IdeasWork, a brand-new start-up company, has a unique service to sell: They take people's creative ideas and turn them into a product that can be sold in stores, online--anywhere people might shop! As a start-up, IdeasWork doesn't have a lot money to spend on advertising. However, they need an ad campaign, a set of advertisements, that will spread the news about their service to ordinary people who might have a great idea but lack the time or knowledge to develop it. Mario "Loco" Ruiz, the CEO of IdeasWork, has an idea of his own: He is a history buff and loves world history especially. Why not have some clever high school students create his ad campaign? After all, some of them will be taking a world history course right now!
Ruiz is particularly interested in the innovations that occurred during the Middle Ages. As you know, most of the technological advances during that time happened in Asia--specifically China. Loco Ruiz is already thinking outside the box, however. He knows that his new service will work with all kinds of ideas, not just ideas for new technology, and that his company will do more than create a product--they'll get it out into the marketplace as well. Ruiz's approach to business is sometimes described as "driven," and he can be ruthless in his approach to seizing market share (the total amount of money that is available to spend on a product or service). In this way, "Loco" Ruiz sees himself as more of a Genghis Khan than a Kublai Khan.
How can IdeasWork make its mark in the highly competitive world of online advertising? What kinds of ads will help Ruiz build his empire? For this project, you will create an ad campaign for IdeasWork, using what you learned from the lessons in this module. IdeasWork has decided to go with online ads as a way to introduce their service, so the individual ads you suggest should be able to fit in a small area on a webpage and should be effective at catching the attention of the average Internet surfer.
Remember that the IdeasWork CEO is most likely to be impressed by marketing ideas that use examples from history in a way that will communicate his company's mission: to take an idea like using gunpowder to make projectile weapons or extreme heat to make porcelain and then "run" with that idea to create a marketable product. Your ad campaign should make IdeasWork's services look like exactly what a "genius" needs to turn his or her ideas into reality (and income).
The Activity sheet below should help you get your project started. It suggests some steps to use in creating your ad campaign. Remember that your advertisements will have two different audiences--first, Mario Ruiz and next, the people who actually view the ads online. It should be immediately obvious to both audiences what your ad is trying to say and what type of service it offers for sale. The ads should also be as clever and creative as you can make them. (Be sure to look at four or five online advertisements before you begin this project, so you will have some examples in mind.)
This project should take you a couple of hours to complete, so don't expect to finish it today. In fact, if you are near the end of the time period you have set aside for World History, you may need to wait until tomorrow to start the project.
When you are ready to start working on your project, click the Activity button. To see how your work on this assignment will be graded, click the Rubric button.
