This course is designed to provide you with knowledge and skills in digital media, e-marketing and marketing management. The rapid adoption of, and developments in, digital media provide marketers with new challenges to understand developments, applications and people’s responses. This course aims to provide a rich, varied and detailed postgraduate learning experience, offering unique insights into the increasingly integrated business environment covering e-marketing, e-business and commerce, e-technology and platforms, and media culture within social networks.

You will acquire analytical and critical skills by engaging with concepts, theories and practices, issues and research methodologies in contemporary digital marketing and media studies. This is complemented by a consultancy project which enables you to work with business clients and apply theory to a practical problem.

You can choose either to follow the Postgraduate Diploma route or complete a dissertation to achieve an MA award – both are universally recognised qualifications and have been rated highly by examiners.

• Most applicants will be expected to hold a first degree with a minimum 2.2 or equivalent and should have studied appropriate aspects of media studies.
• Alternatively, you may be admitted if you are able to show evidence of five years’ sufficient professional experience in marketing. Intermediate CIM qualifications may also qualify for exemption.
• IELTS 6.5 or TOEFL iBT score of 100 or more is the minimum entry qualification for those students whose first language is not English, or have not studied their first degree in English.

• Professional Development: This unit runs throughout the two taught semesters and is designed to equip you with the academic skills you need to study at postgraduate level, as well as to understand your own skills and interests so that you can choose the right option pathway.
• Integrated Marketing Communications: This unit critically analyses and evaluates the significance of communication within the marketing management environment. Emphasis is placed on the importance of a holistic approach to communications, the options available to the marketing manager in terms of message vehicle, and tools for evaluating the success of communication in both a marketing and business context.
• Digital Marketing Platforms: This unit examines the development of new marketing strategies, incorporating the new technologies and globalisation in the context of evolving hardware and software platforms which are driving digital marketing and social media. It also examines traditional analytical methods, stakeholder management, sustainability, branding relationships, implementation issues and marketing metrics.
• Digital Studio: This unit enables students who have experience in digital media to develop their expertise in the latest production programmes and techniques. You will be given an overview of production development relevant to different media production formats, and opportunities to develop specific skills in one of your areas of interest. A central focus of your work will be gaining the fundamental skills and principles involved in the creation of content to a high standard.
• You can choose to exit the programme with a Postgraduate Diploma or complete a further creative project or dissertation unit for the MA award.
• Research Methods and Creative Master’s Project: This unit involves studying the research methodologies and techniques required to undertake your own research on a specialised topic, prior to developing a creative project in close consultation with your tutor. The project links theory with commercial practice and enables you to engage with new trends in digital marketing and media.
• Research Methods and Master’s Dissertation: Alternatively, this unit is designed for students who prefer to take a more academic approach to their studies or who intend to study in future for an MPhil or PhD research degree. Following instruction on academic research methods and techniques, you will undertake your own research on a specialised topic, in close consultation your tutor, prior to developing a dissertation which examines existing or emerging theory and commercial practice.
• Option units: The course shares a number of option units with our postgraduate Marketing Management course: Academic English for Graduates; Contemporary Issues in Marketing; e-Marketing Management; Entrepreneurial Marketing Management; Relationship Marketing Management. These are examples of the units that have run most recently. Option units will be updated periodically to keep pace with modern marketing practices and will also be subject to demand. Additional option units include:
• Persuasion in the Media Age - Writing for Integrated Marketing Communications: This double-weighted unit offers the practical application of copywriting skills for commercial and awareness campaigns, as well as the theoretical perspectives and arguments associated with persuasion and influence. You are encouraged to bring your own experience of writing and apply it to new tasks.
• Services and Relationship Marketing Management: This unit critically analyses and evaluates the distinctive nature of marketing management within the service sector. Emphasis is placed on the importance of service quality, the service encounter and customer care, and the potential conflict with the operational aspects of services, together with an understanding of how relationship marketing can enhance long-term business profitability and growth.
• Marketing Consultancy Project: This unit lets you demonstrate, in a real world environment, what you have already learned about a specific aspect (or aspects) of marketing. It also enables you to develop useful consultancy skills.
• Global Retail Marketing Management: Retailing is becoming an important element of developed economies and this unit is designed to help you understand the key strategies involved in global retail operations, including logistics, location theory, e-marketing and e-tailing.
• Work experience: Placements are available for students during the summer vacation when there is an opportunity to work closely with a UK business and, by agreement, undertake research for the dissertation.