers and peers and understand the health and safety risks associated with your specific course of study and to familiarise yourself with the University’s general health and safety principles by reviewing the online induction training for students, and following the instructions of the University staff.

What administrative information is relevant to this course?

Assessment: Academic Integrity

Academic integrity is the ethical standard of university participation. It ensures that students graduate as a result of proving they are competent in their discipline. This is integral in maintaining the value of academic qualifications. Each industry has expectations and standards of the skills and knowledge within that discipline and these are reflected in assessment.

Academic integrity means that you do not engage in any activity that is considered to be academic fraud; including plagiarism, collusion or outsourcing any part of any assessment item to any other person. You are expected to be honest and ethical by completing all work yourself and indicating in your work which ideas and information were developed by you and which were taken from others. You cannot provide your assessment work to others. You are also expected to provide evidence of wide and critical reading, usually by using appropriate academic references.

In order to minimise incidents of academic fraud, this course may require that some of its assessment tasks, when submitted to Canvas, are electronically checked through Turnitin. This software allows for text comparisons to be made between your submitted assessment item and all other work to which Turnitin has access.

Assessment: Additional Requirements

Eligibility for Supplementary Assessment

Your eligibility for supplementary assessment in a course is dependent of the following conditions applying:
(a) The final mark is in the percentage range 47% to 49.4%; and
(b) The course is graded using the Standard Grading scale

Assessment: Submission penalties

Late submissions may be penalised up to and including the following maximum percentage of the assessment task’s identified value, with weekdays and weekends included in the calculation of days late:
(a) One day: deduct 5%;
(b) Two days: deduct 10%;
(c) Three days: deduct 20%;
(d) Four days: deduct 40%;
(e) Five days: deduct 60%;
(f) Six days: deduct 80%;
(g) Seven days: A result of zero is awarded for the assessment task.

The following penalties will apply for a late submission for an online examination:
Less than 15 minutes: No penalty
From 15 minutes to 30 minutes: 20% penalty
More than 30 minutes: 100% penalty

Links to relevant University policy and procedures

For more information on Academic Learning & Teaching categories including:

  • Assessment: Courses and Coursework Programs
  • Review of Assessment and Final Grades
  • Supplementary Assessment
  • Central Examinations
  • Deferred Examinations
  • Student Conduct
  • Students with a Disability

For more information, visit https://www.usc.edu.au/explore/policies-and-procedures#academic-learning-and-teaching

Student Charter

UniSC is committed to excellence in teaching, research and engagement in an environment that is inclusive, inspiring, safe and respectful. The Student Charter sets out what students can expect from the University, and what in turn is expected of students, to achieve these outcomes.

General Enquiries

For course-specific questions, contact your teaching staff or Course Coordinator.  

For other enquiries or to access support, please contact Student Central: