THE FAB FIVE!

THE SUMMER MARKETING EXPERIENCE'S WHO MARKETING CAMPAIGN!

The fab. five! My new nickname for my Summer Marketing Experience, and do they ever deserve it! Over seven weeks of questions, answers and more questions encompassing marketing and how to use the online social networks for the good of our community. My five students worked incredibly hard and absorbed all they could from our time together. Each week we reviewed what they had accomplished with their personal websites I assigned them to create for local non-profits. Next, a new subject was broached. For example, week three was marketing for a non-profit, and week seven: sustainability. To support this learning curve (and what a curve!) I invited a few guest speakers to add more detail to the discussion on marketing and putting together a comprehensive website. We met once a week and the rest of the service hours they gave varied from twenty-five to one hundred and thirty five. All this time and energy became abundantly clear when I handed them their final task.

"You will compete against each other and yourselves to complete a marketing campaign for the WHO - a part of the Council for the Homeless." There were smiles, second glances to check if I was serious and then looks to one another, full of potential! "You will have two weeks to engineer a new website and present your plan for marketing this worthwhile shelter. "Are they actually going to use what we make? "Oh, yes!" I was thrilled to tell them. "It's all you!" Their story had just begun.

In the fourteen days that followed, the fab. five learned to create a cohesive and comprehensive message to and for a target audience. I urged them to focus on the website but not to forget the more traditional methods of outreach, like fliers, events, news and more. On the day of their event, I set up a table for our five judges and place where their power point could be showcased. As they walked in, they were already feeling their nerves take over. I told them to breath and believe. However, when their speeches started, their diligence definitely delivered. All the judges were impressed and in fact took half an hour to deliberate. Past words and images, an essence unique to each, was identified, analyzed and applauded. Team two's website would be employed while team one's overarching themes would be sewn into the tapestry. Everyone won!