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Program Overview

The BSc (Hons) Digital Marketing Apprenticeship at London South Bank University is a part-time program designed to provide students with a comprehensive understanding of digital marketing within a social science context. The program aims to equip students with core marketing skills while also developing their research, analytical, and project management abilities. Graduates are eligible for professional registration with various organizations and can pursue careers in digital marketing, social media management, e-commerce, and other related fields.

Program Outline

Degree Overview:

The BSc (Hons) Digital Marketing Apprenticeship is a 3.5-year part-time program designed to equip students with a comprehensive understanding of digital marketing within a social science context. The program aims to provide students with core marketing skills such as consumer behavior, research, digital analytics, creative advertising, media planning, channel and customer experience management, and strategic product and brand management.

Objectives:

• Develop a deep understanding of the role of digital, data analytics, and measurement within the marketing function.
• Gain the skills necessary to build an effective integrated communications plan designed to achieve specified objectives.
• Develop an understanding of consumer behavior and the factors that influence it.
• Gain familiarity with and precise understanding of the most commonly used industry metrics.
• Develop the ability to assess customer satisfaction and service quality and formulate customer experience strategies.
• Explore the different roles played by advertising and media planners, and creative teams in setting and delivering above the line (ATL) advertising campaign objectives.
• Gain insight into the role of advertising in changing consumer behavior, the insight beneath the most potent creative appeals, and the media plan necessary to achieve advertising effectiveness.
• Understand the context in which traditional and digital media channels operate and how to work with the media.
• Analyze and audit product and brand portfolios using the tools and techniques necessary to develop the ability to make informed strategic decisions relating to new product development, brand creation, and portfolio management.
• Execute research using appropriate data collection and analysis techniques to write strategic plans incorporating digital direct and database marketing techniques.
• Develop, implement, and manage projects autonomously working to deadlines to prepare written and oral reports in which recommendations are underpinned and justified by data analysis.
• Apply both a traditional and digital strategic approach to contemporary marketing planning, integrating digital strategy, models, frameworks, and techniques throughout to achieve competitive advantage.
• Design and conduct work-based research which challenges – and contributes to – knowledge within the digital marketing field.
• Investigate the implications of theoretical knowledge on managerial practice and describe findings in the form of a dissertation.

Outline:

The program is structured across three years and includes seventeen core modules, culminating in a final digital marketing project.

Year 1:

• Principles of Marketing: Introduces marketing concepts and principles, explaining the elements of the marketing mix and applying introductory level marketing theory to practical examples.
Covers the basics of marketing analytics, including the impact of data in a contemporary digitalized society.
• The LSBU Discovery Project: Focuses on applying idea generation techniques and critical thinking to identify key issues, develop, evaluate, select, and communicate solutions to issues within a business project.
Covers key project management techniques and tools such as PID, WBS, Gantt Charts, CPA to a business project. Enables students to evaluate and reflect upon decisions and actions to respond more effectively to changes in the business environment. Develops effective and appropriate coaching techniques for successful team development and management skills, including awareness of personality differences and sensitivity to cultural norms.
• Marketing in a Digital World: Builds on the knowledge gained in Principles of Marketing, introducing the key aspects of theoretical and practical digital marketing.
Covers the digital elements in modern marketing techniques, essential for understanding today’s marketplace. Students gain an understanding of the tools and techniques necessary to develop a digital marketing tactical plan on which to base further digital development in their second and final years.
• Finance and the Economy: Explores how markets and competitors influence business decisions and performance.
Applies economic ideas, techniques, and theories to understand, analyze, and explain business situations. Covers various tools of financial analysis to assess business performance and make judgments about markets and the use of Excel to create graphs & tables for reporting purposes.
• Management and Organisations: Covers different approaches to organization and management within the context of the external business environment.
Applies the key principles of organizational behavior in the areas of organizational structure, organizational culture, organizational change, work motivation, job satisfaction, psychological contract, working in groups/teams, and leadership. Covers the key principles of human resource management in the key functional areas of employee resourcing, development, rewards, and relations.

Year 2:

• Integrated Contemporary Communications: Examines the role of marketing communications management within the business setting by looking at the wide range of techniques needed to plan, control, and evaluate marketing communications objectives.
Equips students with the skills necessary to build an effective integrated communications plan designed to achieve specified objectives. Examines how consumer behavior is influenced by individuals' socio-cultural and individual factors to develop an understanding of their impact on a cross range of buyers, both on-line and off-line.
• Market Research and Digital Analytics: Covers a range of digital and off-line data sources, common research designs, and analytical tools.
Develops familiarity with and precise understanding of the most commonly used industry metrics. Using data visualization software, students learn to create insight and deliver persuasive communication in a decision context.
• Managing the Customer Experience: Covers the importance of customer experience in today’s highly competitive markets.
Examines the integral nature of customer experience and customer service within the service sector and wider environment. Enables students to assess how customer satisfaction and service quality is created and critically evaluate customer experience initiatives which provide a basis for formulating customer experience strategies.
• Creative Advertising and Media Planning: Explores the different roles played by advertising and media planners, and creative teams in setting and delivering above the line (ATL) advertising campaign objectives.
Students gain insight into the role of advertising in changing consumer behavior, the insight beneath the most potent creative appeals, and the media plan necessary to achieve advertising effectiveness.
• Media Relations: Explores the role of journalists and non-traditional media influencers such as bloggers and vloggers, how to sell in stories and craft appropriate content, about the importance of newsworthiness, and examines the differing agendas of media channels.

Year 3:

• Managing Products and Brands: Covers practical and theoretical concepts related to product and brand management.
Students analyze and audit product and brand portfolios using the tools and techniques necessary to develop their ability to make informed strategic decisions relating to new product development, brand creation, and portfolio management.
• Strategic Market Channels: Covers the key concepts and practices relating to distribution and the strategic supply that underpin effective channel management.
Students are exposed to the analytical tools and techniques used to evaluate market channels within the context of the digital and omnichannel environment. Examines a variety of factors that determine the efficiency of market channels in meeting customer demand which provides a source of competitive advantage and deliver commercial results to the business.
• Marketing and Digital Strategy and Planning: Covers applying academic research methodologies for digital and direct strategy formulation and how to conceptualise a research problem contextualized within the literature; design and plan a methodology to meet the defined research objectives, collect and synthesize data to develop theoretical and managerial implications.
Enables students to execute research using appropriate data collection and analysis techniques to write strategic plans incorporating digital direct and database marketing techniques.
• Contemporary Issues in Digital Marketing: Enables students to apply both a traditional and digital strategic approach to contemporary marketing planning, integrating digital strategy, models, frameworks, and techniques throughout to achieve competitive advantage.
The focus is on marketing futures, industry and technological change, convergence of media, and the challenges that these issues present for (digital) marketing practitioners.
• The Digital Marketing Project: This two-semester project allows students to explore an area of digital marketing of their choice in more depth.
Students design and conduct work-based research which challenges – and contributes to – knowledge within the digital marketing field. With the guidance of a supervisor, students manage their own learning as they investigate the implications of theoretical knowledge on managerial practice and describe their findings in the form of a dissertation. This work feeds directly into the apprenticeship End-Point-Assessment (EPA): its findings and recommendations will form the basis of the report and interview to enable successful completion of the Digital Marketer Degree Apprenticeship.

Assessment:

The program utilizes a variety of assessment methods, including:

• Formative and Summative Assessments: These assessments are integrated throughout each module to monitor student progress and provide feedback.
• Case Studies: Students apply their knowledge and skills to real-world business scenarios.
• Live Case Studies: Students work with practitioners to analyze and solve real-world marketing problems.
• Presentations: Students present their findings and recommendations to their peers and instructors.
• Reports: Students write detailed reports on their research and projects.
• Dissertation: Students complete a final dissertation based on their work-based research project.
• End-Point-Assessment (EPA): This assessment comprises two parts:
• Part 1:
Reflective report on the digital marketing work-based project (2,000 words) and presentation of the report (30 minutes).
• Part 2: Interview covering the digital marketing work-based project and prior reflective report (1 hour and 15 minutes +/- 10%).
• Apprentice E-Portfolio: Students are required to document their learning and development throughout the program, including their academic work and workplace experiences.

Teaching:

• Lectures: Deliver key topic areas across the academic levels.
• Guest Speakers: Industry and academic experts bring specialist knowledge into the classroom.
• Interactive Seminars and Workshops: Support lectures with a strong focus on small group activities to encourage active participation, develop peer learning, and the sharing of knowledge and support amongst the diverse student body.
• In-Class Debate: Encourages the sharing of ideas amongst peers and the evaluation of opinions within a diverse student body to enable development and evaluation of logical argument.
• Personal Tutoring: Students are allocated a personal tutor who is available for 1:1 support and facilitates group personal tutoring sessions designed to enhance academic and personal development.
Graduates are also recognized for entry onto the register of IT technicians, confirming SFIA level 3 professional competence.

Potential Career Paths:

• Digital Marketing Executive/Officer
• Digital Marketing Account Manager
• Digital and Social Media Executive
• Digital Marketing Analyst
• Digital Marketing Campaign Manager
• Online and Digital Marketing Lead
• Online and E-commerce Marketing Specialist
• Social Media Specialist
• Content Marketing Executive
• Pay Per Click Analyst
• Search Engine Optimisation Executive
• Display Advertising Executive
• Digital Producer
• Programmatic Executive

Other:

• The program is accredited by the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM).
• LSBU is University of the Year for Graduate Employment (The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2018, 2019).
• Students have access to the Employability Service, which provides support with career development, job searching, and networking.
• The course enjoys strong real-world applications through guest speakers, business insights, graduate start-up and entrepreneur schemes, and live case studies.
• LSBU Business School is a member institution of the Business Graduates Association (BGA), which offers students access to a range of tools and resources designed to support their professional and personal development.