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42Courses

Advertising Masters

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Three things you can genuinely count on.

A CPD-accredited Mini MBA.

Credibility you can verify, tied to real progress. Signed, dated, and easy to track.

Marked by humans, not bots.

You'll get your work reviewed by a real person, not a generic system, usually within 24 hours.

Personalised to your role.

The learning is reshaped around your day-to-day work, so you're ready to apply it from Monday.

About this course

'People hate advertising until they lose their cat.'- David Droga

If you're working on a brand, running a business, or you've ever had the panic of losing your cat, you'll want to understand advertising.

Nowadays it's tough to get noticed. Everyone's shouting, your audience's distracted, and there's no shortage of adverts that just miss the mark.

That's exactly why this course exists.

This certified programme is led by some of the most respected names in advertising, including Les Binet, Quinnton Harris, Mariana O'Kelly, Josy Paul, Vicky Maguire, David Lubars, Nils Leonard, Rory Sutherland, and more.

You'll dig into 100-plus award-winning case studies to spark ideas, plus research that's grounded in real evidence, so you can understand the fundamentals and turn them into stronger ads.

You'll pick up the core skills you need across the whole advertising journey, from strategy and coming up with concepts to behavioural science, and even how to pitch your ideas so people actually listen.

When you finish, you'll leave with a CPD-accredited certificate and a bunch of practical takeaways you can use straight away to level up your advertising.

Why You Should Learn With Us

There are loads of reasons. We'll try to keep it short, promise! First, time is precious. We know you're busy. So we built a learning platform that's fast to navigate and genuinely enjoyable to use. Each course is broken into bite-sized lessons, delivered by experienced practitioners, and backed by respected industry organisations. That way, you get the skills you need to move forward without getting bogged down. And yes, we mark select questions through live one-to-one support, so you're not just guessing. You'll also learn alongside thousands of other students who are working through the same material. Last thing, boring learning has no place here. These courses are designed to teach you, but also keep you engaged. So, what are you waiting for?

What you'll learn:

Build a solid base in copywriting and art direction that actually works
Learn how to shape your strategy from the ground up
Use practical tools and techniques to generate stronger ideas
Understand what makes advertising click, and why
Apply behavioural science so your ads influence people in the right ways

Who's it for

Designed with you in mind.

If you're a:

Writer, marketer, or anyone who wants to make advertising people respond to
Brand team member trying to protect and grow market share
Entrepreneur looking to build and strengthen your brand
Marketing professional who wants new, usable tactics
And yes, future Cannes Lions favourites!

A peek behind the curtain.

💡

Inside a lesson

Small lessons with a real story behind them, so it doesn't feel like you're being drilled. About 15 minutes each. You'll watch, write along with the narrative, and finish with a question to confirm the point really landed.

💡

AI personalisation

Built for your work and your goals. Tell us what you do and what you're trying to improve. Your lessons get rewritten with practical takeaways for your exact role. The core frameworks and data stay the same, but the examples become relevant to you.

💡

Real feedback

Support from a real person. Some questions are marked by members of our team, manually. If you want guidance, you'll get it. If you're stuck, we're also happy to jump on a call and talk it through.

💡

The certificate

A Mini MBA certificate you can actually show off. CPD-accredited, signed, dated, and trackable. Completion rates are over 80%, compared to an industry average that's usually around 10%.

42courses vs typical online courses.

Feature	42courses	Typical platform
Marking & feedback by real people	Within 24 hours	Auto-quiz only
Personalised by role & sector	AI rewrites every lesson	Same content for everyone
Taught by working practitioners	The people who wrote the book	Often academics or actors
Average completion rate	Over 80%	5 to 15% (industry average)
CPD-accredited Mini MBA certificate	Every course	Sometimes
30-day money back, no questions	If you aren't happy, we aren't	Usually a 7-day refund window

Questions you might be wondering about.

Roughly eight hours total. It's split into bite-sized lessons of around 15 minutes each. Most people finish in about two weeks. There's no fixed deadline though, and you can pause whenever life or work gets in the way.

Nope. We start with the basics and build from there. You'll get a clearer way to look at the topic, backed by fresh insights from some of the best thinkers in the space, whether you're brand new or you've been doing this for years and want a sharper edge.

Every lesson ends with a short question to check you've understood. In each course, some of those questions are marked by a real person. If you need a nudge, someone on our team replies with notes to help you get to the right place. And if you ever want to talk things through, you can always book a quick call.

You've got 30 days after signing up to request a full refund. No hassle, no awkward exit chat, no long email back-and-forth. We respond within 24 hours for refund requests, often quicker. If you're not happy, we won't pretend you are.

The books give you the theory. This course focuses on putting it into practice, with the content adapted to your role and what you're working toward, so you finish with practical takeaways for every single lesson.

Yes. People have used it in tech, healthcare, retail, banking, government, charities, and education. Your lessons are personalised to your role and goals, so the examples and exercises shift to match your real-world context.

Usually yes. Most learning and development budgets can cover this without much trouble. If you need it, we can provide a VAT-friendly invoice. Just email groundcontrol@42courses.com . For teams of 10 or more learners, take a look at Team plans .

You'll get a CPD-accredited certificate that's recognised across the UK and internationally for continuing professional development. It's personalised with your name, plus it's signed, dated, and trackable. Add it to LinkedIn, your CV, a performance review, your fridge. Whatever works.

Tools You'll Explore

Piyush Pandey - Global CCO, Ogilvy

Piyush Pandey serves as Chief Creative Officer Worldwide and Executive Chairman at Ogilvy India. He's also been recognised as one of the most influential voices in Indian advertising, with over 400 ad awards to his name across the globe.

Resh Sidhu - Global Director of Arcadia Creative Studio, Snap Inc

Resh Sidhu is a multi-award-winning Global Director at Arcadia Creative Studio within Snapchat, based in New York. He leads the augmented reality business and manages a worldwide team of AR specialists.

Rory Sutherland

Rory Sutherland is widely seen as one of the biggest thinkers in advertising and behavioural science. He's President Emeritus of Ogilvy Consulting, where he helped set up the firm's behavioural science offering. He's also the bestselling author of Alchemy: The Surprising Power of Ideas That Don't Make Sense. After joining Ogilvy in 1988 as a graduate trainee, Rory spent more than twenty years as a copywriter and creative director before turning his attention to a bigger question: why do people actually choose what they choose? In short, his view is that humans are wonderfully irrational, and that's not a flaw, it's part of how we work. The behavioural science practice he helped build looks for small psychological shifts that lead to big changes in behaviour. His TED talks, including 'Life Lessons from an Ad Man', have been watched millions of times, making him one of TED's most popular marketing speakers. He writes The Wiki Man column for The Spectator, has served as a former President of the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising, and created Nudgestock, a festival focused on behavioural science and creativity that's often described as 'Glastonbury for nerds'. Along with Alchemy, his other books include The Wiki Man and Transport for Humans, co-authored with Pete Dyson. A lot of his work overlaps on the same themes: logic can be overrated, a 'bad idea' can flip into a better one, and the biggest improvements come less from doing more and more from thinking differently. Rory lives in Kent, England, and he's still one of advertising's most quotable champions of the unexpected.

Josy Paul

Josy Paul is Chairman and Chief Creative Officer at BBDO India. He launched BBDO India in 2008 from the backseat of his car. In 2016, the Indian Advertising Association named him Creative Agency Head of the Year. Campaign Magazine also recognised him as 'Creative Person of the Year' for India and South Asia across multiple years. The Economic Times has ranked him among the most influential people in Indian advertising.

Les Binet - Head of Effectiveness, adam&eveDDB

Les Binet heads Effectiveness at adam&eveDDB and is well known for his work in econometrics. He's picked up more effectiveness awards than anyone else in the UK. In 2014, he received the IPA President's Medal, which is the organisation's highest honour.

Quinnton Harris - Co-founder & CEO at Retrospect

Quinnton Harris is a co-founder and CEO of Retrospect, a black-owned studio that blends creative storytelling with technology, with a focus on design and marketing. Their goal is to help brands become more culturally connected, more inclusive, and fairer. His career covers digital advertising, early-stage tech companies, and digital experience design. He's an MIT graduate and has built a non-traditional path as both a creative storyteller and a technologist, working as a creative leader at Digitas, and also supporting brands including Procter & Gamble. He also helped lead startups including Walker & Company Brands (makers of Bevel), Blavity, and Publicis Sapient.

Vicki Maguire - Chief Creative Officer, Havas

Vicki Maguire started out in fashion, then made the switch into advertising. She joined Grey London in 2009 and worked on campaigns for clients such as the British Heart Foundation, Lucozade, and Marks & Spencer. Today, she's Chief Creative Officer at Havas London. She's also a strong advocate for diversity, and helped establish the Creative Circle Foundation, supporting people from varied backgrounds who want to break into advertising.

$Magnus H'ltke - Chief Strategy Officer, HeimatTBWA\$

Magnus H'ltke - Chief Strategy Officer, HeimatTBWA\

Magnus H'ltke is based in Germany and is a multi-award-winning Chief Strategy Officer at HeimatTBWA\, with experience across multiple brands. He's previously worked at places like Jung von Matt and Ogilvy, bringing that mix of strategy and creativity to his current role.

Rob Reilly - Chief Creative Officer, WPP

Rob Reilly is a highly decorated creative and has chaired several major industry award shows, including the Cannes LIONS Titanium. He's involved with The One Club Board, the Facebook Council, and he co-leads the Ad Council Review Committee. He's also the captain of his 'old-man' soccer team.

Tara Austin - Behavioural and Brand Strategist, Ogilvy

Tara Austin is a lead behavioural consultant at Ogilvy. With a decade of brand strategy experience gained at Publicis and Ogilvy, she feels lucky to have been part of the shift toward applied behavioural science, as one of the founding members of Ogilvy's behavioural division.

Dan Bennett - Co-founder of Ogilvy's Behavioural Science division

Dan Bennett trained as a psychologist and is Ogilvy Change's first 'Choice Architect'. His work has appeared in scientific journals, and he's applied behavioural economics across more than 50 leading global brands.

Vikki Ross - Copy Chief | Brand & TOV Consultant

For more than 24 years, Vikki Ross has been writing copy for major brands around the world. She focuses on branding and tone of voice, helping businesses figure out how to sound like themselves. She joined Sky as Head of Copy to build the brand's personality and tone of voice. You can also find her as @VikkiRossWrites on Twitter, where she created #copywritersunite and @copynights to connect copywriters.

Jess Vice - Strategy Director, Struck

Jess Vice is a UX Strategist and a systems thinker who's good at building teams and untangling big, messy experiences. She's been exploring how to improve website experiences for users for years, and she genuinely enjoys seeing how other teams make the web better. Outside of work, you might find her rock climbing, reading, or exploring the western US.

Natasher Beecher - Creative Director, Syneos Health

Natasher has worked in creative communications for more than 15 years, across roles like writer, editor, radio presenter, and marketeer. Her work has won awards, and she's spent years shaping concepts and multi-channel campaigns for top healthcare advertising agencies worldwide, including DDB Remedy, Langland, Ogilvy Health, Pollen Health, and now Syneos Health.

Nils Leonard - Founder, Uncommon Creative Studio

Nils has spent more than 18 years in advertising and design, working with many of the most well-known and influential agencies in London. As Chief Creative Officer at Grey LDN, he led the agency's most profitable and award-heavy years across its 52-year history, and became one of the youngest chairmen globally. In the past year, he's also led the launch of Halo, an ethical capsule coffee brand, which has drawn a lot of attention. Halo was even reviewed by GQ Magazine, described as 'the coffee keeping Nespresso ambassador George Clooney awake at night.' More recently, Nils co-founded Uncommon Creative Studio with Lucy Jameson and Natalie Graeme. Uncommon builds brands that people are genuinely happy to see exist.

Maximilian Florian Sch'ngen - Global Creative Lead, Mediaplus Group

Maximilian leads creative operations across 17 markets for Mediaplus Group, with a focus on driving impact for clients through creativity, innovation, and smart integration. He studied in the UK, earning a BSc in Statistics, a BA in Marketing, and a Master in International Business. He began his career in Hamburg, moving through different roles from suit to strategist to creative, and later combining it all as a member of the Creative Board and Global Creative Strategist at Serviceplan Group. There, he helped reposition global brands and worked across industries, from automotive to FMCG and telecommunications.

Maurice Wangalachi - Creative Director, Ogilvy Africa

Maurice Wangalachi, nicknamed 'Rizz', is a highly recognised creative advertising veteran with over two decades of experience in creative storytelling across agency environments. He's a creative and brand communications specialist with strong Pan-African experience, especially across East Africa. Drawing on Africa's rich and varied cultural landscape, he keeps creating work that's fresh, meaningful, and inclusive, which has led to some standout accomplishments, including the development of one of the region's most celebrated campaigns.

David Lubars - Chairman & Chief Creative Officer at BBDO

David Lubars is Chief Creative Officer at BBDO Worldwide and Chairman of BBDO North America. He has won more than 100 Cannes Lions. A series of short films he helped create for BMW achieved a first-of-its-kind Titanium win at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity and also sits in the Museum of Modern Art's permanent collection. Under his leadership, BBDO has won Network of the Year at Cannes five times.

Sanjiv Mistry - Executive Creative Director, McCann London

Sanjiv moved from law into advertising, starting out in South Africa and later moving to the UK. When he led McCann London's dedicated Microsoft and Xbox unit, it shifted from being mainly a localisation hub into a creative force for the network. The results were impressive, including 36 Cannes Lions, a rare One Show Penta Pencil, and Cannes Network of the Year in just four years.

Silvina Seiguer - Director Communications & Social Responsibility Latin America, Kimberly-Clark

Silvina has more than 25 years of experience in communications across Argentina and Latin America. She currently leads corporate communications and the social impact area for Kimberly-Clark in Latin America. Before that, she directed corporate communications at Arcos Dorados (McDonald's) for a decade, and earlier she spent 15 years at IBM in different communications roles across Argentina and the wider region.

Mariana O'Kelly - Executive Creative Director, Leo Burnett

Mariana O'Kelly is an award-winning creative leader with 27 years of industry experience. The Gunn Report has recognised her as one of the top-performing Executive Creative Directors in the world. She's won multiple Grands Prix at Cannes and earned more than 70 globally recognised awards.

Tseliso Rangaka - Chief Creative Officer, FCB, South Africa

Tseliso's work helped drive FCB South Africa to be named Africa's No.2 Creative Agency for 2022, as reported in the WARC report. With a 20-year-plus advertising career, Rangaka has held key creative leadership roles on both South African and global blue-chip brands, including Volkswagen, Audi, Anheuser-Busch InBev, KFC, Coca-Cola, and Mondelez.

PG Aditiya

PG Aditiya created India's most awarded campaign to date, The Unfiltered History Tour, an undercover look at the British Museum's contested artefacts for VICE Media. He was CCO at Dentsu Webchutney until 2022 and is now building Talented, an employee-owned independent creative agency. He co-founded it with Gautam Reghunath (former CEO of Dentsu Webchutney) and the core team behind The Unfiltered History Tour. Over the years, PG has helped boost India's profile at festivals like Cannes Lions, The One Show, and Spikes Asia, with campaigns including Swiggy's Voice of Hunger, Swiggy Instamart's The Better Half Cookbook, and Flipkart's Hagglebot. He's also been named Creative Person of the Year by Campaign Magazine, APAC's #1 CCO by The One Show, and Creative Agency Leader of the Year by the IAA.

Thasorn Boonyanate - Chief Creative Officer, BBDO Bangkok

Thasorn is a storyteller, songwriter, film director, and creator. He started his career 12 years ago and has consistently produced popular, award-winning work across different categories and agency networks. He's worked with clients including PepsiCo, Mercedes-Benz, Tiktok, Tinder, Kleenex, Kakao, Smirnoff, ThaiBev, Mars, Wrigley, Roojai, MQDC, Nestle, Krungthai, Krungsri, TCP, Kratingdaeng, Huawei, and Samsung. A client once called him 'Crazy Pete' because he brings that same level of passion to every brief, whether it's small or huge. So far, he's earned 150+ awards across local, regional, and global stages, including Gold from Andy, Graphite and Wood from D&AD, Gold from Spikes, Best from Adfest, and Grand Prix from Adstars.

Walter Geer - Chief Experience Design Officer, VMLY&R

Walter is the Chief Experience Design Officer at VMLY&R HEALTH, where he's focused on building innovative design solutions for health. His job is to connect technology, storytelling, design, and user experience into meaningful health experiences. Around 80% of his work is in health and pharma, and he also supports other clients such as Dell Technologies, Coke, and Walgreens. He was honoured in Adweek's '50 Most Important People in Marketing, Media and Tech', and Savoy Magazine recognised him in their 'Most Influential Black Executives in Corporate America'. He's known not only for helping reinvent how brands and advertisers connect with consumers, but also for speaking up and advocating for better change. As co-founder of Diverse Creatives, he's actively pushed for a more diverse and inclusive culture for Black and brown creatives in advertising.

What we'll cover, in order.

An Intro to Advertising

Understand the world of advertising, how it works, why it’s important, and what the creation process involves.

What is Advertising?

How Advertising Really Works

Why is advertising important?

The Advertising Process

Tactical Advertising

Digital Integration

Timeless Advertising Principles

Several timeless principles apply to all great advertising. In this chapter, you’ll learn what they are and how to use them in your own advertising.

Human Nature Doesn't Change

Emotion Drives Action

Curiosity Is Key

Strive For Simplicity

The Importance Of Storytelling

Why You Must Be Different

The Role Of Humour

Show, Don't Tell

Behavioural Science For Advertising

Behavioural science is like a superpower you can use to influence your audience and make your ads more effective.

What is behavioural science?

Choice Architecture

What's Nudging?

Developing Your Strategy

In this chapter, you'll learn how to develop a strategy for making your ads effective. Without one, you'll be wandering around in the dark.

What Is Strategy?

The Role of Strategy in Advertising

The 4Cs Model

The Strategic Narrative

Communications Architecture

The Art Of The Brief

How to come up with ideas

Coming up with great ideas is critical to outstanding advertising. This chapter contains creative techniques to help you generate ideas that make you go 'Ooh-la-la!'

How To Generate Ideas

Be an idea machine

Human Truths

Know Your Audience

Ideation Techniques

Think Outside The Block

Kill Your Darlings

Copywriting & Art Direction

Making your ads look good is essential. So is crafting persuasive copy. In this chapter, we look at both skills. Don't panic! You don't have to be an expert, but understanding these arts will help you make better advertising.

The Creative Revolution

An Intro to Copywriting

Write As You Speak

Have A Clear Call To Action

Edit Ruthlessly

An Intro To Art Direction

Using Whitespace

How To Sell Your Ideas

The art of selling ideas is as important as the idea itself. It pays to learn this skill because even the best ideas won't sell themselves.

Why Selling Your Ideas Matters

How To Win A Pitch

Behavioural Principles For Selling

Understanding Your Buyer Better

Amazing Ads To Inspire You

We look at some brilliant work from around the world to inspire you. Familiarise yourself with these award-winning ads, and you'll be one step closer to winning your own Cannes Lion.

Fantastic Film

Powerful Print

Outstanding Outdoor

Remarkable Radio

Brilliant Brand Experience & Activations

Tantalising Titanium

Certification Process

Complete all the classes

Attend classes, ask questions, and finish your homework. We check your activity and support your learning journey every step of the way.

Get the Summary Notes

Receive high-quality supporting documents, summary notes, and recommended readings. Ensure you have access to all tools and resources.

Complete 100% Impact

Complete the final assessment to validate your learning. Earn your certificate and share your achievement with your professional network!

Free

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This Course Includes:

Level Access

9h of Content

Certificate of Completion

English

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