TV advertisement evaluation

The Brief
The brief of our ad was to take a Unilever product and re brand the product to a new target than its original one. The chosen product our group decided on was Bovril and we made this decision by listening to each others idea and the Bovril idea was picked by all the group members. The current target audience for Bovril was for family as we did research into previous Bovril advertising campaigns and we noticed a trend in the adverts mostly family members as the main protagonist. For our advert we tried to target a much younger audience mostly focusing on teenagers to try and make the product look more cool for younger people to own. Also we decided on this audience because this audience can be a very important target audience because they can generate a lot of revenue as there age is a very crucial one with trends going on all the time and we thought our product could become a trend.

Research and planning
The research I did before we filmed the advert was that I looked at the history of Unilever and Bovril and looked at some previous advertising campaigns Bovril had done before we started a new one. I noticed that most of the original campaigns had been targeted mostly at British family's to build up strength. I then decided to stray away from this target audience and rebrand Bovril and aim the product at male and female teenagers from 16-25. Our group then started the pre-production for the advert. This included some storyboards on what the advert was going to look like. We also had to fill in some forms on talent release as most of our group was under 18.


The finished product and feedback

We received our feedback from the site smart surveys which is a site that allows you to create your own online questionnaires for people to give feedback to something you on something. In this case we wanted feedback on the advert. I then posted the link on my facebook to target my target audience as I wanted only teenagers to answer my questionnaire.

I think we managed to get the main message that we specified during pre-production across because with some of our responses from our online questionnaires there were comments on the main protagonist on how he looked cool which is what were trying to achieve. This also does show that the message was made clear effectively as at the end of the advert we made our slogan appear which was '' Keep Warm Stay Cool''. However I think we didn't include the product in the shots as much as we planned. I think we were focused on the protagonist more than we were the product and in the next assignment I hope to avoid this problem. Never the less I think we did manage to appeal the advert to the target audience as the protagonist was relatable to other teenagers as he was also there age, and many teenagers want to fit in with everyone else. In our ad the mise-en-scene of the props used in the advert I think were used well ,however I think we could have chosen some different props as other peers suggested that some were similar to each other like the keys and the football were both thrown. However in my opinion I thought the different events that took place including the keys and the football flowed together smoothly.

Never the less I do think that the lighting in the shots could have been managed more effectively as some peers commented on this in some of the shots. The sun affected the shots by making the protagonists face to bright. In the next assignments I should try to go out and film when the lighting is the same or similar to all the other shots. Another response we received was to do with improving the sound in a shot on the advert. When the other protagonist says "How do you do it" the is a lot of background noise including wind. In my opinion I think this is fair and maybe we should have recorded the dialogue somewhere in doors as the sound would have been a better quality. My reaction to the finished media text was that I thought there could have been some improvements with some of the shots if we had more time but overall I thought it was how the group visualised it which was great.
Fit For Purpose
I think my advert was fit for purpose as we made the protagonist a teenager and this feature can influence a lot of teenagers buy the product as most teenagers want products that are popular. In the scene when the protagonist gives a rose to a girl passing by and she looks back and looks impressed, this can appeal to a lot of male teenagers as most teenagers want to impress girls. However overall I think we strayed from our intented message which we were trying to convey because our message was that if anyone had Bovril they would become cool. However I think that the target audience was only targeted at male teenagers instead of all teenagers. In the next assignment I will target a wider range of people instead of targeting one group. Never the less I think the target audience was targeted effectively hence the rose scene and the choice of protagonist made it clear that the audience was targeted at a male audience and certain male values were established like the football scene as well. Overall I think we didn't manage to target the audience we intented to target however we then targeted a different audience just as effectively.
Persuasive Techniques
The persuasive techniques we used in the advert was when we showed the protagonist drinking the Bovril and enjoying it.

This shows the audience that the product tastes good and that they should buy it because it tastes good. The protagonist chosen also supports this technique as the protagonist is a teenager which persuades other teenagers that the product will taste good. Another persuasive technique used in the advert could be bribery as the product itself is not the only feature that will be bought when purchased. The audience will also be buying the coolness advertised in the advert. This is important as most teenagers like to stand out from other people and this product offers this.

These techniques worked because
I had a seven responses from my questionnaires that commented on how they would buy Bovril after seeing the advert. The feature that was most effective of the form of the advertising was the will to be more creative than other media texts. This is because in other media text's there isn't as much interactivity with other texts. For example with my advert you can comment on it in youtube however you cant do this with etc. posters or radio. The technical strengths of the advert was the flow of movement in the shots. For example in the shot where a person drops the keys then they are caught, this shot was praised when our peers observed the advert. Also the choice of soundtrack was also commented on in the advert as being well chosen. In my opinion I agree with this as with the shots the soundtrack went really well with the walking. The aesthetic strengths were the use of the props within the scene. I also agree with this as I think the props went well with the portagonist as he was a teenagers and a lot of these props can be said to be owned by teenagers e.g. keys and football. Also the choice of location was also mentioned by our peers. The locations was said to have been very homely and well chosen. This was good feedback as the location was filmed in a different location than the street scene. This was good because we thought this would be a problem however it wasn't.

Finished Product
I think our finished video is almost exactly how we planned it. This is because the shots are very similar to the storyboards we created to begin with. However the only difference we discovered was the direction of the protagonist walking was in a different direction than we planned.

Responses


Conclusion
In my opinion I think in terms of the production of the TV advert that went well was the editing. Even though some of the editing wasn't as how we planned I think we did well as this was the aspect we spent the most time on because we wanted to make the advert look professional and not confuse anyone. However there were some aspects of this that i think we could have done better.

For example the point where the logo and slogan appears on-screen we could have made the logo and slogan appear a bit earlier to make the message more effective. Furthermore I also think we did the continuity well in some areas. In the house scene I was proud of how we managed the continuity there as I couldn't spot any errors that would confuse the audience. I also think that this was the most important aspect of the advert even though we did have a error with the continuity in the street scene we made it work. This was when after the key drop scene happened it looked like the protagonist walked off in a weird direction. If I was to repeat this task again I would have focused on repeating this scene again to avoid any confusion with the audience. I would also have focused some time on the sound. In one scene there is a lot of background sound interfering with the dialogue. This is when another teenager goes up to the protagonist and says "How do you do it" and the wind in the background distorts this a lot. Also another thing I would do differently would be the appearance of the product in the shots. Over the course of the TV advert you only see the product 2 times which was surprising.