Advertising Fundaments (22205)
Degree/study:Bachelor's Degree of Advertising and Public Relations
Year: first
Term: first
Number of ECTS credits: 6 credits
Hours of studi dedication: 150 hours
Teaching language or languages: Spanish (Catalan and English in a complementary way).
Teaching Staff: José Fernández Cavia
1. Presentation of the subject
Advertising Fundaments is a general and introductory course to advertising theory and structure. Advertising plays an important role in our society, not only in economic and commercial terms, but also regarding sociology and, more specifically, the communication field.
It is a relatively new profession currently in a transformation and redefinition process. Its public impact is, nevertheless, very important, and as wide as the the number of disciplines professionals must turn to in order to build their theoretical foundations and day-to-day activities
2. Competences to be attained
General competences
§ Analysis capacity.
§ Critical appraisal of one's work and other's work.
§ Autonomous work.
§ Team work.
Specific competences
1. Understanding the role played by advertising in the consumer society.
2. Knowing the main theoretical approaches to the advertising phenomenon.
3. Understanding the relationship between marketing, brand and advertising communication.
4. Understanding the general development process of an advertising campaign.
5. Knowing the creativity's function in the advertising process.
6. Knowing the functional complementarity and mutual influence between media and advertising.
7. Identifying advertising's basic infrastructure.
8. Identifying the basic typology of companies related to commercial communication.
9. Identifying the basic typology of professionals dedicated to commercial communication.
10. Knowing the advertising regulatory framework.
11. Using the fundamental advertising terminology.
Acknowledging the main historical periods in commercial communication
3. Contents
Concepts and theories
1. Consumption and advertising.
2. Advertising theory.
3. Marketing.
4. The brand. Branding. Brand planning.
5. Marketing strategy and advertising strategy. Segmentation and positioning.
6. An advertising campaign process.
7. Creativity.
8. Advertising and media.
9. Advertising communication structure.
10. Advertising companies.
11. Advertising professionals.
12. Advertising activity regulation.
13. Advertising history.
14. New trends in advertising communication.
Procedures and skills
1. Advertising texts analysis.
2. Use of advertising terminology.
Assets and attitudes
1. Oral and written presentation skills.
2. Curiosity and constant research of learning sources.
Interest for advertising research.
4. Assessment
Taking into account that the approach of the Advertising Fundaments course is eminently theoretical, the final grade will be the average resulting of the three following grades:
a. Students' participation in class (20%).
b. A project about the activity of advertising companies and professionals. Students will work in groups. (30%).
c. A theory exam that will assess the knowledge acquired by the students, on the basis of the class presentations and the obligatory readings.
Should the students need to retake the course, they would have to take a written exam of the theory part.
5. Bibliography and teaching resources
5.1. Basic bibliography
SEGARRA, Toni (2009): Desde el otro lado del escaparate, Espasa, Madrid.
SOLANA, Daniel (2010): Postpublicidad, Double You, Barcelona.
5.2. Complementary bibliography
CARO, Antonio (2010): Comprender la publicidad. Trípodos, Barcelona.
FERNÁNDEZ CAVIA, José (2005): "Los formatos no convencionales y la transformación del negocio publicitario en televisión". Quaderns del CAC, nº 22, abril-diciembre de 2005, pp. 35-48.
FERNÁNDEZ GÓMEZ, Jorge David (ed.) (2005): Aproximación a la estructura de la publicidad. Comunicación Social, Sevilla.
MOLINÉ, Marçal (2000): La fuerza de la publicidad. McGraw-Hill, Madrid.
SÁNCHEZ, Joaquín y PINTADO, Teresa (2010): Nuevas tendencias en comunicación, ESIC, Madrid6. Metodology
The course implies obligatory attendance to the master classes where the professor will explain the basic theoretical knowledge students must take into account. Besides, they must work individually to solve the issues raised in class and work in teams to develop a project about advertising companies and professional profiles.