advertising assignments for high school

How to Write an Advertisement: A Complete Guide for Students and Teachers

As with persuasive texts in general, advertisements can take many forms – from billboards and radio jingles to movie trailers and pop-ups on your computer.

In this guide, we’ll work towards writing a standard magazine-format advertisement known as the print ad. Print ads are text-heavy enough to provide something meaty for our students to get their teeth into. Though advertisers are increasingly overlooking print ads in favor of more trackable and often cheaper digital forms of advertising, the same strategies and techniques can apply to both.

Likewise, strategies such as emotive language and other persuasive devices are essential when writing ads. Much of the writing advice that follows applies to the other persuasive texts , which can also be found on our site. Be sure to check it out, also.

Let’s explore the structure and persuasive elements that make an advertisement successful. These elements combine to make us think and act favourably about a service or product. So let’s get into it and learn how to write an advertisement.

A COMPLETE UNIT ON ADVERTISING FOR TEACHERS & STUDENTS

Teach your students essential  MEDIA LITERACY SKILLS  with this  COMPLETE UNIT  on  ADVERTISING.  It’s packed with  ENGAGING, INFORMATIVE & FUN  activities to teach students the persuasive techniques to  READ ADVERTS  and the skills to  WRITE ADVERTS.

This  COMPLETE UNIT OF WORK  will take your students from zero to hero over  FIVE STRATEGIC LESSONS  covered.

PERSUASIVE TECHNIQUES TUTORIAL VIDEO (2:20)

STRUCTURE AND FEATURES OF ADVERTISEMENTS (PERSUASIVE ELEMENTS)

For students to create their own advertisements and successfully employ the various persuasive techniques, they’ll first need to develop a clear understanding of an advertisement’s underlying structure. We’ll explore the primary structural elements and features of advertisements, though the order of how these appear varies from advert to advert. Here, we’ll take a look at the following persuasive text elements.

• Call to Action

THE BRAND NAME AS A PERSUASIVE ELEMENT

The brand name of the product or service frequently comes at the top of the advertisement – though not always. One of the first tasks for students when writing their own advertisement is to decide on a name for their product or service.

Please encourage students to select a name that reflects the product, service, or values they wish to present to their audience.

Brand names have evolved from being wordy and aspirational to very short and snappy since the inception of the internet, so they can be found easily on a search engine.

BRAND NAME CONSIDERATIONS

• What are the names of similar already existing products or services?
• Does the name look and sound good?
• Is the name short, punchy, and memorable?
• Does it evoke a feeling or an idea?
• Is it distinctive and original?

THE AUDIENCE AS A PERSUASIVE ELEMENT

An advertisement’s target audience may not always be immediately apparent and often needs to be inferred through language and imagery choices made by the writer.

However, who the target audience does need to be decided before writing as it will inform subsequent choices on the use of language (e.g. pronouns, tone, etc.) and imagery.

There are several ways to help students determine their target audience. A good starting place is for them to consider creating a target persona, a fictional character who represents the type of person their product or service is aimed at.

• Education level
• Marital status
• Likes/Dislikes
• Who they trust
• What they read/watch

An effective print advertisement presents a product or service in an appealing manner. It quickly conveys essential information about that product or service. It will include a clear and specific offer and also provide the information required for the reader to act on that offer.

Once we have the brand name sorted and the audience defined, it’s time to look at the critical structural elements to consider when writing an ad. It’s important to note that not every element will be used in every ad, but the following model serves well for writing most print advertisements.

THE HEADLINE AS A PERSUASIVE ELEMENT

The ad headline should provide a short, snappy preview of what the reader will find in the copy. A good headline grabs the potential customer’s attention and makes them want to read the rest of the ad. There are several tried and tested means of writing a good headline. Here are 3 of the most effective:

The Problem/Solution Headline – This headline details a problem a potential customer may be facing and offers the solution in the form of the product or service. For example: Tired? Sluggish? Overweight? Excero Bike Gets You Where You Need to Go, Fast!

The Testimonial Headline – This headline uses a quote from a customer’s positive review to help sell the product or service. The testimonial allows the potential customer to see some ‘proof’ upfront before buying. “With the Excero Bike, I lost 15lbs in 15 days. I’m now thinner, fitter, and much, much happier!”

The Question Headline – This headline asks a question that the target customer will be seeking an answer to, for example, “Are you paying too much for your x?” Are You Paying Too Much for Your Gym Membership?

THE LOGO AS A PERSUASIVE ELEMENT

Logos are visual representations of a brand and are used to help promote a range of products and services under a single umbrella and also to allow for quick identification by the reader. They are more of a design element than a writing one.

THE SLOGAN AS A PERSUASIVE ELEMENT

A slogan is a phrase or a short sentence used to represent or sell a particular brand. Usually, they’re designed to be short and snappy to help make them more memorable for readers. Slogans often use alliteration, rhyme, puns, or other figurative language techniques to make their message more memorable.

THE OFFER AS A PERSUASIVE ELEMENT

A good print ad makes readers an offer. This is usually in the form of a benefit the potential customer will gain or a motivating reason for finding out more about the product or service.

The Offer acts as a ‘hook’ that maintains the reader’s focus and draws them into the body of the ad. It can take the form of a time-limited discount or a 2-for-1 offer, etc. This Week Only – 25% Off!

Offers can also form part of the Call to Action at the end of the ad – more details on this soon.

THE BODY COPY AS A PERSUASIVE ELEMENT

Good body text (or body copy) in an ad is well-organized and quickly gets to the point. Readers want to get the necessary information with minimum effort. For the writer, this requires skill, patience, and much editing. There are several different types of body copy that students need to consider when writing their ads. Let’s take a look at 5 of these:

Factual – Factual copy gives the reader just enough factual information about the product or service to persuade them that it’s worth buying.

Humor – Using humor is a tried-and-tested means of making an ad memorable. To use it successfully, students will need to have an excellent understanding of their target audience.

Narrative – This copy tells a story as a way to draw the customer in. Many people are resistant to direct selling. Narrative copy uses the power of storytelling to build a connection with the customer to ‘soft sell’ to them.

Testimonial – While testimonial content usually comes from a customer, it can also come from experts, celebrities, or any kind of spokesperson. The testimonial is based on what the customer or spokesperson liked about the product or service. Testimonials are often woven into the humanity of the ad. This copy appeals to emotions. Rather than boasting directly of the benefits of the product or service, this type of ad evokes the senses and appeals to emotions.

The body copy might include details of available products or services, special offers, or specific information the advertiser wants potential customers to know. Subheadings and bullet points can help organize the text and make information easier to find. Texts should be short and easy to read. Walls of text can be off-putting; if the language is too complex, it may turn off potential customers.

THE CALL TO ACTION AS A PERSUASIVE ELEMENT

The Call to Action or CTA frequently comes at the end of the advertisement. It’s usually made up of a few sentences that invite the reader to take a specific action. This action might take the form of buying the product, sharing contact information, or, in the case of an online ad, clicking on a link to find out more about the product or service.

Call to action Contexts:

• An electronics company encouraging readers to buy their new computer
• A helpline requesting readers to call a number
• A political party urging readers to vote for them in an upcoming election
• A travel agent appealing to readers to book
• A travel agent appealing to readers to book their next holiday through them

There are many ways to write a CTA but some effective strategies that are commonly used include:

• Start with strong action words urging the reader to take action, e.g. Join, Discover, Order, Subscribe, Buy , etc.
• Let the reader know precisely what you want them to do.
• Ensure the necessary contact details are included, e.g. address, email, website address, phone numbers, etc.
• Motivate the reader to take action through the use of promotional offers, e.g. Get 50% off or Book your free consultation today!
• Provide a reason to take action by communicating the benefits, e.g. Losing weight, Saving money, Performing better, etc.
• Use numbers to appeal to the reader, e.g. Save 20% on your next video, Now with 33% extra free! etc.
• Make your audience an offer they can’t refuse, e.g. Book Your School Marketing and Promotion Analysis today – No Strings Attached.
• Create a sense of urgency by limiting a special offer in some way, e.g. 25% off for the first 100 customers, Free T-shirt if booked today, Buy 2 get 1 free this month only , etc.

PERSUASIVE DEVICES

The use of persuasive devices is an essential aspect of writing an advertisement. Our students must clearly understand the following strategies to confidently produce an advertisement that works.

ALLITERATION IN ADVERTISING

This is a literary device that involves the repetition of the initial letter or sound of consecutive words or words near each other. It’s more commonly associated with poetry than nonfiction text types; however, it is also a popular technique used in advertising. Alliteration can help make brand names more memorable. Examples abound, e.g. PayPal, Coca-Cola, Range Rover, and Krispy Kreme, to name but a few.

It’s not just in company names that you’ll find alliteration at work, though. We can also see alliteration alive in slogans such as:

The best four by four by far – Land Rover

Made to make your mouth water – Opal Fruits

Greyhound going great – Greyhound

Don’t dream it. Drive It. – Jaguar

EMOTIVE LANGUAGE

Using emotive language involves deliberately choosing words to provoke an emotional response in the reader. Different ways exist to express the same idea.

We can choose to put a positive, neutral, or negative spin on the same event through the words we select. For example:

Positive: She triumphed gloriously against stiff competition in the spelling bee.

Neutral: She won the spelling bee.

Negative: She received first prize in the poorly attended minor-league spelling bee.

Asking questions can help to engage the reader and persuade them to come to the desired conclusion by themselves. This is the ad equivalent of the ‘show, don’t tell’ mantra employed by fiction writers.

As with all the techniques and strategies, this technique must be used with care. It can have the opposite of the desired effect, such as building resistance in the reader, if used carelessly. Students should avoid making hyperbolic suggestions with their rhetorical questions. For example, the question “Want to lose 50lbs in 2 weeks?” implies a highly exaggerated claim that most intelligent readers will not believe. In this instance, the rhetorical question detracts from the ad’s effectiveness rather than enhances it.

The most important thing for students to remember when using this technique is that they should only ask rhetorical questions in their ads when they can predict with a reasonable degree of certainty what the answer will be in the reader’s mind. Nine times out of ten, that answer should be a simple yes. Questions should be straightforward, as should the answers they generate.

Advertisers know that we usually need to see or hear things several times before we’ll remember them. Also, the reader is more likely to believe something true the more frequently they hear it. For these reasons, advertisements rely heavily on repetition to drive their message home.

In advertising, the repetition of certain keywords or phrases is used to emphasize a specific idea or emotion. When used well, it can increase the overall effectiveness of an ad. However, students should be careful not to bore the reader. Repetition should always be used strategically.

Repetition doesn’t just involve the repeating of words. It can also include repeating colors and images.

Here are some examples of repetition at work.

ADVERTISING WRITING TIPS FOR STUDENTS

• Carefully Consider the recount TYPE and AUDIENCE before writing.
• Keep the title simple, e.g. My First Day at High School
• Organize the text using paragraphs, e.g. a new paragraph for each section. Use the first orientation paragraph to set the scene by introducing characters, setting, and context.
• Write the recount in chronological order – the order in which things happened and keep it in the past tense – relating events that have already happened.
• Choose the correct perspective from which to write the recount, e.g. personal recounts will be told from a first-person perspective (e.g. I, me, etc.). Factual recounts are most often told from the third-person perspective (e.g. she, he, they, etc.).
• Use time connectives to help organize the text and link the different sections of the recount together.
• Avoid repetitive use of language like then x, then y, and then z.”
• Aim to draw the reader into the action by using descriptive and figurative language
• Focus on the most critical/exciting parts.
• Use plenty of detail but ensure it is relevant to the purpose of the recount.

PERSUASIVE VOCABULARY

Vocabulary can elicit an emotional response beyond the literal meaning of the words used. When students understand this, they understand a powerful tool of persuasion.

PERSUASIVE ADVERTISING STRATEGIES

The Pain Solution: Persuades by highlighting a problem and suggesting a solution.

The Bandwagon: Persuades to do, think, or buy something because it is popular or because “everyone” is doing it.

The Testimonial: Persuades by using a previous customer or famous person to endorse a product or idea.

The Logical Appeal: Persuades by using reason, usually in the form of a claim backed by supporting evidence.

The Emotional Appeal: Persuades using words that appeal to emotions instead of logic or reason.

The Youth Appeal: Persuades by suggesting you’ll feel younger and more energetic using this product or service.

The Romantic Appeal: Persuades the reader by invoking the powerful and inspiring feelings of love.

The Empathy Appeal: Persuades the reader by encouraging them to identify with the plight of another.

The Testimonial: Persuades the reader by using a previous customer or famous person to endorse a product or idea

THE ROLE OF IMAGES IN AN ADVERTISEMENT

It’s a competitive world out there! Advertisements must catch and hold attention in an overwhelmingly noisy world, and images are a powerful means of doing this. Photos, pictures, diagrams, logos, color schemes – the visual look of an ad is as important as the text and, in some cases, more important!

Interesting images capture interest. They can intrigue the reader and encourage them to read the text they accompany.

Images also help the reader visualize the product or service offered. Advertising space can be expensive, and, as the old adage has it, a picture tells a thousand words. Images help advertisers make the most of their advertising real estate.

Students should carefully choose (or create) images to accompany their text. They should ensure that images are relevant and appropriate for their selling audience. They should look natural and genuine rather than posed.

Students can create their own images using their cell phones or graphic designer apps such as Canva .

This is our complete guide on writing an advertisement for students, and be sure to browse all our persuasive articles whilst you are here. Finally, we also have a complete unit of work on advertising for students and teachers that can be found here.

PERSUASIVE DEVICES TUTORIAL VIDEO

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Teaching Fact and Opinion

Persuasive Techniques in Advertising

• Resources & Preparation
• Instructional Plan
• Related Resources

Students will learn persuasive techniques used in advertising, specifically, pathos or emotion, logos or logic, and ethos or credibility/character. They will use this knowledge to analyze advertising in a variety of sources: print, television, and Web-based advertising. Students will also explore the concepts of demographics and marketing for a specific audience. The lesson will culminate in the production of an advertisement in one of several various forms of media, intended for a specific demographic.

Featured Resources

The Art of Rhetoric: Persuasive Techniques in Advertising : This online video describes how advertisers use pathos or emotion, logos or logic, and ethos or credibility/character in order to persuade consumers.

Persuasive Techniques in Advertising Video Transcription : A transcript of the video provided by Chelsea Majors

From Theory to Practice

Students encounter advertising at every turn of their lives: on public billboards, during nearly every television show, on the Internet, on their cell phones, and even in schools.  They are undoubtedly aware that these ads have a specific purpose: to sell something to them.  Rarely, however, do teenagers think precisely about how the text, sounds, and images in these advertisements have been carefully crafted to persuade them to purchase a product or service-and that these techniques are not far from those they have already used in their own persuasive writing. We emphasize the need to make our students more literate, and this lesson aims to improve their critical media literacy.  By reducing advertising to its basic rhetorical components, students "can begin to understand how to construct their own messages to convey the meanings they intend and to evoke the responses they desire" (173).  Becoming more media literate allows our youth to "create messages of their own so that they can communicate clearly, effectively, and purposefully" (176). Further Reading

Common Core Standards

This resource has been aligned to the Common Core State Standards for states in which they have been adopted. If a state does not appear in the drop-down, CCSS alignments are forthcoming.

State Standards

This lesson has been aligned to standards in the following states. If a state does not appear in the drop-down, standard alignments are not currently available for that state.

NCTE/IRA National Standards for the English Language Arts

• 1. Students read a wide range of print and nonprint texts to build an understanding of texts, of themselves, and of the cultures of the United States and the world; to acquire new information; to respond to the needs and demands of society and the workplace; and for personal fulfillment. Among these texts are fiction and nonfiction, classic and contemporary works.
• 3. Students apply a wide range of strategies to comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and appreciate texts. They draw on their prior experience, their interactions with other readers and writers, their knowledge of word meaning and of other texts, their word identification strategies, and their understanding of textual features (e.g., sound-letter correspondence, sentence structure, context, graphics).
• 4. Students adjust their use of spoken, written, and visual language (e.g., conventions, style, vocabulary) to communicate effectively with a variety of audiences and for different purposes.
• 6. Students apply knowledge of language structure, language conventions (e.g., spelling and punctuation), media techniques, figurative language, and genre to create, critique, and discuss print and nonprint texts.
• 8. Students use a variety of technological and information resources (e.g., libraries, databases, computer networks, video) to gather and synthesize information and to create and communicate knowledge.
• 12. Students use spoken, written, and visual language to accomplish their own purposes (e.g., for learning, enjoyment, persuasion, and the exchange of information).

Materials and Technology

• Video of television program, including commercials  
• TV with VCR/DVD player  
• Advertisements from magazines  
• Persuasive Techniques in Advertising online video
• Persuasive Techniques in Advertising Video Transcription  
• Internet-connected computer with speakers and projector  
• Web Resources for Finding Example Advertisements
• Demographics: Who Are You?
• Advertising Advantages: Television vs. Print vs. Online  
• Targeted Commercials  
• Commercial Dig  
• Commercial Dig Reflection Questions  
• Analyzing Ads  
• Planning Your Advertisement  
• Commercial Assessment  
• Persuasive Techniques in Advertising Reflection Questions

Preparation

• Make copies of the necessary handouts.  
• Gather advertisements from magazines-ideally, two per student. Look for ads that lend themselves well to the assignment, with a balance of text and images and with fairly discernable examples of pathos, logos, and ethos. Consider asking your school library media specialist for issues of magazines he or she plans to discard.  
• Record at least part of a television program, including the entirety of one commercial break, for showing in class.  
• If students will be using the Venn Diagram , Comic Creator , or Printing Press , arrange for them to have access during the appropriate sessions.  
• Preview the Persuasive Techniques in Advertising online video and obtain proper technology for projecting it in the classroom or computer lab. Also check out the  Persuasive Techniques in Advertising Video Transcription .  
• Arrange for students to have access to computers for Sessions Three and Four.  
• Bookmark the Web Resources for Finding Example Advertisements and preview the sites before recommending which ones students visit for example advertisements.  
• Familiarize yourself with the technologies discussed in the final session, deciding which you are prepared to ask or require students to use in the production of their own ads. Contact your school library media specialist or technology specialist for assistance.

Student Objectives

Students will

• demonstrate an understanding of three persuasive techniques (pathos, logos, and ethos) and other advertising strategies.  
• analyze advertisements according to their employment of these techniques.  
• demonstrate an understanding of the concept of demographics and specific audience.  
• synthesize this knowledge into advertisements of their own creation.

Session One

• Where do you encounter advertising?  (They will likely mention television, billboards, radio, Websites, school hallways, and so on.)  
• Which specific advertisements "stick in your head?"  
• What makes these advertisements memorable?  (They might mention music, catchy slogans, celebrity appearance, the appeal of the product itself, and so forth.)  
• Do you think advertisements have an effect on your personal interests?  
• Explain to students that advertisers very carefully construct their ads to make them memorable and appealing to consumers, and that the ways in which they try to convince them to buy products are similar to the ways they have been taught to write persuasively, using certain techniques and aiming toward a particular audience.  
• Distribute the Persuasive Techniques in Advertising handout and introduce the concepts of pathos, logos, and ethos, defined at the top of the handout.  Students should understand that these rhetorical strategies are similar to those used in a persuasive writing assignment, and that they will use these strategies when creating their own commercial by the end of this unit.  Encourage students to make connections to examples of each of the terms they have used in persuasive writing of their own. Note: This is an appropriate time to clarify that the word logos in this context should not be confused with a brand-specific image or insignia referred to as a logo.  
• After explaining the concepts of pathos, logos, and ethos, have students practice identifying the three techniques by placing a P , L , or E in the blank next to the examples at the bottom of this handout.  Have students share their responses with a partner and check for understanding by conducting a brief discussion of the examples.  
• Although most of these examples were designed to have one clear answer, be sure to emphasize to the students that pathos, logos, and ethos are not always separate entities and may often overlap with one another. For example, "Nine out of ten dentists choose Crest," suggests that the dentists are credible experts (ethos), and also includes a statistic (logos).   
• Deepen students' understanding of the concepts of pathos, logos, and ethos with visual examples by sharing with them the Persuasive Techniques in Advertising online video . You may want to pause and have students explain how the television, print, and online advertisements utilize the three rhetorical strategies.  The narration in the commercial further explains their use in each advertisement. There is also the  Persuasive Techniques in Advertising Video Transcription .  
• Briefly discuss the "Other Advertising Strategies" section of Persuasive Techniques in Advertising handout.  Explain that these are more specific types of strategies that advertisers use and that many overlap with pathos, logos, and ethos.   For example, you may mention that patriotism is a strategy meant to evoke certain emotions, and would therefore constitute a use of pathos.  
• Close the session by explaining to students that in future sessions, they will be examining existing advertisements with their new analytical skill and applying it to creating ads of their own.  
• Encourage students to begin looking at advertisements they encounter in terms of these three techniques.

Session Two

• Begin with a brief review of the concepts of pathos, logos, and ethos from the previous session.  Ask students to demonstrate their growing understanding by providing examples of each of the techniques from advertisements they have recently seen.  
• Now introduce the term demographics to students: the characteristics that make up a human population such as gender, age, and race.  Have students discover which demographic group(s) they fit into by completing the Demographics: Who are you? handout.  When creating their group commercials in a later session, students will need to consider the demographics for their product. Explain to students that this is how advertisers think of consumers: not as individuals, but as members of groups that tend to believe, behave, or purchase in certain patterns. Even when an advertisement is appealing to the idea of individuality (such as Burger King's "Have It Your Way" promotion), advertisers are appealing to the demographic group of "people who like to be thought of as individuals," not to any single consumer.  
• Continue the discussion of demographics by distributing the Targeted Commercials handout, which will further explore the concept of demographics. Ask students to begin applying their understanding of demographics and targeted advertising by showing the first part of a television program of your choice.  Since the purpose of this activity is to show how advertisers cater to a show's intended audience, you may want to make sure you are presenting a show with commercials that very obviously target a specific demographic.   
• Before watching, share with students a brief description of the show they are about to see, including race/gender/class of the main characters, genre of the program, and the time/date/channel on which the program aired.  Have students use these factors (and any other prior knowledge they may have of the show) to determine the probable demographics.  Students should indicate their choices on the handout .  
• While students watch the commercial break(s), have them take brief notes to remind them of the products being advertised.  
• Have students complete the "After the program" response question at the bottom of the Targeted Commercials handout.  Then discuss the degrees to which the advertisements match the demographics of the likely intended audience of the television program.   
• This would be an appropriate time to talk about clear evidence that programming and advertising are marketed to specific groups.  Lifetime: Television for Women, Spike! TV, Logo, and Black Entertainment Television all exist not only to give viewers programming they might like, but also to allow advertisers to target their audiences more specifically.  
• Distribute the Commercial Dig activity, explaining to students that this is a long-term assignment that requires them to keep track of eight commercials viewed during one television program and to explain briefly the purpose of each advertised product. Remind students that the commercials they record on this chart should all come from the same show, as the completed chart will be used to re-emphasize the concepts of demographics and targeted advertising. Inform them that this assignment should be completed by Session Four and ask if there are questions before closing the session.

Session Three

• Remind students what they have learned so far in this lesson: techniques advertisers use to persuade consumers to buy their products and the concept of "targeting" certain audience demographics to make the process of persuasion more efficient and focused.  
• Explain to students that they will have the opportunity to apply this knowledge by looking at some real ads for real products.  Share that the goal of this activity will be to examine how advertisers skillfully use multiple strategies to persuade their audiences.  
• Distribute the Analyzing Ads handout and discuss the expectations and format for response.  Students will analyze six advertisements: two print ads, two television commercials, and two Internet advertisements.  The Internet advertisements should take the form of marketing Websites featuring a particular product, or pop-ups/embedded ads in Websites unrelated to the product.  
• This activity will allow students to practice their recognition of pathos, logos, and ethos in three different modes of advertising, preparing them for the creation of their own commercials.  Students should also record any of the "other strategies" explained on Persuasive Techniques in Advertising handout, also required as part of the final project.  
• Share with students the print ads you already collected as well as the Web Resources for Finding Example Advertisements and have them look for ads. Point out to students that they may wish to access television ads on their own time, including during their work on the Commercial Dig activity. Depending on how efficiently students work through this activity, this part of the lesson will likely extend into the next session.

Session Four

• At an appropriate time in student engagement in the continuation of the analysis activity from the previous session, distribute the Commercial Assessment rubric and explain that you will use it to evaluate the commercials they will produce in an upcoming session. Ask students, in small groups, to review one of the teacher- or student-selected commercials and apply the rubric to the commercial.  Students should determine whether the commercial effectively utilizes pathos, logos, and/or ethos, and note their score on the rubric . Students should also indicate the effectiveness of any of the "other strategies" on the second page of the rubric .  
• When students are ready, check for understanding by several volunteers present one of the advertisements they analyzed, briefly discussing the effective use of persuasive techniques.  
• Wrap up this section of the lesson by using the Advertising Advantages: Television vs. Print vs. Online to engage students in a discussion of the advantages of each mode of advertising, using the examples on the handout as a guide.  This discussion will help students decide which modes of advertising they might use when creating their commercials in the next session.  You may wish to use the Venn Diagram to facilitate this discussion.  
• Remind students that they will need to have their completed Commercial Dig activity ready for discussion in the next session.

Session Five

• Ask students to get out their completed Commercial Dig activity sheets.  Give students the opportunity to solidify their understanding of the concept of demographics by working through the analysis tasks in the Commercial Dig Reflection Questions .  Have students use their completed charts to answer the reflection questions . Students should talk through their responses with a partner before producing a written response.  
• Which advertisements could be viewed as harmful or unfair to a group of people?  
• Can targeting a specific demographic sometimes encourage stereotyping?  
• When do you see stereotyping used in advertisements?
• You may wish to give students access to the online articles Target me with your ads, please and Mixed Messages , which discuss how Websites use technology to target consumers and the use of billboards in impoverished and minority neighborhoods, respectively, as part of this discussion.

Session Six

• Students will use this session to begin to synthesize all they have learned about advertising and begin creating a commercial for a fictional product.  First ask students to form small groups and decide on a product to advertise.  
• Next, students should determine the target audience for their product, remembering previous lessons on demographics.  
• Depending on available time and resources, ask students to create a print, filmed, live, and/or Internet advertisement for their product.  They should take into account their observations from the Advertising Advantages: Television vs. Print vs. Online .  
• Have students use the Planning Your Advertisement sheet to plan for an advertisement that will target the previously determined demographic, and demonstrate pathos, logos, ethos, and three of the "other strategies." This may also be an appropriate time to review the expectations set forth in the Commercial Assessment rubric.  
• Give students access to the Comic Creator and/or the Printing Press to create the print advertisement.  Free software such as iMovie and Windows Movie Maker may be used to edit any filmed commercials.  Web creation sites such as PBWorks and Google Sites may be used to create Internet-based advertisements.

Session Seven (after students have had time to prepare their advertisements)

• Give students time to meet in their groups and plan the presentation of their ads.  
• Have each group present, allowing time for discussion with the class about the effective use of persuasive techniques in each advertisement.  
• After the presentations and discussion are complete, distribute the  Persuasive Techniques in Advertising Reflection Questions and give students time to solidify their learning by responding to the four questions.

Student Assessment / Reflections

• Use the lesson reflection questions to allow students to think about what they have learned about advertising and persuasion.  
• Use the Commercial Assessment rubric to assess student work on their advertisements.
• Professional Library
• Student Interactives
• Lesson Plans
• Strategy Guides
• Calendar Activities

The Comic Creator invites students to compose their own comic strips for a variety of contexts (prewriting, pre- and postreading activities, response to literature, and so on).

The interactive Printing Press is designed to assist students in creating newspapers, brochures, and flyers.

This interactive tool allows students to create Venn diagrams that contain two or three overlapping circles, enabling them to organize their information logically.

Students analyze rhetorical strategies in online editorials, building knowledge of strategies and awareness of local and national issues. This lesson teaches students connections between subject, writer, and audience and how rhetorical strategies are used in everyday writing.

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Marketing Teaching Activities for High School Students

Teaching marketing to high school students.

Whether you’re teaching a structured business or commerce course, or simply incorporating marketing concepts into your usual syllabus, then variety, student engagement and interest, along with valuable learning outcomes are usually key goals.

Add the additional challenges of unique learning styles, peer pressure and influence, lifestyle and technology distractions, and the usual – do I need to know this for the exam? – then we sometimes have a complex teaching path to navigate.

But there is a teaching upside when it comes to teaching marketing – and that’s all your high school students being experienced consumers. They have all been shopping, bought and used many products, seen ads, engaged with social media, know and prefer brands, and are quite savvy about the better products for them. This is a great starting point.

Welcome to Great Ideas for Teaching Marketing 

This website is dedicated to teaching activities, tools, games, exercises, case studies, class discussions – in fact a whole variety of tasks – all designed to help engage, encourage, and educate students ranging from mid high school age right up to Masters level teaching.

Great Ideas is structured as a pick and choose website, where you can quickly go through the 100s of teaching activities to find the ones that best suit your student cohort.

Let’s get started… below I have curated a selection of teaching activities and tasks that would work very well when teaching marketing (and related business concepts) to high school students.

Please Note: The below is a mix of both FREE and MEMBER ONLY teaching activities…

Teaching Marketing Ideas for High School Students

Games, tools, and quizzes.

Marketing Mix Sim Game

This Sim Game is structured around the 4Ps marketing mix. Students manage up to 2 brands across 5 rounds to see which team can have the most marketing success. The game is Excel-based and is easy-to-use.

Digital Escape Rooms for Teaching Marketing

These three escape rooms consists of 10 different challenges, built around a theme of a job interview or being a marketing expert. Each challenge is in sequence and needs to be solved first before the next challenge is released – students cannot skip ahead until they solve the puzzle first.

Marketing Trivia Two Video Quizzes

Here are two multiple-choice question video quizzes. One on general marketing trivia, and one called ‘guess the entrepreneur’. These video quizzes are designed as icebreakers and team-building exercises.

Product Mix MCQ Revision VIDEO

This is a 20 multiple-choice question video quiz on the PRODUCT MIX. It is a fun and interactive approach to revision for students, and a helpful insight for instructors on which new product topics need further explanation and discussion.

Pizza Store Design Game

This is a free marketing game that requires students working in teams to design their own pizza store and compete with other student groups. Available in an interactive and non-interactive version. Ideal for teaching the full marketing mix.

CASE STUDIES

Patagonia Case Study: Marketing to Anti-Consumers

This case looks at Patagonia, a company that is highly successful in terms of growth and profits, but also makes a substantial contribution to the environment, sustainability, and even to the anti-consumer movement and ideology.

Bed Bath & Beyond Case Study

In April 2023, superstore Bed Bath & Beyond filed for bankruptcy, following several years of misalignments to the changing environment. Many factors contributed to their demise – but was poor marketing mainly to blame?

Toys R Us Bankruptcy: Marketing Environmental Factors

In this activity, students review a video on the rise and fall of Toys R Us and identify the key marketing environmental factors that they failed to adapt to.

Pringles Chips WTF (Sales Promotion Campaign)

This activity is built around a new flavor campaign for the well-known snack brand Pringles. This campaign is a mix of a sales promotion and a product line extension.

KFC Edible Nail Polish: Brand Extension

Do your students agree with KFC’s decision to extend their brand into chicken flavored nail polish? Why/why not?

Real Burger World (RBW) Case Study

RBW was a small hamburger chain established in the UK in the early 2000’s. Despite a significant financial investment, professional management, the use of branding consultants, and extensive media coverage, the business did not prove to be viable and closed within a few years.

New Coke Case Study (Part 1)

A role play version for a New Coke case study, where students assume the role of key participants in the decision. An interesting challenge for marketing students.

Tropicana’s Packaging Case Study

In this activity we are going back to 2009 when Tropicana underwent a significant packaging redesign that did not go as planned. Although this occurred a number of years ago, it is a “classic” case study that all marketing students and practitioners should be aware of. It is especially useful for understanding the importance of packaging, branding, and what drives customer loyalty and repeat (habitual) purchases.

TEACHING BRANDING

Working with Brand Personality

In this exercise, students describe well-known brands in terms of their brand personality. A list of personality traits and descriptors are provided. In addition, the activity explores the role of brand personality versus more tangible brand metrics.

Which Brand Strategy?

For this proposed new snack food product, what is the most appropriate branding strategy? A brand extension, or a multi-brand, and so on.

Will You Pay More Just for the Brand?

In this very simple and fun exercise, students have to choose between two identical products – but one has the advantage of a very strong brand versus an unknown brand – will your students pay more just for the brand and why?

TEACHING PROMOTION

Developing a Promotional Strategy

This activity is based on a chain of fitness centers. They want to increase their ongoing level of promotional activity, but are unsure how best to promote themselves in the marketplace.

Setting Promotional Objectives

Students assume responsibility for the promotion of McDonald’s ‘healthy menu’ campaign (designed to help reposition the brand), and they need to select the most appropriate promotional objectives.

Informative, Persuasive, or Reminder Advertising?

In this simple, but quite challenging, exercise students classify ads into the categories of informative, persuasive, and reminder advertising. This is a great task to help students distinguish between these somewhat confusing differences. The “need” for reminder style advertising is also explored.

Difference Between Target Markets and Target Audiences

In this exercise, students will be presented with a mix of target markets and multiple target audiences for a new social initiative. It is a helpful activity for clarifying the difference between target markets and audiences. And it is very flexible, as it can be run as a case study discussion, as a marketing debate, or even a student role-play.

TEACHING SEGMENTATION and TARGET MARKETS

How to Segment a Market

The task is to construct your a segmentation approach, using a list of 15 possible market segments that could exist in virtually any market.

Which Segmentation Base?

Students need to identify what type of segmentation base that the firm is using from the list of segmentation bases provided.

Using Different Bases for Market Segmentation

In this activity, students need to segment consumers – based on their comments, attitudes, and behaviors – using demographic, psychographic, and behavioral segmentation bases, to construct three different segmentation structures. Then they need to determine which segmentation structure is the best from a marketing perspective.

How to Develop a Segment Profile

An in-class exercise for marketing students to develop a better understanding of a market segment through constructing a segment profile.

Meeting Target Market Needs

The task is to outline a marketing mix for a holiday that would best suit different market segments.

Target Market Assessment

In this activity, students compare the assessment factors for three market segments. They need to rate each factor and then choose the best segment overall to be their chosen target market.

TEACHING POSITIONING

Poor Target Market or Poor Positioning?

This case study outlines a new retail store concept, which has proved somewhat disappointing for the two owners. The student task is to evaluate whether they adequately identified a viable target market and also to evaluate the appropriateness of their positioning

Repositioning the Cruise Ship Industry

In this activity, students examine the opportunities and challenges of repositioning by reviewing the rise, fall, and then rise again of the cruising industry.

Positioning Kid’s Home-delivered Food

For this activity, students need to select the most appropriate positioning for a firm that currently home delivers pre-prepared food to people who are trying to lose weight. They have now decided to pursue an opportunity in providing a somewhat similar product, but this time, targeted at children.

Snicker’s Innovative SEM Campaign

This video-based activity highlights Snickers Misspelled Words campaign that they executed through Google search ads to successfully reinforce their brand positioning.

Pepsi AM Breakfast Soda: Classic Case Study

This is another classic case study, when Pepsi tried to create a breakfast market for cola. This activity is structured in two teaching formats and can be run as a role-play exercise or as a case study discussion.

TEACHING MARKETING STRATEGY

Growing Market Share: Burger King Case Study

In this mini case study, students assess Burger King’s strategy to grow its market share in their home market in 2023 and beyond. The firm undertook an aggressive marketing program across multiple marketing mix elements, and started to look at product-based (rather than firm-based) differentiation as the key to their growth success.

Making a Marketing Strategy Choice

This is a mini case study of a hypothetical toy manufacturer (Fun 4 U) that is faced with two distinct marketing strategy choices. The student task is to determine, based on the information available, the best approach for the firm.

Pepsi Changes Its Logo

In 2023 Pepsi announced its first logo redesign in 15 years, to coincide with their 125th anniversary. And while Pepsi are very excited about their new design, your students will need to address whether the new logo is better and whether it even matters for an iconic brand like Pepsi?

SWOT Analysis: What Goes in Which Box?

While SWOT analysis is an effective tool for synthesizing the situational analysis component of a marketing plan, it is often challenging working out where in SWOT that the finding should be allocated. In this task, students sort through sets of marketing information and classify them into the SWOT matrix boxes.

EVEN MORE ENGAGING TEACHING IDEAS

Developing a Marketing Mix

In this exercise, students select the most appropriate marketing strategy and then develop a suitable marketing mix, based upon a proposed new chain of Italian and pizza restaurants.

Quiz: What Area of Marketing are You Most Suited For?

Do you have students asking “What area of marketing should I go into?” It’s a common question for students nearing the end of their studies. Well, here is the solution – a quiz that sorts students into one of 24 profiles and then provides a summary of their work preferences and traits, along with suggested marketing specializations that they should pursue. A great -in-class or take home exercises.

New Product Concept Generation Using Creativity

This is a creativity exercise where students sort through forced relationships of flavors and product categories in order to identify potential new product ideas for snack foods. It should be a relatively fun and enjoyable exercise for students, as well as demonstrating a good technique for finding new product ideas in a cluttered and crowded market.

What Do You Want a Marketer to Do?

In this activity, students need to consider what is the primary purpose of marketing? While many students will opt for marketing plans, new products, communication campaigns – is that what marketing is really all about?

KFC’s App Gamifies Snack time

This is a great example of using a market insight to change consumer behavior. In this activity, KFC created a smart phone game to deliver sales promotion incentives and drive sales.

Pepsi Next Case Study

This case study provides students with an interesting insight into PepsiCo’s new product process and some of the challenging decisions that they faced along the way.

AND ALSO CHECK OUT…

Fun Marketing Activities for Students

Teaching marketing should be fun and engaging for students and, as instructors, we should strive to “bring marketing alive” for students through the use of various activities, games, tools, and exercises. Review a summary of the available activities.

List of All Free Marketing Tools

This is a handy list of all the free tools available on the GITM website. Here you can find all the download links for the tools, as well as how-to-use videos.

List of All Marketing Tools for Members

A list of all the free and member only tools available on Great Ideas – contains over 20 tools, premium templates, and games – all in one handy place.

Flipped Classrooms for Teaching Marketing

Flipped classrooms can improve learning outcomes for students. Check out my top 11 tips for flipped classroom when teaching marketing.

Games and Gamification in Teaching Marketing

The use of teaching games and gamification in marketing education is a natural fit and is a growing trend. Find out more about these important topics and find suitable games, tools, and tips.

Top 10 Tips for Teaching Marketing

Teaching marketing effectively is a challenging profession, so as a guide, please check out my top 10 handy tips for teaching marketing.

BECOME A GREAT IDEAS FOR TEACHING MARKETING MEMBER

Consider Joining as a Great Ideas Member

GITM members get access to exclusive content, new activities weekly, access to ALL solutions, and ability to post comments and ask questions. Check out the details here.

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20 Creative Classroom Marketing Activities 

April 21, 2023 //  by  Seda Unlucay

These 20 engaging marketing activities offer more than just a fun learning experience for kids. By providing interactive tasks that focus on marketing concepts and techniques, they can help students develop important critical thinking, problem-solving, and communication skills. Students can also express their creativity, work together to create marketing campaigns and analyze the effectiveness of different strategies. Not only will they gain a better understanding of the world of business and marketing, but they’ll also develop an appreciation for how these concepts are applied in everyday life. 

1. PowerPoint Activity for Students

This comprehensive presentation covers various aspects of advertising, such as its purpose, impact, motivation, techniques, hidden ads, product placement, celebrity endorsements, guidelines, and ‘fake news’. Engaging visuals and clear information encourage discussions among students about the media that influences them.

Learn More: Twinkl

2. Debate About the Elements of Marketing

Students are provided with background information on product placement, its history, and examples of its use in various contexts, such as movies and sports events. They are then encouraged to discuss and argue for or against the practice of product placement in popular culture.

3. Evaluating the Influence of Ads on Target Markets

In this experiment-based activity, students will select 10 different types of food and create a survey asking participants to rate their desire to eat each item on a scale of 1 to 10. This makes for a fantastic opportunity to learn about different types of advertising and how they can influence people’s preferences. 

Learn More: Edu c ation

4. Make a Marketing Plan 

In this activity, children are asked to create an advertisement that would persuade people to come to the United States; showcasing the country’s positive aspects. This exercise helps students develop their creativity, persuasive writing, and drawing skills while gaining a deeper understanding of the historical context of immigration in the U.S. 

Learn More: Education

5. Media Literacy Activity

In this media literacy activity, children learn to be more discerning consumers of various media forms, such as television, print media, and the internet. Tim and Moby from BrainPOP guide kids through a process of understanding advertising, recognizing persuasive techniques, and separating facts from opinions. By learning these strategies, children can better decode and analyze content from TV shows, newspapers, and websites. 

Learn More: Brain Pop

6. Product Development Marketing Project

In this cross-curricular activity, students work together to research sneaker design, create their own sneakers, and develop a marketing and economic plan for their product. This unit helps students apply knowledge from various subjects, such as science (running principles), math (marketing and finances), and language arts (presentations and research).

Learn More: Teachers Pay Teachers

7. Marketing Case Study

This activity helps students explore the history of the Shamrock Shake and analyze the marketing lessons learned from this popular seasonal product. Students use critical thinking skills to complete a media analysis, assess other seasonal food items, and explore the marketing strategies behind those products. 

8. Read A Book To Learn About Marketing Skills

This digital picture book introduces children to the art of crafting convincing advertisements, which can be an engaging and useful skill for their future. It not only enhances their language and writing skills but also encourages creativity and critical thinking. 

Learn More: Epic

9. Hold a Market Day

Hosting a market day can provide a fun and engaging way for students to learn about marketing concepts and business skills, including budgeting, advertising, and customer service. It can also foster creativity and innovation, as kids brainstorm and create their own unique products to sell.

Learn More: Money Prodigy

10. Study Marketing Concepts

This quick and engaging exercise is designed to help kids build their vocabulary in the context of advertising and marketing. It helps students reinforce their understanding of advertising and marketing concepts, while also improving their reading comprehension and identification skills. 

Learn More: ISL Collective

11. Create a Monster Advertisement

This fun and imaginative activity involves creating an advertisement for a fictional monstrous product that could appear in a monster newspaper or magazine. Kids are encouraged to be inventive with their ideas; designing products and services tailored to monsters and coming up with catchy slogans and pitches.

Learn More: Kendra Kandle Star

12. Create a TV Commercial 

In this activity, students work in groups to create a unique TV commercial. After determining their product or service, they develop an outline, incorporating slogans or jingles. Finally, groups present their work to the class, either by describing, singing, or acting out their commercials.

Learn More: Art Class Curator

13. Advertising Techniques Project

This engaging project aims to teach students about various advertising techniques, such as bandwagon, testimonial, name-calling, and repetition, by having them create their own sample advertisements. Creating their own ads can help students become more aware of the persuasive strategies used in real-life advertisements, helping them become more informed consumers.

Learn More: Upper Elementary Snapshots

14. Analyze Marketing Techniques in an Ad

This teacher-created worksheet provides a brief text about advertising, explaining what it is and its purpose. Students are then required to read the passage and answer a series of comprehension questions. By working through this worksheet, children not only learn about advertising but also practice and develop essential literacy skills, such as reading fluency, comprehension, and critical thinking. 

Learn More: Primary Leap

15. Social Media Marketing Analysis

This lesson introduces students to easily confused words and the use of prepositions while also exploring the concept of micro-influencers and their impact on the marketing world. Learning about this real-world example of social media marketing can help students who are interested in pursuing a career in these fields.

Learn More: ESL Brain

16. Analyze the Effectiveness of an Ad

For this activity, children will employ critical thinking to examine a media advertisement before determining the message of the ad and identifying the intended audience. Students will learn to critically analyze media content and enhance their understanding of advertising techniques.

Learn More: Worksheet Place

17. Focus on the Power of Slogans

This activity prompts children to come up with a catchy slogan for a product or service before encouraging them to consider famous slogans they already know. Apart from learning about the importance of strong marketing messages, this exercise also enhances their language abilities.

18. Marketing Crossword 

This fun and engaging marketing crossword puzzle can help kids develop their critical thinking and problem-solving skills. It’s perfect for a low-prep brain break activity or formative assessment task. 

Learn More: Word Mint

19. Marketing Escape Room Challenge

This marketing-themed escape room challenge encourages problem-solving and critical thinking, allowing students to apply their knowledge of the four Ps of marketing (product, price, place, and promotion) in a real-life business scenario. The lesson is easy to prepare, with the task cards just needing to be printed in advance. 

Learn More: TES

20. Create a Super Bowl Commercial

The objective of the lesson is for students to discuss the persuasive strategies employed in various Super Bowl ads. Students are given a note-taking sheet to record their ideas while watching the ads before sharing them with their peers in structured presentations. 

Learn More: Sadler School

Admongo.gov

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Lesson Plans

• Free Lesson Plans
• Teacher Videos
• State Standards

From buses to TV to the Web, ads are everywhere, and many target kids ages 8 to 12! Do your students have the critical thinking skills to understand ads, what they're saying, and what they want kids to do?

To help you equip your students with these valuable skills, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the nation's consumer protection agency, has created a comprehensive advertising literacy program, which includes free lesson plans. Developed for 5th and 6th grade classrooms with Scholastic, Inc., the lesson plans meet national standards for language arts and social studies, and many teachers report using them successfully in grades ranging from 3-9. As part of the FTC's Admongo campaign, the program helps kids learn to ask three key "critical thinking" questions when they encounter advertising:

• Who is responsible for the ad?
• What is the ad actually saying?
• What does the ad want me to do?

Do you want to teach your students to better understand advertising? Use the lessons and tools below to help your students answer critical questions and guide them toward becoming smarter consumers.

Hard Copies

Hard copies of the Admongo lesson plans are available for free. To order, visit ftc.gov/bulkorder .

Electronic Files

Use the below links to print out the entire program in just three files.

Classroom Poster

This printable poster can be hung in your classroom to get students excited about advertising literacy and serve as a reminder of the three key critical thinking questions.

Part 1: Lesson Plans and Student Worksheets

This packet has all of the in-class materials in one document, ready for review and reproduction. It includes an Education Standards Chart so you can easily see how Admongo fits into your requirements. Additional online lessons can be accessed and downloaded by clicking on Lessons 1 and 2 below.

Part 2: Bonus Activities and Family Handouts

This packet contains materials for continuing ad literacy at home, including homework assignments, a letter to parents, and a variety of family activities.

Lessons, Worksheets and Take-Home Handouts

The below links will allow you to explore and access the individual components of the Admongo classroom program.

Your students are exposed to advertising throughout their day. Use these lessons to equip your students with the critical thinking skills they need to navigate today’s media-rich world.

Lesson 1: Ad Awareness

This lesson invites students to explore what advertising is, what ads do, and who's responsible for the messages in ads.

Lesson 2: Ad Targeting and Techniques

This lesson allows students to learn how (and why!) advertisers choose certain techniques to reach a certain target audience.

Lesson 3: Ad Creation

This lesson lets students see how research affects how ads are created and targeted - and lets students create their own ad.

Lesson 4: A Smarter Consumer

This lesson asks students to reflect on how understanding ads helps them make better buying decisions (and be smarter consumers).

Student Worksheets

Use the printables below to support your teaching of the Admongo program. Each worksheet accompanies a lesson or bonus activity and can be used in the classroom or sent home with students for homework.

"Be Ad Aware" (PDF)

This worksheet asks your students to work in groups to review and compare advertisements.

"What's in an Ad?" (PDF)

This homework activity will encourage students to evaluate an ad and discuss what they think about it.

"Ad Techniques" (PDF)

This printable provides your students with details about different techniques that advertisers use and how to recognize them.

"What is an Ad Saying?" (PDF)

Students will compare and contrast two ads to determine how different ad techniques are used.

"Create an Ad!" (PDF)

Give your students a chance to work together to create their own ads, including discovering their audience, choosing techniques, and placing the ad.

"Ad Literacy Quiz" (PDF)

Test your students’ knowledge with this helpful assessment tool.

Family Handouts

Encourage ad literacy at home by sending the following activities home with your students.

Super Ad-tastic Scavenger Hunt (PDF)

Ads are everywhere! Embark on a home scavenger hunt to see all the ads you can find—the results might surprise you!

Track Your Ads (PDF)

Are advertisers aiming their ads in the right direction? Watch your favorite family TV show and complete this ad-tracking activity to find out.

Promote Your School! (PDF)

Use your new understanding of advertising to create an ad promoting your child’s school!

10 Essential Concepts to Cover in High School Marketing Class

I love teaching Marketing! There are so many awesome opportunities to be creative in a Marketing class. We used to have a full year Marketing class and several years ago they changed it to a half year because I needed freed up to teach another prep.  

When they changed our Marketing class to a semester instead of a full year, I didn’t feel like we should call it Marketing because I didn’t feel like I could effectively get through the Seven (7) Functions of Marketing in a semester; therefore, I renamed my course “Sales and Promotion.” My Marketing course focuses on the selling and promoting aspect of marketing instead of all seven functions. I do cover the seven functions of marketing in my class, but I don’t do a deep dive into all seven. 

I introduce the Seven Functions of Marketing with this introductory lesson activity.

There are 10 Key Marketing Concepts that I believe every Marketing Class should cover:

• The Functions of Marketing
• Target Market/Ideal customer
• Demographics
• The Marketing Mix (4 Ps of Marketing)
• SWOT Analysis
• Unique selling point or position
• Marketing Pitch
• Marketing Careers and opportunities
• Ways to Advertise (Marketing Channels)
• Fair packaging and labeling

I have resources to teach all of these concepts – Check out the Marketing Section of my TpT Store.

• Read more about: Blog , Marketing

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High School Marketing Project Ideas

High School Business Projects

Teachers in today's fast paced world of education are constantly seeking new and innovative ways to get their students actively involved in learning. When teaching business courses such as marketing, it is extremely important to assure that the assignments are project oriented and also teach the principles of promotion and distribution that are important within the business world. These are a few sample projects that would utilize the four P's of marketing: product, promotion, price and place.

Coupon Creation

In order to create a marketing project that is realistic and feasible, it is important to work with real businesses. Contact a local business and make an effort to work with the owner or the manager to create a coupon or a flyer that would be an effective marketing strategy for that particular business. Remember, your goal is to make more people aware of where the business is located, why this product is better than the other and how you can save the customer money. This project reinforces all of the P's of marketing, price, place, promotion and product. This coupon should be only reproducible with the permission and cooperation of the business owner.

Commercials

One of the best ways to market an idea or product is through a video. Many high school students today have access to video recorders and video editing software right at their high school. A great project to reinforce the marketing principals, product and promotion would be have the students create an original video in the form of a commercial for a product of their choice. By creating a commercial to promote a local band or a school event, students would be able to see the success of their promotional work.

Newspaper Advertisements

Newspaper advertisements are a great form of marketing. Working together with the journalism teacher or with the head of the school newspaper, students could see first hand the power of print. Students would learn the importance of newspaper advertising by working together to create an ad in their own school's newspaper. By contacting a local business and coming up with a slogan for the ad, students could see that by marketing a business to a particular age group through a high school newspaper, their results will be very specific, therefore reinforcing the principals of promotion and place.

Online Social Networking

With the Internet being one of the biggest channels of advertising, creating a page on a social networking site would be a great way to market a product or an idea. One specific marketing strategy could include building a student council campaign through the use of a social networking site. Students would learn that the amount of traffic their page receives will increase their likelihood of being heard. A student running for a class office could utilize their social networking site to increase their voters. Students who are not running for office would manage the other's campaigns. Utilizing a tool that many students already use on a daily basis will increase their interest in the project.

High school students love to eat. What better way to get others involved in a marketing project than to have the students set up a taste test. The students will be required to decide upon a food to market and then purchase the competitor's version of this food as well. Once the different foods have been removed from their original packaging, the taste testing begins. Have a taste test and let the students decide if his product truly is the best. After all of the eating is finished, students will poll their classmates to see if the students have been properly convinced to buy the product being promoted. This will teach the students that product and promotion are very key elements in marketing.

Related Articles

High School Projects for Entrepreneurship

High School Accounting Activities

Activities for Marketing Classes

The History of Print Advertising

List of marketing concepts.

HTML Projects for High School

Product Ideas for a Marketing Class

Business Project Examples

• Moneyinstructor.com: Marketing
• Lessonplanspage.com: Market Product Commercials

Stephie Sweat holds a master’s degree in education as well as a bachelor’s degree in English and communication skills. Having primarily worked in education for the past several years, Sweat has also spent a large majority of her time writing both personally and professionally including articles written for eHow.

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7 Super Bowl Lesson Plans and Resources for the Classroom

Explore a curated list of Super Bowl lesson plans and resources from around the web.

After the New Year, there's likely a bit of Super Bowl energy and excitement running through your classroom. Luckily, there are plenty of great ways to wrangle those murmurs and turn them into teachable moments. If you're looking to incorporate the Super Bowl into your lessons in the coming weeks, here are some of my favorite football resources from around the web. There's a little bit of every subject -- from media studies, to math, science, and the arts.

• Ideas for Teaching the Super Bowl Across the Curriculum : The Learning Network provides fun and interesting ways to bring the excitement of the Super Bowl into the classroom in this resource. There are ideas for all the different subject areas, including history, language arts, and science. Topics like Super Bowl history and football economics are covered, and links to useful content from The New York Times  are included.  
• Videos: The Science of NFL Football : These insightful and engaging video lessons feature several lessons for students, covering topics like geometry, nutrition, and Newton's laws of motion. On the newly launched Gooru Learning website, there's also a great list of accompanying lesson plans . For more sports science videos, check out ESPN's collection .  
• Super Bowl Mania -- Creating Cross-Curricular Lessons That Score Big : Although this Scholastic article was produced for the Super Bowl in 2012, the ideas can be easily updated. Here, author Addie Albano provides ideas for math, language arts, science, and geography lessons framed around the Super Bowl.  
• Learning About Music With Touchdown Songs : This lesson plan, featured on ARTSEDGE from The Kennedy Center, provides a fun way to learn about music through the prism of football. The lesson is designed for students 12-18 years old and covers marching band fight songs, half-time sounds, and music from NFL Films.  
• Learn About "the Best" Super Bowl Ad : During the Super Bowl in 1984, Apple launched the Macintosh personal computer with its famous "1984" commercial. Using the ad as a starting point, this lesson from ReadWriteThink provides classroom activities, related resources, and other sources to start a larger discussion about advertising. Another great source for exploring Super Bowl ads in class comes from Frank Baker via MiddleWeb: Teach Media Literacy With Super Bowl Ads .  
• The Best Sites Where ELLs Can Learn About the Super Bowl From Larry Ferlazzo : Blogger and educator Larry Ferlazzo has been updating this list for the last few years, and there are plenty of valuable links throughout. Included in the list are links to podcasts, articles about Super Bowl history, and Super Bowl ads. There's something for every classroom.  
• Top 12 Super Bowl Related Activities for the Classroom : This TeachHUB resource from a few years back provides 12 great ideas for incorporating the Super Bowl into classroom lessons. There's a wide range of ideas, from nutrition lessons to commercial analysis and writing projects. Also, Super Bowl Curriculum Connections via TeachHUB and Super Bowl Blitz: Football-Related Activities via Education World offer even more fun ideas to share with students.

More From Edutopia

• #DeflateGate, a Super Bowl STEM Lesson  (Edutopia's Community), by Ainissa Ramirez (2015)
• Five-Minute Film Festival: The Science of Sports , by Keyana Stevens (2014)
• Using Football to Teach Financial Literacy at Middle School , by Brian Page (2014)
• Using Football Science to Tackle STEM Education , by Ainissa Ramirez (2013)

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20 Creative Classroom Marketing Activities

• Classroom Management

Introduction:

Incorporating marketing activities in the classroom can significantly benefit students by instilling valuable entrepreneurial skills, honing their creativity, and developing managerial capabilities. Here are 20 creative classroom marketing activities to inspire and engage your students.

1. Logo Design Competition:

Encourage students to create and design a logo for a fictional or actual brand, evaluating them on uniqueness, relevance, and creativity.

2. Build a Brand Story:

Ask students to establish an engaging brand story for a product or business, paying special attention to the target audience and brand values.

3. Product Development Project:

Assign students the task of creating a new product or service relevant to their favorite industry while walking through the entire marketing process.

4. Social Media Strategy Game:

Split your class into teams responsible for devising social media campaigns for different businesses while incorporating creativity and engagement strategies.

5. Create Print Ads:

Students design magazine or newspaper ads for various brands, learning about persuasive copywriting and visual communication.

6. Guerilla Marketing Tactics:

Foster unconventional thinking by assigning students with brainstorming unexpected marketing tactics that will attract consumers’ attention.

7. Market Research Survey Project:

Teach your students how to conduct surveys and analyze customer feedback for gauging market trends and improving products/services.

8. Sales Pitch Presentations:

Assess each student’s persuasive abilities by having them present sales pitches for their chosen product/service in a Shark Tank-style format.

9. Launch Plan Activity:

Involve your students in creating complete marketing plans for launching new products/services, accounting for budgets, timelines, and promotional tactics.

10. Digital Marketing Challenge:

Introduce the different aspects of digital marketing (SEO, content creation, email marketing), and assign tasks that emphasize these skills.

11. Celebrity Endorsement Debate:

Organize debates where pupils evaluate the effectiveness of celebrity endorsements as a marketing tactic.

12. Ad Campaign Monitoring:

Assign students different ad campaigns to monitor over a set period, analyzing which strategies were most successful.

13. Marketing Ethics Discussion:

Facilitate conversations surrounding ethical marketing practices, thus enlightening learners on responsible practices in advertising and promoting products/services.

14. Role-Play Customer Service:

Have students role-play as representatives from retail brands, interact with customers, and hone their communication skills.

15. Public Relations Crisis Activity:

Build a mock crisis scenario for students to practice critical thinking and develop crisis management skills.

16. Compare and Contrast Case Studies:

Analyze real-life marketing campaigns, highlighting what worked and what didn’t – then draw parallels with alternative solutions.

17. Market Segmentation Project:

Students break down various markets into segments based on demographics, psychographics, geographic locations, and intent.

18. Design a Website Homepage:

Teach website design basics and have students create an engaging and user-friendly homepage for a business.

19. Build Your Own Storefront:

Challenge learners to come up with innovative ideas for designing an eye-catching physical storefront for their chosen brand.

20. Viral Video Challenge:

Conclude your marketing activities series by organizing a viral video challenge where students develop creative concepts that can potentially go viral on social media platforms.

Conclusion:

By incorporating these 20 creative classroom marketing activities, educators can provide students with essential real-world problem-solving skills that can be applied across any industry-rounded education experience that prepares them for the future job market.

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Propaganda: What's the Message?

Learning objectives.

Students will be able to...

• Differentiate among forms of persuasive media.
• Identify bias, propaganda, and symbolism in media.
• Identify forms of propaganda in use.
• Related Resources

Examine the seven forms of propaganda found in advertising and politics. Discover the persuasive methods behind the messaging we see every day and gain skills to effectively identify and counter them. A classroom gallery walk challenges students to detect the propaganda techniques at work and evaluate their effectiveness. 

Got a 1:1 classroom? Download fillable PDF versions of this lesson's materials below!

Access engaging resources with an iCivics account!

Create your free iCivics account and discover standards aligned lessons and games that meet all of your instructional needs. Our nonpartisan classroom resources engage students with complex concepts in ways they can understand and relate to.

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Whether you enjoy finding opportunities within a well-structured sequence of resources or prefer looking around for pieces and bits that can be jigsawed together, our Scope & Sequence documents are a perfect reference point for planning. Scope & Sequence documents are available for elementary, middle, and high school classrooms and list all of our resources in one place.

Marketing to High School Students: 4 Strategies That Make An Impact

As a young and ever-shifting consumer segment, high school students present a moving target for marketers. Just when marketers seem to understand how to reach this young demographic, their preferences change again, requiring an all-new marketing strategy. But high school students are key entry-point consumers that have a huge potential to boost your sales—if you can effectively communicate with them and influence their purchasing behavior. 

At Refuel Agency, we’ve been investing in up-to-date proprietary consumer research to better understand the youngest generation for over 30 years so we can help brands reach their target audience and achieve campaign goals. 

Here are four strategies for marketing to high school students that will make an impact. 

Read next: 6 Examples of Brands That Got Gen Z Marketing Right

1. Understand your target audience

Before you can successfully launch your high school marketing campaigns, you need to understand your target audience at a deep level—who they are, what they care about, what makes them tick, how they engage with media, and what their lifestyles look like. 

At Refuel, we believe research is at the very core of our success, and we use proprietary insights from our Gen Z Explorer Series™ to ensure we understand how to market to Gen Z and that our campaigns make an impact. 

So who is the Gen Z audience and how can you influence them? Gen Z teens are pragmatic, diverse, and independent. While their Millennial counterparts are much more keen on oversharing, Gen Z manages their social media presence much more like a brand—curated and privacy-oriented. Gen Z are accustomed to being marketed to, so they expect brands to merge seamlessly into their lives, support their values, and to communicate the way that they do. 

In particular, Gen Z teens are at the forefront of trends, constantly scouting for new products, online personalities, and technology. Marketing manager Sarah Walter advises, “Take time to research what’s cool and what’s not, and use that knowledge to boost activities. Leverage this information to get ahead of your competition.” CEO Kevin Miller chimes in, saying, “Young people are focused on what’s popular and relevant now and in the present moment, so it’s important to use current references and platforms to properly engage with them.”

Speaking Gen Z’s language is pertinent to your brand’s ability to influence them. To learn more about marketing to Gen Z , check out our ultimate guide. 

Read next: The Ultimate Guide to Marketing to Gen Z

2. Be where they are—online and offline

Gen Z teens consume different media than their parents or grandparents, and are influenced in different ways. For your high school marketing campaign to be successful, you need to place their brand where it successfully interrupts their daily lives and has a meaningful impact on them. So where should your brand focus their efforts?

In-school media boards

As schools further return to in-person learning, high school students spend the majority of their time within their school environments, making in-school out-of-home advertising an incredibly effective way of placing your brand’s front-and-center in their daily lives. 

Research shows that Gen Z actually finds out-of-home advertising to be “relaxing” in comparison with the digital ads they’re accustomed to. Our network of media boards are placed strategically in high schools nationwide at eye-level in order to garner maximum exposure for your brand. 

Social media

As digital natives, high school students today view their social media profiles as an extension of who they are. Their profiles are both curated and authentic, and on average, they spend 3 hours a day engaging with social media. 

But all social media platforms are not created the same. Teens care about what’s new, cool, and what they’re friends are using — so as a brand, you should, too. In 2021, the most-used social media platforms by teens are TikTok, Instagram, and Snapchat. TikTok experienced a much more recent surge of popularity, while Snapchat reigns as the long-term favorite communication tool for Gen Z teens.

Additionally, consider channels where you can be a big fish in a smaller pond. Channels like Twitch, HouseParty, Discord, and YouNow have gained popularity and offer opportunities for your brand to authentically connect with this young demographic. 

Mobile device targeting

Most teen students carry their phones with them all the time—making mobile targeting one of the easiest and most effective ways to target high school students. At Refuel Agency, we have the ability to target the mobile phones of high school students whenever they’re in the boundaries of their schools.

Video streaming

According to Refuel Agency’s Gen Z Explorer Series™ , 91% of Gen Z report watching online videos every day, 84% report that they watch video streaming services, and Gen Z is 64% more likely to stream videos on their smartphones. Gen Z is partial to specifically short-form videos over long form ones. Gen Z spends more time on YouTube than on Netflix or any other streaming platforms, and most of Gen Z’s favorite influencers are from YouTube, Vine, TikTok, Snapchat, and Instagram stories.

So what’s the takeaway? Gen Z loves video content—but not just any video content. They gravitate towards influencers, whose content seems authentic and relatable, like Liza Koshy (18.7M YouTube followers) and Emma Chamberlain (9.1M YouTube followers). Brands can take a page from their books and create video content that makes Gen Z feel more like collaborators than consumers — encouraging user-generated content, filming with lo-fi aesthetics, and being subtle with branding.

Read next: Looking Ahead: 4 Key Youth Marketing Trends for 2021

3. Influence them at their price point

In-school promotions + sampling

High school students, in particular, are motivated by brands that can influence them at their price point. Free samples and targeted discounts are particularly persuasive to a target demographic that has not yet entered the workforce. Additionally, in-school sampling campaigns are effective because students are being targeted in an environment that they trust, their school.  An example of this success lies in our “Redzone” sampling campaign with Old Spice . Through Refuel, Old Spice created a multi-year sampling campaign to increase their brand awareness among high school boys. The campaign successfully deployed across 10,000 high schools nationwide and results in an 81% increase in Old Spice purchases.

4. Speak to their experiences

High school students, more so than older generations, expect for brands to be relatable and to merge seamlessly with their lives. They grew up with the Internet and smartphones, after all, so they’re used to branded content being infused into their daily lives. Given this, your brand has the opportunity to run meaningful campaigns that speak to the experiences of high school students. 

Especially as students head back to their schools, brands should address the toll that COVID-19 has taken on them, their families, and their friends. “The best way brands can prepare teens for their return to school is by helping them navigate their new realities through human-centered campaigns,” says digital marketer Baidhurya Mani. “They should focus on empathizing with students by sharing their values and issues that matter to them.”

Don’t forget about marketing to parents of high school students

When you’re strategizing ways to market to high school students, don’t forget two of the most important people in their lives: their parents. Teens living at home still have enormous influence over their parents’ spending decisions, boosting overall teen buying power from $95.7B total teen income to $265.6B total teen spending including parents. 

When it comes to marketing to parents of high school students, one key difference is that while high school students are largely focused on the present, parents are concerned more with their childrens’ futures. Parents are concerned about what their children will do with their lives, when, and how. Marketing VP Mitch Harad adds that, “This overarching pain point for parents of high school students has only been magnified during COVID-19. Brands wanting to connect with returning high school students should address the pain point by communicating messages of safety about the future.” 

And remember that you want to make a good impression on the parents of your target audience. Advertisements that may promote distorted body image or that may encourage poor choices or behavior from teens will not make a good impression on their parents. Make sure that your ads keep parents in mind. 

Are you ready to get started advertising to high school students? At Refuel Agency, we’ve been marketing to teens for over 30 years, and we’re invested in ensuring your campaigns are successful. 

Learn more about marketing to teens

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Entrepreneurship — Lesson 211

The marketing mix.

Students break into small groups and create a marketing plan for a product or service of their choice.  They determine the four P's: the product, price, promotion and place, then present their findings to the class.

What Students Learn

• Who is your target market?
• The four Ps of marketing: product, price, place, and promotion

Suggested Time

• Preview and Episode Viewing: 45 minutes
• Activity 1: 30-45 minutes

Sketch: Vincent Price on Price

Clips for this lesson.

Sketch: Monty Python

Vintage BK: Marketing Mix

BK Hosts: The 4 P’s of Marketing

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