Dear Parents,

I have been asked to write a few words about our English project – the תקופה.

After having given it quite some thought, Ilan, Marc and myself decided that we are going to ask the pupils to create an advertising campaign.

Today, to deliver an impactful brand, you can’t just design something “cool” with some catchy language. Companies need to dig deep, do some soul searching and get their story right. Our aim was to expose the pupils to new language, identify the story behind their companies and understand the importance of their story. We focused on the fact that today, companies need to be clear and authentic about who they are and what they stand for.  We also touched on some of the steps involved in any successful marketing/advertising campaign such as research, identifying your target audience, differentiation, positioning etc. In addition, they were also given tools on how to present in English while getting an education on how to become a smart consumer.

We began our project by dividing the pupils into small groups. We then gave each group a service, product or idea to market and advertise. They were asked to come up with a name, a logo and a slogan and to produce an ad and a video.

We spent the first week, educating them on the subject. We introduced them to a wide range of companies, both local and global and we looked at the fascinating stories behind each company.

For example, Amazon. Via their logo, we saw how the company developed over time. Amazon, initially was the world’s biggest online bookstore. Their first logo depicted the Amazon River (the largest in the world) representing an infinite and vast flow of knowledge. Later when Amazon grew and moved beyond books, the black wordmark adopted a large gold O representing the globe. Finally the logo reverted to lower case and the O changed into a smile from A to Z in the name, reflecting how Amazon has grown even more and now its online stores entail almost everything from A to Z.

I must say, that we, the teachers,  were so impressed by the amount of knowledge on the subject the pupils had. We certainly learnt a lot from them.

The following week the pupils worked independently. They did research, brainstormed and came up with amazing ideas for logos, slogans ads etc. and worked on their presentations.

During our final and third week, the pupils presented their works of art. Our jaws dropped and they undoubtedly exceeded our expectations.

On that happy note, we would like to thank you for the opportunity to teach your kids.

Have a wonderful summer.

Sheila, Ilan and Marc.