Monday Molly Musings: 7th Annual Red Maple Marketing Campaign and Power to Persuade

Monday, June 3, 2019

7th Annual Red Maple Marketing Campaign and Power to Persuade

Last week, I posted my Monday Molly Musing mid-week. I won't repeat that delay this week, although I will talk about something that I alluded to in the previous post - the Red Maple Marketing Campaign.

Author James Bow demonstrates structure concepts with boxes

We've been doing this for seven years now, or at least since 2012. We've had wonderful author visits (like Ted Staunton, Richard Scrimger, Robert Paul Weston, Allan Stratton [twice], and this year's guest, James Bow). The students take the competition seriously, and below is a list of the winners.

2012 = Winner, Milliken PS ("Half-Brother") / Runner-up, Thomas L. Wells PS ("Fly Boy")
2013 = "pause"
2014 = Winner, Agnes Macphail PS ("Loki's Wolves")
2015 = Winner, Milliken PS ("Boundless")
2016 = Winner, Macklin PS (book title?) / Runner-up, Agnes Macphail PS ("Prison Boy")
2017 = Winner, Macklin P.S. ("Trouble is a Friend of Mine") / Runner-up, Milliken PS ("Shooter")
2018 = Winner, Milliken PS ("Laura, Monster Crusher") / Runner-up, Milliken PS ("The Way Back Home")

2019 = Winner, Milliken PS ("The Last Namsara") / Runner-up, Agnes Macphail PS ("Fourth Dimension")

Alison, Jennifer, James, Diana and Tracey (missing Jackie)

Each year, we, the teacher-librarian contacts, improve a bit more in the execution of the event. This year's positive change was the flexibility at the end of the day. None of the participating schools (Alexander Stirling PS, Brookside PS, Agnes Macphail PS, Emily Carr PS or Milliken PS) took school buses, so we were not hampered by the strict schedule of departure. I had parent drivers, so that freed me up to coordinate things, and that helped tremendously. Another benefit was that the groups kept to their five-minute time limit for presentations. Only two groups went slightly over, and the amount of time was relatively insignificant. The transitions with technology were smoother than they've ever been before.

The only slip-up this year was the no-show ice cream truck. Our judges, Kayla and Jack from Manifest, were courted like royalty from the minute they entered the space. I hope to eventually put all the links from the projects on this page, partly as a resource for future student marketers to use.

I was a lot more hands-on this year with the four teams from my school, and I have to say publicly that I am so incredibly proud of the groups. Team "A World Below", "Fourth Dimension", "Sadia" and "A Time To Run" did a fantastic job collaborating as a team, considering options, taking advice, and putting in the time and effort to produce creative, innovative projects. Here are photos and links to the various projects. (ETA: links will be added later)

Book: Sadia
Author: Colleen Nelson
School: Agnes Macphail PS