From my first year on the course I found that I particularly enjoy the promotional aspect of Graphic Design, as I preferred generating ideas when I had specific purpose and was therefore able to produce what I felt were perhaps more innovative. I therefore felt Promotion would be an appropriate subject for the summer research brief and would also give me the opportunity to explore the use of humour in design, another aspect I enjoy.
A BRIEF HISTORY
Although it is hard to determine the exact origins of advertising and promotion the are many early examples of different forms of advertisements from around the world.
- Egyptians using papyrus to make sales messages and wall posters
- Commercial messages and political display have been found in the ruins of Pompeii and ancient Arabia
- Lost and found advertising on papyrus was common in Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome
- Wall or Rock painting which to this day is still present in many parts of Asia, Africa and South America
Perhaps one of the most renowned advertising campaigns is Thomas J Baratt's work for Pears Soap for which he has been called "The father of modern advertising".
Working for the Pears soap company, Baratt created an effective advertising campaign for the company products which involved the use of targeted slogans, images and phrases.
Baratt's advertising tactic was to associate the pears brand with high culture and quality by using the painting 'Bubbles' by John Everitt Millias as an advertisement by adding a bar of pears soap into the foreground.
Barratt then continued this theme, with a series of adverts with well groomed middle class children, associating thereby Pears with domestic comfort and aspirations of high society.
Pro·mo·tion
noun
1. Activity that supports the furtherance of a cause, venture or aim
2. The publication of a product, organisation, or venture to increase sales or public awareness
3. The act of promoting or the fact of being promoted; advancement
4. Encouragement of the progress, growth, or acceptance of something; furtherance
5. Advertising; publicity
The basic objectives of promotion are; to present information to consumers as well as others to increase product awareness, to increase demand and sales of a product or differentiate a product by perhaps introducing the product to a new target market.
The possible mediums to achieve these objectives include; newspaper and internet advertisements, special events, endorsements or incentives such as discounts, free items or perhaps a contest.
TARGET MARKET IN ADVERTISEMENTS
Men
From examples of advertisements which were targeted at men I found that a humorous tone of voice was commonly used to order engage the target audience. A particular example of humour being used to a male target audience is the the Foster's 'Good Call' campaign in which tow Australians have a helpline to help solve men's problems.
Women
Compared to the advertisements aimed at a male target audience, the adverts aimed at women tended to have a more serious tone of voice. Another trait I found in the advertisements aimed at women was that they tended to use imagery to empower women, for example, the Dolce and Gabbana features Scarlett Johansson with a Marilyn Monroe style makeover who is famous for being a female icon.
Children
When appealing to Children, I found that advertiser's tended to use simple, catchy messages which stick in the child's head.
Parents
In order to appeal to parents I found that advertiser's tended to use simple, emotive language which would make the audience feel guilt.
Hu·mour
noun
1. The quality of being amusing or comic, especially as expressed in literature or speech: his tales are full of humour.
2. The ability to express humour or amuse other people: their inimitable brand of humour.
3. A mood or state of mind: Her good humour vanished.
TONE OF VOICE IN ADVERTISEMENTS
Humour
I started my research into Tone of Voice in advertisements by looking at adverts which have a humorous tone of voice as this is a particular tone of voice which I respond to and find appealing. This is also a tone of voice which I enjoy using in my own design work.
Informative
In order to produce a advertisement which has informative tone, the design is required to be simplistic and bold in order to display all the relevant information clearly to the audience.
Persuasive
I found that persuasive advertisement often used strong, emotive language or bold, shocking images in order to persuade the audience to invest in there cause or product.
Serious
A common trait I found within the advertisements with a serious tone of voice was, that they commonly used a simple concept or design which aimed to get the audience to think.
Shock
Commonalities I found in the advertisements which had a shocking tone of voice, were that they tended to image rather than text based. With campaigns for causes such as road safety using stark, shocking images to appeal to the audience.
FAMOUS CAMPAIGNS
The Man Your Man Could Smell Like Campaign
The 'Smell like a Man, Man' campaign or 'The Man Your Man Could Smell Like' as it is more commonly known is 2010 advertisement created by ad agency Wieden and Kennedy to advertise Old Spice.
The advertisement which debuted at the 2010 Superbowl, a popular platform for advertisements due to the vast amount of viewers it pulls in each year was initially launched to advertise Old Spice's Red Zone After Hours Body Wash. However, the advert became one of the fastest growing online video campaign of all time and subsequently was expanded to include other products each following a similar theme with the trademark 'surprise ending'.
The advertising agency targeted the ad at female viewers, centring around the eponymous "man your man could smell like" would would address the viewer in a "confident, rapid-fire monologues" which promote the benefit of using old spice products. Whilst reciting the monologues, the actor would progress through various activities, locations, costumes and/or extraordinary situations, all in one uninterrupted take and whilst maintaining constant eye-contact with the camera in a nonchalant manner.
Aiming the advertisement female viewers despite the products target market being male was a clever move made by the advertising agency who determined that it was in fact women who quite frequently made the purchasing decisions for men when buying hygiene products.
By alluring the brand to both young and old alike in a unisex way is part of the reason the rejuvenation of the old brand was such a success as "brands don't make viral videos, users make videos viral".
Share A Coke Campaign
The Share A Coke Campaign replaced the iconic coca-cola logo on selected bottles with 250 of Great Britain's most popular names during the summer of 2013.
As the campaign was primarily aimed at 18-25 year olds, each bottle also carried the hashtag #shareacoke in order to encourage users to promote online, having been used 29,000 times on Twitter. Coca-Cola has also seen it's Facebook community grow by 3.5% and globally by 6.8% since the campaign began.
The Share A Coke Campaign has been so successful in todays market as Coca-Cola simple concept to create a personalised product which not only encouraged consumers to buy and share the product in the real world but also in the virtual world - a dream case scenario.
To succeed in todays market, consumers want to feel unique. Coca-Cola achieved this by giving the consumers a product that is affordable as well as personalised and a result have a concept which has limited alienation in terms of the target market.
Got Milk? Campaign
The 'got milk?' advertisements are part of an American advertising campaign created by Goodby Silverstein and partners for the California Milk Processor Board in 1993 to encourage the consumption of cow's milk and revive the milk consumption in California. It was licensed for use by milk processor and dairy farmers.
Since the campaign started running in October 1993 the fun and compelling message has been credited in boosting the awareness of the health and nutritional benefits of milk with over 90% awareness in the US according to the 'got milk?' website.
Although the people at Goodby Silverstein initially believed the slogan was "lazy, and not to mention grammatically incorrect"the campaign is one of the most famous commodity brand and influential campaigns in the united states.
The advertisements for the National Milk Processor board which feature celebrities from the fields of sports, media, video games and film sporting a "milk moustache" have become one of the most recognised and respected advertising campaigns having earned a place in advertising history.
FAILED CAMPAIGNS
New Coke Product Launch
Although Coke's recent 'Share a Coke' campaign was a successful, in the past they been known to make mistakes.
The 'New Coke' campaign centred around the reformulation of Coca-Cola introduced in 1985 to replace the original formula of it's flagship soft drink, Coca-Cola or Coke.
'New Coke' which marked the first formula change in 99 years was launched by the Coca-Cola company with the intent of re-energising it's Coca-Cola brand and the sales in the product's largest target market, the United States.
However, the American's public's reaction to the change was negative and the 'New Coke' was a major marketing failure, with consumer preference for Coca-Cola dipping with consumer awareness. A firestorm of consumer protest ensued.
Subsequently, in the Summer of 1985 Coke's original formula was reintroduced and re-branded as 'Coca-Cola Classic' which resulted in a significant increase in sales. This led to speculation that the introduction of the 'New Coke' formula was just a marketing ploy, however the company has always claimed it was merely an attempt to replace the original product.
Abercrombie and Fitch T-shirt Range
In 2002, Abercrombie and Fitch released a new line of t-shirts aimed at the rather specialised market of "trendy, young Asian-Americans".
Although a humorous tone of voice can be an effective way to engage the audience as seen in the 'Man Your Man Could Smell Like' campaign, there can be a fine line between humour and causing offensive as seen in the Abercrombie and Fitch Campaign.
In order to appeal to the specialised target market, Abercrombie released a ranch of t-shirts which featuring 'rice-paddy-hat-wearing, buck-toothed and slanty eye cartoon characters' glorifying the Asian stereotypes.
The t-shirt series was based almost entirely around making Asian puns such as "Pizza Dojo: Eat in or Wok out" and "Two Wongs Can Make a White".
Understandably, Asia-Americans were annoyed. In response, a PR rep from Abercrombie and Fitch threw up his arms in confusion, and said "We personally thought Asians would love this t-shirt, we poke fun at everybody".
The company soon apologised and withdrew the ranch of t-shirts.
CASE STUDY - ONE BRAND, LOTS OF CAMPAIGNS
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