Exercises: Prototype presentation and promotion strategies

List the components of a good project presentation (clear message, visual aids, rehearsal, time management, anticipated questions) and explain what each one contributes. Which would be most neglected by a team that "only wants to show the product"?

An "elevator pitch" summarizes the project in half a minute: problem, solution, and target audience. Write one for the school book exchange corner, and explain why each of the three parts is essential.

The figure shows the marketing funnel for the market stall: how many people find out, how many show interest, and how many end up buying. The conversion percentages between phases are covered with question marks.

1. a) Calculate what percentage of those who find out show interest, and what percentage of those who show interest end up buying.
2. b) Calculate the total conversion rate (from those who find out to those who buy) and explain what this number tells you about the promotion of the market stall.

Explain what the target audience of a message is and why 'for everyone' usually means 'for nobody'. Define the target audience of these three school posters: the e-sports tournament, the guidance talk for families and the Christmas charity market.

A fair poster has these faults: tiny lettering, no date, no place and three different typefaces. Rewrite the list of the four pieces of information an event poster must NOT be missing (what, when, where, at what price or free) and explain why readability rules over prettiness.

Explain what a slogan is and which two qualities it must have (short, memorable, stating the benefit). Evaluate these two for the book swap point: 'Books travelling from backpack to backpack' versus 'Inter-student library exchange management system'. Which one works and why?

Name five publicity channels available at your school (the PA system, class groups, the noticeboard, the school's social media, word of mouth) and write one strength and one weakness of each for announcing the market.

Explain what word of mouth is and why it is the cheapest and most believable channel. Describe two actions that provoke it in a school project (something worth telling, explicitly asking people to tell it) and one risk it has (what happens if what spreads is a complaint?).

Your team wants to promote two different products: a technology workshop for local grandparents and a video game tournament for teenagers. Choose the main channel for each one (a poster at the health centre, the children's WhatsApp, social media, the school tannoy system, word of mouth) and justify why the best channel for one would be almost useless for the other.

Design the promotion message for the school garden selling its first vegetable baskets: a slogan of fewer than ten words, the three key details that must be on the poster (what, when/where, price), and a photo or drawing that you would describe. Explain why your slogan connects with the local community.

You have $60\ \text{€}$ to promote the school concert. Options: $30\ \text{€}$ on printed posters, $20\ \text{€}$ on local social media ads, $10\ \text{€}$ on sweets for the photo booth, or distributing it differently. Allocate the budget, justifying each item: what audience it reaches, what you expect it to contribute, and how you would check afterwards if it worked.

Plan the publicity for the entrepreneurship fair with $40\ \text{€}$ and two weeks. Split the budget between printed posters ($20\ \text{€}$ for $30$ posters), a promoted post on neighbourhood social media ($15\ \text{€}$) and sweets for the photo booth ($5\ \text{€}$), or redistribute it if you think there is a better option. Justify every euro: the audience it reaches, the moment of the campaign and how you will measure whether it worked.

The school concert had these figures: $300$ people saw the poster or the post, $90$ said they would come (a form), $60$ bought an advance ticket and $45$ attended.

1. a) Calculate the pass-through rates between each stage (see → say they're coming, say → buy, buy → attend).
2. b) Interpret where the most people are lost and propose one concrete action for the weakest stage (a reminder, an early-bird discount, a flexible refund).

Design the message for the technology workshop for the neighbourhood's grandparents: the slogan, the three essential pieces of information on the poster, the main channel (social media or a poster at the health centre and the pharmacy?) and the tone (respectful, without jargon). Explain why the channel you would use for teenagers would fail here and what that says about adapting the message to the audience.

Write the $30$-second elevator pitch for the school vegetable garden that sells veg boxes: the problem (vegetables from far away and expensive), the solution (the school's garden with weekly boxes), who for (neighbourhood families) and the closing request (sign up at the fair). Then cut it down to a ten-word sentence for the poster and explain what you sacrificed and why.

Two teams publicise their stall: team A posts $15$ identical messages in the class group (people complain about spam); team B posts $3$ different messages (a sneak peek of the product, the team's story, a last-minute reminder) and gets more visitors.

1. a) Explain what team A does wrong (frequency without variety, the wrong channel for repeating) and which communication principle team B respects.
2. b) Design your stall's posting calendar for the week before: day, message, the goal of each post and which metric you would look at.

To attract crowds at the fair, a team advertises its lemonade as "the drink that cures study fatigue". It sells a lot on the first day, but several buyers complain: it is just ordinary lemonade.

1. a) Analyse what that message broke (expectations, trust) and what effect it might have on sales on the second day.
2. b) Rewrite the advert so that it is attractive and truthful, and explain where the line lies between persuasion and deception.

Your school cooperative is preparing a charity market in two weeks' time. One part of the team proposes running a massive campaign (posters, PA system, and social media) only on the first day to "give plenty of notice" and not spend any more effort. Another part proposes not sharing anything until the day before to "keep the message fresh".

1. a) Analyse the communication and consumer behaviour flaws of both stances: what effect does each have on the recall curve, audience fatigue, and final attendance rate?
2. b) Design a strategic schedule for those two weeks structured into three phases (teaser/anticipation, informative launch, and urgency reminder). For each phase, select the appropriate channel (social media, PA system, posters, or direct classroom promotion), define its specific objective, and justify the exact timing chosen to maximise attendance without tiring the school community.

After the fair, the team measures its promotion reach: $500$ people saw the poster or post, $50$ came over to the stall, and $10$ bought something. Another year, reaching the same $500$ people, $120$ came over and $12$ bought something.

1. a) Calculate the two conversion rates for each year (seeing → coming over, coming over → buying) and interpret what changed: did the initial hook or the product improve?
2. b) Decide where you would focus effort next year based on the numbers, and justify your decision.

To fill the charity sports tournament ($80$ spots at $2\ \text{€}$ per registration), the team invested all its promotional effort into creating a social media video. They achieved $8.500$ views and $620$ "likes", but with three days to go before the event, only $8$ registrations have been made.

1. a) Interpret the data by explaining the difference between vanity metrics (reach and interactions) and actual conversion. Propose two well-founded hypotheses explaining why that high visual impact did not translate into actual registrations.
2. b) Design an urgent action plan for the final $72$ hours with a budget of $10\ \text{€}$: combine a direct digital action with an in-person action during breaks, define its call to action, and calculate how many daily registrations you need to obtain from now on to cover at least $75\,\%$ of the total capacity.

Your breakfast stall competes with the café opposite the school, which lowers its prices during your fair week. Some members propose a comparison poster: 'cheaper and healthier than the café opposite'.

1. a) Analyse the risks of that comparative advertising (legality, image, a price war you can't win) and what attacking the competitor says about you.
2. b) Propose a differentiation campaign without mentioning the café: three messages about your own strengths (closeness to the producers, profit going to the NGO, made by classmates) and defend why they are better weapons than price.

One year, the market spent $50\ \text{€}$ on publicity and sold $600\ \text{€}$; another year it spent $10\ \text{€}$ and sold $550\ \text{€}$. The team is debating whether the expensive publicity 'was useless'.

1. a) Explain what else you would need to know before concluding (capacity, day, time, product, weather) and why two data points prove almost nothing.
2. b) Design how you would measure the publicity this year to truly learn: one question at the moment of sale ('how did you hear about us?'), three answer categories and which decision you would take with the results.

The school app needs $200$ downloads in a month for the council to fund it. It is $2$ weeks in with $60$ downloads, almost all from its own year group.

1. a) Diagnose the funnel: how many people know about it, how many of those who know download it (estimate plausible figures and state your assumptions) and where the fault is.
2. b) Design the plan for the remaining two weeks: two new publicity actions outside your own year group (a $2$-minute presentation in each class, a poster with a QR code at the entrance, a teacher recommending it) with their cost and their download target each.

Design the complete publicity strategy for the entrepreneurship fair aimed at THREE different audiences: students, families and the neighbourhood's residents. For each one define the main message (what that audience cares about), the main channel, the moment of the campaign and the success metric. Close with a budget of $60\ \text{€}$ split among the three audiences and defend the split.