MISS LEMMER’S FINAL ADVERT EVALUATION
The brand and usp of my product was pretty easy to establish prior to creating my commercial especially as it belongs to the Coca Cola Gmbt family and this can be established by the research I produced for Fanta. My first step after choosing my product, Fanta was to undertake extensive secondary research from a range of reliable sources. This involved researching prior advertising techniques the product brand itself and advertiser’s persuasive techniques generally. First I need to understand the grass roots of Fanta, to get to know my product. It was made in 1942 by Coca Cola Gmbt, because during the Second World War, because Coca Cola could not send out any of their syrup to other nations for production1. The Fanta brand speaks for itself, mainly because of the powerful company it has backing it. Fanta is already known for being that upbeat, summer seasonal beverage and from prior advertising and Fanta’s target audience seem to respond to this well as backed up by the annual seasonal sales reports that Fanta produce every 4 months.2 The rules and regulations for advertising food and drink on television are very strict and I had to be careful that I did not violate any of these rules because this would have made my advert a failure and I would have to go back to the drawing board. For example, “TV advertisements for food products that are classed as high in fat, salt and sugar (HFSS) will not be shown in or around programmes that hold particular appeal for children up to 16 years of age.” 3 This obviously affects scheduling, but also made me think children shouldn’t be involved in such an advert because of its high sugar intake. This can affect a company very heavily because the child audience will be shortened and sales will go down.
1
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fanta http://www.thecoca-colacompany.com/investors/pdfs/form_10K_2010.pdf 3 http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/binaries/research/tv-research/hfss-review-final.pdf 2
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I found it fitting to conduct a SWOT analyses so I got a better picture of what the Fanta enterprise was all about. A strength that I’ve found was “it’s a worldwide brand with over 190 flavours”. On the other hand, Fanta is now suffering from a shortage of cash flow because of disappointing sales reports from the North America region. People may argue the reason for this is because of the competition from smaller beverage companies selling their products at a cheaper price that are slowly but surely taking revenue from Fanta or Coca Cola Gmbt. I conducted a taste test for my advert because primary research was essential for me to gain creditable results4. The reason why this test was so important was to find which Fanta was most the popular so I could advertise that flavour for Fanta and do have the most impact for my client. Because my research showed that Fanta’s buzz was dying so I made a creative decision that the strongest Fanta should be advertised so that the audience group remembers what they love about Fanta. Finding a target audience wasn’t difficult because I had planned to target a niche market because of my knowledge of the television technology of today. Niche marketing is currently more effective that targeting a wide audience. This has to be the case given channels on the television are now niche or narrow cast such as “E4” which only airs programmes that appeal to younger audience groups such as the 13-25 or 30s, at a stretch. During my research I had conducted a narrow cast focus group that was in my target audience, asking several different questions that were relevant to my advert. The results acquired from this helped me determine what advertising techniques I should use in my own advert. This coincided with my secondary research because due to analyses of prior advertising I also established the same techniques. For example the unique selling point of Fanta is really clearly their upbeat and colourful lifestyle which they like in invoke into their audience mind through previous adverts which they have made, it is visible that they are forgetting a younger audience and use specific advertising techniques such as humour and sex appeal.
4
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AnaY3QvnKQOPdE9JRHpaSFRzejBIRVcyQUJpNnhpOWc
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Research shows 89% of people aged 10-28 respond positively to these aspects so therefore, I knew I had to incorporate this into my advert. Moreover, I needed to make sure it was clear that my unique selling point was expressed greatly. After this thorough period of research into the company and finding it’s strengths and weaknesses. I was ready for idea creation. One of the activities that helped me very much was a professional ideas generation game which opened my eyes to several different possibilities that my advert take form. However, for every idea I had constructed in my head then wrote on paper, I had to conduct a viability test. This helped me see if the idea was actually doable. Moreover, I found using my research to create an idea more sensible because I was able to keep in line with my competitors and also create something that has a higher success rate because of the research behind the idea. One of my original ideas was based around the theme of night life and exploring the subject of a safe Friday night. I wanted to make the initial idea into a more artistic and creative piece. For example one of the scenes in this proposed ideas was to have the female models to come and a human like Fanta can to come out after them. This was me using creative flair however the idea wasn’t viable because the school didn’t have the required software to achieve what the can was meant to do. However, I couldn’t achieve this because of the time span for the product. Whereas my alternate idea was easier and looked more realistic so was easier to accomplish in the time frame given. Moreover I was able to take the traditional commercial approach, familiar shot type’s angle, but also with a little creative flare. They target audience would be able to understand my story line and the appeal of the product. Compared to my original idea, I really had to strive to make sure this idea would work as during the process I was told my storyboards needed to be more precise or my work wouldn’t be understood by my crew. Furthermore my final idea uses humour as an advertising technique to reach my teenage target audience, teenagers respond well to humour, as was evident from my questionnaire results. But I am also aware that humour is very much about personal taste.
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My pre production paperwork assisted me in many ways. However, the most important document for me was the “Gantt Chart” also known as the production schedule. Ideally you write down all you need for the whole production period with timescales and you follow it, and doing so you keep on track of your time. This was very helpful for me because I tend to think I have more time than I actually did.
Gantt Charts are used for all platforms of project not just the media industry, because they product results. Furthermore, the shooting script was essential for me as well because I had many different locations I needed to shoot it. A shooting script is used as a diary log for everything you shoot, in order which you shoot it, because in the real world they don’t shoot footage in order, because that would waste a lot of time and money, location, cast, availability plus equipment dictate shooting. For example, “Life As We Know It” was shot in the same location twice as a result of someone making a mistake. This is really frowned upon in the industry because they now had to spend extra money out of their budget, which could potentially affect the profitability and viability of the overall film. However, in my advert because of the arrangement of locations and the plot, I found that the only shooting I had to do was easier done in chronological order. Overall, pre production documentation is the back bone from every project however; it’s all about the amount of detail I put in that deemed the success rate of my advert. I believe my pre production work was solid especially my storyboards because it allowed me to save time when it came to shooting also checking the weather for the day shooting saved me heartache. I had even double-checked the weather for each day of my planned shooting days.
The features and benefits of my advert are pretty clear because from my storyboards and shooting scripts, I was easily able to get my ideas across to my crew and to be organised. A feature of my advert is the slightly longer duration, even though from my research the average Fanta advert is no longer than 20secs. The purpose of this is to trap their audience into a ‘bubble’ using Page 4 of 8
fast words and animations to make them feel obliged to buy a Fanta every time they see one. However, the benefit of my advert being slightly longer is letting the audience have that extra bit of time for them to understand what is going on. The reason for this originates from my research “63% of 17-31 respond better to longer duration adverts”. My quantitative data states that the majority of respondents said that “they actually want to understand what is being sold and benefits buying the product”. From this I was able to justify a longer duration advert as I wanted to create something quirky and off beat so I could reach the other “37%” of respondents who said Fanta is known for it’s short and snappiness, so I also had to incorporate shot duration shots to achieve that traditional Fanta advert effect. Furthermore mid project I received feedback from a class mate saying “the whole concept was working well”, which made me believe I was on tract, which was a massive relief especially as he was part of my target audience he was a teenage made. I believe my advert was very effective because my ideas and concepts for the advert could be put into practise and I was able to create a solid piece of work. This was made evident by the positive feedback I received from my target audience saying the humour aspects worked flawlessly. However, some question arose such as: “why is he trying to pour the drink on the floor, if he wanted it so bad”. These comment helped my final cut of my advert because I Was able to rectify the mistakes made, and make sure I had a solid piece of work for my target audience to relate to and enjoy. For example the crossroad scene was a key scene in my advert. However it lack the professionalism so after much consideration I trimmed the clip down slightly for a much sharpener transition of shots which to my delight my audience responded to the change well. The advertising technique ‘humour’ played massive part in my advert. However I could have added a more “obstacles” in his way such as a female presence to distract him adding the sex appeal or recent Fanta ads. On the other hand my shot duration was often spot on, but my tutor told me to cut some shots down further to keep a constant pace for the advert, which worked very well because it’s made the advert more fluid.
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I don’t think I persuaded my audience as clearly as I could have because the feedback I received showed the persuasion wasn’t consistent throughout the advert; “half way through I thought he was running for fun”. On the other hand some feedback I received showed that the persuasion was visible and sufficient for the whole advert; “I loved the part when he was moving around the room, because I do that a lot”. Although I believe I could have done better with more persuasion because in the new generation it takes a lot more than just using on persuasive technique to fully captivate my audience. However i come have used just one, and done so really well. But I didn’t have the right equipment and time to do so. Some adverts use the idea of the ‘punch line’. For example ‘L’Oreal’ uses only one aspect for persuading which is “Because you're worth it”. which works really well. Because the public know that phrase is associated with L’Oreal. However next time I shall add a voice over to my advert to make it more professional. My target audience understood the concept of the advert. However, the older generation took longer to understand it, though this didn’t concern me much because my primary target audience were satisfied. In my planning I wrote I would make a prototype to gain some feedback and I was glad to see that the majority of the feedback was positive. This suggested I was doing the right things to reach my target audience, and it made it clear how I should approach the rest of my advert. If I had the chance to make another I would definitely try another idea, which had the potential to use more creativity flair. Because with my final chosen idea I believe that its too simplistic and its not something that would be easily remembered whereas if I had chosen a more extravagated idea for example a CGI animation using Cinema 4D were all the elements are moving around and 3D, I could have made something legendary.
My management skills were a very key test for my research because many variables didn’t work for me. However, I managed to pull through. I believe my planning could have been done better because I needed some key elements out. Although I did make a plan B just in case A didn’t work out. The Page 6 of 8
time wasn’t a major problem because we were allocated a good amount of time to finish the product, although there was lots of interference to my time due to the school activities, such as football matches. I understand in the professional world I wouldn’t take part in football matches until my assigned brief was completed to almost perfect standards required. however, considering all this I managed to make all deadlines. When it came down to the actually shooting date, my call sheet time stated we should meet at 2pm (14:00 hours) and commence the actual shoot at 2:30 (14:30 hours). We arrived at our first location which was “Drew Bakers” house to shoot the bedroom scene. The lighting was pretty poor so I had to adjust the ISO on the camera which I was using (Canon 550D). I told my assistance “Eric Peart” to make a note of the poor lighting so when it came down to post productions I will have to colour correct that accordingly. Our first location went smoothly because our talent understood what was required of him and he performed really well. When we arrived at our second location on “Holborn road” we had to film several takes because I decided I didn’t want any cars in the shot, however cars kept on coming down the road and couldn’t stop them so I just had to keep filming till I had all I needed. When had we finished the road location we went down to the shops which the owners were kind enough to allow me to film there with no hassle which was great because it allowed me to come at anytime I wanted. I found shooting here to be pretty easy because I didn’t have much to film and the actor looked motivated to finish shooting as soon as possible. I only did a few takes in the shop because there wasn’t enough space to really experiment was new camera angles. There was a problem with the talent because he wasn’t able to shoot for a while, and sometimes he wouldn’t make the call sheet time so I was left worried. So what I did whilst waiting for a slot to film was, made sure I filmed with different people and then I compared it to see which was better before choosing the best footage. The next time I make an advert I will use more organised and reliable people as cast for better results. The technical qualities of my advert are of a good standard. Feedback from my questionnaire states that, “the clarity of the advert is brilliant, as well as the editing”. I believe that the camera which I used helped me to achieve great high definition footage, which in the end helped me to reach my audience Page 7 of 8
better and also to make my advert look more professional. I also believe the composition of the shots and the angles helped keep the audience hooked on the advert. For example when the can was being crush by the pedestrian, and the facial expression of the talent in total disbelieve and shock really helped to engage my target audience and keep a professional look. Having perfect combinations of shots is used commonly in most advertisement because major companies understand the intense competition and know they need ways in which the audience won’t change the channel when their advert is on. I believe that the colour correction and the saturation is a key technical attribute because Fanta is known for its highly saturated colours. They do this because they want their audience to liken Fanta to a happy place for example the beach this is why a lot of Fanta are set by the beach. So therefore I knew I had to keep the tradition. The aesthetic are the same as most Fanta adverts because my advert has that urban retro theme about it. I am happy with the way my end product came out because this is how I planned it to be. I believed style was important for Fanta advert to work for my target audience. However, if I got this opportunity again, I would probably make an animation because they are best reaching this target audience.
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