Digital Marketing and Advertising BSc (Hons)
- Business, management and marketing
- Undergraduate
Want to build a career in digital marketing or advertising? Kingston’s Digital Marketing and Advertising BSc combines broad marketing knowledge with specialist expertise in digital marketing, advertising, creativity, analytics and AI. You’ll put your learning into practice through live briefs and industry-focused projects, while developing the strategic, creative, digital and commercial skills to explore a wide range of careers.
Please note: this course used to be called Marketing and Advertising BSc (Hons).
What is a Digital Marketing and Advertising degree?
Dreaming about a fast-paced career in the dynamic world of marketing or advertising?
Digital marketing is about using digital channels, technologies, data and insight to understand and connect with audiences - from search, social media and content to digital advertising, analytics and emerging technologies such as AI. Advertising focuses on developing creative communications and paid campaigns that reach and influence particular audiences.
A Digital Marketing and Advertising degree brings these areas together with the wider principles of marketing. At Kingston, you’ll learn how organisations understand their audiences, develop marketing strategies, create campaigns and use digital tools, data and analytics to understand and improve performance.
The course combines creative thinking with strategy, commercial understanding and analytics. You’ll also explore digital marketing, consumer behaviour, market research, brand management, marketing communications and the growing role of data and AI in marketing.
What will you gain?
You’ll learn to approach digital marketing and advertising from both creative and analytical perspectives – developing ideas and campaigns while using research, data and insight to support your decisions. Live briefs, industry projects and practical learning will give you opportunities to apply what you learn to genuine marketing challenges.
Where could it take you?
The degree can prepare you for a wide range of careers in marketing and advertising, including areas such as digital marketing, marketing communications, brand management, market research, marketing analytics, and content and creative marketing.
At a glance
- Three years full-time, with the option to add a professional placement year, study abroad or combine the two.
- Build broad marketing knowledge alongside specialist expertise in digital marketing and advertising.
- Study on a course accredited by the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM), with the opportunity to work towards an additional professional CIM qualification alongside your degree.
- Study at AACSB-accredited Kingston Business School.
- Benefit from Kingston’s proximity to central London and its marketing, advertising and creative industries.
Having the opportunity to do a placement within my 3-year degree has prepared me for what a real working environment is like. After I graduate I will know more of what to expect and be more familiar with the expectations of a workplace.
CIM accreditation – what it means for you
This course is accredited by the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM), giving you the opportunity to work towards an additional professional qualification alongside your degree.
Through the CIM Accredited Degree Programme, you can work towards the CIM Level 4 Certificate in Professional & Digital Marketing. Because of the exemptions built into the degree, you only need to complete two CIM modules:
1. SEO
2. Social Media Marketing
Each module is assessed through a CIM online assessment.
Kingston Business School also provides free preparation workshops for both modules, usually during your final year, to help you get ready for the CIM assessments.
Why choose this course
Digital marketing and advertising bring together creativity, strategy, technology and data. At Kingston, you’ll build a broad understanding of marketing while developing specialist expertise in digital marketing and advertising - exploring both the thinking behind effective campaigns and the creative work that brings them to life.
You’ll learn how organisations understand audiences, develop marketing strategies and create campaigns, while exploring how digital channels, data, technology and AI are changing the way brands connect with customers.
- Build expertise across digital marketing and advertising. Develop a strong foundation in marketing while building specialist knowledge in digital marketing, advertising, analytics, creative strategy and campaign development. You’ll explore how organisations reach audiences across digital channels and how data, technology and AI are reshaping marketing practice.
- Develop your creative confidence. The Creativity in Digital Marketing and Advertising module gives you space to develop ideas, explore creative strategy and produce work for your portfolio. The module was introduced partly in response to student feedback.
- Learn from people working in the industry. Guest speakers, practitioner sessions, live briefs and industry projects give you the chance to hear directly from marketing and advertising professionals. One final-year module has previously featured five industry guest speakers in a single year, including people from leading London agencies.
- Study close to one of the world’s major creative industries. Kingston’s location near central London helps connect you with professionals working across marketing, advertising and the wider creative sector.
The Complete University Guide 2027 ranks us No.2 in London for graduate outcomes.
Kingston Business School accreditation
Kingston Business School is AACSB-accredited (Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business) – an international recognition held by just 6% of business schools worldwide. It means you’ll study at a business school whose education has been assessed against internationally recognised standards for quality and continuous improvement.
Ready for business
At Kingston Business School, we believe that professional success is shaped by honing your personal capacity and skillset, supported by the academic framework of knowledge. Through vocationally rich, employer-engaged and research-informed courses, we work alongside our students to help them meet personal goals and career ambitions.
Course overview
See how digital marketing and advertising work in practice
Digital marketing and advertising are about more than coming up with a good idea. You need to understand your audience, make strategic decisions, develop creative work and know whether what you’re doing is working.
On this course, you’ll explore all of those sides of marketing. You’ll learn how organisations understand customers, develop marketing strategies, create advertising and communications, and use research, data and analytics to make better decisions.
Work on genuine marketing challenges
You won’t only learn through fictional case studies. Live briefs and industry projects give you the chance to apply what you’re learning to challenges faced by real organisations.
Previous Market Research students have worked on a live brief connected with Adobe. Students have also worked with an SME specialising in business intelligence and marketing analytics, looking at how its proposition could evolve as generative AI changes what its clients can do for themselves.
Make decisions and see what happens
You’ll use Marketplace Simulations to run the marketing function of a simulated company over eight rounds. You’ll make decisions about areas such as products, pricing and sales, see the results and adapt your strategy as the business develops.
The simulation contributes to your assessment, giving you the chance to put marketing strategy into practice and see the impact of the decisions you make.
Work beyond traditional marketing teams
You’ll also have opportunities to apply your marketing knowledge alongside students from other disciplines. In one cross-disciplinary project, Digital Marketing and Advertising students work with Pharmaceutical Science students on the launch of a new product concept, bringing together different areas of expertise in a client-and-agency style project.
Course content
What you will study
You’ll build your knowledge of digital marketing and advertising step by step, combining creative thinking with strategy, research, data and digital marketing.
As you progress, you’ll move from the foundations of digital marketing and advertising into more applied work involving analytics, AI, market research, behavioural insight, campaign development and strategic decision-making. In your final year, you’ll explore digital marketing in greater depth and bring together your learning through brand, communications and marketing project work.
Foundation year: Business
Not quite ready to start Year 1 of your BSc (Hons) degree?
Our foundation year can help you build the skills, knowledge and confidence you need to progress to the first year of your degree.
The foundation year in business is part of a four-year degree and is taught at Kingston College, close to Kingston University’s Penrhyn Road campus. You’ll explore topics including professional skills, numerical concepts, business IT, marketing, customer care and business law.
Year 1
In your first year, you’ll build a strong foundation in marketing and start to explore how data, creativity and digital tools support marketing decisions and communications.
You’ll look at the principles behind marketing and its role in modern business, while learning how marketing data is gathered, managed, analysed and presented using digital tools. You’ll also develop your creative thinking through digital marketing and advertising, with opportunities to produce work for your portfolio.
Alongside this, you’ll start developing the professional skills and marketing mindset that will support you throughout the course.
Core modules
Year 2
In Year 2, you’ll start applying your knowledge to more complex marketing and advertising decisions.
You’ll explore how organisations develop and implement marketing strategies, how advertising campaigns are planned and evaluated, and how consumers buy, use and respond to products and marketing activity. You’ll also develop your understanding of market research and behavioural insight.
Data, analytics and AI become increasingly important too, as you look at how technology can be used to analyse marketing challenges and improve decision-making.
A computerised marketing simulation will give you the chance to test your decisions, see the results and adapt your strategy as the scenario develops.
Core modules
Optional year
You have the option to take an additional year to study abroad or undertake a year-long work placement – or even combine the two.
It’s a chance to experience marketing and business in a different setting, build your confidence and gain experience that can help you make more informed choices about where you want your career to take you.
Professional placement year
You can add a professional placement year between Year 2 and your final year.
During your placement, you’ll have the chance to apply what you’ve learned in a relevant professional setting, gain substantial workplace experience, build contacts and strengthen your CV before you graduate.
Final year
In your final year, you’ll deepen your understanding of digital marketing, exploring how brands create value and manage customer experience in a changing digital landscape.
You’ll study contemporary digital marketing communications, including social media, search, mobile, content marketing and analytics, while looking more closely at brand management, buyer behaviour and integrated marketing communications.
You’ll also complete a Marketing Project, bringing together the knowledge and skills you’ve developed across the course. You can choose a research-based or practice-oriented project, giving you the chance to explore a marketing topic in depth and apply your learning more independently.
Core modules
Skills you will develop
Digital marketing and advertising bring together creativity, analysis and clear communication. At Kingston, you’ll build these skills through live briefs, presentations, collaborative projects, classroom activities and assessment, giving you repeated opportunities to apply what you’re learning and grow in confidence as you progress through the course.
You’ll develop:
- Critical thinking and problem solving
- Digital marketing, analytics and AI skills
- Communication and presentation skills
- Creative thinking
- Research and evidence-based decision-making
- Adaptability and resilience
- Collaboration and working with others
- Confidence in developing and presenting your ideas
You’ll build these skills progressively throughout the degree, learning how to analyse genuine marketing and business challenges, develop recommendations and communicate your thinking clearly to different audiences.
Digital marketing, advertising and AI
Digital marketing moves quickly, so you’ll explore the tools, technologies and data shaping current practice.
You’ll be introduced to areas including programmatic advertising, Google Ads, Bing Ads and paid social advertising. You’ll also use Google Analytics 4 to understand customer journeys and conversions, and explore attribution modelling, SEO and keyword research using SEMrush.
You’ll use Tableau, Looker Studio and Excel to analyse performance and build dashboards. AI is part of the course too, including practical use of Microsoft Copilot and discussion of tools such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and NotebookLM, with a focus on prompting, evaluation and responsible use.
Careers with a Digital Marketing and Advertising degree
There are lots of directions you could take with a Digital Marketing and Advertising degree. You might be drawn to the creative side of advertising, want to work with brands and audiences, or prefer the more analytical side of marketing, research and data.
Because the course gives you a broad grounding in marketing alongside more specialist experience in digital marketing and advertising, you’ll have the chance to explore different areas and find out where your strengths and interests lie.
Placement year and study abroad
Between your second year and final year, you can choose to undertake a year-long professional placement, study abroad or even do both!
Professional placements are paid, giving you the opportunity to gain industry experience while earning a salary.
You can add a professional placement year even if you didn’t originally apply for the course with an integrated placement.
We have more than 50 partner universities worldwide – you could study in destinations including Australia, Canada, China, New Zealand, South Korea, the Caribbean and the USA, as well as countries across Europe.
When you work or study abroad you get to:
- Apply your learning in new settings
- Broaden your outlook and build international connections.
- Develop valuable skills such as adaptability, independence and problem-solving.
Placements really give students the opportunity to grow, ask questions and gain feedback. It puts you in a much better position when finishing university.
Work like a marketing agency
One of the more distinctive parts of the course is the chance to work across disciplines and experience what a client–agency relationship can feel like in practice.
You’ll work with Pharmaceutical Science students who develop a new product concept and create a product design brief. Your role is to act as the marketing agency: understand the product, think about the audience and develop a marketing communications campaign for its launch.
You’ll meet your Pharmaceutical Science ‘clients’, present your recommendations and respond to their questions and feedback. You’ll then bring your thinking together in an individual Marketing Communications Plan, alongside reflection on how you worked with your agency team and client.
It’s a chance to practise the kind of skills that are difficult to build through theory alone: interpreting a brief, working with people who have different expertise, adapting your ideas, presenting your thinking and responding to client feedback.
One of the most interesting aspects of the project was the opportunity to bounce ideas off each other and learn from students with a completely different mindset and skills.
The Kingston Business School experience
Hear from our graduates as they reflect on their studies, share the skills they developed, and discuss how Kingston Business School prepared them for their future careers.
Future Skills
Our Future Skills programme is embedded within all our undergraduate courses and throughout the whole Kingston experience. These skills will help you to become a future-proof graduate by equipping you with the skills most valued by employers, such as problem-solving, digital competency and adaptability.
As you progress through your degree, you'll learn to navigate, explore and apply these graduate skills. You’ll also understand how to demonstrate and articulate to employers how these future skills give you the edge.
Teaching and assessment
Scheduled learning and teaching on this course includes timetabled activities including lectures, seminars and small group tutorials.
How to apply
For most of our undergraduate courses, you apply online through the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS). You should submit your UCAS application between the beginning of September before you come to university and mid-January if you're a UK or EU applicant.
How to apply for undergraduate courses (UK and EU students)
International students
Are you an international student? Have you decided Kingston is the place for you? If so, you can apply for this course directly, rather than having to go through UCAS.
Key features
Future Skills
We don’t just teach you a subject – we prepare you for career success in a fast-changing world.
Whichever course you take at Kingston, you’ll master the Future Skills employers are looking for.
Read about how Future Skills will benefit your studies
Adobe Creative Campus
As a Kingston student, you’ll have access to Adobe Creative Campus, giving you free use of industry-standard creative tools like Photoshop, Illustrator and Premiere Pro.
You’ll be supported to build your digital and creative skills, whatever your course or experience level.
Find out the advantages of Adobe Creative Campus
TEF Gold
We're rated Gold in the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF), recognising our outstanding teaching, student experience and graduate outcomes.
This reflects our commitment to helping every student at Kingston achieve their goals.
Fees and funding
Additional course costs
Some courses may require additional costs beyond tuition fees. When planning your studies, you’ll want to consider tuition fees, living costs, and any extra costs that might relate to your area of study.
Your tuition fees include costs for teaching, assessment and university facilities. So your access to libraries, shared IT resources and various student support services are all covered. Accommodation and general living expenses are not covered by these fees.
Where applicable, additional expenses for your course may include:
Scholarships and bursaries
For students interested in studying this course at Kingston, there are several opportunities to seek funding support.
What our students and graduates say
The word that best describes this course is ‘entrepreneurial' because a lot of the work you will do allows you to think freely and explore ideas you're passionate about. The lecturers are always open to helping you with side projects and at Kingston there are plenty of opportunities. You will come across Bright Ideas and The Pitch from CIM – definitely enter these when you hear about them.
I chose this course because I wanted to ensure that I get some real-world experience under my belt before entering the job market.
What are the facilities like?
When you join Kingston University, you will have access to a wide range of facilities and resources designed to support your studies. Use the virtual tour below to explore some of the facilities and learning environments that students within this subject area may experience during their studies.
Who teaches this course?
You’ll be taught by people who are actively involved in the world of marketing – through research, industry experience and their work with businesses and organisations.
Their expertise includes areas such as artificial intelligence, branding and consumer behaviour, so you’ll be learning about the ideas shaping marketing now as well as the theory behind them.
Many of your lecturers have also worked in industry, which means they can bring real examples into the classroom and help you see how marketing works in practice. You’ll get both sides of the picture: why marketing works, and how it’s applied in real organisations.
Life at Kingston
Student life
Being part of Kingston means joining a diverse community where you can connect with others, build confidence and shape your own university experience both on campus and beyond.
Read more about student life at Kingston University
KU Connect blog
Hear from our students, staff, alumni and partners as they share what it truly means to be part of Kingston University.
Explore the articles on our Kingston Connect blog
Chat to our students
Want an inside view? Chat with our current students to hear honest insights about studying, campus life and what it’s really like to be part of Kingston, helping you feel confident about your next step.
Chat to our student ambassadors
FAQs
Frequently-asked questions
Course changes and regulations
The information on this page reflects the currently intended course structure and module details. To improve your student experience and the quality of your degree, we may review and change the material information of this course. Find out more about course changes
Specifications for this course are published ahead of each academic year.
Regulations governing this course can be found on our website.
Key information
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