TV Advert evaluation

TV advert evaluation.

In our brief for the Advertisement Production for Television unit we were given the grading criteria and were tasked to “produce a TV advertisement to a good standard showing some imagination” and also to produce a product that “reflects near-professional standards, showing creativity and flair and working independently to professional expectations." We had to re-market an already existing Unilever product, aiming it at a new target audience. My group chose the men’s aftershave Brut aiming it and teenagers and young men and more particularly students. We each made presentations using Prezi, displaying and explaining the ins and outs of our idea, and how we planned to appeal to our target audience. In the end our group decided to re-market Brut because we thought the idea would be more successful than proposals that had been put forward. Previously Brut was aimed at older men with Henry cooper featuring in previous commercials, as well as Kevin Kegan also featuring as seen here. As said previously we decided to try and appeal to younger men and students because we felt this would be a natural transition for the company in real life, as well as being students ourselves, which made it easier to create a product that appealed to our target audience.

To gain feedback we first played our finished product to the rest of the class, who happened to fit into our target audience. After watching the advert everyone gave us feedback, specifically 3 things they liked about the advert and 2 things they felt could be improved. For the most part people liked the advert saying it hit the target audience very well and was extremely funny. A recurring suggested improvement was some of the sound in the advert was hard to understand, referring specifically to sections of slow-motion used that made the speech slightly ambiguous and hard to understand. We also created a survey using the website survey monkey. This allowed us to design specifically tailored questionnaire that would provide us with the information we required as well as creating graphs displaying the information automatically in a concise fashion as seen below. The questionnaire contained 10 questions:

1. What didn't you like bout the advert?
2. Who do you think that advert is aimed at?
3. What is the advert selling?
4. Do you think the advert would be successful?
5. Would you buy the product?
6. What improvements would you make to the advert?
7. What time of day would you expect to see this advert on TV?
8. What channel would you expect to see this advert on?
9. What did you think of the advert?

13 people responded to my questionnaire in total giving a range of answers. When it came to the first question, the resounding feeling was that people felt the sound was their least favourite part about the advert, this wasn't surprising as when showed to the class this was also the conclusion.

 Question two also gave a clear answer with 76.92% agreeing the advert was aimed at the 16-21 age group with the rest of the answers saying the 22-30 group. This was pleasing as we felt the responses indicated we successfully hit our target audience.

Question three, although seeming very obvious, was also reassuring as the responses showed the audience were able to identify the product correctly, with 100% of answers saying the product was Brut, which is obviously vital.

Question four also gave us pleasing results as 69.23% said they thought the advert would be successful in re branding the product, with the other answers saying it needed a little work in some areas and no one saying they believed it was a total failure.

Question five asked whether they would buy the product. Here the answers were mixed with 46.15% saying they would buy it, 38.46% saying the might buy it and 15.38 saying they wouldn't. This overall was still quite satisfying, with many of the answers coming from girls, who aren't in the target audience which will account for some of the no answers.

The sixth question asked what improvements they thought should be made to the advert, this also had a clear answer with 100% of people who answered saying the sound needed improving, as well as someone answering both sound and editing. Again I believe this to be due to certain slow motion sections of the advert which may need speeding up to allow the audio to become cohesive.

The 7^th question asked the audience what time of day they would expect to see the advert on television. 75% of those who answered said they expected to see the advert on in between the times of 9pm and 12am while the other 25% said they thought it would be on between 5pm and 8pm. This was as expected as it was the time range we aiming for. This is because these time ranges are appropriate for us to gain as much exposure to our target audience as possible.

The 8^th question asked what channel they would expect to see the advert on, 53.85% said they would expect to see it on channel 4 and 46.15 percent being given to both ITV and ITV2 because of people picking multiple options.  This suggests that people think the advert related to a younger demographic as do channel 4 and ITV2.

 The last question asked what they thought of the advert in general. 38.46 percent rated the advert as excellent with the remaining 61.54 saying it was good.

In regards to appropriateness to the audience I believe we succeeded in appealing to our target audience. Both the results from the questionnaire and the feedback we gathered from our peers suggested the audience was able to identify that we were targeting students in between the ages of 16 and 21. I feel placing the advert on a college helped to associate the product with students allowing them to identify the product is for them. We also included language found in the sociolect used by students of this age such as “viscous par” which will also relate to our target audience therefore making the product by association seem more appealing to them. There was also a heavy use of humour implemented in the advert as this acts as a convergence device making the product more attractive to the demographic we were targeting.

The mise-en-scene of the advert for the most part worked well. The setting of the advert was a college and therefore filming in a real college meant we didn't have to manipulate our surroundings too much if at all to create a setting that was believable. There were three locations/ settings in the advert, a classroom, corridor and courtyard. The only setting we had to change slightly was the classroom, including moving some tables around and changing the position of some seats. The main thing that stood out to me as being lacking was the amount of extras. Some of the shots could have been made to look more convincing had there been one or two more people in the background. This didn't hurt the advert too much but would have made it seem more professional.

The camera work was mostly done with free hand due to the fact many shots involved following the character whilst moving and because other shots required being in position that wouldn't allow for the use of a tripod. However this didn't negatively affect the shots that were still as very little movement can be detected in them. Something I liked about our camera work was the variety of shots we used. We have long, medium and close up shots as well as establishing shots that give context to the spacial relationship between characters and different angles in the advert that give it a nice flow as well as giving context to the positions of character well. This enables the audience to follow what is going on, and therefore translating the message of the advert well. There is one shot we used that slightly breaks the 180 degree rule. This shot however doesn't confuse the viewer and also allowed for a nice shot that shows the boy walking past out of shot

, and then cuts showing the girl following him with a new found interest because of the product.

We also have another shot we used at the end. This is a close up of the Brute bottle on a bench that is then thumped with thumbs up. This ended the advert nicely as it shows a close up of the product leaving it fresh in the viewer’s minds.

The editing I feel for the most part also worked well which was also reflected in our results with only one out of the thirteen participants saying they though it needed improving

. We used many short shots and cuts to transition from each one as this grabs the audience’s attention, and also matches the over the top style of the advert that appeals to our target audience. The cuts I feel also flowed well making it easy to watch. Another part of editing that I think worked well was the implementation of screen bars half way through the advert once the character uses the product. The association the screen bars and “cool” Hollywood films helped to convey the message that Brut makes you “cool” and made the transition from the un-confident character we see at the beginning to the very confident character we see using Brut visible and more evident. We did have a slight mishap that was noticed after publication however in which all except one of the shots contains the screen bars;

this is something that could be rectified to polish the advert off. We also used some special effects in the advert in the shape of an explosion that appears when the character throws the Brut bottle arrogantly over his shoulder. This was very over the top however suited the rest of the advert. A feature that worked well in some areas but not others was the use of slow motion. The feedback we got from our peers was mixed as in some cases the slow motion made the narration unclear, and said some words were hard to recognize which reflected in the questionnaire results as well

. I personally liked the use of the slow motion for the humorous and again over dramatic feel it gave the advert. An improvement that could be made is to scale down the severity of the slow motion as to still maintain the humour gained by using it, but also allowing the audio to become clearer and easily understandable.

As for sound we used music created by a class mate. To begin with we use a piano piece that is quite sad and low tempo to convey the characters feeling of rejection. In correspondence with this we used a voice over that narrated and commented on the characters actions and surroundings. The voice used its self was very strange, and was said to be alike the voice of “Cartman” a character from the series “South Park”. This voice almost directly talks to the target audience, asking rhetorical questions that may help the audience relate more to the advert, as well as being funny. Half way through the advert when the character uses the product we switch from the sad background music to a more upbeat rock style song that conveys the new found confidence gained because of the Brut. This again translates the message that Brut makes you more confident and in turn more successful. As for the rest of the voice over, we used lines such as “It puts the B in burly” and “the r in rawww”. This again was very over the top, which emphasized the point being made, while not taking ourselves too seriously and being self aware, which I think would appeal to students.

 Our feedback told us that we had successfully advertised the product to our target audience. In relation to story line and narrative, our advert is very simple. Basically we are saying without Brut you are un-confident and will never be noticed, but with it you’ll acquire all the confidence you need to become attractive and will be noticed. In the advert we show two encounters between the girl and the boy in which the boy is totally ignored and rejected, because he isn’t wearing the Brut. The third and last encounter is where we show the transition Brut supposedly gives you, and the boy successfully gains the attention of the girl. The basic selling point here is sex appeal and the possibility of successful romance, with the connotation of success in everyday life. I think this would work well for our target audience with companies such as Lynx who target a similar audience use the same selling points.

The message we were trying to send was that Brut is now aimed for at the younger male, and more specifically students. We did this by placing the advert inside a college and the characters were students. This immediately would strike a chord with our target audience identifying that the product is intended for them. We used demotic language that the age group use which also associates out target audience with the product, while the narrative was really an emphasized version of a situation many of our target audience could relate to. All this would hopefully make the product appeal to them.

The overall quality of the advert I believe is quite high this was also reflected in our results

. I think the range of shots as well as the fluidity makes it easy to understand and allows for the message to be received clearly. The main thing I would change to increase its professionalism would be the sound specifically the clarity of some points of the narration. The change would be made by speeding up the footage that has been slowed down. This would result in the words being said becoming easier to understand improving the advert. In regards to whether the advert would meet ASA and Offcom regulations, i believe there may be one problem. There is a section of the advert were the narrator pronounces the first part of the word “bitch” but is cut of as the advert cuts to another shot, not completing the word, but still having the connotation. An ASA BCAP code that may affect this part of the advert is 4.1:

 “Marketing communications must not contain anything that is likely to cause serious or widespread offence. Particular care must be taken to avoid causing offence on the grounds of race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, disability or age. Compliance will be judged on the context, medium, audience, product and prevailing standards.

Marketing communications may be distasteful without necessarily breaching this rule.  Marketers are urged to consider public sensitivities before using potentially offensive material.

The fact that a product is offensive to some people is not grounds for finding a marketing communication in breach of the Code.” 

Because the connotation of the word is there, and the narrator is talking about a female character, this could cause offence even if the intention was humour, meaning it may have to be removed before it could be seen on television. It may also break the Offcom rule of swearing on TV before 9pm. This could lead to complications although our intended time to run the advert was between the hours of 9am and 12am, it may remove any other options we have. Some of our results also suggest other people thought it may be offensive to with two people saying they thought it wasn't suitable

In summary I am quite pleased with the advert overall and we stuck to the original idea we had. There were some shot changes and some added effects such as the explosion and slow motion used that were thought of after pre production. This however is a natural part of creating moving image media and didn’t affect or alter the premise of the idea we were selling. In regards to the feedback received I am also very happy. The overall feel was that people enjoyed the advert and felt it reached its target audience very well. Some parts of dialogue need to be made more concise so everyone is able to understand what is being said, but apart from that and making sure we comply with all ASA and Offcom regulations, the advert was received very well. When it comes to my personal involvement in the production I feel I definitely pulled my weight. I took charge of most of the pre production work, creating the shot list and co-writing the script as well as gathering the required permissions and filling out the risk assessment form. When it came to the actual filming of the advert I directed and filmed it. For the editing I also did a considerable amount. Once I had cut and ordered all of the footage so it ran smoothly, matching up the audio including a soundtrack and dialogue took quite a bit of time. Once we had the overall structure of the advert, I began to experiment using key frames and slow motion, which for the most part I feel positively affected the advert, apart from some parts of audio that were made unclear as a result. Overall I am happy with my involvement in the production and feel I had a positive impact in the group.