Analysing Adverts (Task 3)

Sources of Information in Advertising (Task 7)

Sources of information in advertising final from Lucasjwarren

Methods of Research (Task 5)

Methods of Research

There are three different types of research that is usually conducted before making an advert: audience research, market research and production research

Audience research

Launching any product requires a full understanding of the target audience before launch to ensure it is placed on the right platform and reflects the attitudes, the demographics, geodemographics and behavior of the target audience. Once a product is launched audience research continues to be vital to determine the success and or failure of the product and the behavior of the audience so the producer can adapt the product to be as successful as possible.

Market research

Advertisers/Companies/Brands selling to the market or public have always undertaken a lot of market research to ensure their products were targeted correctly and reaching their intended user. But also to see what other products their target audiences are using, and to try and understand why they are buying the other products. Ipsos MORI is a market research organization in the UK, which conducts surveys for a wide range of major organizations as well as other market research agencies. The company specializes in mass media, brand loyalty, marketing and advertising research. The organization maintains a freely available archive of opinion polls and public attitude research from 1970 onwards.

Production research

Production research in the advertising is untaken to work out the cost, logistics and practicalities of an overall campaign and the specifically of an advert. If a very complex idea has been conceived it is vital to cost how it would be implemented, how an idea could be realised – live action/animation/location filming etc. For example the producer the Bravia Bunny advert would have undertaken a period of research and development to assess how to create the composited image of the city with the animated bunnies – this was very ambitious and creative and they would have undertaken trails and testing of the techniques to ensure they could deliver advert creatively and on budget.

Four Main Categories:

There are four main categories of research secondary, primary, quantitative and qualitative.

Secondary research involves collecting data which already exists such as from books, journals, reference-based books, newspaper, film archives, photo libraries and the worldwide web. In a market research context, secondary research is taken to include the re-use by a second party of any data collected by a first party or parties, or sometimes secondary research is required in the preliminary stages of research to determine what is known already and what new data is required, or to inform research design. The benefit of using this kind of research is that it is easy to find and requires very little work collate and gather, however it is not always as reliable as other types of research, as the research has been done by another and therefore might not be as relevant.

For example, if an advertiser was looking to create a new advert and campaign for a new make up product, they may look at articles published in female skewing fashion magazines that have reviewed make up products. This may give a useful sight into the market and is relatively cheap to undertake but is not necessarily an accurate reflection of broader opinion or trends.

Primary research mainly involves the collection of data first hand for example, materials such as interviews, observations, questionnaires, surveys, focus groups, audience panels and participation in internet forums. Usually you would use primary research in academic research, market research and competitive intelligence. For example, an advertiser might create an advert for a product aimed at the over 50’s and before this is broadcast/completed they may undertake a focus growth – gathering a sample of people of this age range and they monitor and record their responses to the pilot advert in detail – this can then be fed back and any changes made to ensure the message of the advert is delivered as effectively as possible. The benefit of primary research is that it is very accurate and trustworthy, as it is usually conducted by the company its self, however it can be very time consuming in the long run and requires more participants e.g. volunteers for a focus group or participants for a survey.

For example if an advertiser wanted to know what people think of their product or what people think the company should do next with a product, they will give people a survey with questions about their company and the products that they use, to gain a better understanding of their target audience and the general public’s opinions on the product or company.

Qualitative research/data is a non-numerical data, which is often in the form of diary accounts, open ended questionnaires or interviews, qualitative data is typically descriptive data. Examples of research include: film reviews, fanzine websites, attitudes to media products, responses to news coverage etc. The positive aspects of using this type of data is that it allows you to understand a persons opinions/views on an advert in this case, however this kind of research can also be time consuming and not all of the responses are helpful for improving or adjusting the an advert.

For example if an advertiser wanted to know what people think of their product, they can read a review online, or an article, this allows them to gain a detailed understanding their audience.

Quantitative research/data is numerical data, which means it can be counted, collected and presented as a statistic. This data is often collected in experiments, questionnaires or graphs to give a clear representation of the data.

Examples of Quantitative research include: program ratings, readership, circulation figures, hits on websites, box office figures and sales of CD/DVDs’. The benefit of this type of research is that it can be easily collated and counted to create clear figures and statistics, however this kind of data does not always provide specific details on a topic like qualitative research.

For example if an advertiser needs to do research on the amount of people who watched an advert, they will use quantitative data from a survey or statistics from barb, to gain the necessary information.

Analysing The Styles of Adverts (Task 2)

ASA and OFCOM (Task 4)

Advertising needs to be regulated. Regulation takes place through two main bodies, OFCOM, and the ASA.

OFCOM has wide-ranging powers across the television, radio and postal sectors. It has a duty to represent the interests of citizens and consumers by protecting the public from what might be considered as harmful or offensive material. Some of the main areas OFCOM presides over are licencing, research, codes and policies, complaints, competition and protecting the radio spectrum from abuse. OFCOM allow you to send in complaints about anything you find offensive or wish to comment on, and you can do this by going onto the website and selecting from a list of ‘Television & Radio - Phones, Internet & Pay TV – Postal Services’. From there, you can then select from a number of various subcategories in which you feel your complaint most relates to. You will then be directed to a page where you can fill out a form explaining your issue. OFCOM will review your form and decide whether they feel that your complaint is legitimate and if they feel something should be done; they will then make their decision and act at the right time, in the right way. They will sum up other people’s opinions and the outcome if they decided to make changes, and then carry on from there accordingly.

The ASA, which stands for Advertising Standards Authority, it is the independent regulator of advertising across all media produced in the UK. They deal with complaints and are always checking the media to take action against misleading, harmful, or offensive advertisements. They try to ensure that all advertisements are legal, honest, and truthful to the public. Their aim is to successfully regulate advertisements in all media; they will do this by regulating online advertisements, effectively responding to issues shown to be affected by advertisements, placing more emphasis on preventing harm from advertisements, and keeping up to date with what consumers, businesses and society wants. The types of advertising that they cover are magazine/newspapers, radio/TV commercials, shopping channels, advertising on the internet, commercial email advertising, posters, leaflets/brochures, cinema commercials, direct mail, ads on CD ROMs/DVD/video, and sales promotions.

Upon checking whether the ASA cover what your complaint is about, you can go onto their website and navigate to the page ‘make a complaint’. You can then complain online, write to them via email, or phone them up. They will then take you through the steps in which you can tell them what your complaint is. They will then review your complaint and, like OFCOM, will decide whether they feel that it is legitimate and if something needs to be changed. They will then deal with your complaint accordingly. If they feel that your complaint is valid and others agree, they will inform other parties about the case and take the case from there.

This is an advert that caused controversy and the ASA received 316 complaints about it. It is the John Lewis 2010 advert, which shows a little boy hanging up a Christmas stocking on dog’s house in the garden, although he walks away and leaves the dog in the cold whilst it is snowing. Many people complained saying that is shows irresponsible pet ownership. Viewers complained that the advert suggested it was acceptable to leave an animal out in the cold. At the end of the advert, as the child is seen walking off leaving the dog, a slogan appears saying ‘for those who care about showing they care’. Many people hit back at this, stating that the advert doesn’t show that they care by leaving the dog outside instead of letting him in.

The ASA, on the other hand, disagreed to these complaints as they felt that the advertisement did not encourage people to be cruel to their animals or neglect them. The complaints were not upheld, and the advertisement continued to be aired. On the other hand, if the ASA did agree with these complaints, action could have been taken and the advert could have been removed. 

This next advert, which is no longer on TV or online, gained OFCOM 350 complaints from viewers deeming that it glamorised gun culture. It is a Land Rover commercial in which a woman is seen firing a gun as she is chasing a man that had left her house. The man then enters a Land Rover, and the woman takes aim. She then aims upwards and fires (like that of a person that starts a race) and the man smiles and drives off. The advertisement is in the top 10 most complained about adverts of all time. OFCOM state that “the glamorisation and normalisation of guns, even indirectly, is simply offensive to many people”. Land Rover hit back, stating “this advert was created to reinforce the association with sport that the model inspires.” 

OFCOM decided to ban the advert and it is no longer aired nor can be found online. They agree with the complaints that it glamorises gun culture and sends out the wrong message to the viewers. They feel that the advertisement has breached guideline rules on harm and offence, thus resulting in not being played again. This advert would be played throughout the day near Christmas time, which means that children will be watching and they may be influenced. Land Rover have since apologised saying the company was “very sorry” although they are “extremely concerned to hear viewers found the advertisement distasteful”. 

Audience Segmentation in Advertising

Audience segmentation in advertising from Lucasjwarren

Different Forms of TV Advertising (Task 1)

Realism:

Realism is the representation of whatever is possible in real life or in a non fictional way, an example of this is this AA advert which has nothing outlandish or fictional in it.

The positives for this type of advert is that they are simple and easy to make, but on the other hand this kind of advert will not stand out over others, and do not give a big enough impact to be remembered over time.

Anti-realism:

Anti-realism is the representation of anything unrealistic, the use of fictional/unreal situations or ideas, for example this Cadbury’s advert which has two children who wiggle their eyebrows to the beat of the song.

The benefits of using this kind of advert is that it makes people laugh and therefore will be remembered for longer, also it gives the creators to createive freedom to invent all sorts of crazy things. However not everyone will understands these ads, and can be thought of as strange or confusing, which can alienate some viewers.

Animation:

Animation is the process creating frames one by one then displaying them quickly in sequence creating the illusion of movement. There are different styles of animation for example computer generated images (CGI which can be 3D or 2D), stop frame animation or clay-mation. An example of CGI is this coke advert which is almost entirely computer animated. The advantages of animation are that you can create what would be impossible in real life, it can be cheaper live action (depending on production/scale), it can look a lot better now days using modern technology. Also a lot of companies now days have created a character/brand identity which is often an easier way of helping the audience relate back to the company. However animation can be a very long process to produce and it can also be expensive, and if the company doesn't spend a decent amount of money on the production, it can end up looking cheap and strange. 

Documentary:

Documentary style adverts tend to use real locations and sometimes real staff in order to establish trust and gain credibility with the audience, they also tend to give a lot of facts about how good the food is in order to gain more trust. This can be beneficial, but sometimes the audience can see through the what they say and the advert becomes a little shifty and it seems as though the company is trying to manipulate everyone. An example of documentary style advertising is a Dominos ad which starts off with them looking at problems with their pizzas, then fix it.

Talking Heads:

Talking heads adverts tend to have people talking about the product/company and give their positive opinions. The positive aspects of this is that people believe they are receiving genuine advice from people who have used the product/company. However many can see through this realize they are being manipulated by the advert.

Stand Alone:

A stand alone advertisement is a form of advert that is a one off, there will not be another advert by the same company that is related in terms of the story/narrative. Yell produced many stand alone advertisements in a three month campaign of adverts to tell their consumers their new products.

Series:

An advert which is a part of a series has a constantly developing story. The series usually has a main character and additional characters. BT uses a series of adverts, in each of their ads we see a family consisting of a mother, her son, and her new husband. This family goes through some problems that audience members will be able to relate to and in the series, BT broadband helps the family to cope with trouble they face.

Another example of a series advert is the ‘Compare the market . com’ series. It includes characters from the main meerkat ‘Orlov’, his associate ‘Sergei’, but over time and many adverts later through the campaign, the company has added more characters, and new scenarios for them to act and promote the company.

Similarly, the Go compare ads use same character to sing to people in different situations. However they realized halfway through the campaign that people do not like ads and find them annoying, so they started putting the character in negative situations for example, in one commercial Ray Mears traps him in a net, and later he is blown up by a rocket launcher.

Persuasive Techniques in Advertising

There are three different strategies that advertisements use to make you buy their products, Pathos, Logos and Ethos.

Pathos, is used to evoke an emotional response in the consumer. Often the advert will show someone either being happy with their product, for example in many Food adverts the people are shown in an attractive and cheerful way. However other ads try to gain a more depressed/guilty response for example charity adverts or ads for the RSPCA for example.

Logos, a technique which appeals to logic or reason in the audience, adverts will often state facts and figures to gain trust and confidence with the consumer. An example of this would be many of the toothbrush/paste commercials of today:

Ethos, which relates to the credibility/character of the company, showing that they are trustworthy, honest and credible meaning you should buy their product. Ethos ads can also involve statistics for example a lot of make-up ads say '9 out of 10 women liked...', attempting to prove to the audience that their product is legit. Also manny ads now days use celebrities to advertise their product as they give the brand a good look.

In the advert for Sure Maximum Protection, the techniques used were Logos, as they used figures, for example when it said '2x the protection' which sugests that it is better than the other products. The advert also uses Ethos