Real Material: Create an ad on Idea Bounty

Hello,

I had a great idea for an activity that is sure to get your business and marketing English students highly engaged and motivated. Go to www.ideabounty.com.

Idea Bounty is a crowdsourcing platform where anyone(!) can submit ideas for new advertising and marketing campaigns. Every month, there are several new briefs from different companies, mostly multinationals. The format can range the full gambit from TV commercial scripts and print ads to web campaigns and guerilla marketing campaigns.

To get started, you will need to register on the site to obtain the briefs. This is free to do. Once you download the brief, you can assign it as a classroom activity for students to do in small groups or individually. Use the activity to highlight marketing language. I might also suggest looking at different ad sites to view print copy.

At the end, get students to submit their entries by the deadline. They can have a chance to win several thousand US dollars. (It's an open international competition.) If they don't win, they may still qualify for certificates showing how well they ranked - silver and bronze. (I received 2 bronze awards for the Peperami campaign in 2009 and came 46th out of 1100 entrants. It was a lot of fun.)

Enjoy the lesson!

Cheers,
Maurice
Voice One Oy
www.voiceone.fi

Brilliant activity resource book for busy teachers

I stumbled across this book while browsing through my favorite bookshop (Amazon.co.uk). What a fantastic book! This book has quickly become one of my favorites. And I say this having a massive library of EFL books at my disposal.

It offers you an extensive and diverse array of communicative activities under four main subject headings: Conversation, Functions, Grammar and Vocabulary. The activities vary from pair work, group work, debates, role plays, brainstorming, and group discussions. Each activity offers anywhere from 5 to 60+ minutes of classroom work. Make your life easier, get this book today!

Enjoy the book!

Cheers,
Maurice
Voice One
www.voiceone.fi

Five big questions about Nokia's New CEO

Finally, some new material. Sorry, I've been terribly busy, but here is something new on Nokia's new CEO. This is based on the Forbes Mobilized Blog Entry from September 10, 2010. It's available here:
http://blogs.forbes.com/elizabethwoyke/2010/09/10/five-big-questions-about-nokias-new-ceo/

Enjoy the lesson!

Cheers,
Maurice


Five Questions for New Nokia CEO