Creative Industries Management

In the first semester, you will start exploring the world of the creative industries, visit places and companies and talk to experts from various fields. You will learn to analyse business models, research business cases and apply management tools within a strategic framework. You will learn to work with media and communication theory and interpret different media and art forms. This includes the analysis of visuals, film, and architectures. You will apply creativity techniques and design thinking approaches to build a foundation for entrepreneurial skills. You will approach creative industries research, identifying trends and making sense of industry discussions. In the modules, you can set your own focus on areas of the creative industries that interest you most (e.g. music industry, film, others).

In the second semester, you will explore marketing with a specific focus on the creative industries and international entertainment marketing. Here, products and services face specific challenges such as shorter product life cycles and higher unpredictability that require even more creative approaches to marketing management. Consequently, other industries such as the luxury industry benefit from and apply strategies that originate in the creative world. Management in these areas requires to deal with many serious issues of power and liability. You will strengthen your own personality by working with ethics and developing your social and intercultural skills. As regards practical and creative application, you will work with your fellow students on interdisciplinary projects of your choice, in cooperation with real life companies in Berlin, and better understand the mechanisms of the music industry, film industry or the art market.

In this semester, you will learn to apply digital and marketing communication management strategies to develop innovative ideas and approaches to marketing practice. You will also work with digital media technology to create your own digital content. This includes consideration of user experience and the application of artificial intelligence, and allows you to focus on a self-chosen project. This is framed by the media law module, so that you can understand contracts and deal with issues relating to copyright, trademarks and licensing. You will be able to drive forward a personal research project in an area of your choice, developing interview and data analysis skills that will help you manage in the creative industries and beyond. You will work with academic and industry experts.

Applying for funding, working with budgets and writing invoices for your own work are essential skills in the creative industries and other sectors. In addition to accounting and finance, you will learn about structured project management concepts and methods and practically apply them in a creative, social or sustainability-orientated project that you “curate” as well as “manage”. This is followed by further development of your UX strategy skills as the basis for digital transformation and market success. You will be part of an entrepreneurial project of your choice in the SRH Start-up Lab Berlin where you work with founders and professionals to drive forward business ideas. This semester may include an optional language module.

In the fifth semester, you either complete an internship in a company of your choice, which is supervised by our Career Service team, or spend an exchange semester at a foreign university which is organized by our International Office. This semester corresponds to a student workload of 750 hours and 30 ECTS.

Students of the program have studied in Madrid, Athens, Istanbul and at other partner universities from our wide-ranging network (see International Office website). 

More than half of the students opt for the internship. Internships mostly include work placements in management and (digital) marketing and communication functions. Students worked with music labels (Universal Music; Sony Music; Monster Music; Guesstimate), marketing and event agencies (Team Bernstein; Lollapalooza festival), film production companies (Berlinale; European Film Academy; B28; Tony Peterson; Lavendelfilm), art galleries and artists (Lumas, Jonathan Apelbaum; SomoS Art House; Enter Art Foundation; GlogauAIR; Feuerle Collection; Get Into Play; formules Creative Industries Avantgarde), fashion brands (TVOE brand; Press Factory; Forfourtyfour), start-ups (Creacando; Empowerment GmbH; Human Greatness Centre), IT and technology (Signavio; Gophr), Think Tanks (Volkswagen We), sustainable commerce (nuruCoffee), governmental organizations (Wirtschaftsförderung Heidelberg; Deutsch-Kolumbianische Außenhandelskammer) and many others. Internships are in most cases located in Berlin, but students also did internships abroad (UK, USA, France, Italy, Russia, and other countries). 

A small number of students has opted for the “incubator” version which means driving forward a personal start-up business full time with developmental entrepreneurial support from the SRH start-up lab and an independent mentor from the industry.

The theme of this semester is innovation. In the Artist Management & Public Relations seminar, you will learn how to communicate strategically with different target groups, reinventing personal brands and advancing other’s and your own goals. You will have the opportunity to apply these techniques to promote your own leadership style and professional success. We will engage in the practical application of various leadership developmentmethods along with self-directed approaches that will help you develop throughout our entire career life. This is framed by leadership theory. Various approaches to being a good leader or a good follower, and work in teams, include considerations of diversity, equity, and inclusion as well as approaches to overcoming gender barriers so that you can unfold your full potential. A further module on research methods prepares you for the upcoming Bachelor thesis, this time focusing on survey tools and data science. You will learn to question, manage and execute innovation management strategies from a business studies perspective. This is paralleled by taking inspiration from cultural theory and the world of popular culture which is a source of our cultural heritage but also of continuous innovation and social change.

With a practical approach to innovation, in the Creative Entrepreneurship Innovation Lab, you will be able transfer your insights into a practical context, promoting creative problem solving and research skills to help creative businesses thrive. This also extends into an outlook to manage your “creative career” in sustainable and self-authored ways. On a theoretical level, you will explore this further in your Bachelor thesis on a topic of your choice, addressing any area of research and practice within the range of the study program. The module Art, Creativity & Research runs parallel to your writing process with methodological support and includes practice-based and artistic research that enables you to access your topic more holistically. This combination gives academic inquiry more depth, offers opportunities for networking and creative output and supports the successful outcome of your final step.