Learn the fundamentals of creative strategy

As someone who works in the commercial creative industries, you’re job is to connect with people. An end audience to advertise to, sell to, connect with, persuade, and more.


But this audience is busy. Busy living their lives, working, sleeping, seeing friends. In order to reach this audience, you need to cut through. And your best chance at this is down to your strategy.


In this course, we explore how to create a brilliant connective creative strategy. We’ll cover core skills from understanding your audience, researching and empathising with them, and stepping into their world, to connecting authentically to understanding the role of emotion, ethics, and bias, this course will provide a tool kit to create connective strategies of your own.


This course is part 1 of our Strategy 101 series, covering the funadamenals of creative strategy.

Course curriculum

  • 1

    Welcome to the course

  • 2

    Understand your audience

    • Welcome to part 1: Understand your audience

    • Why does the audience matter?

    • Identifying the challenge

    • The importance of research

    • Exploring data

    • Qualitative research

    • Finding your audience

    • Getting out of a research rut

    • Task: Creative Research

    • Wrap-up: Understanding your audience
  • 3

    Step into their world

    • Welcome to part 2: Step into their world

    • Research >> Insight >> Ideas

    • Step into their world

    • The unchanging truths

    • Finding insight with empathy

    • Building an empathy map

    • Case study #1: Nothing Beats a Londoner

    • Case study #2: #wombstories

    • Case study #3: Nobody is Normal

    • Mapping media

    • Marketing funnel and customer journey

    • Considering touchpoints

    • Task: Synthesising your research

    • Wrap-up: Step into their world
  • 4

    Authenticity, bias and ethics

    • Welcome to part 3: Authenticity, bias and ethics

    • Understanding cultural context

    • Connecting authentically

    • Finding your authentic voice

    • Keeping an open mind

    • Understanding bias

    • Moral strategy

    • Task: Cultural context

    • Wrap up: Audience, bias and ethics
  • 5

    Hack the human brain

    • Welcome to part 4: Hack the human brain

    • Employing bias

    • Systems thinking

    • Making it memorable

    • Making an emotional conection

    • Pull the right lever

    • Provoking emotions

    • How to change behaviour

    • EAST in action

    • Use persuasion

    • Task: Making it memorable

    • Wrap-up: Hack the human brain

    • Wrap-up: Connective Strategy

D&AD Creative Learning Alerts

Sign up to receive access to D&AD's library of free creative learning content, curated and delivered to your inbox. You'll also stay up to date with new Masterclass launches, valuable industry insights and upcoming course information.

5 star rating

Wonderful course with amazing examples

Brandon Clute

I loved every moment of this course. The instructors were clear and concise in explaining a myriad of concepts. I'm a designer who too this course to learn a...

Read More

I loved every moment of this course. The instructors were clear and concise in explaining a myriad of concepts. I'm a designer who too this course to learn about the strategy that should inform a successful marketing campaign. Mission accomplished!

Read Less
5 star rating

Amazing course!

Ella McCollin

I really enjoyed this course and would recommend to anyone getting started in strategy. It was great to hear from a range of strategists who specialises in d...

Read More

I really enjoyed this course and would recommend to anyone getting started in strategy. It was great to hear from a range of strategists who specialises in different parts of strategy and has motivated me to start thinking of which part of strategy interests me the most. I have taken so many notes and cant wait to use them in my career.

Read Less
5 star rating

Tessa's review

Tessa Regueiro

It was fantastic - particularly loved where you would show the campaigns and then hear from the people that made them to find out how they got there.

It was fantastic - particularly loved where you would show the campaigns and then hear from the people that made them to find out how they got there.

Read Less