A killer product

- Activity: Videotelling
- Topic: Business & crowdfunding
- Age group: Upper secondary; Adults jamie
keddie
- Time: 45 minutes (+ follow ups)
- Material: Video and text
- Language level: B1 +
- Language point: Business-related verbal collocations
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Note: This activity makes reference to a crowdfunding campaign case study. If you don’t
know much about crowdfunding, don’t worry. All will be explained.

Materials and preparation

1. Video: For this activity, you will need the following video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYAAy8Q_smU

2. Image: You will also need to display the following image:

http://lessonstream.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Lorenzo.jpg

3. Handouts: For each student, make a copy of the Killer Product text on page 5 and the
Collocation Match worksheet on page 6.

4. Online access: Students will need online access (classroom computers, mobile devices,
etc.) in order to look at the following crowdfunding campaign page:

http://igg.me/p/161050/x/10567428

Bug-a-Salt™ official website here: http://bugasalt.com/

A Killer Product - Jamie Keddie 2015 - Lessonstream.org

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Activity outline (Part one: A killer product)

1. Show students the image of Lorenzo Maggiore (see Materials and preparation). Don`t
reveal his name. Ask students to guess: Where do you think this man is from? What do
you think he does for a living?

2. Give students a number of possibilities and say: Who thinks that he might be an artist?
Who thinks he might be a surfer? Who thinks he might be a successful businessman?
Who thinks that he might be an interior decorator?

3. Ask students to explain their choices.

4. Say: The man in the picture is called Lorenzo Maggiore. I'm not going to tell you where
he comes from or what he does for a living yet. But he has an interesting story. His
story involves the following:

* An obsession
* A killer product
* A promotional video

Write these 3 items on the board. Ask students to guess what the story is about.

5. Give out the Collocations Match worksheet on page 6 and say: I'm going to tell you
Lorenzo's story in a moment. But before I do that, I want you to complete this
worksheet, Part one and two

6. Say: Now, compare your answers with each other. Help students who need extra
explanations.

7. Go over the answers:

Part one

- To run a business
- To drop out of school
- To be a bit of an outsider
- To choose wallpapering as a career
- To sign up for a course
- To pursue a career
- To become obsessed with an idea
- To get funding
- To bring something to life
- To found a startup company
- To play (a video) in slow motion
- To raise $577,546 in two months
- To provide an interesting case study

Part two

* A specific type of interior decorating which involves putting paper on walls is called
wallpapering.

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* In science or business, a story which provides a good example of a situation is called a

case study.
* Funding is the money that you need to pay for an expensive project or business idea.
* If you drop out of a college or university course, you leave before completing it.
* If you found a company, organisation or business, you start it. (Note the difference
here: If you fund a company, organization or business , you provide money to help it
grow.)
* A startup is a small business, especially one that is associated with Internet activities.
* If you pursue a dream or passion, you follow it or take action to accomplish your goal.

8. Say: Now, look at the phrases in the worksheet.They are all used in the story. I want
you to decide what happens in Lorenzo's story, from start to finish.

9. Take feedback from one or two students and find out what they think happens in the
story.

10. Read out the Killer Product text on page 5. Pause to ask questions on the way:

* After paragraph two: Can you guess what kind of artist Lorenzo became ?(Answer: a
conceptual artist).

* After paragraph three: Can you guess what the killer product is?

* After paragraph four: Imagine you are in this situation:You have a great idea for a
product and you need money, at least $15,000. But you can't borrow it from the bank.
What would you do? (Elicit as many ideas as possible. If students suggest crowdfunding,
great! Ask them to explain what it is and how it works.)

* After paragraph six: Don't worry, the victims are not human. Any ideas what the killer
product could be? What are its victims? Would you like to see the promotional video?

Show students the video (see Materials and preparation) and introduce them to the Bug-a-
Salt™, a toy gun which shoots salt and kills flies and mosquitoes.

* After paragraph seven: So Lorenzo raised all that money in just two months. The
promotional video helped him. But that there was more to his success than that. Any
ideas? (Students may already have suggested crowdfunding, in which case this question is
not relevant).

11. Put students into pairs and ask them to take it in turns to verbally reconstruct
Lorenzo’s story referring to their Collocations Match worksheets to do so. The collocations
in the worksheet appear in the same order as they do in the story.

12. Give out copies of the Killer Product text so that students compare their
reconstructions with the language in the text.

Note: The video can give rise to some interesting discussions. In some ways, it is quite
violent. But then, most people see flies as dirty, annoying creatures. Flies are also masters
of escape – we all know how difficult that are to hit with your hand. This makes them even
more loathsome. However, the video graphically draws attention to their vulnerability and
mortality. It could almost bring us to feel sorry for them. Or maybe not!

A Killer Product - Jamie Keddie 2015 - Lessonstream.org

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A killer product (story text)

Warning: This text may seem quite horrific at the end. Please don't worry – it is not as
bad as it seems.

Lorenzo Maggiore is probably not the kind of person that you would expect to run a multi-
million dollar business. As a young man, he was always a bit of an outsider who preferred
surfing to studying. He dropped out of school at an early age and this worried his parents.

Lorenzo never went to college. Instead, he chose wallpapering as a profession. But his big
sister saw greater potential in him. With her encouragement, Lorenzo signed up for an art
course and pursued an artist's career.

As an artist, Lorenzo became obsessed with an idea – an idea that he had had since he
was a child. And he was sure that if he could get funding, his creative idea could be
brought to commercial life. If he could do that, he would have a killer product.

Unfortunately, Lorenzo had no history as a successful businessman. No bank in the world

would give him the funding that he needed.

In 2013, Lorenzo founded a startup company called Skell Inc. He introduced his killer
product to the world through a promotional video on YouTube.

The video shows the killer product in action. It consists of a series of deaths, each one
played in slow motion. Victims are thrown into the air. They hit walls and fall to the floor.
Dead!

In just two months, Lorenzo was able to raise $577,546. His success story provides an
interesting case study.

A Killer Product - Jamie Keddie 2015 - Lessonstream.org

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Collocation match
I Match the verbs on the left with phrases on the right:

To run ... ... a bit of an outsider

To drop out ... ... a business

To be ... ... wallpapering as a profession

To choose ... ... of school

To sign up ... ... obsessed with an idea

To pursue ... ... for a course

To become ... ... something to life

To get ... ... a career

To bring .. ... funding

To found ... ... (a video) in slow motion

To play ... ... a startup company

To raise ... ... an interesting case study

To provide ... ... $577,546 in two months

II Now refer to the above words and phrases to complete the following:
* A specific type of interior decorating which involves putting paper on walls is called
__________.
* In science or business, a story which provides a good example of a situation is called a
__________ __________.
* __________ is the money that you need to pay for an expensive project or business idea.

* If you __________ __________ __________ a college or university course, you leave

before completing it.
* If you __________ a company, organisation or business, you start it. (Note the difference
here: If you fund a company, organization or business , you provide money to help it
grow.)
* A __________ is a small business, especially one that is associated with Internet
activities.
* If you __________ a dream or passion, you follow it or take action to accomplish your
goal.

A Killer Product - Jamie Keddie 2015 - Lessonstream.org

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Activity outline (Part two: crowdfunding)

1. Say: Lorenzo raised $577,546 in just two months. He did this through crowdfunding.
(Write this word on the board and point out that a crowd is a group of people).

2. Ask: Have you heard of crowdfunding before? What do you know about it? How does it
work?

3. Write the following questions on the board and ask students to copy them.
Alternatively, dictate them:

* What crowdfunding platform did Lorenzo choose?

* What is a perk and what perks did Lorenzo offer?
* What was his goal?
* How long did his crowdfunding campaign last?
* Did he choose flexible or fixed funding? What is the difference?
* How many backers did he get?

4. Refer students to Lorenzo's crowdfunding campaign page on Indiegogo (see Materials

and preparation) and ask them to answer the questions. They can use their own mobile
devices for this if they are responsible enough.

5. Take feedback:

* What crowdfunding platform did Lorenzo choose?

There are many crowdfunding platforms. The best known are Indiegogo and Kickstarter.
Lorenzo chose the former.

* What is a perk and what perks did Lorenzo offer?

When someone contributes to a crowdfunding campaign, they get something in return. In
Lorenzo's case, the main perk was the Bug-A-Salt™ gun.

* What was his goal?

Lorenzo's original goal was to raise $15,000.

* How long did his crowdfunding campaign last?

His campaign lasted for 2 months.

* Did he choose flexible or fixed funding? What is the difference?

If you choose fixed funding, you get nothing if you don't achieve your goal. All
contributions are returned to backers at that end of the campaign. On the other hand, in a
flexible funding campaign, you keep all contributions regardless of whether or not you
achieve your goal. Lorenzo chose flexible funding.

* How many backers (contributors) did he get?

10,764 people backed Lorenzo's campaign.

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Follow up 1
The world of crowdfunding is full of stories of success and failure. Some campaigns are
notable for their originality.

As a homework / project task, ask students to find an interesting crowdfunding campaign

and prepare a presentation on it. In the presentation, they should tell the story of the
campaign. In doing so, they should make reference to the following:

* The product or idea and the person or people behind it.

* Campaign details (i.e. platform, goal, duration, flexible or fixed funding, number of
backers.)

* The campaign video if there is one (students can describe).

* What makes the campaign interesting? For example, are there any particularly original
perks? Were there any interesting campaign strategies?

Follow up 2
Crowdfunding campaigns that fail, often tend to do so for similar reasons. Ask students to
speculate on the five top reasons that campaigns fail before giving them a text such as this
one:

http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2014/nov/14/-sp-kickfunded-the-enhralling-
world-of-kickstarter-crowdfunding-failures

Follow up 3
As a project, why not get students to prepare a a promotional video and a pitch plan for a
product or idea of their own? You could give them a theme:

* A project for the school/local community

* A time-saving gadget
* A book/computer game/film/app
* A crazy gadget

A Killer Product - Jamie Keddie 2015 - Lessonstream.org