Applications Open! Enroll for Summer 2027 at 2026 Tuition Pricing Until Sept 30
Build and pitch a real-business campaign in this 3-week digital marketing academy for high school students on UT Austin’s campus.
Rated 4.7 out of 5 for classroom experience by students who took this course in 2026.
Instructor:
Course Description
Why do some brands earn attention while others disappear into a crowded feed? Students study strategy, customer behavior, positioning, and brand voice through cases involving familiar companies. The OUTBRAND framework organizes choices about where to compete, what customers are trying to accomplish, how emotion and context affect behavior, and why social proof matters.
Mornings focus on strategy and behavioral thinking. Afternoons turn those ideas into websites, user experience, search, email, social media, video, and content. AI labs show how marketers can research customers, pressure-test ideas, improve prompts, and check claims without allowing a tool to replace judgment. Museum visits and guest speakers add real-world perspectives on storytelling and audience attention.
Teams select a real business and build a 12-slide digital marketing plan. The final deck defines the audience and competitive position, proposes a campaign idea, and includes website, content, social, email, and search recommendations. Students document how AI improved the work and pitch three actions the business could take next. They also complete the HubSpot Digital Marketing Certification.
This three-week full-day academy takes place at UT Austin. Students spend the full program focused on one intensive academy. The academy is available to residential and commuter students. Beyond class, students connect focused academic work with campus life, growing independence, and clearer direction about what students may want to study or pursue next. The program is developed by the University of Texas at Austin and offered in partnership with Summer Discovery.
What Will You Do?
• Analyze brand strategy, customer behavior, positioning, and social proof
• Practice website, user-experience, search, email, social, video, and content tactics
• Use AI to research customers, test ideas, improve prompts, and check claims
• Apply the OUTBRAND framework to a real business
• Build a focused 12-slide digital marketing campaign plan
• Pitch channel recommendations and complete HubSpot Digital Marketing Certification
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the course, students will be able to:
• Develop a specific digital marketing strategy for a defined customer and business
• Integrate website, search, email, social, and content recommendations into one campaign
• Use AI critically and present a concise, evidence-based marketing plan
Students will leave with HubSpot Digital Marketing Certification and a 12-slide real-business campaign, plus clearer direction for marketing, communications, or business study and careers.
Students receive a University of Texas branded certificate of completion at the end of the program.
Why Digital Marketing Skills Matter
Digital marketing is not simply posting content. It requires a clear audience, a defensible position, and choices about where a brand can create value. Studying customer behavior helps students look beyond personal preference, while search, email, social, and website work show how one strategy must adapt across channels.
Building a plan for a real business strengthens research, creative judgment, teamwork, and concise communication. AI-assisted workflows add another responsibility: students must verify claims and reject generic output. These skills support future projects in business, communications, design, entrepreneurship, analytics, and any field where ideas must earn attention and trust.
Who Should Attend?
This academy is for high school students who have completed 9th, 10th, 11th, or 12th grade and are interested in branding, business, social media, content, customer behavior, design, or artificial intelligence. It is a strong fit for students who want to understand why marketing works and apply that reasoning to a real organization.
Participants should be ready to collaborate in a team, critique familiar brands, use digital tools, test ideas, verify AI-supported work, and pitch recommendations. The course rewards specific thinking, useful questions, responsible experimentation, and a willingness to revise work after feedback.
Why UT Austin?
Studying on UT Austin’s Forty Acres campus gives high-school students a substantive introduction to academic life in Austin, Texas. Courses draw from popular undergraduate fields and Austin specialties. Full-day academies offer concentrated study, while classes across the program take place in campus classrooms and laboratories and may include guest speakers and fieldwork around Austin.
The experience extends beyond class for both residential and commuting students. Residential students live in Jester Hall, eat at J2, a popular campus dining hall, and take part in activities that may range from a star party at PMA to time at Gregory Gym, Zilker Park, South Congress, or an Austin FC match. Students gain independence, meet peers, and leave with a clearer view of college life, possible directions for future study, and what it can feel like to be a Longhorn.
UT Austin Certificate of Completion
After successfully finishing this course, you will be awarded a certification completion for your accomplishment.
*This is a preview, not what you will receive