These 20 engaging marketing activities offer more than just a fun learning experience for kids. By providing interactive tasks that focus on marketing concepts and techniques, they can help students develop important critical thinking, problem-solving, and communication skills. Students can also express their creativity, work together to create marketing campaigns and analyze the effectiveness of different strategies. Not only will they gain a better understanding of the world of business and marketing, but they’ll also develop an appreciation for how these concepts are applied in everyday life.
1. PowerPoint Activity for Students
This comprehensive presentation covers various aspects of advertising, such as its purpose, impact, motivation, techniques, hidden ads, product placement, celebrity endorsements, guidelines, and ‘fake news’. Engaging visuals and clear information encourage discussions among students about the media that influences them.
Learn More: Twinkl
2. Debate About the Elements of Marketing
Students are provided with background information on product placement, its history, and examples of its use in various contexts, such as movies and sports events. They are then encouraged to discuss and argue for or against the practice of product placement in popular culture.
Learn More: Twinkl
3. Evaluating the Influence of Ads on Target Markets
In this experiment-based activity, students will select 10 different types of food and create a survey asking participants to rate their desire to eat each item on a scale of 1 to 10. This makes for a fantastic opportunity to learn about different types of advertising and how they can influence people’s preferences.
4. Make a Marketing Plan
In this activity, children are asked to create an advertisement that would persuade people to come to the United States; showcasing the country’s positive aspects. This exercise helps students develop their creativity, persuasive writing, and drawing skills while gaining a deeper understanding of the historical context of immigration in the U.S.
Learn More: Education
5. Media Literacy Activity
In this media literacy activity, children learn to be more discerning consumers of various media forms, such as television, print media, and the internet. Tim and Moby from BrainPOP guide kids through a process of understanding advertising, recognizing persuasive techniques, and separating facts from opinions. By learning these strategies, children can better decode and analyze content from TV shows, newspapers, and websites.
Learn More: Brain Pop
6. Product Development Marketing Project
In this cross-curricular activity, students work together to research sneaker design, create their own sneakers, and develop a marketing and economic plan for their product. This unit helps students apply knowledge from various subjects, such as science (running principles), math (marketing and finances), and language arts (presentations and research).
Learn More: Teachers Pay Teachers
7. Marketing Case Study
This activity helps students explore the history of the Shamrock Shake and analyze the marketing lessons learned from this popular seasonal product. Students use critical thinking skills to complete a media analysis, assess other seasonal food items, and explore the marketing strategies behind those products.
Learn More: Teachers Pay Teachers
8. Read A Book To Learn About Marketing Skills
This digital picture book introduces children to the art of crafting convincing advertisements, which can be an engaging and useful skill for their future. It not only enhances their language and writing skills but also encourages creativity and critical thinking.
Learn More: Epic
9. Hold a Market Day
Hosting a market day can provide a fun and engaging way for students to learn about marketing concepts and business skills, including budgeting, advertising, and customer service. It can also foster creativity and innovation, as kids brainstorm and create their own unique products to sell.
Learn More: Money Prodigy
10. Study Marketing Concepts
This quick and engaging exercise is designed to help kids build their vocabulary in the context of advertising and marketing. It helps students reinforce their understanding of advertising and marketing concepts, while also improving their reading comprehension and identification skills.
Learn More: ISL Collective
11. Create a Monster Advertisement
This fun and imaginative activity involves creating an advertisement for a fictional monstrous product that could appear in a monster newspaper or magazine. Kids are encouraged to be inventive with their ideas; designing products and services tailored to monsters and coming up with catchy slogans and pitches.
Learn More: Kendra Kandle Star
12. Create a TV Commercial
In this activity, students work in groups to create a unique TV commercial. After determining their product or service, they develop an outline, incorporating slogans or jingles. Finally, groups present their work to the class, either by describing, singing, or acting out their commercials.
Learn More: Art Class Curator
13. Advertising Techniques Project
This engaging project aims to teach students about various advertising techniques, such as bandwagon, testimonial, name-calling, and repetition, by having them create their own sample advertisements. Creating their own ads can help students become more aware of the persuasive strategies used in real-life advertisements, helping them become more informed consumers.
Learn More: Upper Elementary Snapshots
14. Analyze Marketing Techniques in an Ad
This teacher-created worksheet provides a brief text about advertising, explaining what it is and its purpose. Students are then required to read the passage and answer a series of comprehension questions. By working through this worksheet, children not only learn about advertising but also practice and develop essential literacy skills, such as reading fluency, comprehension, and critical thinking.
Learn More: Primary Leap
15. Social Media Marketing Analysis
This lesson introduces students to easily confused words and the use of prepositions while also exploring the concept of micro-influencers and their impact on the marketing world. Learning about this real-world example of social media marketing can help students who are interested in pursuing a career in these fields.
Learn More: ESL Brain
16. Analyze the Effectiveness of an Ad
For this activity, children will employ critical thinking to examine a media advertisement before determining the message of the ad and identifying the intended audience. Students will learn to critically analyze media content and enhance their understanding of advertising techniques.
Learn More: Worksheet Place
17. Focus on the Power of Slogans
This activity prompts children to come up with a catchy slogan for a product or service before encouraging them to consider famous slogans they already know. Apart from learning about the importance of strong marketing messages, this exercise also enhances their language abilities.
Learn More: Worksheet Place
18. Marketing Crossword
This fun and engaging marketing crossword puzzle can help kids develop their critical thinking and problem-solving skills. It’s perfect for a low-prep brain break activity or formative assessment task.
Learn More: Word Mint
19. Marketing Escape Room Challenge
This marketing-themed escape room challenge encourages problem-solving and critical thinking, allowing students to apply their knowledge of the four Ps of marketing (product, price, place, and promotion) in a real-life business scenario. The lesson is easy to prepare, with the task cards just needing to be printed in advance.
Learn More: TES
20. Create a Super Bowl Commercial
The objective of the lesson is for students to discuss the persuasive strategies employed in various Super Bowl ads. Students are given a note-taking sheet to record their ideas while watching the ads before sharing them with their peers in structured presentations.
Learn More: Sadler School
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