Travis R. Martin, CPA, MBA » Project

Marketing Project: Procter and Gamble Product Placement (Updated PBL version)

travisrmartin — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 18:51:49 +0000

One of the first posts I made on this blog was a Marketing lesson covering Product Placement. Since I’ve totally overhauled that

lesson for a project-based learning environment, I wanted to share with you Product Placement, version 2.0.

In this version, students act as consultants working with Procter & Gamble to devise a product placement for a P&G product. The setup, as laid forth in the entry document, is that P&G is looking for product placements that will reach the teenage demographic. So, for students, the task is two fold: find a P&G product that teens would be using, and develop a product placement that would reach teenage eyeballs.

Aside from changing up the scenario the students are working with, I’ve also added some scaffolding activities that examine whether product placements are an effective marketing strategy (ie, do people remember/act on the hidden ads).

In true Project-based learning spirit, here’s the Driving question:
Can we develop a Product Placement strategy that would be memorable and effective in marketing a Proctor and Gamble product to teenagers?

Why It’s Important (What I tell my students):
Understanding Product Placement will help you understand some of the hidden ways in which marketers try to get you to buy their products (which may save you money!). Plus, Proctor & Gamble is THE LARGEST consumer goods company in the world, with nearly $80 Billion a year in sales. As one of the largest advertisers in the world, it spends billions of dollars a year promoting its products. And, P&G is close to Scottsburg – in Cincinnati, OH. If you are interested in a career in Business/Marketing, P&G could provide a great opportunity for you to grow as a professional and still live close to home.

Here are the files associated with the project:
Product Placement PowerPoint – Background introduction on Product Placement w/ YouTube links to examples
P&G Product Placement Project Entry Document (PDF) – Used to kickoff project
Project Rubric – P&G Product Placements – Rubric for grading presentations
Transformers Scaffolding Activity – Used to help students identify product placements in feature films
Product Placement Quiz Scaffolding Activity (PDF) – Students conduct research to see if product placements are memorable
Buyology Reading Excerpt Questions – Students read an excerpt from Martin Lindstrom’s Buyology to learn more about what makes an effective product placement.

In addition to the files linked above, there are a ton of excellent resources online that can be used in this project. I’ll list a few below:
www.brandchannel.com - Provides product placement lists and analysis for movies

www.adage.com - Leading Marketing trade publication

www.youtube.com - Search product placement…they have all kinds of montages and clips

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19562215/ns/business-autos/ – (MSNBC Article about Product Placements in Transformers movie)

http://brandchannel.com/home/post/2011/01/18/Hollywood-Marketers-Face-The-Impossible-Blurring-Product-Placements-In-Sandler-Film – (Product placements in Adam Sandler films)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2uObLcznfjY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPJpgjfFJpc

(A few examples of some really BAD product placements from Days of Our Lives)

As always, enjoy. If you have any questions, feel free to shoot me a line at travis@travisrmartin.com

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Class Project: Opening Pandora’s Box

travisrmartin — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 01:44:55 +0000

Pandora Internet Radio

In honor of Pandora’s recent IPO (P), here’s a project that my Computer Apps classes worked on this past school year.

If you are not familiar with Pandora, it’s a website (and App) that allows you to create personalized radio stations. The stations play music matching your individual tastes by selecting songs that share musical attributes with other songs you like.

Pandora’s educated guesses on the music you will like are the result of a massive recommendation engine dubbed “The Music Genome Project.”

In this project, students gather data (Yes, they listen to the songs during class…gasp!) and test the accuracy of Pandora’s Music Genome Project. They also compare and contrast Pandora’s engine with similar (but different) systems used by Netflix, Amazon, and Facebook.

Once students have completed their research, they present their findings to the class in the form of a Keynote/PowerPoint presentation. I require my students to include audio clips in their presentation, in order to show they understand how to insert and time multimedia files.

After the in-class presentation, the students record narration for their PowerPoint and upload their finished product to YouTube.

All of the files for the project are included in the PDF portfolio below. If you have any questions about implementing this project in your class, let me know – travis@travisrmartin.com. Enjoy!

Project Files: Opening Pandora’s Box – Travis R Martin

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Accounting Lesson: Accounting Monopoly

travisrmartin — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 18:29:50 +0000

Lesson Background
“Accounting Monopoly” is a great way to give your Accounting students practice journalizing business transactions in a simulated business environment. There are a number of different ways to play the game, but the basic idea is to have students prepare journal entries that correspond with the moves they make around the Monopoly board. At the conclusion of the game, students prepare financial statements using the information they have recorded in their general journal and ledgers.

Money Changes Hands During a Game of Accounting Monopoly

You can start incorporating Accounting Monopoly into your curriculum using the materials below and a few Monopoly boards.

If you have any tips and tricks from your own Accounting Monopoly experience, please share them in the comments section below.

Lesson Resources
Instructions: Accounting Monopoly (Includes sheet for Chart of Accounts)
Accounting Forms: Accounting Monopoly (Includes General Journal, Ledgers, & Memorandums)

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