Module 1: The Dawn of Evidence-based Advertising

Introduction to effectiveness and modern history of effectiveness research and marketing science.

Module 2: How Advertising Spend Underpins

How to budget for growth and the principle of Excess Share of Voice.

Module 3: Building Mental Availability

The concept of mental availability and how to use advertising to build it.

Module 4: The Power of Emotion

The human decision-making process and how emotional connection impacts sales and profit.

Module 5: The Case for Creativity

Defining creativity, the evidence that creative advertising is more effective, and how creativity works.

Module 6: The Importance of Distinctiveness

An introduction to distinctive brand assets and the evidence that distinctive assets make brands
more effective.

Module 7: Creative Commitment

How spend, duration and number of media channels combine to drive effectiveness.

Module 8a: A New Frontier

The effectiveness fundamentals, applied to B2B marketing.

Module 8b: Media Effectiveness in the Post digital Age

Overview of attention metrics and the econometric view of how to manage across channels in a fragmented media world.

Module 9: The Wrong Mental Model

Why advertising doesn’t cause people to buy, the two types of demand in every category and the principle of Future Demand.

Module 10: Two Types of Advertising

How converting current demand and creating future demand require different types of advertising.

Module 11: Familiarity and Future Demand

The human familiarity bias and how building and maintaining brand familiarity drives future market share.

Module 12: Emotional Creativity and Future Demand

Why creativity and emotion are critical for creating future demand.

Module 13: Reach and Future Demand

Why brands should target broadly to create future Demand.

Module 14: Consistency and Future Demand

How long-running campaigns build compounding returns.

Module 15: Getting the Balance Right

How to split investment between brand and performance, and the evidence that a performance-led mix damages both short and long-term effectiveness.

Module 16: Putting it All Together

How to put all the advertising effectiveness principles into a simple annual brand plan.

Exam week

Take this practical exam to test your knowledge of the programme material and earn your Master of Advertising Effectiveness certification.

The LIONS Master of Advertising Effectiveness is an eight-week online programme that equips marketing and advertising professionals with a complete understanding of the evidence-based principles of advertising effectiveness and how to apply them to make advertising that creates consistently better commercial results.

It’s common for marketers and agencies to see outstanding business results from their very best advertising campaigns. What’s far less common is examples of brands that consistently achieve high levels of effectiveness with their advertising.

The reasons for this can seem complex and elusive — and while there is indeed an art to creating effective advertising, there’s also a huge body of science that has been developed over the past two decades, enabling much greater clarity on effectiveness best practice. When this best practice is fully understood and integrated into our day- to-day planning and execution of advertising, we can maximise the effectiveness potential of all of our advertising. 

We drive more reliable and sustainable business outcomes, and improve the value and reputation of marketing within our organisations. We love it when the stars align and we knock it out of the park with our advertising. What the Master of Advertising Effectiveness will give you is a better ability to align those stars yourself.

The LIONS Master of Advertising Effectiveness is an 'evidence-based' programme. This means that we’re teaching principles that have been developed from the analysis of major advertising effectiveness data sets, by the world’s leading independent marketing science academics and researchers, representing esteemed institutions like the IPA, the Ehrenberg Bass Institute and WARC. Nothing you’ll learn is based on anecdotal evidence or personal experience — although we do illustrate the principles using specific examples to bring each concept to life.

If you're involved in the commissioning of or creation of advertising — and especially if you're the person signing off on creative ideas and production and media budgets— it's critical that you have a strong working knowledge of advertising effectiveness. Specifically, the LIONS Master of Advertising Effectiveness has been designed for client-side marketers and agency professionals at all levels of seniority.

Upon completion of the programme and your certification as a LIONS Master of Advertising Effectiveness, you’ll go back to work with greater confidence, influence and value. You’ll have much greater confidence in your planning and decision making. You’ll be better equipped to influence others and sell in strategies, campaigns and budgets. You’ll be able to articulate the value of advertising and the commercial rationale for common advertising strategies. You’ll be more successful in your efforts to push for larger budgets or gain support for ‘braver’ advertising. And you’ll increase the value of your discipline. The value of marketing and advertising has never been more in question. The programme will sharpen your ability to articulate and champion that value. And more importantly, to create advertising that increases that value by better linking advertising activity and commercial performance.

No problem – shoot us a note at [email protected] and we’ll save you a spot until you can organise payment.

Yes – get in touch at [email protected] and we can organise split payment if your payment case isn't already covered in the pricing section.

The live sessions are a chance for students to ask questions about the content and delve deeper into the principles. Students can submit questions at any time for the next live session. James will answer these questions during the live session, which will also be accessible to stream after its conclusion.

Yes – the programme has been specifically designed for professionals in full-time roles. The time commitment is around 90 minutes per week, and our video modules can be watched at whatever time is most convenient for you.