Advertising Strategies: Creative Ads, Humor, Celebrity Endorsements, and Branding - Prof. , Study notes of Communication

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Chapter 1: Creativity
Creativity Defined:  Creative ads make a relevant connection between the brand and its target audience and present a selling idea in an unexpected way.
Examples:  1. Creative ads make a relevant connection between a brand and its target audience  2. Creative ads present a selling idea  3. Creative ads are unexpected. o Ad for Stren Fishing line-close up of man’s split pants catches you off guard and makes you wonder what the ad is about.
That’s Entertainment, but is it advertising?  You should use humor, celebrities, and ad characters STRATEGICALLY in ads  Humor: o Know the difference between humor and jokes.  Jokes-one shot deal. Once you hear it the first time, its not funny the second  Humor- contains nuances that make you want to see and hear it repeatedly o Relate to human experience- make human connection o Make sure the humor is central to your product message- promote brand with humor so people remember o Understand your audiences sense of humor-ads should reflect the tastes, aspirations, and sensibilities of the intended audience o Avoid humor that’s at the expense of others- making fun of ethnic groups, disabled, and elderly will backfire on you o Have fun with your product, but don’t make fun ot it-Self- depreciating humor can hurt your advancement o Don’t assume your audience is stupid  Celebrity Endorsements o They have stopping power-can break through the clutter of advertisements and make a product seem cool  Ex: Got milk o Fans idolize celebrities-Ex: Joe Green commercial with little boy-coke o People are fascinated about the personal lives of celebrities o Their unique characteristics can help communicate the selling idea-Ex: Apples commercial with basketball star Yao Ming and size o They’re perceived as experts in their fields o They’re expensive-don’t use them if your trying to promote low costs o They’re often a quick fix, not a long-term strategy-celebrities go in and out of fashion and their popularity levels shifts, so does their persuasiveness o They may lack credibility-63% of respondents said that celebrities just do it for the money. 43% say celebrities don’t even use the product o They may endorse so many products that it confuses people. Ex: Tiger woods o They can overshadow the message o They may disparage your brand when they think no ones listening o Bad press about the celebrity can hurt the sponsor

Chapter 2: Branding  Brand: a company or brands presentation of itself including its name, logo, tagline, color palette, architecture, and sounds.  A brand has as a personality and is what you know and think about a brand. Personality comes through in 2 ways: o 1. identity o 2. Image  Brand Identity Elements: o Not studying someone typical of your audience

Chapter 5: Strategy  Strategy - A carefully designed plan to murder the competition.  Creative Briefs- summarize the consumer and brand insights that are uncovered during the research stage.  What goes into writing a creative brief. o 1. Insights about the target audience-demographics o 2. Insights about how to target interacts with your brand o 3. What you want your target audience to know and feel- describe how your brand touches one or more human needs: to be popular, to feel attractive and wanted, to obtain material things, to enjoy life..etc. o 4. Key insight (the big idea)-nothing is as powerful as an insight into human nature and what motivates him/her.  Differences between the agencies approaches to creative briefs: o The Foote, Cone & Belding strategy planning model  1. Some purchasing decisions are based more on logic than emotions  2. Some purchase decisions may involve extensive deliberation, whereas others are made with little or no thought.    Thinking HIGH IMPORTANCE Feeling o  LOW IMPORTANCE
Chapter 6: Ideas  How do you come up with the big idea? o One man, one style. The process is one part reason, one part heart, and one (big) part pure, simple intuition.  What are the guidelines of brainstorming? o Don’t think you must come up with the big idea all by yourself o Start a swipe file.-Fill a room with work you consider outstanding. o Pay attention to life’s experiences-the best ads have an emotional connection with the consumers o Exercise your creative mind regularly-Hang out with creative people. Go to a movie, play, or museum. Find inspiration o Give yourself some down time-you need to give your brain a break otherwise you’ll overload on stimuli o Come up with a lot of idea-the more the ideas, the better.  How can you use criticism to improve your ideas? o First, others can see your idea with a clear and unbiased mind. Second, if your evaluators know advertising, chances are that they can judge your work both as consumers and as professionals.

Chapter 7: Words on Papers  Functions of Headlines: o Capture the attention of your target audience o Select your audience-need to make certain the right people are reading your ads o Lure readers into the body copy- o Communicate a benefit o Reinforce the brand name o Make an emotional connection to the customer o Enhance a visual  Type of headlines: o Direct Benefit: Offers readers a reason to use the product. For ex: Shore’s Fishing Lures boasts: IT’S LIKE TOSSING A TWINKIE INTO A WEIGHT WATCHERS MEETING o Factual: People love reading interesting pieces of trivia. Ex: It takes 12 miles of cotton to make a Lands’ End pinpoint oxford. And that’s just the beginning o Selective : To attract a specific audience, address it in the headline. Ex: Michelin. Because so much is riding on your tires. (Ad shows a baby sitting next to a tire) o Curiosity : Tempt your readers with just enough information to make them want to read more. Ex: “Ever wonder why most people make love in the dark?” o News : Just as you want to know what’s new with friends and family, you want to know what’s NEW. Ex: LIFE IN THE SOUTH JUST GOT A LITTLE SWEETER (Ad for Kellogg’s Raisin Bran in Southern Living Magazine) o Contrast - A white circle stands out among black squares and thus attracts and keeps our attention Can be used with color, shape, type size, slant, font, and weight o Harmony -opposite of contrast. Using text that is all one font, even if the sizes are different, produces a harmonious layout. Harmony lets the viewer know that all elements are related. o Proportion -people like proportion. If your layout violates the rules of proportion, the consumer may reject the whole advertisement. Goes for shades, text, direction, and weight. BUT if there is to much harmony, advertisement can get boring. o Movement -Most people have a tendency to start at the upper left-corner of the page and move in a diagonal Z motion. Try not to place important elements such as your logo, in the lower-left corner  Gestalt Theory: o Gestalt is the idea that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Although the parts can be – and should be – observed and analyzed on their own, the whole of a design should strike you first.  Memorize The 5 R’s of design o Research o Roughs o Revise o Ready o Run

Chapter 10: TV  Getting Your Idea on Paper o Start by brainstorming how your idea can be communicated visually o Now take that idea and write a narrative o Once you’re happy with the scenario, put it in script form o Read the script aloud o Revise. Revise. Revise. o Finalize  Formats for TV Commercials: o Demonstration Television:  Product-In-Use  Before and after  Side by side-2 identical battery-operated toys and seeing which one lasts longer o Product as star o Vignette-several brief episodes are threaded together to repeatedly drive home the same point. Ex: ESPN commercial showing people watching television and shouting instructions at their TV sets. “Get out of the crease!” a woman screams. “Basketball 101,” says a man. “Tackle somebody!” yells another fan. Tagline: “Without sports, there’d be no one to coach.” o Slice of life-Ex: wedding o Presenters: someone looks at the camera and tells you why you should buy the product o Testimonials o Stories: Commercials as 30-second-TV shows  Camera Shots: o Each shot should fulfill a specific need.  Extreme Close up (ECU)- showing part of a face or product  Close-up (CU)-face or product fill screen  Medium Shot-(MS)-typically showing 2 people from the waist up  Long Shot-(LS)-Establishing shot that covers an area  Transitions: o Transitions carry you from one point of action to another but usually less time. When you have only 30 seconds, timing is critical.  Cut: an instantaneous change from one shot to another  Dissolve: softer transition when first image gradually becomes more transparent as the second image, becomes more opaque  Fade: dissolve that goes or comes from an image or title to black or white  Sound Effects: o Music and sound effects add meaning and texture to the story being told on the screen. Ex: What would the movie Jaws be without the repetition of the two-note motif that speeds up as the shark gets closer? o Can reinforce your message and help paint the scenery.

Chapter 11: Direct Marketing  Advantages of Direct Marketing over Other Forms of Advertising o Immediate results o Two-way communication o Pinpointing of prospects o Personalized messages o More consumer involvement  The 3 Musts for Successful Direct Mail o 1. The List-List should be narrowed to prime prospects for the product of service. o 2. The Message-You only have seconds to grab consumer’s attention. Make it oversized and in boldface type o 3. The Offer- People must know how to respond. To raise odds for a response, use a prepaid business-reply card or envelope, a toll-free number, and web address.  Designing the internet: A four stage process o 1. Planning-deciding the blueprints of the website-how the site will look and work o 2. Concepts-designing concepts for the content (editorial material) and page template (look and feel) o 3. Refining the Design-revising design and ironing out details o 4. Production-putting all the pieces together and launching site  5. Tell the truth and make it relevant  4. There’s a fine line and big difference between passion and arrogance. o There’s always different ways to do things  3. Learn how to express yourself. Write stuff.  2. Remember: It’s the clients money, not your. (and these days he’s got a lot less of it)  1. Be a leader. Account leadership is the hardest job in advertising. Except for all the other jobs. 03/15/2011
03/15/2011