Digital Marketing and Politics

Digital marketing and politics is an unusual but coherent combination, particularly for a moment when the relationship between online platforms, political communication, and public opinion has never been more consequential. Digital marketing is the discipline of understanding how organisations reach, engage and influence audiences through digital channels, using data, content, social media, search and analytics. Politics examines how power is organised and contested, how political ideas develop and spread, and how democratic systems function and sometimes fail.

The overlap between these two fields is real and growing: campaigns, political organisations, governments and activists all rely on digital marketing techniques, and the ethics, effectiveness and societal impact of these techniques are live political questions.

At Liverpool Hope University, this four-year full-time programme includes a foundation year, which provides thorough preparation for students who will benefit from an additional year of academic development before entering the main degree. Across the full programme you will study digital marketing theory and practice, including consumer behaviour, data analytics, content strategy, social media, digital campaign management and search engine optimisation, alongside the study of political systems, ideology, policy-making, international relations and political thought. The combination prepares you to understand both the technical tools of digital influence and the political contexts in which they operate.

A sandwich year placement, a year abroad, and a work placement are all available, giving you significant professional and international experience.

You will develop analytical, communication and strategic skills that are relevant across both commercial and political contexts, and you will be well equipped to think critically about the power of digital communications.

Graduates move into digital marketing roles in political parties, campaign organisations, NGOs, public affairs consultancies, media, government communications, and commercial marketing. Postgraduate study in marketing, politics, communications or public policy is a well-supported pathway.