In the orientation, you will become familiar with the course, your instructor, your classmates, and our learning environment. The orientation also helps you obtain the technical skills required for the course. In the first module, we will examine marketing as a process of communication, in which businesses and marketers attempt to deliver the right message to the right person at the right moment, and listen and respond to consumers’ feedback.

This module aims to provide students with a structured understanding of the digital marketing mix, emphasizing the distinction between touchpoints (where consumers interact with marketing messages) and communication channels (the methods used to deliver those messages). It also helps students understand the strategic evolution of strategic marketing communication from message-based persuasion (traditional advertising) to context- and intent-based persuasion, where tech enables personalized experiences.

This module explores the data, technologies, and automation strategies that power modern digital marketing. We will examine how data is collected, analyzed, and leveraged in marketing; explore attribution modeling, automation, and algorithm-driven decision making; and unpack how emerging technologies shape targeting, engagement, and media buying.

In this module we will explore the future of marketing and AI. Researchers like Alan Turing and John McCarthy laid the groundwork for AI as a formal field, evolving from rigid rule-based systems into machine learning models capable of learning from vast amounts of data. This shift, fueled by internet data and advances in computing hardware such as GPUs, led to powerful applications in natural language processing, recommendation systems, and generative AI.