I'm lucky enough to teach at a 1:1 school where students rent laptops from the district that are loaded with a lot of fantastic software, much of which I try to encourage (assign) my students to utilize. So, it was no surprise that my students' solution for staying relevant and visible was to create a series of videos promoting our publications that would air on our morning video announcements, Dawg-TV (or DTV for short).
This first video was produced to build anticipation for our second newspaper of the year (October 2012). To give credit where credit is due, this was a parody of a British (I think) YouTube video of similar content.
This video was produced during a lull in yearbook sales after we heard that students were under the assumption that we only had a limited supply of yearbooks and that there was no reason to try and buy them after our first promotional sales deadline:
Finally, this video, a parody of Macklemore and Ryan Lewis' song, "Thrift Shop," was used to advertise our March Madness promotion, when students who purchased yearbooks in the month of April were entered into a drawing for a gift card of their choosing.
My students (and I) had a blast making these videos, and the response from the student body and other faculty members was great! They were talking about these videos long after they aired. I'd highly recommend doing something like this with your students if you have the means.
Aaron Fitzpatrick
Freedom Area High School
Freedom, Pa
Our staff did a Harlem Shake video this year and it was the most effective advertising we did all year.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWeEk6s_v68
What a great idea! One of my fears about going online is that nobody will read it. There is something magical about a print paper. But I see the future coming, and I need to adapt to it. Creating videos that promote our paper is an excellent way to get the word out and build excitement.
ReplyDeleteHilari Anderson
Kentridge High School
Kent, Wash.
I didn't think to create video to advertise the yearbook until the end of the year (too late...) but I never thought to do the same for the newspaper. I will definitely do something like this in my classes. It will be fun and valuable! And you're right, students talk about these things forever! Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteLauren Ramcharan Gutierrez
Corbett Jr. High
San Antonio, Texas
Great use of video for sales efforts.
ReplyDeleteWhen I worked at the individual campus level, as part of our television programming, we covered every recognized club/organization in our school. Yearbook was always included in this. It was a behind the scenes of sorts and also detailed how to become a member of the yearbook staff. Sometimes, we'd "break the news" of the theme for that year's book in the report. Consider not only building hype about your book, but also hype about what it takes to create the book which could also help in staff recruitment. Every club/organization we covered would almost always see a spike in their membership or interest after our show featured them. Video is a powerful thing!
All the best...
Eva D. Coleman
Frisco ISD Career and Technical Education Center
Frisco, Texas