Understanding Modern Marketing Madness

Class Project

Create an ad that makes ping pong cool

This class is for anyone interested in modern marketing techniques. You might work for an advertising agency or marketing company. You might be a student who is thinking about marketing as a career or you might simply want to understand a little more about things like Twitter and Facebook.

Since moving to New York in 2008 I’ve held Creative Director titles at Anomaly, Saatchi and Chief Creative Innovation Officer at JWT New York. I recently won a Gold Lion for Mobile at Cannes. I’ve taught advertising courses at Miami Ad School and Watford College in the UK, and also established Dare School - a creative trainee program for the agency. As you can see, I’m passionate about advertising but I feel the industry is ripe for dramatic change - something we’ll cover in this class.

I’m also passionate about... ping pong. I founded Celebrity Ping Pong (www.cppmag.com) and launched the ping pong clothing line, Thompson Punke.

We’ll use ping pong as a fun springboard for learning modern marketing skills. You’ll leave this class with a mind-blowingly creative ad of your own design - using video, technology, social media, PR, mobile or any other medium you choose - to add to your portfolio of work.

You’ll leave this class with an understanding of how to create a lot of buzz and engagement with $0. I’ll guide you through a hands-on project of doing just that. You’ll be tasked with answering a client’s creative brief: come up with a marketing idea to make ping pong the coolest sport in the world. Use any modern tactic - video, technology, social media, PR, mobile etc. - to bring your idea to life. Think about what Nike+ did for runners - that’s what we’ll figure out how to do... for table tennis.

Award
I’ll award Thompson Punke prizes - yes, real world prizes - to the best work generated.

Prerequisites

This class is for anyone interested in modern marketing techniques. You might work for an advertising agency or marketing company. You might be a student who is thinking about marketing as a career or you might simply want to understand a little more about things like Twitter and Facebook.

Beginner Difficulty
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Student Projects Submitted

Project Guide by James Cooper

Former Chief Creative Innovation Officer, JWT

James Cooper recently left his role as Chief Creative Innovation Officer at JWT New York to pursue consultancy, tech start-ups and entrepreneurial projects in the retail, film and music industry. Cooper, was responsible for managing the agency’s creative product in the emerging digital space, and ... view full bio