TV Advertisement Evaluation

 

TV Advertisement Evaluation

Embed your final advert at the top of the post

Embed your blank questionnaire (guidance for questionnaires / surveys is on a separate post)

Embed your PPt book of responses - you must collect at least 12 responses (that's only 4 each!)

 

The brief for this project was to create a 30 second advert that successfully changed the demographic of a Unilever branded product. Unilever is a British multinational consumer goods company that owns over 400 brands, such as Lynx, Lipton Iced Tea and Dove. (Brands, 2022)

Before the group work started, we individually researched different Unilever brands and created a synopsis of how we would rebrand that product. (Steed, 2022) We then came together as a group and decided on who’s rebranding we liked more. Our chosen brand was Ben and Jerry’s. We chose Ben and Jerry’s as we thought it would be fun to rebrand their age demographic to an older one, as their ice cream is mainly targeted towards children. We decided to appeal to older people aged 60+, as this is a stark contrast to Ben and Jerry’s current age demographic primarily being to those under the age of 24. (should brands get involved with political debates?, 2022)

 

2. The finished product & feedback

a. How did you collect the feedback (comments / responses from others) on your finished advert from your target audience? Provide a summary of the main points.

We collected feedback through a Google Forms document, where we asked several people to fill it out and answer the 11 questions. Our group tried to get responses from people who were in our rebranded target audience, but unfortunately we did not know many people over the age of 60. Instead, we swapped questionnaires with other students who were also doing the same project so that we could get feedback from our peers who were in the same situation. We also collected feedback through showing the advert to our peers and teachers to gage their opinion and gain valuable feedback.
The 11 questions we asked included things such as asking their gender, age and occupation. This was to provide us with key information on their demographic. It helped us to analyse the data in greater depth and helped particularly when we looked at how our audience responded. Other questions we asked included “What was the storyline of the advert?”. We asked this as we needed to ensure that the storyline was coming across correctly, and if the different ages interpreted the advert story differently. The other questions we asked were:

·         What age range do you think this advert is targeted towards?

·         Why do you think it is targeted towards that age range?

·         What did you like about the advert?

·         What didn’t you like about the advert?

·         If you were to make any changes to the advert, what would that be?

·         Where would you expect to see this advert?

·         Would you buy this product?

b. Appropriateness to audience: do you think you managed to get the main message to your target audience you specified in pre-production. Would the advert have an appropriate impact on them?

During pre-production, as a group, we agreed that the main message would be “Relive the Taste” and about old people reliving their youth through eating an ice cream that reminded them of their childhood. This was successfully achieved through several different methods, such as showing the target age demographic in the advert.
As our rebrand was about targeting Ben and Jerry’s to older people, we had an older man being the main actor within the advert. We also helped show the message through editing, for example, we desaturated the colour in the scenes with the older man in. We did this for two reasons; when the actor was a child, colour TV would not have been the best quality, so we desaturated it to add some familiarity. Another reason was to contrast with the more saturated scenes with the younger actor in. We did this as when you look back on your childhood it always seems bright and colourful. Plus, this helps show contrast between the scenes with the older man and scenes with the child. The advert would appropriately impact the target age demographic, it would make them want to relive their childhood and feel nostalgic about the good times they had as a child.

 

c. Think about the technical and aesthetic qualities of your advertisement. Analyse your use of: mise-en-scene; camera; editing and sound.

Mise-en-scene:

The definition of Mise-en-scene is “the arrangement of the scenery, props, etc. on the stage of a theatrical production or on the set of a film.” We thought about mise-en-scene right from the beginning when we were planning our advert and creating a storyboard.

When we designed every scene for the storyboard, we made sure to think about how the scene would look, what props would be seen, where they would be seen and what the lighting would look like. When we where shooting the scenes, we made sure that anything that could be seen was supposed to be there and was there for a purpose. When we shot the scenes with the old man in, we made sure that all objects seen would relate to a stereotypical old man; for example, we didn’t have a high-tech TV in the background, instead had objects that you’d expect to see in an old person’s house, like cat food and coffee cups.

 We also made sure any props that we used fit the scene, for example, the man eats the ice cream with a spoon. To make sure the prop fit with the rest of the room, we used a metal spoon that would be found in a cutler drawer.

The scenes with the younger man in where also thoroughly thought out before we began to shoot. Through the planning and shooting, we made sure that all props, lighting and anything that could be seen on the screen made sense and fit the idea of childhood. We made sure the actor was wearing youthful clothes and the scenery was fully saturated as when you look back on your childhood memories, they always seem bright and colourful. We also made sure we shot on a sunny day, as this encouraged natural lighting as well as linking back to the idea of your childhood memories always being sunny. Another prop we used that help push this idea was having the actor use a spinny propeller hat. This idea was thought of during the pre-production stages.

 

Camera shots/angles:

Throughout our advert, we used a wide range of camera angles. Throughout the pre-production stages, we agreed that we wanted to use a selection of different shot types and angles to help improve our skills as well as keep the advert interesting.
We used several close-ups to help show detail or emotion:

We also used an extreme close-up; we did this to help deepen the connection and closeness from viewer to actor as well as show more heightened emotions:

 

 

 

 

We used medium shots to draw attention to both the actor and his surroundings by giving them equal space in the frame: (Adobe, 2022)

 

 

 

We also used several camera movements. We did this as it helped establish the new location, and slowly reveals information to the viewer.

 

 

 

 

Editing:

When we were planning our advert, we thought thoroughly about the editing process and how we would edit our advert to achieve our end goal. We made sure that the editing also fitted within the style, for example, we desaturated the colour in the scenes with the old man in. When the actor was a child, colour TV would not have been the best quality, so we desaturated it to add some familiarity. We added a grain filter over the scenes with the old person in to help achieve this idea too.
Most of the different clips in the video were edited together using simple cuts. We did this because it is an easy way to help convey the advert idea.
Another editing effect was saturating scenes with the child in. We did this as when you look back on your childhood it always seems bright and colourful. We edited it this way to also show a contrast between the young man and the older man while still showing they’re the same person. 

We also added special effects in the edit, such as transitions.

One transition we used was a blinking effect. We added this transition as it helps push the idea that this is the old man’s daydream, and him blinking enables him to cuts himself through the daydream. Other editing we did was slow-motion, as a group we decided to slow down the scene where the old man eats the ice-cream, we did this so that he viewer has time to fully process how the old man is feeling, and empathises with him and feels nostalgia as he remembers his childhood.
We also edited the advert so that we didn’t actually say the brand name at any time, it was simply shown either on the tub of ice-cream and at the end of the advert when the slogan is said. We added the graphics like the Ben and Jerrys logo and the slogan “Relive the Taste” we did this so that the storyline of the older man reliving his childhood is confirmed with the viewer.

 

Sound:

When we were planning the advert, we agreed there would be little to no diegetic noise, instead, the sound would rely on music. We decided this as Ben and Jerrys has a very specific advert style, that contains voice-overs and loud, happy music. We found some royalty free music online that fit well with Ben and Jerry’s style that they use. We used this music in our advert for the scenes with the child in as it was upbeat and jolly, which is associated with childhood. During the scenes that had the old man in, we decided as a group to use more calming music to help convey the idea of a calm, old, retired man. This also contrasted with the jolliness of the other song we used.

 

Effectiveness of content: Do you think your finished advert effectively sells the product to the specified audience through its storyline/narrative? And what was the effectiveness of the persuasion techniques you used to sell the product?

Our target age for this rebranding was older people aged over 60. This is because our brief was to rebrand the target audience, and Ben and Jerry’s current target audience was young people, so we decided to swap that to target it to those aged 60+.

When we showed the advert to our peers and friends, they all successfully guessed who the target audience was and agreed that it was targeted correctly towards people aged 60+. I think our finished advert effectively sells Ben and Jerrys to those aged 60+, achieved through having the target audience in the advert and using subconscious persuasion by using nostalgia through memories and the desaturated editing style.
Another way we effectively sold the product to our target audience was through music. We used a style of music that was popular when those aged over 60 were children. The nostalgia helps the viewer feel connected to the man in the advert and makes them want to experience the feeling of reliving their childhood.

We used several persuasion techniques and methods such as a Solution to a problem. The problem in the advert being sadness and oldness. These problems are fixed within the advert, as the old man is seen smiling after the flashback, looking a lot happier with the ice-cream. The oldness problem is also solved, as the man becomes young and feels young again when he eats the ice-cream. We also used self-perception/social appearance, which is when people are unhappy with something about their life and aspire to be “better” due to envy. When the target audience watch the advert, they will be envious of the fact that the man feels young again and remembers all the good times in his childhood.

 

 

Clarity of communication: what was the message you were trying to send to the target audience? What were the main techniques you used to send that message?

The message we were trying to send to our target audience was that Ben and Jerrys wasn’t just for children or those under age 24 (which is their target audience). To do this we used an older actor in the advert to appeal to them in the hope that an older audience would identify with them.

 

Overall, do you feel your advert is fit for purpose? i.e., does it look professional and does it comply with advertising regulations? You must extract information from the ASA / BCAP code here as it will meet the requirements for Unit 2: GC1.

The advert we created is fit for purpose as it looks professional, as we used professional equipment such as cameras and sound recording equipment, as well as using professional editing software like Adobe Premiere Pro.

There are two organisations that regulate advertising in the UK, they are the ASA (Advertising Standards Authority) and CAP (Committee of Advertising Practice).
The ASA responds to concerns and complaints from consumers and businesses and take action to ban ads which are misleading, harmful, offensive or irresponsible. As well as responding to complaints they monitor ads to check they’re following the rules. They are responsible for ensuring that all adverts are not harmful or offensive. The work they do is self-regulatory, meaning that the work they do is funded by the advertising industry.

The CAP is the sister organisation of the ASA that is responsible for writing the Advertising Codes. Advertising codes are created to ensure that every ad is legal, decent, honest and truthful and respect the principles of fair competition, so that the public can have confidence in advertising.

CAP and the ASA work to support the industry to help them get their ads right before they are published. The two are linked together as the ASA has to clear the advert using CAP’s advertising codes before they can be publicly shown (About the ASA and CAP, 2022).

There are 35 different sections that all adverts must follow before being publicly posted, some of the basic rules include things such as making sure the advert was safe and did not influence young people to engage in dangerous acts. We also made sure that the advert did not cause any harm or offense. We made sure that the advert was appropriate to be seen at all times of day, including before watershed at 9pm.

 

 

3. Personal reflection

How does the final advertisement compare with your original intentions? Reflect on your documentation, e.g., you storyboards and other pre-production, final advertisement and audience/peer/tutor feedback.

Our advert very closely relates to our original intentions, when we were creating our advert, we continuously referred to our shot list and our storyboard to ensure we were sticking to our plan. We also made sure out final advert compared with our original intentions during production by referring to our script. Although there was only one line of narrative, our script held vital details such as how the environment and lighting would look.

When we received feedback from our peers and friends they all agreed that our advert did seem to match all our pre-production planning documents correctly. The only difference from our original storyboard plan was in scene 9, where after the scene where the young boy runs round the park and it transitions, there was originally going to be a shot of a close-up of the old man’s eye, which then zooms out to reveal the shock on the man’s face. We decided not to do this as we had a very similar shot at the beginning of the advert.

Self-evaluation: Reflect on how satisfied you are with your final advert. Would you do anything differently if you were to undertake the task again? Finally, evaluate your own involvement in the project.

Overall, I am highly satisfied with our final advert, as when showing it to others, they immediately guessed what our rebranded target audience was, which was our main goal. The final advert looks professional, the editing is slick and the music is of the correct tone.

If I were to do the task again I would make sure the tasks where more evenly spread; this was nobody’s fault in particular as Amber joined after the pre-production documents where all completed, and we believe that Halle had left the college when the documents were being completed. Due to these reasons, all the documents were split between Georgia and I. Another change I would make would be finding POC to be the actors for the advert, as I have noticed any Ben and Jerry’s adverts that have people in are mainly white.

Throughout the project, I made sure I took a fair share of the work on. As previously mentioned, all the work documents where split between Georgia and I, as Halle severed any kind of connection with as and has not attended college. Amber completed one of the documents as Halle failed to do it after weeks of asking.

The documents I completed were:

·         Storyboards,

·         Budgeting sheets,

·         One of the talent release sheets,

·         Location releases (shared between Georgia and I),

·         Minutes document (shared between Georgia and I),

·         Production schedule,

·         Prop and costume list,

During filming, I personally filmed the scenes with the older actor (my Grandad) by myself, while Georgia and Amber filmed the scenes with the younger actor. I did the majority of the editing, but ensured that I was always getting the groups opinion to make sure we all agreed on all the actions I took while editing.
I am happy with how much work I contributed the project and its final outcome.

 

 

Bibliography

About the ASA and CAP. (2022, May 15). Retrieved from ASA: https://www.asa.org.uk/about-asa-and-cap/about-regulation/about-the-asa-and-cap.html#:~:text=The%20Advertising%20Standards%20Authority%20(ASA,for%20writing%20the%20Advertising%20Codes.

Adobe. (2022, May 12). Retrieved from Adobe: https://www.adobe.com/creativecloud/video/hub/ideas/what-is-a-medium-shot-in-film#:~:text=Also%20called%20a%20waist%20shot,equal%20space%20in%20the%20frame.

Brands. (2022, May 09). Retrieved from Unilever: https://www.unilever.co.uk/

should brands get involved with political debates? (2022, May 09). Retrieved from affinity: https://www.affinityagency.co.uk/post/should-brands-get-involved-in-political-debates#:~:text=Understanding%20your%20customer%20base,living%20in%20a%20cosmopolitan%20city.

Steed, E. (2022, May 09). Lipton Iced Tea - Unilever Research. Retrieved from Blogger: https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/1103613505640569221/116614836024440533?hl=en