Elise Erin lee
UAL
Extended diploma
in Creative Media Production and technology.
Advertising
Diary entry 30/10/2017
Today was the first day back at college after our half term break, this meant that we had finished the music video unit and that we were going to be starting a new one. We discussed different forms of advertising and how some adverts can go viral. We then watched the brief which explained to us what we will be doing through out the task. Next we put ourselves into groups and randomly selected a category that our advert would be about. My group member selected clothing which I was very happy with, as a group we decided to base it around shoes mainly trainers. After doing some research of different advert campaigns such as; Nike, Adidas and many more we found that Nike are a very inspirational brand and focus more on sport then they do fashion. We decided to base our advert on Nike as we all enjoyed researching them and liked how they promote and advertise so we wanted to follow that trend.
Analysing the focus group
In our focus group that we held today we introduced ourselves and spoke about the ground rules that must be followed which were the following; please do not use names, each of you will be numbered and please use theses numbers when referring to people in the group. Although negative comments do help try not to be too negative and try to actually speak and speak your opinion not just sit there. We then showed the group nikes most recent advert we asked what did you think of that nike advert? Our responses were: Uses pressing issues in todays society spreading a message other than promoting nike. I agreed with this answer as I believe that most of Nikes adverts are not there to promote their products they are mainly there to inspire younger generations. another group member said it was a bit depressing/forceful. I feel that yes the ad was sad but it is what people need to see for their to be a change in todays society. We then asked if they consider nike to be a sport brand or a fashion brand? One of the responses we had was that they consider it to be a mix of both as most people wear nike sportswear as a fashion trend instead of wearing it for its original purpose. another response was that most people do not realise that most fashionable nike trainers were actually designed to be running trainers. From this response it helped us understand that actually maybe when creating our advert we should include nike as a fashionable brand as well as a sporting brand. We then asked the group what you would expect to see in a tv ad of any kind? a response that we had that really interested me was some are too long and fake. I was interested by this comment because I have also noticed that some adverts and especially radio adverts are quite fake. Other responses that we received from lots of people in the group was that they only really watch adverts if its a product that they are interested in. We also established that sometimes with Nike it doesn't really matter if you show any products or not the tick itself is self promoting because Nike is such an established brand all over the world. I feel that the focus group went really well and has really helped me and will hopefully continue to help me group throughout the unit.
Secondary Research
In this Nike advert the sport brand is advertising their new "nike tech" range which is celebrity endorsed by sport champions. The campaign shows the sport stars using the clothing as sport wear but also as fashion wear. The advert shows lots of different locations from all over the world. There is not any script in this advert, just some background music. The advert is black and white no colour, Nike have done this to show off their new range that they wanted to promote. The lighting of the video still clearly shows what the colours of the clothing are even though it is black and white. The themes of the video is the sports stars showing off the clothing range and how they can be worn in many different ways. The advert is very positive the sports champions look happy and there is no emotional link to the video in anyway. The background music goes very well with the advert as the music is upbeat and positive, in the advert we see some of the sports stars performing their sport in the nike tech clothing range the sport that they are doing is cut to the beat of the song. Even the the shooting of the advert took place in many different parts of the world. the locations in which they were shot are high end arenas, this shows to the target audience that all these sports stars made it and they wore nike so if we wear nike we will also be the best at what we do. This also links into what my group is thinking of doing which is making an advert of which young children can look up to so they think they would like to be like that one day. The text on screen introduces where they are filming and also what the advert is for then at the end they show the sports stars name as the are finishing their day of sport. some of the names that are used in this advert are often used by Nike as these celebrities are sponsored by Nike. Because the advert is celebrity endorsed it means it is a Ethos advert, however Nike have used celebrities which are related to the product in which they are trying to promote. I enjoyed watching and reviewing this advert and am excited to review some more Nike adverts.
Through watching this Nike campaign I am already spotting some similarities from the previous advert I watched. I am starting to notice that Nike like their adverts to be about inspiring a younger generation and not just about promoting themselves as a brand. So far I have enjoyed this about watching Nike adverts because they are different to their rival brands such as Addidas whose adverts are mainly about promoting their own clothing or themselves as a brand by also using celebrity endorsements however the celebrities have nothing to do with the brand at all. The campaign is in black and white, this is to symbolize what the advert is about which is equality in todays society. The advert talks about how the ball should bonce the same for everyone no matter their race. I feel that this advert will speak to a lot of people and will make a change. once again just like the other Nike advert this is also celebrity endorsed by sporting stars some of which are often seen in Nike adverts which again tells me that Nike have a running theme in their adverts. The sound in this advert is a well known song that is often used in campaigns for equality. Which in the advert is sang by Alicia keys. All the celebrities that endorse this advert do either have something to do with sport or have had something to do with equality in the past . watching this advert has helped me because I know that a theme I could include in my advert could be inspiration as this has clearly worked for Nike in the past and could work for us too.
Diary entry 31/10/2017
In this Nike advert it is a little different to the previous two I have looked at as it is a lot longer and is more upbeat and exciting. Even though the ad is clearly again about inspiring there is more of an aspect of promoting in this advert. This advert is also an ethos advert because it has celebrity endorsements however they are different sports stars to the ones in the previous campaigns. This advert can be seen as inspiring as it two groups of young boys playing football in the park aspiring to be the best they can be by performing like their favourite footballers and looking up to them, the advert starts off in a simple park and ends in a huge football stadium this shows the younger generation that if football players such as Rooney and Neymar started off in a park and are now world famous then we too could achieve this. In the advert we hear a upbeat positive song and a crowd cheering not once is Nike actually mentioned which again backs up what was said in the focus group that Nike do not actually need to say who they are just the tick will be enough to establish who it is. I realise that in my advert I can not have celebrities in it but it has taught me how to create and plan a successful advert.
Today we started by having a production meeting to talk to each other about different ideas we have had for our video. We each had similar ideas which was that we show lots of different sports being played with nike items, our idea to make the advert go viral was to have a hashtag of how do you tie yours? So in the video it shows the different characters tieing their laces in a different way each time so therefore the ad will go viral because of people responding to the hashtag on different social media sites. We also looked at different adverts that have been banned in the UK mainly because of sensitive content that offended or scared children I learnt a lot from this as I know it will help me a lot when planning and making my own advert. We also held a focus group which meant me showed the rest of the class a Nike ad and see what they thought of it and what they thought made a good advert and also helped us to include these things in our advert so that as a group we can make them the best we possibly can. We also started evaluating Nike adverts we had to watch three in total
Diary entry 1/11/2017
Today we were given our submission checklists to ensure that we had everything we needed on our website so today I worked on organising my website to make sure that the layout was perfect, then I moved on to completing the advert analysis that I started today after completing one advert I moved onto uploading the focus group documents. I worked on this for the rest of the lesson, through doing this my group and I noticed that we did not have our recording of the focus group so I had to try and evaluate through the notes that were taken by another group member yesterday. Because of this mistake I now Know that the next time we are recording we should do a test record to make sure that we have everything. I only have two more adverts to evaluate which I will try to get at least one of them done by the time I get in tonight. Then carry on through the weekend to get both of them and everything else on my submission checklist finished by Monday morning.
Diary entry 6/11/2017
Today we carried on with our research portfolios and I created a survey which I posted on Facebook asking people what they thought of Nike as a brand and what they thought of adverts I am currently awaiting some responses from people however once I have this I can start to analyse my survey responses. After creating my survey I then started to start my research into nike to see why they use the tick and what it actually means. The deadline for my research portfolio is on Wednesday I feel that if I carry on with my work they way I have been both in class and at home then I can get everything done on time or even before then. I am pleased with the research I have completed so far and I have also feel that I have gained a lot of knowledge of nike and what they actually stand for.
Brand awareness
This is the world known nike swoosh, which was designed in 1971 the swoosh represents motion and speed. The logo is so simple yet has made billions of pounds for the company.Nike is known for their sporting advertisement not like their competitors Adidas whose adverts are very futuristic and fashion forward, Nike takes a different approach. Ticks can also be associated with doing something well so people may be encouraged to buy nike clothing or trainers because they will feel that they have done something right. The nike colours are black and white this is because nike want too seem gender neutral, so the colours suggest that Nike is for everyone not just males or females. The colour white connotates pure and perfectness which will suggest that nike as a company is pure and perfect. The black suggests danger and adventure which will appeal to men because they will like the idea of adventure. This clearly works well for Nike as no one would think of Nike as a gender specific. Nike's competitors Adidas also have the same colour scheme which is actually not usual for competitors to do this as they will have the same target audience and the audience might get confused with the brands. Nike is known as one of the most successful brands in the world, however they have had some controversies in the past. Nike was known for sweatshop scandal in 1991 then in 2005 Nike published a report containing the pay and contracts of the sweatshop workers in India.Through doing this research it has taught me that when planning and creating our advert we should mainly include sport, I have also learnt that we do not really need to overly promote the products as Nike is so well known that the tick it's self will promote the advert. In my advert I know that I should include a inspiring storyline or narrative as this is what nike often does and from my research I have learnt this and have a great understanding of this. I would say that I do need to conduct further research into Nikes target audience so that I know exactly who to target towards. I do not feel that I need to change my idea for my advert as I don't feel that has any controversies involved.
Target audience
Nike doesn't have a particular age group but is more targeted at C2-De social class as these would be the people that would be interested in and would be able to afford the prices of Nike it is mostly targeted at those that are interested in sport an keeping healthy, however the secondary audience would be people that are more interested in the fashion side of Nike. When researching Nike's demographics I have learnt that they do mainly focus on people interested in sport, when researching the geographics for example in America they would mainly target those who are interested in football. baseball or basketball as these would be people who would either want to dress like their favourite sport star or would need clothes to do sport in. Learning about Nikes target audience will help me with creating my viral advert as I will know exactly who to be aiming at and how to target them to pursuade them to buy the newest nike trainers or jacket.
I went on to the you gov website to have a closer look at the target audience of nike, this also supports my primary research as I have mad more females answering my survey so far, which tells me that more women are interested in the brand than males are.
A lot of Nikes customers are also teenagers who most likely will not have much spare income at the end of the month. So to be able to afford Nikes products they would have to save for a while this is one of the reasons why Nike do not have many limited edition products as they know that a lot of their main followers would not be able to afford this straight away.
When planning and creating the advert I know what I should and shouldn't include in to engage my audience. Through doing this research I have learnt different terms such as demographics, geographics and psycographics.
7/11/2017 Diary entry
Today I started my brand awareness and had it finished by the end of the day, I gained a lot of knowledge from this research as it has taught me what I should and shouldn't include in my advert. I then started my target audience research which I will continue at home I have also learnt a lot from my target audience research that Nike do not have a particular target audience they just target towards people who are interested in sports. Tomorrow is the deadline for all my research which with doing some work at home tonight I know I can reach this deadline. I know from this research that my group and I have come up with a good idea as it matches all the target audience requirements for it to be a successful advert.
Primary research
As part of my primary research I created a survey which I posted on different social media accounts, and group chats, through doing this I know have a greater understanding of what I need to include in my advert because I have learnt what people enjoy and do not enjoy. Overall my survey was very useful and I am happy with my results.
For my opening question I asked people their age, I did this because it would help me understand who is taking my survey and what age group I should be looking at and targeting when creating my advert. In the answers I saw a range between 18-64, the biggest age group to answer my survey was 18-24 this suggests to me that these are the people that would be more interested in nike and therefore I should consider these people when planning my advert.
For my second question I asked people their age, as you can clearly see more females answered then males did which also suggests to me that females will be more interested in Nike than males would be. Which also tells me that in my advert I should include both males and females doing different sports as this would be fair and not gender sterotypical.
I asked people what first comes to mind when they thought of Nike, most answers said sport, trainers and some said fashion, this tells me that in my advert I need to include all three of theses things as this was also said in the focus group my group and I held, and we also then had a mix response when asking the same question.
I asked people if they would chose Nike over their competitors Adidas as this would tell me what brand has a bigger fan base. My research has told me that Nike is more popular than Adidas. This will help me when planning my advert as I know that I will not need to make it clear that Nike is better than Adidas as mainly everyone already knows or agrees with me.
I asked people if they often skip adverts, I was not surprised with the outcome of this question as it was also another question that got asked in the focus group and most people said they would skip adverts. On my survey 90% of people said that they would skip adverts which tells me that when creating our advert we need to make sure that we have a big build up to the advert which will make more people watch the advert because they will be excited to see what it is about and therefore we will be successful.
I asked people people what is the most memorable advert you've seen and why? Most people said adverts that have had a big build up to them e.g Christmas adverts or adverts that have a character we see again and again and again, such as the meerkat from compare the market. This tells me that a few days before releasing our advert we need to start the build to get people excited about it or we should include a cute character that would pull on peoples heartstrings to make them remember the advert, but because Nike is not that type of brand we should probably just create a huge build up.
In this question I got exactly half and half of people saying they either would or wouldn't share an advert on social media. this tells me that when planning and creating our advert we need to make sure it is exciting enough for people to share it on social media sites. We can do this by including some humour however it would have to be within the first few seconds of the advert so that people don't just skip it straight away.
Through analysing my primary research I have learnt that when creating the advert there is so much that my group and I need to remember to include to make a successful viral advert.
During this week of researching I have learnt that it is so important to understand adverts in detail and to know how to evaluate properly. When completing my research I have learnt what audiences want to see in adverts and what they feel would be the perfect advert. the research I would say helped me the most is definitely my primary research as I was talking to people I knew and finding out what they wanted in an advert and because the answers were anonymous most people didn't hold back and they were really honest with their answers which I know will really help when planning and creating my advert as I will know that people prefer Nike over Adidas or that more people would skip adverts than to actually watch them so I know that I need to make my advert interesting within the first 5 seconds so that it will not get skipped and from looking at research other people in my group have collected I Know that this could be done by humour. When holding the focus group this also really helped as we were actually talking to people face to face and we could hear the tone in their voice so we knew exactly what they were trying to say. We were also able to show them a couple of Nike adverts to see what they thought of them, we had a mixture of reactions from this. I would definitely say that the focus group was hard as some people weren't talking and so the two mentors were mainly the ones talking for everyone else. Through dong this research I have learnt that I do not need to change my initial idea much just maybe add or take out some parts to make it even more successful than I know it already is. Asa group we now ned to come together to discuss what we all found out from our research and how this will help us through creating the ad.
Bibliography
Nike (2013) “Nike sportswearpresents: Nike Tech pack” Available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8RP9Hxw34Q (Access date 8.11.2017)
Nike (2017) “Equality” Available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43QTjFCPLtI
(Access date 8.11.2017)
Nike (2014) “winner stays on-Nike risk everything” Available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCVF0CSRTYA (Access date 8.11.2017)
Yougov (2016) “Customers of Nike” Available at https://yougov.co.uk/profileslite#/Nike/demographics (Access date 8.11.2017)
Redding,D (2014), “what does the nike logo mean?”Available at http://www.magneticstate.com/blogdept/what-does-the-nike-logo-mean/ (Access date
7.11.2017)
8.11.2017 Diary entry
Today I hit the deadline for all my research because I had been doing lots of work at home it mean that I didn't have too much to do I was very happy with how I did however just like last time I did get quite stressed with my harvard refercing but I think it went well.