AI Ad Lab
Overview
AI Ad Lab is a hands-on creative production unit for Year 2 advertising students focused on practical use of generative AI tools. Students develop skills to concept, produce and evaluate advertising creative across image, video and audio formats using industry-standard platforms. The unit progresses from AI tool literacy to independent creative production, culminating in a multi-format campaign. Students work with AI systems for creative production, ideation and productivity, and AI-enabled design and post-production, supported by additional tools for display and video editing. Alongside technical capability, the unit builds critical thinking around authorship, quality, brand voice and ethical use of AI, preparing students for advanced study and professional practice in an AI-shaped industry.
Requisites
ADV10002 Digital Advertising
OR
ADV10001 Principles of Advertising
OR
MDA20030 Communicating with AI
OR
INF10028 Business Artificial Intelligence Project
30-May-2027
Unit learning outcomes
Students who successfully complete this unit will be able to:
- Apply prompt engineering and creative direction techniques to develop brand-consistent AI-generated advertising content.
- Develop and produce a multi-format advertising campaign using AI creative platforms across image, video and audio formats
- Evaluate AI-generated creative work against strategic advertising objectives, brand guidelines and industry quality standards
- Critically reflect on the ethical, creative and professional implications of AI-assisted advertising production
Teaching methods
Hawthorn
| Type | Hours per week | Number of weeks | Total (number of hours) |
|---|---|---|---|
On-campus ntact Lab |
3.00 | 12 weeks | 36 |
Unspecified Learning Activities Independent Learning |
8.50 | 12 weeks | 102 |
Specified Activities Various |
1.00 | 12 weeks | 12 |
| Total | 150 |
Swinburne Online
| Type | Hours per week | Number of weeks | Total (number of hours) |
|---|---|---|---|
Online Directed Online Learning and Independent Learning |
12.50 | 12 weeks | 150 |
| Total | 150 |
Assessment
| Type | Task | Weighting | ULOs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Assignment 1 | Group | 20% | 1 |
| Assignment 2 | Individual | 60% | 1,3,4 |
| Assignment 3 | Individual | 20% | 1,2,3 |
Content
- The AI creative revolution - Platform overview; client brief issued; assessment briefing
- Prompt engineering - Writing effective prompts across primary AI platforms
- AI image generation - Lifestyle imagery, product placement and brand contexts
- Display creative - Multi-format display and sponsored ad production
- AI video production - Single and multi-scene video; storyboarding for AI
- AI audio creative - Voiceover, music beds and audio ad production
- Streaming TV and full-funnel - Streaming creative; aligning assets across the funnel
- Agentic AI end-to-end - Brief to full campaign using agentic AI creative tools
- Group strategy presentations - Pitch to class and industry guests; portfolio feedback
- Ethics, authorship, disclosure - Copyright, AI disclosure obligations, consumer trust
- Portfolio workshop and submission - Supervised production; industry guest; portfolios
- Showcase and industry readiness - Campaign showcase; reflective essay briefing
- Graduate Attribute – Communication Skills: Verbal communication
- Graduate Attribute – Communication Skills: Communicating using different media
- Graduate Attribute – Teamwork Skills: Collaboration and negotiation
- Graduate Attribute – Teamwork Skills: Teamwork roles and processes
- Graduate Attribute – Digital Literacies: Information literacy
- Graduate Attribute – Digital Literacies: Technical literacy
Study resources
Reading materials
A list of reading materials and/or required textbooks will be available in the Unit Outline on Canvas.