Course Description: BUS 180A – Advanced Advertising Practicum
This 3-credit course supports the efforts of the American Advertising Federation (AAF) Chapter at Mount Saint Mary’s University Los Angeles (“ADthenians”) in competing in the National Student Advertising Competition (NSAC). Students participate in a highly collaborative, agency-style learning environment focused on the development of a fully integrated advertising and marketing campaign based on a national client brief provided by AAF. This course serves as a pathway to BUS 190A and is designed for students seeking advanced experiential learning and professional preparation in advertising, marketing strategy, and creative campaign execution.
Through hands-on experiential learning, students engage in market research, strategic campaign development, creative concepting, media planning, public relations strategy, multimedia production, presentation development, and campaign execution. The course places a particularly strong emphasis on creative execution, including campaign storytelling, visual communication, multimedia asset development, presentation design, messaging strategy, and the creation of professional-quality advertising deliverables. Students contribute directly to the development of the official AAF Plans Book, multimedia presentation materials, and live competition presentation. The course emphasizes professional communication, leadership, collaboration, project management, and critical thinking within a real-world advertising agency framework.
As part of the course requirements, students are expected to actively participate in all phases of the AAF competition process, including campaign preparation, production activities, presentation development, practice sessions, and the live NSAC regional competition event. Participation may include serving as a live presenter, supporting presentation logistics, developing scripts and multimedia assets, conducting research, and contributing to final campaign deliverables.
The course is designed to strengthen students’ abilities in marketing research, advertising strategy, media evaluation, professional writing, creative development, and multimedia presentation skills while providing direct exposure to industry standards and professional competition experiences. Enrollment is subject to application and acceptance by the ADthenian faculty advisor.
BUS 180A may be repeated for up to 6 units. GE 6A when linked with PHO 111.