Advertising Principles & Practice
Week 1 - Week 7
Gilbert Evander Aligoey (0332508)
Advertising Principles & Practice
Gilbert Evander Aligoey (0332508)
Advertising Principles & Practice
Lecture Notes
Week 1
The first class started off with a task to look for D&AD New Blood Awards (https://www.dandad.org/en/d-ad-new-blood-awards/) briefs and read those briefs carefully.
From all those briefs, I have chosen Monotype's brief. It wants us to celebrate a community using type, and since I do have interest on calligraphy and typography, especially for the vintage and black letter with steampunk styles so I thought, why not giving it a try as well as getting new knowledge on these type of stuff.
The first class started off with a task to look for D&AD New Blood Awards (https://www.dandad.org/en/d-ad-new-blood-awards/) briefs and read those briefs carefully.
From all those briefs, I have chosen Monotype's brief. It wants us to celebrate a community using type, and since I do have interest on calligraphy and typography, especially for the vintage and black letter with steampunk styles so I thought, why not giving it a try as well as getting new knowledge on these type of stuff.
Advertise is something that announces and persuades people to make a purchase from a particular target market or audience about their products, services, organizations, or ideas. The word Advertise origin is from a word in Latin which is Advertere, means "turn towards."
Bernbach's 10 principles in Advertising
- Go to the essence of the product
- Where possible, make your product an actor in the scene
- Art and copy must be fully integrated as a unit
- Advertising must have vitality or "personality"
- Employing a gimmick in advertising have to tell the product story
- Tell the truth, don't lose the customers' trust
- Be relevant
- Be simple, no one has the time or the desire to listen to advertising
- Safe ideas can kill you. Chance of beating your competitors is by using something that you and they haven't seen before
- Stand out. Being unnoticed is such a waste
The process of this project can be broken down into :
- Select brief
- Research
- Ideation
- Design exploration
- Test prototype
- Evaluate and execute
Marketing derived from the Latin words; Mercari and Marcatus, and means "buy or trade". Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.
Marketing is a form of communication between you and your customers with the goal of selling your product or service to them. Communicating the value of your product or service is a key aspect of marketing.
4 P's of Marketing ;
- Identification, selection, and development of a product.
- Determination of its price.
- Selection of a distribution channel to reach the customer's place.
- Development and implementation of a promotional strategy.
Knowing what you are selling is the main idea in marketing.
Marketing derived from the Latin words; Mercari and Marcatus, and means "buy or trade". Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.
Marketing is a form of communication between you and your customers with the goal of selling your product or service to them. Communicating the value of your product or service is a key aspect of marketing.
4 P's of Marketing ;
Marketing is a form of communication between you and your customers with the goal of selling your product or service to them. Communicating the value of your product or service is a key aspect of marketing.
4 P's of Marketing ;
- Identification, selection, and development of a product.
- Determination of its price.
- Selection of a distribution channel to reach the customer's place.
- Development and implementation of a promotional strategy.
Knowing what you are selling is the main idea in marketing.
Week 2
The class started off with Mr. Vinod sharing a piece of information about how we should present our work to the client, how we should synthesize the work and use "empathy" in the design thinking is important. The process of unveiling the final project is crucial because we have to make them understand the process of how we come up to the final outcome.
Art Director - Someone who is responsible for the visual style and images in magazines, newspapers, product packaging, and movie and television productions.
They come up with innovative ideas for the visual elements of an advertising campaign in all kinds of media and monitor all the productions such as cinematography, graphic designer, and even audio design and keep them in the path he envisioned it to be.
The art director usually works alongside a copywriter to form a "creative team".
The Copywriter produces the words to go with the visuals created by the art director.
Art Direction - Visceral resonance of how a piece of work feels.
A product proposition (USM/SMP)
+
Something unrelated
=
" Creative Idea "
Advertising is not art.
It's communications.
We can use art (and things around us) to create good communications because creating good communication is art.
We were tasked to create 15 sketches each week and just to let all the idea in our mind flows.
Sketches (colors isn't necessary as long as the idea is clear in it) have to be scanned and uploaded as a pdf file and put it inside the blog.
Mr. Vinod taught us how to create a visual logo/representation of something. He gave us an example of creating a "Japanese Speaking Classes". The first thing to do was to find the main keywords from that, which is "Japan" and "Speak", we then come up with anything that we think of when we hear/see the word "Japan" such as sushi, Godzilla, sake and etc. And "Speak" such as bubble speech, mic, speaker and etc.
The visual representation might be unrelated but that thing is something that represents Japan and speak, then we combine both visual representation and that is the final outcome of this process and we later found out that the best idea is a Japan flag in a form of a rectangle bubble speech.
Class Exercise
The class started off with Mr. Vinod sharing a piece of information about how we should present our work to the client, how we should synthesize the work and use "empathy" in the design thinking is important. The process of unveiling the final project is crucial because we have to make them understand the process of how we come up to the final outcome.
They come up with innovative ideas for the visual elements of an advertising campaign in all kinds of media and monitor all the productions such as cinematography, graphic designer, and even audio design and keep them in the path he envisioned it to be.
The art director usually works alongside a copywriter to form a "creative team".
The Copywriter produces the words to go with the visuals created by the art director.
A product proposition (USM/SMP)
+
Something unrelated
=
" Creative Idea "
Advertising is not art.
It's communications.
We can use art (and things around us) to create good communications because creating good communication is art.
We were tasked to create 15 sketches each week and just to let all the idea in our mind flows.
Sketches (colors isn't necessary as long as the idea is clear in it) have to be scanned and uploaded as a pdf file and put it inside the blog.
Mr. Vinod taught us how to create a visual logo/representation of something. He gave us an example of creating a "Japanese Speaking Classes". The first thing to do was to find the main keywords from that, which is "Japan" and "Speak", we then come up with anything that we think of when we hear/see the word "Japan" such as sushi, Godzilla, sake and etc. And "Speak" such as bubble speech, mic, speaker and etc.
The visual representation might be unrelated but that thing is something that represents Japan and speak, then we combine both visual representation and that is the final outcome of this process and we later found out that the best idea is a Japan flag in a form of a rectangle bubble speech.
 |
| Class Exercise |
Week 3
No class was conducted.
But the ideation of the sketches was still being developed as shown below.
Most of them are an idea that focuses on the type, and some have some visual to play around with. Visual twists were added or maybe just straight to the point kind of visual to support the tagline of the advertisement itself.
No class was conducted.
Most of them are an idea that focuses on the type, and some have some visual to play around with. Visual twists were added or maybe just straight to the point kind of visual to support the tagline of the advertisement itself.
Week 4
It is important to put down the points from the client to get the idea of how they want the outcome of the product is like. (Side Note)
Creativity - The use of imagination of original ideas to create something.
A great artist is essentially channeling an original idea for an expression that resonates with something that is greater than him or herself.
Why do we create? (Franken R)
- the need for novel, varied, and complex stimulation
- need to communicate ideas and values
- need to solve problems
I have a friend who says "I create because I can't help myself".
In order to be creative, you need to be able to view things in new ways or from a different perspective.
What is creativity in the context of advertising?
- make a relevant connection between the brand and its target audience
- provide a unique selling point
- must be unexpected
Advertising message should have the visual and the line. Each serves to enhance the meaning of the message and it's staying power.
Media - it refers to the main means of mass communication regarded collectively. Old/traditional media examples are newspaper, magazines, etc.
New Media - it refers to the internet modes of mass communication, through an online news portal, social media, or blogs.
Both are used for the purpose of advertising although traditional media has seen a decline over the years especially in newspaper ad revenue.
Media strategy is how it will be used, where, how often, and when.
It is a process of analyzing and choosing media for an advertising campaign.
"The medium is the message" is a phrase coined by Marshall McLuhan meaning that the form of a medium embeds itself in the message, creating a symbiotic relationship by which the medium influences how the message is perceived.
The 5 Ms that's important in Advertising message & media strategy
- Market
- Money
- Media
- Mechanics
- Methodology
just as the advertising message can be creative the choice of media can be creative too.
There are two different streams of media:
Traditional or old (newspaper, TV & Radio) and
New Media (Social, games and online news portal).
The medium is the message, were the kind media plays a central or strategic role in the advertising message.
The advertising message will need to consider the media strategy as it can be dependent on or influenced by the five Ms.
It is important to put down the points from the client to get the idea of how they want the outcome of the product is like. (Side Note)
A great artist is essentially channeling an original idea for an expression that resonates with something that is greater than him or herself.
- the need for novel, varied, and complex stimulation
- need to communicate ideas and values
- need to solve problems
I have a friend who says "I create because I can't help myself".
In order to be creative, you need to be able to view things in new ways or from a different perspective.
What is creativity in the context of advertising?
- make a relevant connection between the brand and its target audience
- provide a unique selling point
- must be unexpected
Advertising message should have the visual and the line. Each serves to enhance the meaning of the message and it's staying power.
Both are used for the purpose of advertising although traditional media has seen a decline over the years especially in newspaper ad revenue.
Media strategy is how it will be used, where, how often, and when.
It is a process of analyzing and choosing media for an advertising campaign.
"The medium is the message" is a phrase coined by Marshall McLuhan meaning that the form of a medium embeds itself in the message, creating a symbiotic relationship by which the medium influences how the message is perceived.
- Market
- Money
- Media
- Mechanics
- Methodology
just as the advertising message can be creative the choice of media can be creative too.
There are two different streams of media:
Traditional or old (newspaper, TV & Radio) and
New Media (Social, games and online news portal).
The medium is the message, were the kind media plays a central or strategic role in the advertising message.
The advertising message will need to consider the media strategy as it can be dependent on or influenced by the five Ms.
Week 5
Ideation Sketches
Over the past week, we focus on the ideation of the ad campaign. We try to visualize our ideas into rough sketch ideas even if it's not good enough until eventually, we stumble upon something that is worthy.
Referring back to the campaign research that we have done before as well as doing further research on the new target demographic, me and my partner have decided that a traditional print ad campaign was our preferred choice of solution. They are simple, can appear in a large number of places and can still be found relevant to the "older" demographic that happens to read The Times newspaper. Presented below are the generated idea sketches I have so far.
Ideation Sketches
Over the past week, we focus on the ideation of the ad campaign. We try to visualize our ideas into rough sketch ideas even if it's not good enough until eventually, we stumble upon something that is worthy.
The first idea that I have was to spread the message of something that we have trusted as a reliable source before, is actually not as reliable as we thought they are. The perfect example that I have found for that is--- Wikipedia. I know that this is something that is quite known for a lot of people, but there's still a group of people out there that still believes the Wikipedia is something that is credible and trusted source.
Another idea that I have is about showing that the internet is kind of giving false information. I have a thought to show a calculator from the google page after we search for example, "2+2x2 =" and the result that came up from google is "8". It shows a wrong answer, but there are a large number of people out there that do believe "8" is the correct answer when the right answer is "6".
This is something that I thought is a perfect example to get people to understand that some information might be false if they did not check the credibility first.
And the other sketches I have is basically on the same concept, but showing different examples. Such as, Chocolate is very nutritious, improving blood flow and lower blood pressure, and even improving brain function for DOGS."
Or showing two similar images of the face of a person, but one of those is made by CGI. The point is to show that even a face can be faked nowadays, and we have to be careful about what we receive through media.
Week 6
Advertising communication depends on the synergy of visual and verbal components. The message has to be consistently delivered across different ads in a campaign for it to be an effective campaign.
Ad design considerations :
-
Make sure the idea is on strategy.
-
Set up cooperative action between words and image.
-
Determine a specific relationship between words and image.
-
Check the quality of typography.
- Apply all Principle of Design.
- Guide the viewer through the composition using arrangement, movement, alignments, and transition.
- Ensure clarity of communication.
- Ensure the ad unit works through a larger ad campaign.
Mr. Vinod highlighted that it is important to re-read the brief every time we start on doing the ideation again and again so that we don't run away from the main point of the brief.
The idea has to be crystal clear through either the headline or the visual that we use to support and enhance the headline itself.
An ad campaign is a series of ads, based on an overarching strategy and closely related ideas and connected by look and feel, voice, tone, style, imagery, tagline and can stand on its own.
Ideas must be integrated at the core and must work gracefully across the different channel/platforms.
Some criteria to judge an ad campaign effectiveness :
-
Does the campaign enter pop-culture vernacular?
-
Does it positively affect popular culture?
-
Has it moved the brand or group into the top category or created a new category?
-
Do we remember it?
-
Does it strike a chord in us, make us realize something, reveal something, makes us think, reflect our lives, know us?
-
Does it hit on a common wish a common truth?
On this week, we make further idea sketches development, My partner had an idea of a series of poster and apparently, the lecturer liked it, so I try to develop it further and The sketches are as shown below.
The best idea that I found interesting is the planet earth with a MAOI statue and the one right beside it. The idea with the MAOI statue shown until its feet is that The Times and The Sunday Times news investigate so deep that it does not only covers the head but until they found the foot.
I showed this idea to Mr. Vinod during the consultation and he told me that this could work, but needs some work with the headline. So then we thought to make more of these kinds of a visual twist.
The second idea, which is the one with the tree has the idea of showing that the guy is planting a tree to show that he does it for a good cause, but it's actually for hiding a bunker full of drugs beneath it.
The next good idea is containing the headline "Every Word Considered." I put a misleading headline of existing news titled; "ADOC Staff Member Killed in The Line of Duty", which leads to people to think that someone killed a staff while he/she is working. But then it is written in the details of the news that the staff member is actually not killed but he/she had a heart attack and died. So the main idea of this sketch was to show that The Times and The Sunday Times news company chose the words carefully to not cause a misunderstanding for the audience.
Then I try to go for a full typography kind of ad campaign. The main idea is to show that you can trust The Times and The Sunday Times. The second sketch has Einstein with a quote beside it, saying "I trust The Times." which is not true at all. This is done to show that the viewer can't trust anything that they see anywhere without confirming the validity first.
When I showed this to Mr. Vinod, he said that we could do fake headline news where we could put something that is just really outrageous and can grab people's attention and then put "fake news" somewhere on the poster with a small size. This gives us more idea "legs" to work on.
Advertising communication depends on the synergy of visual and verbal components. The message has to be consistently delivered across different ads in a campaign for it to be an effective campaign.
Ad design considerations :
Ad design considerations :
- Make sure the idea is on strategy.
- Set up cooperative action between words and image.
- Determine a specific relationship between words and image.
- Check the quality of typography.
- Apply all Principle of Design.
- Guide the viewer through the composition using arrangement, movement, alignments, and transition.
- Ensure clarity of communication.
- Ensure the ad unit works through a larger ad campaign.
Mr. Vinod highlighted that it is important to re-read the brief every time we start on doing the ideation again and again so that we don't run away from the main point of the brief.
The idea has to be crystal clear through either the headline or the visual that we use to support and enhance the headline itself.
An ad campaign is a series of ads, based on an overarching strategy and closely related ideas and connected by look and feel, voice, tone, style, imagery, tagline and can stand on its own.
Ideas must be integrated at the core and must work gracefully across the different channel/platforms.
Some criteria to judge an ad campaign effectiveness :
- Does the campaign enter pop-culture vernacular?
- Does it positively affect popular culture?
- Has it moved the brand or group into the top category or created a new category?
- Do we remember it?
- Does it strike a chord in us, make us realize something, reveal something, makes us think, reflect our lives, know us?
- Does it hit on a common wish a common truth?
On this week, we make further idea sketches development, My partner had an idea of a series of poster and apparently, the lecturer liked it, so I try to develop it further and The sketches are as shown below.
The best idea that I found interesting is the planet earth with a MAOI statue and the one right beside it. The idea with the MAOI statue shown until its feet is that The Times and The Sunday Times news investigate so deep that it does not only covers the head but until they found the foot.
I showed this idea to Mr. Vinod during the consultation and he told me that this could work, but needs some work with the headline. So then we thought to make more of these kinds of a visual twist.
The second idea, which is the one with the tree has the idea of showing that the guy is planting a tree to show that he does it for a good cause, but it's actually for hiding a bunker full of drugs beneath it.
The next good idea is containing the headline "Every Word Considered." I put a misleading headline of existing news titled; "ADOC Staff Member Killed in The Line of Duty", which leads to people to think that someone killed a staff while he/she is working. But then it is written in the details of the news that the staff member is actually not killed but he/she had a heart attack and died. So the main idea of this sketch was to show that The Times and The Sunday Times news company chose the words carefully to not cause a misunderstanding for the audience.
Then I try to go for a full typography kind of ad campaign. The main idea is to show that you can trust The Times and The Sunday Times. The second sketch has Einstein with a quote beside it, saying "I trust The Times." which is not true at all. This is done to show that the viewer can't trust anything that they see anywhere without confirming the validity first.
When I showed this to Mr. Vinod, he said that we could do fake headline news where we could put something that is just really outrageous and can grab people's attention and then put "fake news" somewhere on the poster with a small size. This gives us more idea "legs" to work on.
Week 7
On this point, me and my partner just try to create more clever headlines and then finalizing all of it in a form of posters. We decided to make the poster type only, with black & white color to make it has a sense of "timeless". The tagline has to be clever, loud, bombastic, and etc— but not crass.
On this point, me and my partner just try to create more clever headlines and then finalizing all of it in a form of posters. We decided to make the poster type only, with black & white color to make it has a sense of "timeless". The tagline has to be clever, loud, bombastic, and etc— but not crass.
Exercises
 |
| An example of a smart advertisement and marketing |
The idea of this advertisement is to get more people to care about food that they eat
The selling point is to get trust from people and selling their products of food where the animals are being treated right. Their strategy is using fear and shaming the other food products where they don't treat the animals properly.
The poster shows a 3d rendered image of an animal formed as a pill. The form of a pill is not randomly chosen, but it is chosen to expose the other companies where they use pills and steroid to feed the animals and antibiotics before they even need them which is just not healthy for the animal and especially those who eat products that came from those animals.
"You are what your food eats" is the tagline in the poster, which is brilliant. It is also to raise some awareness of that food that is just unhealthy to be consumed.
The poster shows a 3d rendered image of an animal formed as a pill. The form of a pill is not randomly chosen, but it is chosen to expose the other companies where they use pills and steroid to feed the animals and antibiotics before they even need them which is just not healthy for the animal and especially those who eat products that came from those animals.
"You are what your food eats" is the tagline in the poster, which is brilliant. It is also to raise some awareness of that food that is just unhealthy to be consumed.
Monotype's Design Brief
The main direction of this brief is to "use type to celebrate a community."
This brief is targeted to those within the chosen community. Those who might not know about the community but want to become a part of it. Or even those who simply have no idea that the community exists.
The challenge is to create a typography-led integrated graphic design campaign that uses type to celebrate a community and showcase what makes it unique and to explore communities beyond the usual expectations.
The brief expects a fully rounded view of what makes the community different, a positive message should be implemented in it which should not discriminate, alienate or degrade other communities and expressing its essence to someone who's never encountered it before.
The campaign must include:
- at least one poster
- at least one digital element
- at least one other touchpoint
The output must be relevant to the chosen community within the execution by using the type as the major creative expression.
Community Research
Seeing the future with the eyes from the past is basically what steampunk is in a nutshell. However, steampunk can't be summed up in a few sort words because it can mean many different things to many different people. It can be a fashion and style, others it is about art and inventions and it can even be a way of life, an accent to a personality, etc. After reading the brief, the chosen community can be something that already has existed or it can be something that ourselves create. Generally, I'm interested in black letter, gothic, steampunk-ish kind of style in typography. Hence I look for these types of posters and I want to find out more about steampunk style in typography, therefore I chose steampunk as the main idea. Then I found out that steampunk actually has a community on its own, and it is about steampunk itself. Steampunk started as a social and artistic movement in the 90s by science fiction authors such as H.G. Wells and Jules Verne. This small community has grown from being merely a literary genre to a unique sub-culture encompassing everything from art and music to fashion and philosophy. A steampunk genre is a fantastical approach to the Victorian era with a futuristic spin on steam-powered technology.
Steampunk community has an online and offline community, conventions, book signings, tv shows, movies, crafting groups where a ton of steampunk things are crafted together and even role-playing.
Seeing the future with the eyes from the past is basically what steampunk is in a nutshell. However, steampunk can't be summed up in a few sort words because it can mean many different things to many different people. It can be a fashion and style, others it is about art and inventions and it can even be a way of life, an accent to a personality, etc. After reading the brief, the chosen community can be something that already has existed or it can be something that ourselves create. Generally, I'm interested in black letter, gothic, steampunk-ish kind of style in typography. Hence I look for these types of posters and I want to find out more about steampunk style in typography, therefore I chose steampunk as the main idea. Then I found out that steampunk actually has a community on its own, and it is about steampunk itself. Steampunk started as a social and artistic movement in the 90s by science fiction authors such as H.G. Wells and Jules Verne. This small community has grown from being merely a literary genre to a unique sub-culture encompassing everything from art and music to fashion and philosophy. A steampunk genre is a fantastical approach to the Victorian era with a futuristic spin on steam-powered technology. Steampunk community has an online and offline community, conventions, book signings, tv shows, movies, crafting groups where a ton of steampunk things are crafted together and even role-playing.Research (Visual References and Initial Ideation)
After the community has been chosen, references and examples of the design that are related to it were collected. We then gathered various references for different aspects of steampunk design which are Graphic Design, Typography, Ornamentation, and even Vintage Graphic Design from the late 19th Century.
Steampunk is a subgenre of science fiction or science fantasy that incorporates technology and aesthetic designs inspired by 19th-century industrial steam-powered machinery which explains why the graphical design looks "old". The use of ornaments for the borders are mainly inspired from 18th & 19th-century designs from furniture, rooftop, doors and etc. The ornament is decoration or embellishment. It is an additional detail added to an object, interior or architectural structure which serves no other purpose than to make it more interesting, arresting or beautiful to us.
From several examples of Steampunk's graphic design and typography, we could tell that it has diverse options and it is not limited to just one typeface or one style in the design field. The uniqueness of this one feature is one of the things that we must implement inside the design campaign later on.
Design Concept & Idea
Each poster has its own personality which appeals to different people.
Steampunk Community have some characteristics which we could use for the campaign idea such as style/fashion, invent-ness, wackiness, curiosity, etc. Each poster has its own personality which showcases its own features and uses "Empathy" as the main strategy.
We are selling various characteristics which might evoke some empathy towards it, and might even give a sense of belonging which gives an opportunity for the Steampunk community to be explored.
We are selling various characteristics which might evoke some empathy towards it, and might even give a sense of belonging which gives an opportunity for the Steampunk community to be explored.
As for the poster design, since it has to be a typography-led integrated graphic design, we must ensure that the main part of the poster is the typography itself and the illustration and decorative ornaments can be the second and third most important thing.
We listed down the keywords that are related to steampunk, then make some quotes /phrases which we can use in the poster.
We listed down the keywords that are related to steampunk, then make some quotes /phrases which we can use in the poster.
- Creativity - "a little Steampunk can fix it."
- Inventiveness - "it's the Genius kind of crazy." *really* | "if you're out of legos, just use gears."
- Wonder - "What if goths discovered brown ?"
- Fashion - "it's like Hipster, but brown."
- Whacky - "whacky and functional." | "it's weird but it works."
- Old-Fashioned - "Brass is the 19th-century Titanium."
Monotype Design Brief's re-evaluation
A lot of ideas were explored during the past two weeks. Me and my partner spent a great amount of time trying to find new ideas, concepts, lines, and other things that can be our starting point for the advertising campaign aimed to spread awareness about the niche subculture, Steampunk. We have gone through a lot of sketches trying to visualize the ideas that we came up with. But as time goes by, we slowly come to the realization that our campaign for the Steampunk community was not really gaining any traction. It basically has no "legs", as our lecturer put it.
The moment when we consulted our lecturer in person, it has become obvious that Steampunk is indeed a community, but it lacks any real or direct real-world value or positive message that the others could benefit from. Realizing this, we step back and start at the first step again, looking for communities which had the value and positive message that can be benefited from. But it has come to the realization that we could no longer continue down this path since there was no real higher purpose in mind when it came to the community's positive message, which was the main part of the brief's requirements.
We then went through a list of communities with various purpose so we could move on to a different path. However, it became clear that there was no particularly interesting or unique community which me and my partner felt passionate about representing and celebrating. At this point, we only have one last option which we can only do but it means that the two week's worth of work is going straight to the trash, which is to choose a new brief. Therefore, we read through all the briefs again, and found something else that we find interesting and in our opinion, more related to advertising work-wise. After some discussion, we settled upon a new brief to shift all our efforts to; The Times & The Sunday Times.
The moment when we consulted our lecturer in person, it has become obvious that Steampunk is indeed a community, but it lacks any real or direct real-world value or positive message that the others could benefit from. Realizing this, we step back and start at the first step again, looking for communities which had the value and positive message that can be benefited from. But it has come to the realization that we could no longer continue down this path since there was no real higher purpose in mind when it came to the community's positive message, which was the main part of the brief's requirements.
We then went through a list of communities with various purpose so we could move on to a different path. However, it became clear that there was no particularly interesting or unique community which me and my partner felt passionate about representing and celebrating. At this point, we only have one last option which we can only do but it means that the two week's worth of work is going straight to the trash, which is to choose a new brief. Therefore, we read through all the briefs again, and found something else that we find interesting and in our opinion, more related to advertising work-wise. After some discussion, we settled upon a new brief to shift all our efforts to; The Times & The Sunday Times.
The Times & The Sunday Times Design Brief
The main directive of the brief is to make a campaign to show that being well informed is worth paying for. The aim of the brief is to create an ad, integrated or digital marketing campaign or activation concept across relevant channels that persuade people that considered news and content is worth time and paying for, drives online subscriptions and stands out from other media outlets.
The target audience is targeted towards a different generation ( relatively younger) to The Times & The Sunday Times' typical reader; specifically aged 35+ who value being composed, in the know and in control. They strive for personal and professional improvement, and access to quality in an ocean of fake information and free access.
The brief wants to communicate the Times & The Sunday Time's quality and accurate journalism, their trustworthiness as a news source and a large amount of diverse content they offer.
The campaign must :
We decided to choose a series of posters as our choice of media because we find that;
But compared to making a video, seeing the time and deadline we have which is very short— doing a poster might seem makes more sense and have more advantages because we don't have much experience in shooting a video, knowing me and my partner's strengths is not really in cinematography.
The target audience is targeted towards a different generation ( relatively younger) to The Times & The Sunday Times' typical reader; specifically aged 35+ who value being composed, in the know and in control. They strive for personal and professional improvement, and access to quality in an ocean of fake information and free access.
The brief wants to communicate the Times & The Sunday Time's quality and accurate journalism, their trustworthiness as a news source and a large amount of diverse content they offer.
The campaign must :
- Refer to both The Times & The Sunday Times
- Highlight the difference between them and the other newspapers
- Use the "Know your Times" strapline/ethos
We decided to choose a series of posters as our choice of media because we find that;
- a poster speaks for itself; means the presence of its author is not necessary. Therefore possible to reach a broader audience when compared to a presentation limited in time.
- It is also possible to present several posters in the same room and at e same time— visitors can have a look at those posters they are interested in.
- Sometimes as the author, you have the possibility to present a poster while giving a short introduction. An interactive situation evolves while having close contact with the audience, closer than when delivering a speech.
- Posters can be used several times and presented at different events.
- A poster is suited for people suffering from stage fright at least, for those who have difficulties when speaking in front of large groups. Standing next to their posters for some time in order to answer just a few questions is less stressful than talking on a lectern.
But compared to making a video, seeing the time and deadline we have which is very short— doing a poster might seem makes more sense and have more advantages because we don't have much experience in shooting a video, knowing me and my partner's strengths is not really in cinematography.
Background Research on The Times & The Sunday Times
The Times is a British each day countrywide newspaper based totally in London. It started in 1785 and is the first newspaper to undergo that name. It has been a vital section of the political shape of Great Britain, thanks to its rigorous requirements of reporting and writing, accuracy and emphasis on necessary public affairs in Britain. They maintain close contact with 10 Downing Street, the headquarters of the UK government. The paper is now not overly pro-Tory or Whig and is viewed these days to be somewhat conservative. The Times is heavily used via students and studying due to its to giant availability and detail. They are the first to use the Times New Roman font, which used to be specially developed for them through Stanley Morison and Monotype for legibility in low-tech print. Today, the body textual content makes use of Times Classic while display uses Times Modern. Their newspaper has changed the layout from broadsheet to compact in an effort to enchantment to youthful readers and commuters.
The Sunday Times is the largest-selling British national newspaper founded in 1821 owned by News Corp, which also owns the Times. It is known by its quality investigative reporting and wide-ranging overseas coverage. It is Britain's first multi-section newspaper and contains standalone sections for News, Business, Sport, Money, and Appointments. The paper is nevertheless the usage of the broadsheet format and it has its very own internet site and app version for mobile devices.
You can find further reading and research below:
- Know your times Series: Bearing Witness
- Know your times Series: The Uncomfortable Truths
- Know your times: Times New Roman
- The Times and The Sunday Times reveal new brand campaign
- The Times and The Sunday Times "Know your Times" by Pulse Creative
- News UK promotes 'Know your times' campaign during ad break of Channel 4 Trump series
- Morning Paper: The Times Newspaper - 1942 British Council Film Collection - CharlieDeanArchives
- THE TIMES AND THE SUNDAY TIMES: KNOW YOUR TIMES BY CHI & PARTNERS & PULSE CREATIVE
The Times is a British each day countrywide newspaper based totally in London. It started in 1785 and is the first newspaper to undergo that name. It has been a vital section of the political shape of Great Britain, thanks to its rigorous requirements of reporting and writing, accuracy and emphasis on necessary public affairs in Britain. They maintain close contact with 10 Downing Street, the headquarters of the UK government. The paper is now not overly pro-Tory or Whig and is viewed these days to be somewhat conservative. The Times is heavily used via students and studying due to its to giant availability and detail. They are the first to use the Times New Roman font, which used to be specially developed for them through Stanley Morison and Monotype for legibility in low-tech print. Today, the body textual content makes use of Times Classic while display uses Times Modern. Their newspaper has changed the layout from broadsheet to compact in an effort to enchantment to youthful readers and commuters.
You can find further reading and research below:
- Know your times Series: Bearing Witness
- Know your times Series: The Uncomfortable Truths
- Know your times: Times New Roman
- The Times and The Sunday Times reveal new brand campaign
- The Times and The Sunday Times "Know your Times" by Pulse Creative
- News UK promotes 'Know your times' campaign during ad break of Channel 4 Trump series
- Morning Paper: The Times Newspaper - 1942 British Council Film Collection - CharlieDeanArchives
- THE TIMES AND THE SUNDAY TIMES: KNOW YOUR TIMES BY CHI & PARTNERS & PULSE CREATIVE
Research on Target Audience
The people in Britain is class-conscious, more about mindset and way of living rather about income and jobs. The higher social classes read broadsheets (including The Times) which are seen as more intelligent and respectable publications. Mid-market tabloids (Such as The Daily Express) blend serious reporting with the gossip while Red-Top tabloids (The Daily Star or The Sun) are often ridiculous or hysterical.
The Times is read more or less equally by all age groups especially those who are in the 24-54 age range. Men read more newspaper than women (55% vs 45%). Half of the readers of The Times belongs to the upper-middle or middle classes. The Times has a circulation of roughly 404,000 per day and the average reader could be described as an "educated professional who likes trekking and rugby".
A monthly reach of The Times and The Sunday Times in Great Britain from October 2017 to September 2018, by demographic group (in 1,000s)
Younger demographics are more likely to read more news but in online or digital platforms.
Link to the research: Who reads which newspaper in Britain?
The Times is read more or less equally by all age groups especially those who are in the 24-54 age range. Men read more newspaper than women (55% vs 45%). Half of the readers of The Times belongs to the upper-middle or middle classes. The Times has a circulation of roughly 404,000 per day and the average reader could be described as an "educated professional who likes trekking and rugby".
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| A monthly reach of The Times and The Sunday Times in Great Britain from October 2017 to September 2018, by demographic group (in 1,000s) |
Younger demographics are more likely to read more news but in online or digital platforms.
Link to the research: Who reads which newspaper in Britain?
Ad Campaign Researches
The Economist
The Economist was founded in 1843, they are independent and served no other than the liberal credo of open markets and individual freedom. On 12th, of August 2015, a change in ownership was announced - The Economist group would buy back shares from one of its major owners, Pearson - which would further cement the editorial independence of The Economist.
The news is the main source that gives both a unique opportunity and a challenge for The Economist group. This was the opportunity to boost brand recognition and awareness of the brand values. However, this campaign had to be built and executed while the topic was still newsworthy.
The campaign sought to achieve three goals.
They developed a different witty and provocative creative way to deliver a message in The Economist "white out of red" advert style which is done in order to show the fact that they take their independence seriously, and changed the typical color and fonts in some of these ads. This shows that the campaign is flexible, they can do whatever they like, and even change their font guidelines.
With Facebook as their main anchor for the campaign, supported by other social media platforms served as a place for vibrant visual to engage users around the news of The Economist's Independence. Facebook was used for the Q&A with the Economist Group CEO - asking him questions about running The Economist and what the change in ownership meant -- "an event we would seek to direct users to use all our social channels."
Most of the headlines are twists of common phrases and lines, they put in some humor or directly talk to the viewer. They are overall simple, eye-catching, and thought-provoking.
Reference link: https://shortyawards.com/8th/the-economist-independence-campaign
The Economist was founded in 1843, they are independent and served no other than the liberal credo of open markets and individual freedom. On 12th, of August 2015, a change in ownership was announced - The Economist group would buy back shares from one of its major owners, Pearson - which would further cement the editorial independence of The Economist.
The news is the main source that gives both a unique opportunity and a challenge for The Economist group. This was the opportunity to boost brand recognition and awareness of the brand values. However, this campaign had to be built and executed while the topic was still newsworthy.
The campaign sought to achieve three goals.
- Demonstrate the editorial independence that lies at the heart of The Economist to our readers. At a time when truly independent journalism is all too rare and often under threat, The Economist was strengthening its independence and, in doing so, improving its ability to serve its readers in the future
- Convince warm prospects that there has never been a better time to subscribe to The Economist
- Grow our online audience - cultivate a larger audience across platforms and boost engagement
They developed a different witty and provocative creative way to deliver a message in The Economist "white out of red" advert style which is done in order to show the fact that they take their independence seriously, and changed the typical color and fonts in some of these ads. This shows that the campaign is flexible, they can do whatever they like, and even change their font guidelines.
With Facebook as their main anchor for the campaign, supported by other social media platforms served as a place for vibrant visual to engage users around the news of The Economist's Independence. Facebook was used for the Q&A with the Economist Group CEO - asking him questions about running The Economist and what the change in ownership meant -- "an event we would seek to direct users to use all our social channels."
The Economist was seen as a "boring business publication" by the non-readers, so to get more subscribers, it used data to place highly relevant ads online. For example, in an article with the headline "How women can break through the glass ceiling," it placed an ad saying "Would Lehman sisters have done a better job?", and even more of that - they even summed up the whole story in 10 seconds (can be found in the video embedded below).
Most of the headlines are twists of common phrases and lines, they put in some humor or directly talk to the viewer. They are overall simple, eye-catching, and thought-provoking.
Reference link: https://shortyawards.com/8th/the-economist-independence-campaign
Alzheimer Ads
Alzheimer is a debilitating disease that causes disruptive memory loss and those living with Alzheimer need to be constantly reminded of things in order to get through the day. This print ad by Simone Mascagni plays on that repetition, promoting World Alzheimer’s Day and reminding audiences of the challenges of Alzheimer.
and I found another advertisement made by Publicis in Belgian which has the same concept based on memory loss. The ad shows ink dissolving or being brushed away, much like the memory of those living with Alzheimer.
and I found another advertisement made by Publicis in Belgian which has the same concept based on memory loss. The ad shows ink dissolving or being brushed away, much like the memory of those living with Alzheimer.
This Guardian campaign demonstrates excellence in press advertising. It feels elegant but quick and effortless. Spending a huge amount of money on expensive CGI is not necessary for a newspaper ad. These Guardian ads are authentic to the fast-aces nature of the press medium, yet they manage to be timeless.
This Estonia's investigational newspaper Eesti Ekspress has an ad campaign named "We Help You See The Truth" because it uses a set of visuals which explains the story of the first's one. It helps the viewer identify the different perspectives of the story/information received.
Further Idea Development
Fake Headlines
The Internet is the biggest source of information that is widely available and easy accessed by most people, making it a very convenient source of news and information. But the con side of it is that any information can just slide in without it being checked, meaning anyone can say anything on the internet. Hence, it leads to a lot of fake news and information being spread around which can cause something that is not wanted. So it is important to remind the internet user to "stay woke" when accessing any kinds of information on the internet.
The idea is to generate an outrageous, mind-boggling "fake" headlines that could attract some attention for the people that read it. Adding some visual such as politicians, or illustrations are considered. This campaign aims to give some awareness of the information that you consumed in your daily lives.
Before executing this campaign, it is important to research hot topics or something that's controversial which is relevant to the target audience of The Times & The Sunday Times.
Below are some topics that could be used for the campaign.
- Brexit
- Boris Johnson has ruined Britain
- Hate towards Theresa May
- The collapse of elderly social care
- The relationship between Prince Harry and Meghan Markle
- Mandatory military service
- Muslim immigration
Possible fake headlines:
- Prince Harry found sleeping with other men, admitted gay.
- Meghan Markle pleads trapped in an abusive relationship.
- The military is now compulsory for all women aged 16-40.
- Latest Durex flavored condom is found to cause skin cancer. ---- (Durex is based in UK)
At this point, I was having a hard time to come up with new considered good headlines, so I decided to create a visual for one of those headlines.
I consulted my lecturer about what I have right now and show him the visual that I've made. He said that it does not reflect the standards associated with The Times and the headlines have to be clever, loud, etc, but definitely not crass.
As for the visual, he told me that the idea and concept have to work fluently with the intention of advertising the message first. Spending time on the look should only happen after the overall messaging (idea/concept + Headline message + Visual message) is in the line with what you are intending. No matter how good the idea/visual look, but if it does not communicate the intended message, it just won't work.
After some time, me and my partner had some discussions and ended up with these headlines;
- Brexit's off! Government too knackered to deal
- May breaks down! Says she 'buggered it all'
- May goes skiing as deal breaks down
- Half the UK are traitors. The other half voted leave
- 'I quit last week' says May
- Brawl at House of Commons! Tory heard saying 'chips and fish'
- Panic erupts as man burns crumpets
- Puddle splash victims vow revenge
- US tourists trapped at roundabout, rescue underway
- Britain saved! May quits, Boris to be new PM
We consulted with the lecturer and these were approved, hence we go to the finalization stage where we make the visual done.
We decided to just make 5 out of those headlines because we wanted to give the best out of the best. Below are the headlines.
- Brexit's off! Britain too knackered to deal
- Manchester drunk fights invisible man
- US tourists trapped at roundabout, rescue now underway
- Panic erupts as man burns crumpets
- Brawl at House of Commons! Tory heard saying 'chips and fish'
The final fine print and tagline we're going with is 'News? Not in our Times.'
Below are the visual of the posters.
After creating these, we decided to make some mockups to show how this would look like in real locations.
After some adjustments and finalizing, we finally finished the presentation slides in here, which is embedded below.
Reflection
At first, I was unsure about the whole situation as in what brief should I choose, since I don't really know what am I able to do and reach the expectations from the brief itself.
But after some readings and trying to understand the message that the briefs are trying to send, I finally chose my brief. Then I decided to team up with another classmate because it is a lot of work if we are doing it alone.
Overall, this study has been something that is useful for my education and I know this can be really useful in what I will work on in the near future.
