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University of Colorado Boulder

Designing Breakthrough Advertisements: Basics to Begin

University of Colorado Boulder via Coursera

Overview

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Designing Breakthrough Advertisements: Basics to Begin will teach you the skills to make breakthrough advertisements. In this course you will learn how to approach writing headlines and commercial scripts. We'll explore how to direct art and conquer page layouts. And we'll cover typefaces and visuals, so that you know how and when to employ them. All with the singular goal of crafting pieces of communication that will get your potential customers engaged and more likely to respond to your message. So if you're ready to do some advertising and make that investment in your business, then this is course for you. We’ll show you the best practices to make sure you're making the most effective advertisements you can make. After all, if you're taking the time to develop a marketing plan and a media placement strategy, shouldn't you also take the time to learn how to make an advertisement that won't get immediately ignored?

Syllabus

  • Designing Breakthrough Advertisements
    • You can think of advertising as the world’s 8th oldest profession, give or take. Humans have been creating advertisements since before we could read and write. How can something so old still be effective? We’ll look at the characterizes of effective advertisements and ineffective ones. We’ll look at the different kinds of advertisements and learn the strategies to make the right choice for communication you want to create. Most importantly, we’ll get you looking at advertisements not through the eyes of a consumer, but rather, through the eyes of designer. You don’t have to start from scratch, you can stand on the shoulders of techniques and practices that have worked in the past to make your advertisements work harder for you.
  • Copywriting Essentials
    • What is Copywriting? What do copywriters do? What makes a good headline? What makes good body copy? What’s involved with writing a script? Even if you never written that much before, you can be sure that you’ll be improved after this module. You'll get specific tips to make your advertising copy more readable, muscular and memorable.
  • Getting Started with Art Direction
    • The partner and companion to copywriting is art direction. After all, the majority of advertisements and commercials are works of communication designed to be seen. How does one approach the visual design of an advertisement? What are things to think about? What are the watch-outs to avoid? . If want to get more visually creative with the look of your advertisements, this is the module for you.
  • Using Visuals in Advertisements
    • Visuals appear in the majority of advertisements. How do you find them? What can you use? How should you think about them? It's everything you wanted to know about find, using, and improving the visuals you use in your advertisements.
  • End of Course Design Challenge
    • The Final Challenge: Imagine, Design, and Publish Your First Breakthrough Advertisement.

Taught by

Dan Ligon

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