The inspiration for this exercise was Kimberly Elsbach’s Harvard Business Reviewarticle titled, “How to Pitch a Brilliant Idea” (2003). Building upon insights from this article, I challenge students to create a 60-second video that highlights their individuality and unique value proposition to potential employers. For many students, this is the first time they are formally applying brand marketing concepts and leveraging digital technology to develop a promotional video.
As an important side note, I never want students to become so focused on the novelty of technology that they lose sight of the importance of developing a compelling marketing message. So, prior to producing the perfect pitch video, students are challenged to create a personal brand promise and complementary brand points that serve as the foundation for the message of the video. The brand promise needs to reflect what prospective employers should expect from the student’s services and brand points need to be specific characteristics or experiences that define the student’s personal brand. By identifying and articulating brand points that have value to prospective employers, students are able to tell a powerful brand story in a video format that is more engaging than a traditional resume.
As part of this exercise, we discuss the power of storytelling and review student scripts during class as a non-graded assessment. Students are then given the flexibility to select their own video recording tools but are expected to publish the final video on YouTube. Students are encouraged to use best practices of social media marketing and include descriptive text and keyword tags for the YouTube video and embed the video on their LinkedIn profile. Since YouTube is considered the world’s second largest search engine, the perfect pitch video becomes a positive contribution to the student’s professional online presence as well. Examples of these videos can be viewed at http://www.bit.ly/wmstudentvideos.
