More reasons to enroll early: Save $250 on tuition + 50% off your deposit. Enroll by Oct 31.
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
A brand has a message, but a customer has a reason to care or scroll past. Build a plan that connects the two.
In this course you will study strategy, customer behavior, positioning, and brand voice through familiar-company cases. Explore where a brand competes, what customers want to accomplish, and how emotion, context, and other people’s choices influence behavior.
Strategy and behavioral thinking lead into practical work with websites, user experience, search, email, social media, video, and content. In AI labs, research customers, test ideas, improve prompts, and check claims using your own judgment. Museum visits and guest speakers add perspectives on storytelling and attention.
Choose a real business with your team and build a 12-slide digital marketing plan. Define the audience and competitive position, propose a campaign, and connect website, content, social, email, and search recommendations. Document how AI improved the work, then pitch three actions the business could take next. You’ll 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. The program is developed by the University of Texas at Austin and offered in partnership with Summer Discovery.
What You Will 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 customer and brand strategy 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
You’ll leave with your team’s 12-slide real-business campaign, HubSpot Digital Marketing Certification, and a certificate of completion.
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?
For students who have completed 9th, 10th, 11th, or 12th grade.
Branding, content, design, social media, business, or AI can spark your interest in this academy. You’ll critique familiar brands and work with a team to apply ideas to a real organization. Digital tools and experimentation support the work, while checking AI-assisted claims and revising with feedback keep your recommendations grounded.
A school transcript is required.
Your Summer at University of Texas at 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