Course Description:
This course will take a close up look at corporate brand values in marketing communications today. Brand values should be timeless and unchanging, but in today’s constantly churning AI business environment, is this goal even possible? While generative AI, high volume video advertising, and A/B testing are exploding, paradoxically, messaging of corporate brand values is oftentimes minimized or sometimes eliminated. Marketing today is a sea of ever-changing algorithms, transactional communications, and confusing narratives. Should creativity be offloaded` to AI in today’s marketplace? Do customers even know what the companies they make purchases from actually stand for values-wise? Does it matter? How can companies still connect with consumers on a human level without completely outsourcing to AI?
Students will ideate a marketing film for a company or nonprofit of their choice. All the while, they’ll be considering deeply how emotion, story, and marketing message function in a project that resonates with the consumer while also reinforcing an organization’s belief system.
University of Washington
Department of Communication