Temerlin Advertising Institute (TAI) trains students to search for unique solutions in advertising, preparing them for work in advertising agencies, media firms, corporate marketing departments, design studios and more. TAI is located in a top-four media market that affords many opportunities for industry experience through internships and guest lectures, industry field visits, directed study and an annual lecture series.
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of students expand their expertise with a double major or minor outside of advertising
Prepares students to enter the world of advertising and marketing as art directors, copywriters and designers
Prepares students to enter the world of advertising and marketing as media managers, media specialists/planners, media buyers, digital strategists and content managers
Prepares students to enter the world of advertising and marketing as account or brand managers, planners/strategists, consumer insight experts and new business developers
The minor in advertising offers an overview of the social, economic, legal and marketing environments in which advertising functions.
Make yourself more marketable with this program, which allows students to combine core courses with electives to meet their individual needs and interests.
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2 out of 3 first-year students are awarded grants and/or scholarships with an average total of $38,598.
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ADV 1321
Examines individual and organizational strategies for promoting creativity and the creative thinker’s role in shaping the culture.
ADV 2301
Covers theories from psychology, social psychology, sociology, anthropology, economics, marketing and communications to explore the consumer decision-making process.
ADV 3303
Covers principles essential to media planners, buyers and sellers. Includes media audience analysis, media vehicle comparisons and budgeting.
SMU Meadows students have outstanding opportunities for stellar internships and collaborations on campus, in Dallas (a top-four media market, home to numerous Fortune 500 companies and the nation’s largest urban arts district) and in locales around the world.
Meadows advertising students amass more than 125 awards in recent competitions.
TAI students embarked on their annual trip to New York City, where they went behind-the-scenes with several alumni working in advertising and creative industries.
Small classes ensure personal attention from the advertising professors, all of whom are prominent scholars and industry leaders.
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The Umphrey Lee Center is home to Temerlin Advertising Institute’s administrative offices as well as four award-winning Meadows School communications divisions.
The center is home to dance, music, and theatre performance and rehearsal spaces, art galleries and studios, and many Meadows departments.
Request more info about the Bachelor of Arts in Advertising program
Advertising is both art and science, using creativity, skill and strategy to communicate a message about a particular product or idea. The bachelor’s in advertising at SMU offers a curriculum designed to give you deep, specialized knowledge of a particular area in advertising (creative, digital media strategy or strategic brand management). Our goal is to equip you for a long and successful career in the advertising industry.
The B.A. in advertising program prepares students to enter the world of advertising and marketing as creatives, digital media strategists/managers or strategic brand managers, in a vast array of industries.
Yes, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, overall employment of advertising, promotions and marketing managers is projected to grow six percent from 2024 to 2034, faster than the average for all occupations. The median annual wage for advertising and promotions managers was $126,960 in May 2024, and the median annual wage for marketing managers was $161,030 in May 2024.
SMU and the Temerlin Advertising Institute are located in Dallas, a top-four media market that affords many opportunities for industry experience through internships, guest lectures, industry field trips, lecture series and networking events. Students have access to high-profile internships at national and global agencies as well as client and media corporations. More information about Meadows student internships can be found here.
The Temerlin Advertising Institute offers students pursuing a B.A. in advertising the opportunity to focus their studies in one of three concentration areas: creative, digital media strategy or strategic brand management.
The creative specialization prepares students to enter the world of advertising and marketing as art directors, copywriters and designers. The curriculum covers all aspects of content creation for communicating a brand’s identity to consumers. Courses focus on conceptual thinking, approaches to ideation, the creative process, discovery and execution of the big idea, and communicating information in an effective way across a variety of traditional and digital media.
The digital media strategy specialization prepares students for careers in advertising and marketing as media managers, media strategists and planners, media buyers, content managers and digital marketing specialists. This specialization focuses on building and managing integrated digital campaigns that drive real business outcomes. Students develop the skills to plan, execute and optimize media strategies across today’s fast-changing digital landscape, preparing them for roles in media planning and buying, social media and paid search strategy, media analytics, digital content strategy, and emerging areas such as influencer marketing and AI-enabled advertising.
The strategic brand management specialization prepares students to enter the world of advertising and marketing as account or brand managers, project managers, planners/strategists, consumer insight experts, event and promotion specialists, and new business developers. This specialization examines the approaches to management in advertising agencies and on the client side. Topics include strategies for the identification of marketing-related problems and the processes needed to find solutions through messaging, promotions and other forms of consumer engagement to build brand equity and market share.
Depending on the student’s career aspirations, the two main options here would be the digital media strategy track or the creative track. The creative track focuses more on concept development, art direction, design and copywriting. The digital media strategy track is better suited for students interested in planning and managing social media presence across platforms, aligning content with platform-specific dynamics, developing media calendars, and using analytics to optimize performance.
Students on the strategic brand management track learn how to think critically, work collaboratively in an interdisciplinary environment, develop strategy, hone their communication skills, assess the metrics of their work, and present concepts in an engaging way. This specialization examines the approaches to management in advertising agencies and on the client side.
Through this specialization, you’ll graduate knowing how to think like a media strategist and act like a practitioner. You’ll master media planning and buying across programmatic, social, search and streaming platforms, learning to allocate budgets, analyze performance data and optimize campaigns in real time, and you’ll get hands-on with the tools the industry runs on, like Google Ads, Meta Ads Manager and analytics platforms like Google Analytics 4.
You’ll learn to build audience strategies using first-party data and contextual targeting, craft content strategies across TikTok, YouTube, connected TV and emerging channels, and measure what actually matters using KPIs, attribution models and media mix modeling.
You’ll also explore influencer and creator economy strategy, AI-driven ad targeting and personalization, and the ethics of data-driven advertising, so you’re ready for where the industry is headed, not just where it’s been. By the time you finish, you’ll be fluent in the tools, data and strategic thinking that today’s media industry actually hires for.
No. Once admitted, students will learn to create compelling work, present and justify their ideas, and develop a personal aesthetic. After taking an initial course on creative concepting methods, students are required to take two courses on portfolio development as part of this specialization.
