AS2 Task 3 - Production Requirements

Technical Equipment

We're going to need some equipment and areas to film our advert and for this, we can find information on the internet.

To start off, we're going to need some technical equipment such as cameras, tripods, possibly boom mic's and maybe a pair of headphones.

I found a website that offers a very big variety of camera rentals: http://www.hireacamera.com/en-gb/motion/cameras/

Hiring a decent camera from the website would cost us £44.10 for only one day, the tripod would cost £7.20, the microphone would cost £9.60 and since we already have headphones they wouldn't cost anything. This totals up to £60.90 split between 4 people.

The shooting shouldn't take more than a day since we already have the basic idea planned out and we know what we're going to be using in the scenes.

Filming Locations

We were thinking that since we're going to be making a mess with food and stuff that we would do it inside in the kitchen where it would be easier to clean up, rather than make a mess outside and ruin an area of a park or garden.

Since we're going to be filming inside in a kitchen we decided to use someone's house who has a kitchen with no nearby carpeted flooring. Jess offered to let us use her kitchen for filming, so we'll need to be careful when filming not too ruin anything too much. If we end up not being able to do this, then we can just film in Central Park where there's loads of space and we wouldn't be interrupting anyone.

The park is literally outside of the Robert Clack upper site so we would just walk there, but we would take a bus to get to Jess' house as it's further away.

The only problems we would encounter when filming in Central Park is the gusts of wind, so we'd need to find a way to cover the microphone from the wind, and the weather in case there are random changes in weather and it goes from sun to rain in which case we would need to choose a day that would be safe to film outside on.

Actors and Actresses

It doesn't matter who we use for the advert, we just need someone to record from their perspective of what they are doing or someone to just stand in front of the camera and mess their milkshakes up before placing our product down on the table.

We already work in a group so we have enough people. If we need any more then we can always ask our friends who would be willing to help us out.

We're just going to use the group the is going to make this advert and also our friends, so they wouldn't be paid because there is no need to do so, but if we were going to use someone famous for our advert, we might need to pay them for the work that they did for us.

We aren't planning on using the any populated public scenes so we wouldn't need to use a disclaimer and get their permission to use them in the video.

Costumes and Props

We might need to dress up in washable casual clothes with possibly an apron, just casual clothes or if we're going to use the PoV camera then it might get a bit personal and just have our legs showing for comedic purposes. But that would only happen if we are planning on completely following how HowToBasic creates his videos.

I'm not sure if we all have aprons, so if we don't we'll just go to a shop that sells them such as B&M, for example. As for other items, we'll just look for them on the internet and decide on where to get them if we need them. We might need to get disposable plastic cups and paper plates from somewhere like Hobbycraft or B&M as well.

Most likely in the house closest to where we are filming, or we might take our own props and clothing back home with us.

I think we'd spend a maximum of £60 each on clothing and props for the advert. We don't all have too much money so we'd need to share it out between us sometimes if something is too expensive.

AS2 Task 2 - Ideas Generation

I have several ideas for the advert that we are going to make. Since my audience research has brought up information that a lot of people like a funny, relatable and memorable advert I'm planning on making a funny or silly advert which would make it easier for people to remember it because of how different it would be from a lot of adverts that are aired on TV.

First Idea

It will be a stand alone advert which will showcase an anonymous character making a normal milkshake before completely destroying the scene and placing down a milkshake that we are trying to sell. Hopefully this will attract mostly a teenage audience who knows that we used HowToBasic as inspiration for the advert. This will mean that we would need to target people who watch youtube quite often and know of the many popular and viral channels around the website. Even if they do not then they will probably share it with other people and in the process find the original source of inspiration. The USP will probably be the slogan that one of the group members came up with: "Smash Shakes - The easy way to gourmet!" which fits the advert because of how the milk shake is made amongst things being smashed around.

Video Information

We'll probably have a POV camera shot throughout the entire advert to keep the main character mysterious and interesting whilst having the same character making the milkshake before throwing a tantrum and placing the milkshake we are selling on the table. Since the camera will be possibly held or placed on the person who is doing most of the movements in the advert, the camera-work might be shaky and sudden to simulate the adrenaline and frustration experienced by the person trying to make the milkshake.

Second Idea

The other idea that I have for the advert is to film a person normally making a milkshake but then saying that to add more flavour the person making the milkshake they should add some waffles and syrup but instead of adding them in small amounts they just completely chuck away the normal milkshake and place our milkshake on the table and then say "Smash-Shakes - The easy way, is the best way" or something after which we cut to the company logo and a slogan. This advert will also be aimed towards the youth more than adults because of the humour and silliness of it.

Video Information

The camera placement will be like in the shows where people showcase items and objects for people to buy with a lot of advertising around the TV screen to attract people's attention and then it will get closer to the actor/actress who will say the final line and then it will cut to the logo and slogan. There will probably be some silent music being played in the background which might be added in during the editing period to add some more detail to the advert.

AS2 Task 1 - Target and Market Research

We chose to do an advert for a new flavour of milkshake which is a waffle and maple syrup milkshake. We were going through ideas of different things we could do and after around 30 we decided to include food because we were hungry and we came across a mix of different milkshakes, ice-creams and such.

After we listed down some snack foods and drinks, we decided to try several combinations of different things and we stumbled across a mixture of waffles, maple syrup and a milkshake.


This is a screenshot of my survey creation process

My survey link is: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/TW6GKW3



I found several adverts for milkshakes.

The first is a Shaky Jake advert from 1996 which was when it was aired on TV. The advert became very popular with the youth, mostly children and then teenagers because of its joyful and happy theme and animations. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEyZ3DCOPbg

The second one is the 2012 advert for Crusha. I don't particularly like the advert because of the 2D animation which doesn't appeal to me, but it caught a lot of people's attention, again, mostly children and teenagers but some people did find this slightly annoying. The catchy beat of the song managed to stick to a lot of people. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GSChopXJ3c

The next advert is by Crusha again but it isn't as bad. It's completely an animation again, but it's more controlled and to the point. It appeals to children and teenagers but I think that the maturity of the advert has been changed to be aimed towards teenagers and young adults more than children. This could be because their original audience would have grown up and they still want them to continue buying their product but it could also be because not all children know how to add milkshake mix properly and could mess up with the mixture to milk ratio. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S24T8gV2sUQ

It seems to me that most, if not all, milkshake adverts are aimed towards children and teenagers. The adverts that I have looked at all have a cheerful and energetic element to it making it seem more enticing to buy the product compared to most adverts aired on TV about adult-related things. The adverts that I like the most are the animations because of their surreal aspect and how free they can be with whatever they want to do, like cats and mice doing stunts that only humans can do.

I think that for our advert we should do something funny and that would connect or would amuse the younger audience more than it would the older audiences. I think this would be a good idea because younger audiences (more specifically 12 - 19) tend to be more entertained and more intrigued by adverts that do something to relate to them in some way such as having an element of comedy that they would like to see on TV.

I also looked at adverts of milkshakes on the internet and found that most of them are surreal. By this, I mean that most of the adverts are made to look as if there are animals that organise events that humans are capable of.

AS2 Task 0 - The Language of Advertising

Language devices are used in advertising to attract the targeted audience that the advertisers want. Many different techniques are used to attract the audience such as alliteration, abbreviation, rhymes, personal pronouns and many others. These devices have been tested and are found to attract the attention of a person more than a basic group of text as they are different from the rest and are slightly funkier.

                               

There are many genres of magazines that are published daily and some of them are music, sports, gaming, food, lifestyle, fitness, glamour, kid/teen/adult/"adult", news, computing, gardening and fashion among many.

Magazines always follow the same layout as well. They have the main focal point in the centre with the title of the magazine at the top somewhere and all of the main intriguing topics around the sides. The main topics and titles are bigger than the other titles as they are the ones that have been focused on more in the magazine, such as Battlefield 3 being several sizes larger than the text above it and the other topics around it.

This magazine featuring Ellie Goulding features all of the main language devices that are found in all magazines. It has the main focal point (Ellie Goulding) at the centre of the magazine cover with the title of the magazine company behind her head and the edition or title of the magazine at the very top. It is then surrounding the focal point with all of the main topics.
The cover features emotive language just to the left of Ellie saying "The health scare that's changing my life" because of the use of the word 'scare' and 'changing'. It makes the reader feel worried about her and interested to read on about what she's being afraid of. Colloquial language (slang) at the top where it says "Rinsta Or A Finsta" as they're both two shortened down words stuck together that the youth use these days, standing for Real Instagram and Fake Instagram. There are also a lot of exclamation marks being used on the cover to exaggerate the sentences and to make them sound enthusiastic and interesting. "Mode of Address" is also being used on this cover where it says "Amp up your look". The key word in that sentence is 'your' where the magazine is trying to entice the reader to read the magazine by speaking directly to them. There are many more language techniques being used on this cover to persuade people into reading by making them think that it's more interesting than it probably is.

AS1 Task 9 - Bibliography

This post will just be for all of the websites that I have used throughout my AS1 tasks.

The Media: An Introduction. Editors; Adam Briggs and Paul Cobley. Chapter 17 Audience Research by Ray Kent. Longman 2002 ISBN 0-582-42346-5

The Media Magazine. The English and Media Centre. Analysing Still-Image Adverts: Reading Lynx by Mark Ramey. Issue 45, September 2013. ISSN 1478-8616

The Media Magazine. The English and Media Centre. AS Coursework - Charity Adverts by Gavin Luhrs. Issue 9, February 2004.

The Media Magazine. The English and Media Centre. How I Make Things by Garth Jennings on making a TV commercial. Issue 39, February  2012. ISSN 1478-8616

The Media Student's Book 4th Edition, Chapter 9 - Advertising and Branding. Editors; Gill Branston and Roy Stafford: Routledge 2007. ISBN -0-415-37143-0

www.youtube.com

Forms of Television Advertising - http://www.slideshare.net/Lucasjwarren/different-forms-in

Styles of Television Advertising - http://www.slideshare.net/Lucasjwarren/analysing-the-style-of-adverts-26507404

TV advert regulation - http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/broadcasting/broadcast-codes/advert-code/ad-minutage

http://www.ofcom.org.uk/

https://www.asa.org.uk/?gclid=CjwKEAiArdG1BRCLvs_q-IObwxMSJACXbLtz1E_gCmFSIL4ty9RmDuESIDBmzBHm_zE7Nk6TW-pQLBoClGDw_wcB

Audience Information - http://www.slideshare.net/Lucasjwarren/audience-information-26730685

AS1 Task 8 - Sources of Information In Advertising

You can find a lot of information on television ratings on the internet. This information helps people understand why and how trends in televisions change. Companies may use this information to create their next advert as it shows them what their advert should contain or when the advert should be aired to attract the most relevant target audience. 

Programme profiles give information on how many people watch different television programmes. They give an indicator as to what kind of advert should be aired during the programme so that they would be getting the most amount of viewers during the break. It also allows specific adverts to be aired during programmes that would relate to what people are watching, such as a hygiene product being advertised during a reality tv show, for example.


BARB stands for Broadcasters Audience Research Board. BARB was set up in 1981 to provide the television industry a way of showing a standard audience measurement service for broadcasters and for the television advertising industry. BARB is owned by the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and 5, BSkyB and the IPA (Institute of Practitioners in Advertising) and is a not-for-profit company. BARB commissions research companies to provide the types of services that BARB users want or need, even including audience viewing figures which are how many people view a program or advert and when. Audience measurement contracts are held by several other companies including RSMB, Ipsos, MORI and Kantar Media which was formerly known as TNS.

BARB gets its viewer information from box sets linked to the house that is participating with BARB which records what programs are viewed and what people view them when they press a specified button on a remote handset. The data is then published at roughly 9:30am the next morning which can then be used by all TV stations and by the advertising industry itself, be it for use for advertising researchers or just for people to view and record.

Program profiles are broken down sets of data that show the number of people that have viewed a programme. This is useful to an advertiser as they can gather information which can be used to dictate what they would like their advert to be like to attract a wider range or larger number of people. They can also use the information to understand what adverts work best after a certain television programme, such as a Fairy advert being used during some kind of soap programme such as Downton Abbey or something similar.

People also use "rate cards". These show how much it costs to air an advert during a programme, popular programme shown during social hours obviously cost more than unpopular programmes shown during unsocial hours. Since adverts costs quite a lot to be aired, people use several companies to find out if it was worth it. One such company or business is Guerilla Scope. It is a service that is used by people to find out how many people have viewed their advert, but for a view to count they must watch at least 10 seconds, otherwise nothing is recorded.

A lot of advertising information can be found on TV channel websites. They offer programs that give advertisers opportunities to advertise what they want, for a price but with benefits as well. On websites such as https://www.4sales.com/advertising and http://www.itvmedia.co.uk/advertising-opportunities, they give a lot of information on how it works for new advertisers, how much it costs, what it's like and how it works. They offer sponsorships, partnerships and more opportunities. All of this is useful to advertisers as they are given most, if not all of the information that they would need to advertise something. Everything can be found online if they need any more information and all of it is free.

AS1 Task 7 - Audience Information

Advertisers need to study their audiences because they receive important information on what the most effective advert would be and how the audience reacts to their advert. They use this information to sell their products or services to them better and more efficiently as they know what their audience is like and how to sell to them. There are several groups of audiences that the advertisement researchers focus on.

The first is the descriptive research part that researchers focus on and it includes the audiences that are currently being targeted, what their ages are, where they live, where they work or what they work as and so on. This research focuses on the description of the audience being targeted and their characteristics as this tells the researchers how to advertise.

Analytical research seeks to find out the answers to the 'why' and 'how' questions in audiences. The researchers find out what motivates audiences, how, why and what might have caused this.

Predictive research is where researchers consider "what if" situations such as what would happen if the advertising company were to change their name or for example the accessibility of a product. Researchers can then use a theory to their advantage to prevent something bad from happening to their company.

Tracking research is long-term research which monitors any changes to the target audience over a long period of time, for example, how have subscription season ticket sales changed over a period of time or how views may have changed between several series.


Researchers also look at several other factors such as viewer's "standard occupational classification", psychographics, geodemographics, age and gender.

Standard Occupational Classification (social grade) is what jobs the audience has, what their income is and how they get along financially. This is used to class the audience into financial groups to determine what each financial group prefers to watch.

Psychographics this is the study of personality, values, attitudes, interests, and
lifestyles. It studies interests, activities and opinions. It studies common interests and tries to find trends that people with the same psychographic definition tend to do.

Geodemographics is the research that is conducted on where the audience lives in certain of a country. It uses this information to look at what people in a certain region look at what.

All of this research is conducted to make sure that the company advertises to the correct people in order to get a profit out of their viewers, although this does not always happen. Advertisement researchers divide their audience into these categories so that they know what they can advertise safely without offending anyone and so that they get a wide audience. They can also use the information to learn about the audience to find out specifically what they like so they can easily be persuaded into viewing the advertised product to bring in more revenue.