itslearning asked marketing students at Lambert High School to create ads for an educational magazine. The students did a fantastic job and itslearning staff members were completely blown away!
At itslearning we like to communicate with our users, engage them, and learn from them. In October we challenged marketing students at Lambert High in Suwanee, GA to create print ads, highlighting the key features and benefits of our platform for educators who might be considering the purchase of a Learning Management System (LMS).
The ad that earned top honors from a panel of judges at itslearning will be published in a trade magazine. The top three ads earned scholarships for the groups that created them. It was a win-win situation…the students learned real-world skills and itslearning received some creative advertising ideas for upcoming campaigns!
With the help of Advanced Marketing teacher Brian DeRose, the students entered into the project with great enthusiasm. They formed teams to make ads, and videos documenting the creation of their ads. Over the course of the project students had to:
- Study the itslearning project specifications
- Perform market research regarding itslearning’s brand identity, competitors, and target audience
- Research common elements of a print ad
- Become familiar with Adobe Illustrator
- Review project rubrics and learning objectives to make sure all required elements were incorporated in the final product
The process
At the beginning of the project, itslearning provided the class with a campaign brief, explaining competition guidelines. Students were encouraged to browse the itslearning website, read about common themes in education, and choose one to promote in their ad. They had to sketch their ideas and have them approved by Mr. DeRose. itslearning also granted access to the company’s branding guidelines so students could become familiar with company logos, fonts, colour palettes, etc.
As a part of the project, Mr. DeRose introduced the students to Adobe Illustrator, software commonly used by industry professionals for graphic design. He posted tutorial videos on itslearning so the students could continue studying outside of class and at home. “It is a very complex program. I taught them the basics, and they ran with the rest. Students today are very adept to picking up software quickly. They even taught me a few new things in the process. I thought they did an excellent job considering they had only a few weeks to familiarize themselves with the software,” says Mr. DeRose.
To help students understand how their ads would be evaluated, itslearning provided them with rubrics and learning objectives. Students uploaded their finished ads to itslearning and they were evaluated by a panel of judges at our company. Ranking the ads was extremely difficult because there were so many outstanding submissions!
The winners are…
Winning team members were Asher Thompson and Will Harrison who submitted the ad “Dark Ages” and earned a $1,000 scholarship.
According to Asher, “itslearning has been a tremendous company to work with in this project. It’s been a really neat experience understanding their brand guidelines and how they want to present themselves, and start to understand how the corporate world works.” He continued, “This is our first year with itslearning and it’s been a phenomenal year so far…I love the new system. It’s very flexible, very intuitive.”
Fellow 1st place winner Will added, “Being able to finally use itslearning this year has been a tremendous help to be able to communicate between students. Now we can use our phones, computers, or even school computers in order to share Adobe Illustrator files and stuff like that. It almost made it intuitive to be able to share with one another. It was practically second nature. The always available material allows students to learn at their own pace.”
2nd place
In 2nd Place, earning a $750 scholarship, was the team of Ashley Thompson and Brooke Endres. With an eye catching graphic and a powerful theme, this ad really stood out to the judges!
3rd place
In 3rd Place, earning a $500 scholarship, was the team of Katherine Clarke and Geneva Rumer, generating both the ad and the photography. A simple concept, but beautifully articulated.
Congratulations are in order
“I was pleasantly surprised with the quality of work my students produced. I was also pleased with the functionality of itslearning with the project. I was able to do everything paperless. The files, assignments, and assets were all delivered through itslearning,” concludes Mr. DeRose.
itslearning CEO Travis Willard commented, “Fantastic job! I think I speak for all the itslearning staff. We’re completely blown away.” Congratulations to Lambert High School, Mr. DeRose, and of course, ALL of the students that participated in this project. Thank you for making this such an enjoyable experience for all of us at itslearning!
