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
At the start of the cross-media campaign, our production team had to research other competitors' campaigns and gain insight into how they presented their media product. When Carter Soft Drinks approached us with their brief, they asked us to make an advertising campaign for their latest fizzy drink 'Berry Blitz’. This drink tastes of “strawberry lace and the liquid is red in color”. After receiving the brief from Carter Soft Drinks, we decided to look at a pre-existing fizzy drinks brand which was Coca-Cola Zero. The reason for this is because it is a well-known drink and consumed by millions of people around the world. The first sector within the cross-media campaign that our team decided to look at was Billboard as we thought that it would be the most creative and unique way for the audience to see. Additionally, a billboard is around 27 x 40 inches making it easier to attract the audience's attention.
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From the image on the right, you can see the Coca-Cola zero billboard that our production team discussed in task 1. We established that the product placement was in a good position as the audience and other competitors were able to see what Coca-Cola was promoting. The audience was able to scale out the size of the bottle from the image that was placed on the billboard which would give them an indication of how much Coca-Cola would have been in the bottle.
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Our production team decided to take inspiration from the Coca-Cola zero billboard, but we concluded that we wanted to be unique. We did this by placing the focus image in the center of our billboard. The slogan of the Coca-Cola zero advert was part of the interaction of their billboard. Our production team found out that the phrase "taste it" was able to carry Coca-Cola zero liquid to a dispenser at the end of their billboard. We liked the idea of the audience having an interaction with the billboard as it gained the attention that Coca-Cola intended for its media product, however, our production team wanted to keep our billboard nice and simple and gets straight to the point of what are media product intends to convey to its audience.
Coca-Cola zero didn't produce a poster for their drinkable advert but they did decide to produce a leaflet, which gave us an idea of the code and conventions that were used in the print advert. Looking at the leaflet, our production team was able to identify several features that we were able to use or assist us in our own print advert such as the style of font. The reasoning for this is because Coca-Cola wanted to make their target audience visually aware of the product by having a clear font style. Our production team was able to investigate this idea and identify what other drink companies had done in their cross-media campaign. We noted many of them had the same idea as Coca-Cola, we decided this was a successful strategy so made the slogan to our campaign the largest text on the poster.
Visually, Coca-Cola is best known for their traditional color palette, black, red, and white where throughout their advertisements they have been able to maintain their consistent color scheme. Our production team wanted to have a color palette that was red, blue, and white because we had established that these sets of colors can be known to be a connotation for the word "Summer". The drink is also a "strawberry laced" flavor, so it made sense for one of the colors on are color palette and advert to be red, as well as giving the specified target audience a visualisation of the color of the liquid. Blue and white were also used in the advert, with the blue being a representation of the sea and the sky and the white aiming towards the retro audience as one of the props we used in the cross-media campaign was a 90's themed white jacket.
TV adverts are also produced when a company is promoting its latest media product creation. This is because the company wants to reach out to as many people as possible, especially if it is a well-known drinks brand as they want to maintain and increase their revenue and sales. Just like the billboard and poster advert, we had to undertake research to discover what our competitors had produced and to know what we were up against. Coca-Cola Zero "The Date" advert was a particular video advertisement that we investigated several times to be able to get a full understanding of the codes and conventions that we could incorporate into our advert. One of the main things that we were able to pick out from the Coca-Cola Zero advert was the state of disequilibrium and the state of equilibrium. Disequilibrium was shown at the start of the advert where a man forgot about his date and the woman was starting to get annoyed by him being late and forgetting about the date. The man then took a drink from the Coca-Cola Zero glass whilst being on the phone with the girl, this is when the state of disequilibrium changed into a state of equilibrium as things started to look hopeful for the man when he had a SWAT team help him get to his at in the quickest time possible and to keep the lateness to his date to a minimum.
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Our production team was able to have a narrative structure within our advert, by having a state of disequilibrium and a state of equilibrium like the Coca-Cola Zero "The Date" advert. When watching our TV advert, you will be able to notice that the disequilibrium is demonstrated when the displeased man comes into the shop and barges into the customer that is reading the magazine. On noticing the 'Berry Blitz' can and taking a sip, he then becomes much happier and starts dancing around the shop and into the street, taking him back to his childhood. This is the point in the advert where the state of disequilibrium goes into a state of equilibrium as the problem was solved from the man being angry to him turning happy. All drinks adverts have a narrative structure to them making it a reason for their target audience to keep on watching the advert to find out what happens in the end with the company hoping that the viewer will want to buy their media product as they would have watched the entirety of the video and been persuaded by what they have seen.
The Coca-Cola Zero "The Date" advert
Berry Blitz TV advert
Camera shots and camera angles are one of the most important conventions for a TV advert. Companies want to be able to have the media product in most of their scenes if not all of them as the main purpose of an advertisement is to promote the product as much as possible. Coca-Cola has been available to achieve this in their Coca-Cola Zero "The Date" advert as they have implemented the Coca-Cola zero glass in as many scenes as they can without making the target audience lose focus. Our production team was able to pick out certain camera angles such as a close-up shot, medium-long shot, and a high angle shot that we used within our TV advert, so that we were able to let our specified target audience know what our company was advertising as well as knowing what the color of the can is which would lead to the audience being able to recognise the can in their local shop.
The slogan of the cross-meida campaign also attracts the audience into buying the drink as well. This is because companies like to make their slogans short and snappy as it wouldn't waste any valuable seconds when it comes to promoting the drink itself. In some cases, the drink's name is used in the slogan such as our cross-media campaign slogan which is "Blitz Up Your Day" as we wanted to promote the name for the drink uniquely and creatively, however, some cross-media campaign slogans refer to the storyline of the advert as they think that they have advertised the drink enough during the advert. The Coca-Cola Zero advert is a prime example of this as the slogan that they used was "The impossible made possible", where the storyline of the advert is about a man who forgets about his date and is late, as it seems to be impossible for him to get to his date and the women to still be there, however, it is made possible for him to get to his date due to the SWAT team escorting him and getting to his date in the quickest way possible hence the slogan of the cross-media campaign "The impossible made possible".
D2 (U20): Demonstrate how the technical & aesthetic properties of the media components meet the client brief
Looking at the client brief below, our production team was able to meet the requirements that Carter Soft Drinks gave to us. Even though there were requirements that we had to include within the cross-media campaign there was some freedom in how we could produce the magazine, billboard and TV advert
Magazine:
There were several requirements that we met in our magazine advert such as the target audience, social media and product placement. It is clear that we have managed to put the social media links onto our magazine advert so that the viewers are able to find out where they can go to get more information about the company and the drink. The reason why we decided to put the social media links on the bottom left-hand corner is that we didn't want them to take up to much room for the magazine as well as them overlapping or getting in the way of the media product itself. Our production team collectively decided to put the 'Berry Blitz' can in the centre of the image as we wanted the product to get as much attention as possible from are target audience. Additioanlly the size of the media product is of high-quality so that the audience are able to see what is written on the front of the drink without any trouble.
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We were able to meet the required target audience of "30-somethings" and "13-18" year olds due to the design of the can and background. The can itself is one of the ways that we met the target audience of "30-somethings" because back when they were teenagers, fizzy drinks were only sold in cans, so it would bring bakc their childhood memories when buiyng a fizzy drink in a shop. Furthermore, he design of the can has a retro style to it because of the shapes and patterns we used, giving it that 90s style theme to it as shirts used to have the same style as what our can has now. Our retro style themed can links back to the target audience of "30-somethings"which was one of the requirements that Carter Soft Drinks gave to us. Our other target audience was met during are magazine advert because of the background that we used. As you can see from the advert are background is of a beach, which realtes to the "13-18" year-olds target audience as that age demographic is known of going to a beach and spending a lot of time with friends and family. The can itself, is also aimed at the younger audience as well because they see it as something colourful, which will grab the attention of a teenager, when they are trying to find a drink to buy.
Billboard:
Just like the magazine advert, the billboard has the exact same codes and conventions on as well as meeting the requirements of the client brief such as the target audience, social media links and the product itself. However, some of the features had to be adjusted so that they would be the right sizefor a billboard advert as well as not getting in the way of the main product that is being advertised. The social media links had to go from being on the side of the magazine advert to being on the bottom left of the billboard advert. The Carter soft drinks company logo is placed in the top right corner which is where it originally was on the magazine advert, this is because we wanted to be as consisted as possible when it comes to making our print adverts. Our production team decided to enlarge the product image so that it would fit on the billboard, instead of using the same image size from the magazine advert as the target audiecne would have trouble seeing the product that is beingadvertised.
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The typography on the billboard is clear and is easy on the eye for the audience, which makes it easier for them to read the text. We've decided to put our slogan above the media product so that the target audience are able to know what we are advertising as part of the drinks name,is in the slogan itself making it a play on words. We thought as a team that having the color of the text red made sense as it would link with the flavor of the drink which is strawberry laced, with the off-whtie glow coming off from the text making it an attraction point for the audiecne to read and see when they take a first look at the advert. When planning the advert we considered to use the color pallete red, blue and white in which we decided to take that idea and use it in are advert. As stated in the paragraphs earlier we explained the reason behind the colors, with the red representing the flavour of the drink, strawberry laced, the blue being the connotation to the sea and sky of our advert background and the white which correlates well with the overall can design and the white jacket that was used in the TV advert.
Tv advert:
As well as our magazine and billboard advert, the TV advert also meets the client brief such as the target audience and the advertisement of the drink as a whole. Our production team decided to have a storyline that appealed to the specified target audience that was given to us by Carter Soft Drinks. The storyline behind our advert, was that the antagonist character would come into the shop looking all moody and not best pleased, where he barges into a customer trying to find a drink that would give him energy. Once the antagonist finds a drink, in which case is the 'Berry Blitz' drink, he takes a drink from the can and transforms into a protagonist character where he becomes much more happier and goes back to his childhood. He then starts to dance in the shop and carries on doing so in the street outside. this leads onto the protagonist passing on the drink to a member of the public outside in which he dances as well once he takes a drink from the can. This links heavily to both sets of target audience as at the start of the advert as he is seen dressed and acting like a "30-something" year old man but as he turns into a "13-18" year old his dress sense and mood changes which corresponds well with how a typical teenager would dress and act in the hope that audience will be engaged and interactive with the advert itself and to compare how we portrayed them as characters to how they really acted.
The camera angles that we used in our advert helped us advertise the product as best we could such as a close up shot, medium-long shot and a point of view shot from the can itself. We wanted to the drink to be in most of the scenes, which we were successfully able to do as the whole purpose of the advert was to promote as much as possible without boring the audience or making them lose focus. This is why having a point of view shot was essential to have as it would immurse the audience into the advert and it makes them feel like they are the can themselves. Additionally, having the camera as the drink in the fridge helped the audience understand the perspective of what it is like to be a can in the firdge and the things a can sees from the fridge when people open nd close the door of it. The close-up shot made it so that we were able to capture the design and the logo of the drink so that the target audience can recognise the front of it when trying to find it in the shop. It was important to get the logo of the drink into the TV advert as we wanted to promote the brand as much as we could.
At the start of the video there is an establishing shot which sets the scene of the advert to the audience. The reason we decided to do this was because we wanted to give our specified target audience a bit of information where the advert was set and the type of things that they could expect as well, such as the crackling from the radio which hinted towards a retro audience. Additionally the radio on the shop shelf with the magazines in the bottom left hand corner making it clear to the viewer that our advert is aimed towards the younger target audiecne as well due to the fact that teenagers like to go into their local shop to buy fizzy drinks and snacks at a cheaper price then at a supermarket such as Tesco or Sainsburys. Our production team decided to edit in TV color bars at the end of the advert with refrence to the "30-something" year olds as this is something that they would've experienced during thier time as a kid when watching TV, when either the channel went off air or the ariel was damaged meaning that there was no connection to the TV. However, it wasn't just the visualisation that our production team used to help promote the 'Berry Blitz' drink. The music that can be heard during the middle of the advert until the end is from the song "Ballroom Bliz" by the sweet, which fits well with our cross-media campaign as a whole. This is because part of the drinks name is called "Blitz" just like the song has the word "Blitz" in it to, making our advert having a strong connection between the music and the advert itself. Furthermore, the song is well known by our retro audience as well as our younger audience because of it being a catchy song to listen to.
