8 - Evaluate the adverts
Learning Outcome
3 (U20): Be able to produce the planned media components
M3 (U20): Explain how the created media components comply with the codes and conventions of the media sectors
Codes and conventions are essential when making media products and lead to success if followed corrections. Codes are a system of signs which create meaning whilst conventions are the manner in which something is completed. They are used across all media products including the three we have created. Many things must be taken into consideration when following these codes and conventions such as the target audience, client brief and the type of product/service which is being advertised.
Below I will be discussing how we followed codes and conventions when creating our three different promotional forms. These three forms were:
- Promotional video
- Billboard advert
- Magazine advert
These 3 forms were selected as they were the ones which Carter soft drinks had requested in their client brief. As well as this however, we too believed that these would be the most effective advertisement forms in order to attract customers to purchase the new drink. The large majority of our competitors, especially the market leaders, all are users of these different forms. For this reason we believed that it was the most suitable for a new soft drinks brand. As well as this, we took a lot of inspiration from these market leaders, especially Coca-Cola.
Magazine and Billboard advert
We used a variety of different codes and conventions within both of these adverts which I will be explaining in detail below. Our magazine and billboard adverts were not the same however they share many similarities.
(Magazine)
(Billboard)
The first code and convention which I will be discussing is our products logo. This Phizzwizzard logo can be seen on the can as well as above it which we have done to make the drinks name extremely clear. The font used is called (Fabelt) and looks a lot like a strawberry lace which is why it is so suitable for this product. The string coming off the "P" and underlining the word is a strawberry lace which is used as the drink is strawberry lace flavoured. This is a very cool, unique font which symbolises the flavour of the beverage. This logo is used consistently through all of the promotion which allows Carter to build the image of this product. The font also appealed to the target audience as the curls made it a slightly vintage, serif font, appealing to the older demographic however the red made the font look much more modern and vibrant, appealing to the younger demographic.
(Magazine)
(Billboard)
Next I will be looking at the slogan which we have used. Similarly to the logo, this font too is a serif, old-fashioned font that has been made to look a lot like strawberry laces due to the colour used. The joint-up writing allows for this strawberry lace look as these laces are long. The font being which we have used is called Etna and we have used this font across both the magazine as well as the billboard. The slogan says "Takes you back to your youth!" which is our message behind our 3 adverts. This slogan has been used across all of the 3 forms we have used, showing consistency and allowing us to build our brand name. This slogan expresses that the drink will remind each customer of their childhood after consuming it due to its thirst-quenching, natural flavour. The word "you" used in the slogan makes the customer feel as we are talking directly to them which is effective as it makes them more likely to purchase our product. This also portrays a sense of magic as we are sharing the message that drinking this will allow you to turn back into your younger self. This targets the older demographic more as it will allow them to remember memories of their childhood.
(Image from google)
One business which we have taken great inspiration from as mentioned earlier is Coca-Cola. This is due to their consistent colour scheme using a strong shade of red and their very simple layout due to their already popular brand image. The research into Coca-Colas advertisement campaigns has allowed us to better our own and shape it for success. This particular shade of red that they are using within this billboard, they have made sure to include in all of their other adverts, almost claiming the colour as their own. This is effective as it allowed them to build their brand awareness to become the market leader in soft drinks they are today, which we too hope to follow. We have also chosen a red/pink colour scheme as our liquid is coloured red as well as our main ingredient. This will allow us to portray the flavour through just colours. In this specific Cola ad, their slogan is "refresh on the Coca-Cola side of life". This inspired us greatly to think of our slogan as this too has a magical feeling behind it and is sharing a very similar message to ours. The "side of life" which they are speaking about may well be the past as the drink was invented in 1892, meaning the "Coca-Cola side" could be during this time period. This therefore led to out simple slogan to be thought of with the supernatural element that many adverts include to add the feeling of creativity.
(Magazine)
(Billboard)
Across our different promotional forms we have kept a consistent theme of half colour, half black-white. We have done this to share a message with our audience. The black-white represents the retro-theme of the drink as well as also how people feel before consuming the drink, being stuck in a boring, dull world. This is because our drink is an extremely positive, playful drink which we are promoting to our target audience. The colour however represents childhood and the positivity within the world that is obtained once consuming the drink. This essentially shares the message that this drink will cheer you up as you will enjoy its refreshing flavour that much. I believe this is a very smart feature which we have included and adds a meaning behind all of the text by using positive and negative lighting. This selective colouring is extremely effective.
(Image from google)
This gatorade advert was a large inspiration to our 50/50 coloured adverts. This is because looking at this advert allowed us to see how effective selective colouring is. It is used to pick our certain colours and make them stand out much more within an image. When looking at this advert however, we identified that using selective colouring as a contrast to black and white was the most effective way in which this could be used. This is because it allows the colour to be the focal point, making the drink appear much more refreshing. This meant that the main interest in our advertisement was the can due to the way we used selective colouring.
(Magazine)
(Billboard)
One extremely important convention which we thought about as part of these two adverts was the location of the cans. The magazine shows a can by a swimming pool whilst our billboard shows the a can sitting in sand on a beach. Both of these locations warm summer locations were beverages are very demanded. This makes the soft drink appear extremely refreshing and thirst-quenching. The weather and sunshine is also used to make the drink much more appealing. Looking at these adverts make the audience being in these exotic scenarios and therefore show how appropriately placed the drinks are.
(Magazine) (Billboard)
The last magazine and billboard code and convention that I will be discussing is the social media and website links as well as the price. We included these features on both of our adverts to make our drinks social media and website extremely easily accessible. This will allow us to attract many people to our pages which will allow us to build our audience. This will provide them with the information of where the drinks can be purchased and also lead to the promotional video, influencing the purchase further. The social media also allows for customer interaction as customers will be able to leave comments sharing their opinions with our promotion as well as feedback on the beverage. The #PhizzWizz is a hashtag which we have included as part of our "Call-To-Action" allowing customers to make posts and comments, sharing our brand name to the public. This will allow for our business to grow and improve our brand awareness. The price we are advertising is also an extremely reasonable price in the nowadays soft drink market and undercuts many competitors, giving customers another reason to purchase a can with their spare change.
Video Advert
Just like the billboard and magazine adverts, video adverts too follow many codes and conventions. These include aspects such as sound, camera shots/angles and lighting. Below I will be discussing the main codes and conventions which we have used as part of our video advert.
Firstly the location which we had chosen for our video was a modern house. We decided to chose this location as it is a simple location that is relatable to nearly all of our viewers. This is because many of our viewers would have come home after a long day at school/work and be extremely grumpy. We wanted to make our video as relatable as possible as this builds a bond between the audience and the characters shown in the video. As well as this, the viewers would have been in this scenario many times and therefore by us showing this, it shows our audience that everyone had bad days. This part of the scene links mostly to the 30s demographic, especially those who are employed workers. By making the location a home, we made it relatable to all audiences.
Many Promotional adverts are set in homes as this creates a very relatable scene. This allows for the audience to feel a stronger connection with the characters within the scene. Making the location relatable will show the audience why the product being advertised is so needed to them and will make them more likely to purchase the product. In this Doritos advert, the location is simply a couch in the living room which many people can engage with. This helps create more talking points as the humour within the advert is relatable.
Within this advert, one of the main and most important conventions we had looked into was our sound throughout the whole video. The first half of our video required absolutely no dialogue and only old, Charlie Chaplin styled music playing. This was done to express the bitter and gloomy mood within this scene. All conversations were shown using subtitles to show that the dialogue had purposely been muted for these first few scenes. This silent-movie styles intro to the advert was extremely useful for expressing the mood of the character who had just gotten home. This also adds to the mood of the scene as the characters anger is simply expressed using an exclamation mark within the subtitles. This adds to the dull mood further. After the beverage is consumed however, their is a massive change within the scene...
After the beverage is consumed, the song Uptown Funk starts playing instantly. This is an extremely positive song and allowed for a massive switch-up of the mood within the scene. This is also quite a recently released song which the majority of 13-18 year olds know, relating the advert to the younger demographic. As well as the music changing, their was dialogue shared between the character and the butler in a very lively tone which showed the difference in the characters mood that that the drink created. This added a great feel-good factor to our advert in which the audience watching had also been affected by the switch in moods, warming their mood.
The black-white effect used at the beginning scenes of our advert is used to set a dull, boring tone in order to express how the main character is feeling. By using an effect like this, it makes the characters emotions very visually clear for the audience due to black and white being a very negative filter. This is because the darkness and intimidating feel of this filter. These colours are complete opposites however together allow to create a variety of different feels. The feel which it has created in this scene, especially along with the music used is a negative one.
One of the main inspirations for this opening was the different Charlie Chaplin, black and white silent movies. We used the same features as these movies as we only included music as our sound as well as using this black-white, dull filter. Even though these movies are not promotional content, we wanted to use this as inspiration as the movies share the same mood we were trying to portray at the beginning of our advert. This is so that we could make the everything in the beginning of our advert blend in with each other, giving off a lifeless feeling just as done in the Charlie Chaplin movies. This meant that when the drink was consumed and colour was added to our advert, it injected the sense of life and positivity which is what we want our drink to represent.
The costumes we used within the advert were very smart attire. The main character was dressed in a retro full suit to show the importance of his job and how stressful it must be. The briefcase also symbolised that the character was probably a businessman of sorts as this is part of business attire. We wanted to share the message that even though the drink is not expensively priced, it is still suitable for everyone of all classes. The suit was also a very retro looking suit including an old english cap. This was effective as one of the requirements on the brief was to appeal to a retro audience. This attire is very retro and therefore this requirement was met. This once again appeals to the older 30s demographic as many of them dress like this when they go to work.
(Images both from google)
The costumes were heavily inspired by old-english style suits. This includes tweed suits, flat-caps and three piece suits. This was worn to represent that the main character within the advert was successful. This is because if a successful character is drinking this drink to relax, it will give the drink a great image and influence customers to purchase the beverage. This formal dress can be seen across many movies and series' where they portray success. Having a very English style of dress to promote an English beverage also adds a more traditional approach to the advert. This will attract many British people, especially within the 30s demographic.
Lastly I will be talking about a certain effect we decided to use. We used a ripple transition to symbolise the travelling back in time after consuming the beverage. The use of the wavering image sends the audience back in time and is usually used as a flashback, just as we decided to use it. We wanted to do this to share the characters memories of their childhood with the audience in a clear way that did not require any dialogue. This is seen in many comedies and kids movies which is why we used it, allowing us to cater for our younger 13-18 demographic as well as our older demographic too. This also gives this scene more of a retro feel as this is not a modern effect, once again meeting the client brief.
D2
(U20): Demonstrate how the technical and aesthetic properties of the media
components meet the client brief
Our client brief was set to us by the soft drink production company "Carter Soft Drinks" as they wanted us to help them promote their brand new product, "Phizzwizzard". The brief we were given included their two target audiences, a demographic of 30 year olds and a demographic of 13-18 year olds, the retro look they were targeting and to create a promotional video, magazine and billboard advert that will be shown on their website and social media pages.
Billboard ad
Magazine ad
Promotional video
The main requirement of the client brief and the one which allowed us to begin brainstorming was to create the three advertising forms for the soft drink. To meet the brief, we had create the three forms which were a billboard, magazine advert and promotional video. The client brief stated to produce these specific three products as they were the most suitable for a soft drinks advertisement campaign. This is because these 3 forms (as well as social media which they will be using to further promote the product) are the most appropriate to reach out to the two target demographics. The print advertisement (magazine) is a great way to reach out to the more mature 30 year old demographic whilst the other two forms (billboard and video) are targeted at both demographics. The video can be posted on various platforms and each platform has a different audience e.g. TV, website and facebook will target older demographic while other social media and YouTube will target younger demographic. Social media however is growing rapidly and is currently the biggest platform for advertisement. For this reason, Social media would have been a better platform to focus into more, rather than a magazine advert which will not attract too many customers. By focusing predominantly on social media, many more customers would have been attracted as this is the currently the leading advertisement platform in current time. This platform would have allowed us to build our brand awareness quicker, better and at a lower cost. This is also a much more beneficial promotion form to be using as social media is very technically converged. This means that the social media advertising would have been accessible on different devices, depending on what the customers are using e.g. laptop, smartphone...
The three plans of the forms we created are below:
The three plans were created so that we could meet the required codes and conventions in our own creative way, following the client brief. This meant that our final product would have been as demanded by Carters soft drinks. Here we shared our ideas with Carter, allowing them to give us any feedback and recommend us with improvements if they had wished to. These visualisation diagrams were also annotated with the different aspects which we wished to include in our final product.
Both our audiences were also targeted in our video due to the two main characters we used in our video. The first main character was a middle aged man coming home after work in his business attire. The mood was very gloomy as he was tired and stressed which is extremely relatable to the older demographic which we are targeting. This is because many people feel this way after a long day at work, allowing the audience to relate to the character. The main character in the second half of the advert is an energetic child. This character is very relatable to the younger audience as he will share many traits with the people viewing the advert such as immaturity and positivity. This character will also allow the older demographic to be reminded of themselves as a child due to them just seeing a flashback. The location was also a very relatable one as we wanted to make this advert as approachable as possible. By having the setting in a house, this allowed for a very simple story that most viewers will be able to relate and understand all the emotion throughout the whole video.
The brief was written by Carter soft drinks who are the owners of the new drink, PhizzWizzard. For this reason, we had to make sure to include the Carter logo on our 3 different advertisement forms. This had to be done in order to meet the client brief set to us by Carter. The use of their logo will allow them to gain more brand recognition for the drink they have created. The logo will allow viewers to know who the production company is and maybe even research into them. This will allow also customers to look into the business if they enjoyed the product and look for other products which the same company have produced.
The client brief stated that the drink tastes of strawberry laces and the liquid is coloured red. Due to this, the logo was coloured red and the font (Fabelt) was structured just like strawberry laces which is the flavour of the beverage. This logo was used consistently across all 3 media platforms as well as on the front of the can to boost the brand image. The red colour used for the logo relates to the key ingredient used for this drink. This allows the audience to clearly see what flavour the beverage was. It was important to use such a creative logo which relates to the product being promoted as this will persuade customers to make the purchase. 
As well as the logo, we made sure to keep a consistent theme of the red and use a colour scheme that links to the product across all of the advertisement forms. We did this by making the word "PhizzWizzard" red within the subtitles, colouring the bath red and even having actual strawberry laces in our video. The constant use of red reminds the viewer of strawberries as red connotes to the fruit strawberries. We wanted to show the character in a strawberry lace world by including as much red as we can where possible. This also allowed us to build the brand image and constantly include different little red features that link back to the drink being advertised in the audiences head. This was done to show the strawberry flavour as much as possible. 
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