## Project A: a short story

Advertisements and commercials trigger people to buy products. You are going to find out more about advertising and how easily you and your classmates are convinced that you want to buy an article after you've seen an ad (advertisement) or watched a commericial.

##### Assignment 1: marketing techniques

Find out about some of these different marketing techniques.
Collect some examples of TV/online advertisements that illustrate some of these techniques:

- Social appeal (feel included)
- Fear appeal (fear of consumers)
- Hero endorsement (using celebrities to advertise)
- Bargain appeals (at this price for a limited time only)
- Statistics appeal (use numbers, proofs, to show how good product works)
- Complementing customers (punch lines which complement consumers who buy their products)

Bring the videos to class. Watch them with your group.

#### Assignment 2: make a commercial

Now try and make a commercial in your group. Here are some ideas of products.

- mobile phone
- pair of shoes
- a book
- a computer / game console
- your own idea...

As you prepare your commercial, answer these questions in your group:
(write the answers down in your notebook or text document)

Who is it for? For example: A cool teenager, a soccer fan, a stylish girl.
What are three reasons people should buy or use your product? For example: Cheap, easy, better than...
What will be your slogan?
Choose a technique from the ones mentioned in assignment 1. Which technique?
Scripting: Decide what story you’d like to tell in the commercial. Write down what happens in the beginning, middle and end. Write the script for your commercial.
Roles: Divide roles. Who is going to act, who is going to film. There is a role for everyone.

#### Assignment 3: Film your commercial

Once you have got your story and scripts ready, it is on to filming!
Each group presents its commercial to the class.
When each group has presented, which is the most original or the most convincing commercial.
See below how your presentation will be judged.

| Good | Sufficient | Insufficient
Organisation | Information is presented in a logical sequence. | Information is mostly presented in a logical sequence. | Information is not presented in a logical sequence.
Slides (if used) | Effective use of slides that clearly illustrate the points being made. | Good use of slides that mostly illustrated the points being made. | Poor use of slides (too many/too few?) that did not contribute to the presentation.
Content | Interesting, clear information. | Information is mostly interesting. Some was already known. | There was not much that was of interest in this presentation.
Speaker style | Speaks clearly and at an understandable pace. Maintains eye contact with audience. Well-rehearsed. | Mostly speaks clearly and a good pace. Mostly keeps eye contact. Has rehearsed a bit. | Mostly unintelligible. Does not maintain eye contact. Has not rehearsed.
Language | The vocabulary use is very good and the sentence structure is good. | The vocabulary use is fairly good and the sentence structure is good. | The vocabulary use is not very good, neither is the sentence structure.