The Brief:
For this task we were asked to re-brand a Unilever product by creating a new advert or variation of the existing product, aimed at a new audience.
For this task we were asked to re-brand a Unilever product by creating a new advert or variation of the existing product, aimed at a new audience.
Our group chose to re-brand Ben and Jerry’s ice cream. We
did not choose the product when we were put in the group however, we were put into groups based on which product we chose to re-brand initially, all three members of our group chose Ben and Jerry's.
The current target audience for Ben and Jerry's ice cream is teenagers/students aged 16-20 we decided to target the tail end of the current audience as well as a slightly older demographic hopefully bringing the age range to approximately 17-27.We chose this audience as we believed they were the audience that are most likely to purchase the product, as well as being the audience the humor and references in the advert appealed to.
Feedback:
We used the free survey creation site Survey Monkey to create surveys in order to gather feedback on our adverts. The responses I received for my survey can be found in the previous blog post.
We tried to keep our advert as focused on the target audience as possible and I believe that we succeeded. Referring to the survey responses you can see that most people believed that the target audience was young adults aged 17-30. More specifically some respondents mentioned that the advert was targeted at movie fans this is something we definitely tried to achieve in our advert.
Hopefully the advert will encourage the audience to buy the product either by itself or purchase when seeing a movie at a cinema.
As with the script we tried to keep the camerawork and mise-en-scene as simple as possible. This was met with mixed feedback both from the survey and the class' feedback as some liked the simplicity while others believed the advert needed more. The main feedback was on the quality of the lighting, some complained the advert was too dark and 'grainy'.
We used very few shots in our advert and the shots we did use were all shot using a tripod meaning the focus was on the actors and dialogue rather than the cinematography. The mise-en-scene again was very simple the actors wore normal costumes and the lighting was very limited which was all intentional to try and reflect the target audience and their behavior. The sound however was little more complex we overlayed multiple sound files to try and create background that sounded like a movie, this was met with mixed responses some liked it others found it too distracting from the dialogue. We overlayed multiple sound effects such as explosions and murmuring to make the audience believe that the characters were watching a movie, we balanced the sound effects carefully to ensure that they did not drown out the dialogue but according to the feedback the backing audio could have been at a lower volume. One of the main complaints for our advert was the editing, people claimed the takes were too long and did not hold the attention, this could be countered by shortening the takes and tightening up the overall editing.
One respondent pointed out that there was no way of telling what the advert was about until the very end. This could have been countered by having an introductory title stating the advert is about Ben and Jerry's but we personally believed that the advert worked in it's current form.
This screen is played at the end of the advert, putting this or something similar at the beginning of our advert could have made it clearer as to what the advert was selling.
We used almost no persuasion techniques throughout our advert, in fact one respondent commended the lack of persuasion as it made the advert feel less forceful. Although some did critique the lack of persuasion techniques saying that they were not likely to buy the product. We could of changed this by adding to the voice over at the end with an extra sentence stating how good the product tastes, emphasize the fair-trade ingredients or saying were the product was available.
We tried to send a message that emphasized that Ben and Jerry's was not only for trendy teenagers but also teenagers who may be slightly more 'geeky'. By using a mixture of puns from mainstream and slightly obscure movies we appealed to a new audience while ensuring not to alienate the previous audience by still ensuring they felt included. The actors we used represent the audience we were aiming for this was successful as almost all of the survey respondents said that they believed the target audience was young adults aged approx. 17-25.
We made sure to use no content, dialogue or sound that may offend viewers. Referring to the BCAP code we can ensure that our advert complies with advertising regulations. Section 1 of the BCAP code states that 'advertisements must be prepared with a sense of responsibility to the audience and to society', when we planned and created our advert we ensured that the content we were creating would be appropriate for our target audience. The code also states that 'Advertisements must not state or imply that a product can legally be sold if it cannot.' We did not state that our product was available for purchase meaning we did not break this section of the BCAP code.
Section 2 of the BCAP code refers to the recognition of advertising stating that 'Advertisements must be obviously distinguishable from editorial content...' meaning that our advert could not be made to look like a TV programme and must be made to look like an advert. We made no attempt to make the audience believe they were watching something that was not an advert meaning we are still in compliance with the code.
Section 3 refers to misleading advertisement stating that 'Advertisements must not mislead or be likely to do so.' Our advert uses ice cream flavour based puns meaning that we did not mislead the audience into believing we were advertising something else.
Section 4 refers to harmful and offensive content stating that 'Advertisements must contain nothing that could cause physical, mental, moral or social harm to persons under the age of 18.' By avoiding any references to violence, drug usage, swearing etc. we ensure that the advert does not offend anyone below the age of 18.
The rest of the BCAP code refers to more specific areas of advertising such as motoring, weight loss, alcohol, insurance etc. and does not apply to our advert. The BCAP code can be found here
http://www.cap.org.uk/Advertising-Codes/~/media/Files/CAP/Codes%20BCAP%20pdf/The%20BCAP%20Code.ashx
Personal reflection:
Referring back to the original planning (which can be found in an earlier blog post) you can see that we kept very close to the original plan by recreating the shot and ending splash screen. As well as the storyboard we kept within the confines of the budget we set and we used the location we originally stated.
Overall I am satisfied with the outcome of our advert, with only a few changes that I could have made such as a clearer display of the product we were trying to sell as well as getting more shots at the location to make sure we had more variety in the editing stage. My personal involvement in this product included operating the camera, planning the advert, contribution to the paperwork and a majority of the editing due to my previous experience with the software.
We tried to keep our advert as focused on the target audience as possible and I believe that we succeeded. Referring to the survey responses you can see that most people believed that the target audience was young adults aged 17-30. More specifically some respondents mentioned that the advert was targeted at movie fans this is something we definitely tried to achieve in our advert.
Hopefully the advert will encourage the audience to buy the product either by itself or purchase when seeing a movie at a cinema.
As with the script we tried to keep the camerawork and mise-en-scene as simple as possible. This was met with mixed feedback both from the survey and the class' feedback as some liked the simplicity while others believed the advert needed more. The main feedback was on the quality of the lighting, some complained the advert was too dark and 'grainy'.
We used very few shots in our advert and the shots we did use were all shot using a tripod meaning the focus was on the actors and dialogue rather than the cinematography. The mise-en-scene again was very simple the actors wore normal costumes and the lighting was very limited which was all intentional to try and reflect the target audience and their behavior. The sound however was little more complex we overlayed multiple sound files to try and create background that sounded like a movie, this was met with mixed responses some liked it others found it too distracting from the dialogue. We overlayed multiple sound effects such as explosions and murmuring to make the audience believe that the characters were watching a movie, we balanced the sound effects carefully to ensure that they did not drown out the dialogue but according to the feedback the backing audio could have been at a lower volume. One of the main complaints for our advert was the editing, people claimed the takes were too long and did not hold the attention, this could be countered by shortening the takes and tightening up the overall editing.
One respondent pointed out that there was no way of telling what the advert was about until the very end. This could have been countered by having an introductory title stating the advert is about Ben and Jerry's but we personally believed that the advert worked in it's current form.
This screen is played at the end of the advert, putting this or something similar at the beginning of our advert could have made it clearer as to what the advert was selling.
We used almost no persuasion techniques throughout our advert, in fact one respondent commended the lack of persuasion as it made the advert feel less forceful. Although some did critique the lack of persuasion techniques saying that they were not likely to buy the product. We could of changed this by adding to the voice over at the end with an extra sentence stating how good the product tastes, emphasize the fair-trade ingredients or saying were the product was available.
We tried to send a message that emphasized that Ben and Jerry's was not only for trendy teenagers but also teenagers who may be slightly more 'geeky'. By using a mixture of puns from mainstream and slightly obscure movies we appealed to a new audience while ensuring not to alienate the previous audience by still ensuring they felt included. The actors we used represent the audience we were aiming for this was successful as almost all of the survey respondents said that they believed the target audience was young adults aged approx. 17-25.
We made sure to use no content, dialogue or sound that may offend viewers. Referring to the BCAP code we can ensure that our advert complies with advertising regulations. Section 1 of the BCAP code states that 'advertisements must be prepared with a sense of responsibility to the audience and to society', when we planned and created our advert we ensured that the content we were creating would be appropriate for our target audience. The code also states that 'Advertisements must not state or imply that a product can legally be sold if it cannot.' We did not state that our product was available for purchase meaning we did not break this section of the BCAP code.
Section 2 of the BCAP code refers to the recognition of advertising stating that 'Advertisements must be obviously distinguishable from editorial content...' meaning that our advert could not be made to look like a TV programme and must be made to look like an advert. We made no attempt to make the audience believe they were watching something that was not an advert meaning we are still in compliance with the code.
Section 3 refers to misleading advertisement stating that 'Advertisements must not mislead or be likely to do so.' Our advert uses ice cream flavour based puns meaning that we did not mislead the audience into believing we were advertising something else.
Section 4 refers to harmful and offensive content stating that 'Advertisements must contain nothing that could cause physical, mental, moral or social harm to persons under the age of 18.' By avoiding any references to violence, drug usage, swearing etc. we ensure that the advert does not offend anyone below the age of 18.
The rest of the BCAP code refers to more specific areas of advertising such as motoring, weight loss, alcohol, insurance etc. and does not apply to our advert. The BCAP code can be found here
http://www.cap.org.uk/Advertising-Codes/~/media/Files/CAP/Codes%20BCAP%20pdf/The%20BCAP%20Code.ashx
Personal reflection:
Referring back to the original planning (which can be found in an earlier blog post) you can see that we kept very close to the original plan by recreating the shot and ending splash screen. As well as the storyboard we kept within the confines of the budget we set and we used the location we originally stated.
Overall I am satisfied with the outcome of our advert, with only a few changes that I could have made such as a clearer display of the product we were trying to sell as well as getting more shots at the location to make sure we had more variety in the editing stage. My personal involvement in this product included operating the camera, planning the advert, contribution to the paperwork and a majority of the editing due to my previous experience with the software.
Hi Connor,
ReplyDeleteVery good evaluation here and great use of screen shots and reasoning. You have followed the brief very well.
Some pointers:
-Expand certain areas. What sounds effects did you use that were potentially distracting? Were they too loud in the mix?
-Check your spelling and grammar 'our' not 'out'.