Design Research Methods

A creative process documented by Boon Tan

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Design Research Proposal Nº 2 // Originality

1. What is the PURPOSE of this research?

In this current society, technology now plays a huge part in advertising business. As more competitions are taking place in and outside of digital world, a rising levels of advertising competition have made it increasingly difficult to capture and hold potential consumers’ attention and to create strong memory trace for the advertised brand, based on a reading by Michel Wedel (2001). According to a research by J. Walker Smith (2004) 54% of survey respondents avoid buying product that are constantly bombarded with too much advertising. Most advertisements are not personally relevant or offer any value to consumers’ lives when people prefer advertisements that are relevant than having advertisements remove. In another study by J Walker Smith in 2006, People want advertising and they like advertising. Consumers don’t hate advertising, consumers hate bad advertising. Bad advertisements are not relevant to consumers in anyways. Consumers are becoming increasingly resistant to vague, worthless talk and somewhat annoyed at the bombardment of messages that come across their desk, inbox, interrupt their favorite program and invade the radio waves.

  Hitting the mute button on the remote or changing channels has been a common way to avoid TV advertisements. When pop-up stoppers blocks advertisement completely on the Internet, catching a glimpse on Television before changing to the next channel still proves that advertising can being able to do its job.

  As the competition grows, companies that spam advertisements have darkened attitudes towards advertising. It makes people feel out of control in result of dislike tat virally infects people’s feeling towards any and all commercial messages.

  In order to cut through this clutter, increasing advertisement’s originality has become a common communication strategy to break through the competitive clutter. Originality offers a business platform that can survive economic trends. An original advertisement can span for many years, which support the mass audience into potential consumers. This can equally sustain the consumers within the frame of purchasing the same product or service portrayed. Originality maintains potential consumer taste in the market, ever refreshing their mind with the extra-ordinary quality of an advertisement. However, advertisement originality may have detrimental effect when consumers pay more attention to the advertisement at the expense of the advertised brand. It is a business investment when it comes to originality in advertising.

  One of recent case studies is Old Spice: Muscle Music. This interactive viral video allows viewers make music with their keyboard. The new advertising stars former American football and Expendables star Terry Crews, wired up to a series of makeshift musical instruments. Each time the actor and former NFL football player flexes his muscles, he makes a sound. Besides the impressive muscle music, the sense of originality comes from the interactivities after the video. Old Spice worked with Vimeo (U.S. based video-sharing website), to create the interactive advertisement. According to Wieden & Kennedy, the advertising agency behind the viral, Vimeo is the only platform that could that the experience possible. This extra-ordinary advertisement generates serious buzz on Twitter and is trending globally.

  Design Issue Statement

As more technologies are introduced to the advertising world. Digital world has become a platform for advertisers to promote advertising. It result in rise in advertising competition, consumers are constantly bombarded with too much advertising, and it lead in increasingly difficult in capturing potential consumer’s attention, which led to advertising clutter.

  Design Hypothesis

This research paper believes that in order to address advertising clutter, the originality of advertising is one approach that captures consumers’ interest. Originality in advertising provides business platform that pull through economic trends. Originality refreshes potential consumer’s perception and maintains consumer’s impression with remarkable quality of an advertisement.

  2. What is the PLAN of this Research?

1) A study of effectiveness in originality in advertising with the support of facts and reviews. (Interviews, Focus Group and User Survey)

  Area of study

New ideas in advertising

Definition of originality in advertising

Visual research: a study of effective and ineffective unconventional advertising

Explore new and effective advertising platforms

  2) An investigation of consumer behavior towards ineffective advertisement. (Library resources, Internet resource and interviews)

  Area of study

Brand impression of ineffective advertisements

Interpretation of ineffective advertising in the perception of target audience.

  3. What are my INTENTIONS for this Research? 

Objective

To gain knowledge of how originality in advertising provoke interest towards potential consumers and originality can be an effective way to advertise with potential consumers.

1.     To have a better understanding of how new ideas can be a more effective way to advertise.

2.     To obtain insights of originality is a more effective ways in communication values.

3.     To gain in-depth understanding of advertising with originality. The pros and cons with originality advertising.

    Primary Target Audience

The target audiences of this research are professional advertising designers: For example: Creative Director, Art Director and Copywriter. Who are directly involved in conceptualizing advertisements.

  Gender: Male & Female

Race: All race group

Age: 21-45

Marriage Status: Single and married

Financial Status: Stable

    Secondary Target Audience

Non-Creative Professionals such as: Traffic Managers, Strategic Planners, and Account Managers

This proposal is relevant to these professions because they part of their job involves in planning the timeline and workload for advertising designers.

Gender: Male & Female

Race: All Race Group

Age: 21-45

Marriage Status: Single and Married

Financial Status: Stable

   4. What are my top 3 key Issues?

As more technologies are introduced to the advertising world. Digital world has become a platform for advertisers to promote advertising. It result in rise in advertising competition, consumers are constantly bombarded with too much advertising, and it lead in increasingly difficult in capturing potential consumer’s attention, which led to advertising clutter.

  Key issue #1: Advertising Competition – Too often the society are notify by advertisement due to the rise of technology, with more platforms to advertise, more advertisements are closer to potential consumer.

  Key issue #2: Overwhelming Advertisements –Consumers are often bombarded with too much advertising causing the lost in interest in advertising.

Key issue #3: Lack of originality in advertising – Due to the high advertising competition, Advertisement are highly recapitulated, Which lead to difficulty in capturing consumer’s attention.

5. What are the top key research QUESTIONS?

Key Question #1

How is advertising competition has a negative effect in modern society?

  Key Question #2

Why does advertisers overthrow advertisements and why is it not an effective way to advertise?

  Key Question #3

What levels of originality are able to capture potential consumers’ interest? 

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Stefan Sagmeister // Power of Time Off

Every seven years, designer Stefan Sagmeister closes his New York studio for a yearlong sabbatical to rejuvenate and refresh their creative outlook. He explains the often-overlooked value of time off and shows the innovative projects inspired by his time in Bali.

  "Overtime I get board by the many things that I love, our works started to look the same."

  Sagmeister cut off five of his retirement life and slot it in between his working life.

  "Sabbatical look for something different from the nature. In Asia, Bali, one of the most beautiful landscape."

  "Using his surrounding as inspiration and created several interesting works"

  "To hear about other people’s happiness is extreme boring."

Ferran Adrià

Best chef in the world. 7 months every year and close it down for 5 months to experiment.

  Burn-out is an all too common occurrence these days. With the global financial crisis receding but still looming menacingly in the background, people are working harder than ever before, and it's taking its toll.

It's possible to work too hard. Though the sting of the global financial crisis has receded somewhat, some of its after effects are lingering. People are still working harder than they want to, and it's taking its toll.

Still, the notion of taking time off still seems like something of a luxury. There's too much work to do for anyone to rest now!

Which makes Stefan Sagmeister's ideas on the issue time off all the more peculiar.

Sagmeister, an enormously prolific and popular figure in the design world, gave a speech entitled ‘The Power of Time Off' at the TEDGlobal conference in July.

The speech focused on his sabbatical principle. At the tender age of 25, Sagmeister observed that he was much less productive when he worked six days, week after consecutive week. He was exhausted and his designs began to suffer.

He came to the conclusion that he would cut five years out of his 15 year retirement period and insert them into his long-term schedule at intervals of seven years. These years would be spent on working sabbatical, with the goal of refreshing and re-invigorating the creative productivity of his company.

So, at the end of every seven years, Sagmeister Inc. closes down completely, and its managing director goes on sabbatical for an entire year. The sabbatical isn't idle, of course; the purpose of it is creative renewal, so he works every day. The difference is does it in Bali, or New York, away from the day-to-day pressures of running a successful design agency.

Sagmeister notes that 3M gives 15% of work hours to employees so they can develop their own ideas (and it works: products like Post-it notes and Scotch tape were invented by employees given creative time) while Google allows a whopping 20%.

It might be easier for creative professionals to take time out for a sabbatical, though, with discipline, the principle can be applied in other professions too.

A working sabbatical of any length is clearly a luxury in a high-pressure job. But even if you apply the principle to your working week, or day by day, great things could come of it.

For instance, fifteen minutes out of every hour spent away from your desk, but not necessarily away from your work, is worth trying.

Clearly, if you want to apply this theory, you need to structure it rigorously. Without a plan, a half day, or fifteen minutes would lapse into leisure time.

But if carried out with a suitable degree of discipline, Sagmeister's sabbatical philosophy could be strongly beneficial to your productivity and mental health.

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Bombarded by 5,000 Messages a Day: 5 Ways to Ensure You’re Getting Through

1. Lead with verbs, not nouns

Which message are you more likely to read?

The all-new Volkswagen Passat, 2012 Motor Trend Car of the Year.  - OR -

Drive Motor Trend’s Car of the Year, the all-new Volkswagen Passat.

We respond to verbs more than nouns because verbs mean doing something. And it’s usually something we like doing.

2. Cut your copy significantly, and watch your sentence length

Most clients are going to ask you to write more, not less. I’ve led user experience testing, and I can tell you most people don’t read. They skim, and if they find content they want, then they will read. Even then, they can only take in so much.

Consider the following statistic, presented in three different ways:

Once there are more than 14 words in a sentence, readers’ comprehension drops below 90 percent. (There are 15 words in that sentence).

If you use more than 14 words in a sentence, your reader’s comprehension drops. (14 words).

Don’t use more than 14 words in a sentence: readers’ comprehension will drop. (13 words)

You tell me which sentence was easier for you to read and comprehend.

3. Use no more than 1-2 sentences per paragraph

When the human eye skims over a block of text, the brain is quickly tallying a cost-benefit analysis. “Should I bother reading? Will I learn anything new? Is this more important than that new episode of “Modern Family”?

When you create blocks of text, you create blockades to your readers’ feeling comfortable with plowing ahead. Content marketing, for the most part, is supposed to be fun. Don’t make it feel like reading a college textbook.

4. Read your copy out loud

Reading out loud gives you a different perspective on your writing, and allows you to hear your voice in the head of your reader. Ask yourself, “Would I want to read this?” If not, then you probably need to cut somewhere.

5. Check that you have all the elements in the “Formula for Great Content”

Great content always has the following three elements. Ask yourself if your content is:

Concise

Informative

Attractive

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6 reasons why people hate your online video ads

You repurposed a TV spot

While general recall, brand linkage, and message linkage all score typically high for repurposed TV spots place online, brands should ask themselves if a repurposed spot leverages all that's possible in online video. Both TV and online video make wonderful use of sight, sound, and motion. Why not give your video that extra element of touch by building in interactive components?

Online video is very similar to video on a big screen, and it can be an incredible companion that delivers the same powerful brand messaging. But you don't have to treat both delivery platforms exactly the same. Brands can give consumers more choice in the online world, while extending reach. Why limit your message to the exact same video consumers already saw on TV? If your brand is only looking to raise awareness, then ramping up your online video with a TV spot can do the trick. But working in interactive elements that take advantage of online technology can raise other key campaign metrics, including purchase intent and brand recall.

Turn off: Many brands repurpose TV spots that appear exactly the same online. I'd say this encompasses about 90 percent of all in-stream video advertising. Develop creative that is unique to the internet. If a consumer enjoyed your 30-second TV spot, and then saw a different 15-second spot online, it will increase brand recall. If they're seeing the same ad on repeat, there's a chance it will reverse the desired effect.

Your message is boring

Good ads make a statement about the product that hasn't been addressed before. Keeping your product's offerings vague (at best), or confusing (at worst) does nothing for your product or brand.

Some advertisers are forced to pack a lot of fine print into their ads, which makes it really difficult to deliver an engaging message while complying with all the legal requirements. I realize the approval hoops many companies have to jump through are very difficult, but you might need to do something drastic and take a new approach.

You could bind and gag your legal team for 15 minutes, slip a new campaign out, and see how the world responds. Or, you could take the time to develop two very different campaigns, one staid, one outlandish (make sure you comply with legal requirements, where appropriate). Then A/B test them to see how consumers respond to the two different ads. Actual, measurable results are what online advertising is all about.

Turn off: There are too many rules that force brands in categories like pharmaceuticals to produce boring ads. But sometimes rules can be freeing -- try working within the confines of the rules to develop better messaging and creative. Drive innovation within the box.

Bad placement leads to harmful brand association

Targeting is a powerful tool for online advertisers, one that can put the right ad in front of the right consumer at the right time. Don't show pizza ads in the morning. Dog food ads should reach people who are very likely dog owners -- you get the idea.

Why then, are there still so many bad ad placements? I am not just referring to  video ads that appear against objectionable content, but ads that appear in the same stream as content that just has a bad brand association. I've heard about credit card ads appearing before footage of riot police storming "Occupy Wall Street" camps. I saw an ad for the film "The Muppets," a fun brand that consumers already have a strong connection with, run before a news story about the Penn State child sex abuse case.

Even though these were professional news reports, they still weren't messages any brand wants to associate itself with. Close proximity to objectionable material taints your brand, unless your message is right.

Turn offs: Everyone. I understand the sensitivity of targeting and concerns for consumer privacy. But even if you opt out of audience targeting to find your perceived consumer, avoiding objectionable content is of the utmost importance.Video has grown to the point where advertisers can't possibly look at every stream their ad appear in. Every video campaign needs to utilize stream analysis technology to understand the video content and avoid poor ad placements. Bad brand associations can be damaging, so take advantage of all the available tools.

You chose the wrong video edit

Embrace brevity, or embrace length. In the online world you can have both, but it's wise to let the viewer choose. You want a short trailer that runs as a pre-roll and grabs attention for a new movie? You got it. How about a longer, online-only trailer for the real die-hard fans? That can be done too. However, it's important to find the right balance.

You might be really proud of that two and a half-minute extended trailer, but that doesn't mean every consumer wants to sit through 150 seconds of pre-roll before their desired video starts to play. This is when consumers lose interest and either click over to another tab, or leave the site altogether. A bad consumer experience is bad for the publisher and advertiser as well.

Turn offs: Entertainment advertisers, be aware of all the options online video affords you. We've discussed how vide ois better for interactivity, and one by-product of interactivity is consumer choice. A link that says "click to watch more" gives the engaged audience the long-form experience, and it keeps your standard message short. Your audience can have whatever makes them happy, and you can give that to them. Just don't cram it down their throats with an excessively long commercial.

Poor video quality

It's 2012, and it's entirely possible to make a quality video on the cheap. Even teenagers have easy access to handheld cameras that spit out pretty good quality (if you doubt this, check out any B-grade skateboard video from the past decade). In fact, the smartphone in your pocket offers better quality than what was available 20 years ago in a big camera.

Local advertisers are still adopting online strategies, but that's no excuse for the poor quality footage we often associate with local broadcast ads or public access TV. If your car dealership or restaurant can't produce a quality commercial shoot, maybe you should skip video and rethink your digital marketing strategy all together. Get with the program.

Turn offs: Local advertisers who don't take the proper time to make sure the finished product looks good. Video is a powerful medium, but you're wasting money by putting out a bad product. Hire someone to help you, and ask for updates and previews of the finished product. 

Poor creative decisions

Year after year, an agency or brand makes headlines because of a particularly racy or offensive campaign. They overplay gender stereotypes to sell a product. The campaign is insensitive to a particular ethnicity or group of people. The joke is a bit too taboo for most consumers. It happens all the time.

Driving gender stereotypes is one of the most common mistakes you see across online video and TV. This shouldn't be news to any of the creative folks out there, but women don't exclusively wear pink clothes, and not all men are obsessed with getting away from their wives to chug beer, hunt, and watch football on weekends.

Every insensitive campaign is the result of a breakdown in the creative process, where someone pushed an idea they felt was all too clever. Stereotypes or insensitivity diminishes the effectiveness of the campaign. Unless you're Danny McBride, I wouldn't go down this path.

Turn offs: CPG brands oversimplifying gender. If you fear your campaign creative may have a negative impact, test it and get consumer input. Keep your campaign relevant and don't rely too much on that racy punch line or joke. Poor creative choice is an easy way to make consumers hate your video and your company.

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2. The Gawker point, counterpoint, Counter-counter point.

Coincidentally, it wasn't a week prior that a series of articles on Gawker caught the attention of ad folks everywhere, and hit on a similar tune. Hamilton Nolan first wrote an article titled simply, "Do Not Go Into Advertising." Nolan starts out by generalizing that most ad creatives are forced into the industry due to economic forces beyond their control and somehow rationalize that decision to themselves, and in turn justify it as a legitimate career choice to other creatives. While I would argue against the purpose of his article, I would agree that there are (unfortunately) a lot of creative folks who fit his description. Working in advertising because, "I just kind of fell into it" or "to help pay for my real artistic passion" or "because my parents wouldn't pay for art school."  These are things I've heard with my own ears. There seem to be a lot of sad souls working in a business they don't enjoy.

There was a response on Gawker by Drew Magary, posted a mere three and a half hours later called, "Counterpoint: What the Fuck Makes You Too Good for Advertising?" In it, Magary starts out by listing a few talented artists who have worked in the industry which included James Joyce, David Fincher, and Salman Rushdie among others. I would have added a fellow by the name of Theodor Seuss Geisel for more emphasis, since his advertising career was almost as impressive as his books. But that's just me. Regardless, the point that many talented folks have worked in advertising is an easy case to make.

Magary then lists a few reasons why these people flourished after working in advertising. Summing them up:

Advertising forces you to get to the point, and reduces self-indulgent tendencies.

Advertising gives you the variety which helps you improve as an artist.

Advertising teaches you persistence and the ability to generate more and more ideas, often better than the first one you thought was so perfect.

Advertising teaches you that your creativity isn't so precious, and that everything doesn't have to be about you.

Advertising teaches you to be a creative professional. Within a budget, within rules, and on schedule.

The gist of his piece is that advertising can teach creatives how to be successful both artistically and commercially. It's important to note that I agree with Magary on all of these points and would say that advertising can build your creative muscles by making you faster, more resilient, and better creatively. It's definitely a tough fitness regimen for your artistic skills. No question. The problem here is that all of these points are made to suggest that advertising makes you a better artist, but not that advertising in itself is a legitimate way to ply that creativity. Is advertising not something worthy of creative pursuit? Is it only worthy as a mere stepping stone to something better?

Magary ends the article this way: "I worked in advertising for ten years. It's not the greatest job in the universe, and it's an industry as prone to nauseating self-congratulation as any other. The clients are dicks. The creative directors are dicks. The account people are morons (I know because I was one). It's a terribly frustrating job for anyone trying to be an "artist" or whatever the fuck. But that's precisely the point. You're not an artist. You're just a shithead, and it would serve you well to learn how to work within limits, and with other people's creative input. Who says you have nothing left to learn about how to be a writer or a director or a designer? Who says working in an actual job can't help you become better at what you do?"

What if what I really want to do IS advertising? And what if I don't think clients are dicks, but actually people trying their best to do their jobs like anyone else? It is a service industry, right? So, while I want to like this piece, it turns out that Magary is just another ad person who didn't really want to be an ad person at all. It's also important to note that Nolan rightfully counter-counter-pointed (barely one hour later) Magary with this article titled, "Says the Guy Who Got the Fuck Out of the Advertising Industry." In it he responds, "I encourage you all to go to prison," you tell them. "If you should be fortunate enough to escape one day, you'll have great survival skills that can be put to use in something worthwhile!"

Let all this soak in for a second—advertising is prison!—while I give you one final example of more ad people hating advertising.

3. The Bogusky Effect.

On July 1, 2010, Alex Bogusky announced to the world via press release that he was resigning from MDC Partners, the parent company of perhaps the most famous advertising agency of the last 15 years or so, Crispin, Porter + Bogusky. When interviewed by Fast Company later that day, Bogusky declared that not only had he quit MDC and the agency that he helped start, but that he was also quitting the ad business entirely. When interviewed by the New York Times on the same day, he had this to say,

"You start to search for the more genuine version of yourself" at a point in your life, "and I'm doing that." "I'm exploring and figuring out what is that genuine version," he added, "and it's not really consistent with corporate life" because in that realm "you're kind of in the ‘get yours' mode." "I don't think I'll do much advertising" moving forward, Mr. Bogusky said, because "I've done plenty of it; I'm not able to find challenges in it." "Mostly, what I want to do is participate in this cultural revolution that's happening," he added, "happening mostly outside of advertising."

So, even the King of Advertising (sic) doesn't find advertising to be fulfilling or worthy of his talents? What the heck is going on here? Why are there so many miserable people working in advertising? Why is someone like Bogusky suddenly above working in the industry, or better put, why is advertising below him?

Two years later, Alex Bogusky is still working in advertising even if he calls it something else. His Fearless Movement and social innovation group, COMMON, are both thinly veiled versions of a traditional advertising agency. Check out their services, sound familiar?  He can afford to soft-sell his skills because he’s wealthy beyond most of our imaginations. He sold his agency and was paid handsomely for it. He reaped the benefits of that sale and the advertising business for many many years. He can do what he wants, but this declaration that advertising is somehow illegitimate is troubling at best and hypocritical at worst. All due respect Mr. Bogusky, you didn't leave advertising. You just started your own agency. No need to be ashamed.

As an aside, you can see this shame expressed industry-wide over the last few years in the form of advertising agencies and schools and people refusing to call advertising advertising. They'll call it anything but, under the guise that we're all post-advertising somehow. Or somehow above advertising. My own alma mater and a place that I hold dear, the VCU AdCenter, is now called the VCU Brandcenter for crying out loud. Rest assured, they are still teaching wonderfully talented people the craft of advertising and doing it better than anyone else. Sure, there are many more tools we utilize these days but it's still selling. Why is that somehow a less prestigious part of a product or service getting to market? Call it branding, communications, insurgency, or whatever else you want, but there is no shame working in advertising unless you bring it. But that's a different article for another time.

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I had a striking revelation the other day that will surprise a lot of people who see all the glitz and glamour associated with the rock-and-roll of the business world. That realization is this: A lot of people hate advertising. No, I'm not talking about consumers. I understand why they may hate advertising, and too often rightfully so. I'm talking about ad people. A lot of them either hate their agency, hate the work they help create, hate their clients, or simply hate the industry entirely.

Let me elaborate with three recent examples.

1. Sunshine shines a light on the industry.

A few weeks ago, a video featuring a McDonald's commercial production in China went viral. The film,Sunshine, followed a producer named John Benet while on a shoot in Shanghai for agency, TBWA and was directed by Doug Nichol (of Partizan) who just happened to be the director of the two McDonald's spots. Behind-the-scenes and out-take videos are quite common but this video was a little bit different. This video featured Benet speaking to his personally disappointing career and frustrations with the industry and himself for squandering his talents on such commercial projects.

Making matters worse for both the producer and director (who will be lucky to ever work again), is that neither TBWA or McDonald's gave them permission to shoot or release the film and both were none too pleased given the brush with which both parties were painted. Quoted on AdAge, Benet is quoted as saying, "I have to admit, if I'd known Sunshine was going to become what it has I would have been more careful about the things I said, but I guess since I never expected so much to come of it — certainly not that I'd be defending it in a magazine article; I just said what was on my mind, which maybe isn't always the best idea, especially in terms of my job security." No kidding. For someone who isn't sure he wanted to work in advertising, he (and the producer) may have just gotten their wish.

Much to the chagrin of its two stars, Sunshine will also be making the rounds in the film festival circuit. The film is a bit long at 15 minutes, but it's worth watching. There are some truly funny moments (often at the expense of the companies who were paying the tab), but you realize quickly that the ad guy featured is not so Sunshine to borrow a theme.

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Cutting Through Advertising Clutter

Advertising used to be so much easier: simply a catchy jingle or a clever slogan. Sunday Morning correspondent Elizabeth Kaledin found that the 30-second spot was the best game in town for selling a product for etching brand names into the American consumer conscience.  In the golden age of television, an ad on one of the big three networks could reach 70 percent of the viewing audience. But then the landscape changed: along came cable digital video recorders like Tivo, which allow viewers to fast forward through ads with the click of a remote. The viewing audience became not only scattered and fractured but in control — a horrifying reality to Madison Avenue.  "I mean, we're in a period now where consumers are in control of their media truly and it's not just television," Joe Mandese, editor-in-chief of Media Post, said. "It's everywhere and I think that's really challenging Madison Avenue and advertisers and agencies to find new ways of breaking through to connect with people."  To do that, Mandese, who has been tracking the advertising world for 25 years, says advertisers today are scrambling to hunt down their once captive audience wherever they can find them.  Since people are spending more time away from home, marketers are spending more money on bringing TV to you: in shopping malls and in grocery stores. There's even an Autonet in auto repair shops, and of course, advertising reaches people on computers and movie screens.  "There's more media than ever before," Mandese said. "Media is being spawned every second. I mean literally, by the time I finish saying this sentence, there'll be a new media platform created"  To reach people, advertisers have had to get much more creative digitally inserting virtual products within shows and even video games — making them part of the entertainment instead of a break from the entertainment.  "Advertisers like our products because they give 'em a chance to get into the programming itself, into the sports program," said Hank Adams, CEO of Sportsvision, a company that has pioneered the art of placing ads on America's playing fields.  Using Sportsvision technology, people in the stands see one ad, while people at home see another.  "Because we do it technologically — digitally — we make that sign very bright, very visible," Adams said.  Sportsvision can run about 18 ads in the course of a baseball game but the company tries hard not to run interference.  "You don't want to offend the viewer," Adams said, "You don't want to distract them from the actual game because at the end of the day, if the fan doesn't like it, that's not good for my business."  The danger of offending the viewer is where advertisers in the modern age run into trouble: in a desperate attempt to grab the consumers' attention, advertisers are creating what is known as ad clutter.  "Well, it's a non-stop blitz of advertising messages," president of the marketing firm Yankelovich, Jay Walker-Smith said. "Everywhere we turn we're saturated with advertising messages trying to get our attention."  Walker-Smith says we've gone from being exposed to about 500 ads a day back in the 1970's to as many as 5,000 a day today.  "It seems like the goal of most marketers and advertisers nowadays is to cover every blank space with some kind of brand logo or a promotion or an advertisement," Walker-Smith said.  Marketers have found a way to use parking stripes, postage stamps and floors, even buses and buildings, like a target ad which practically engulfs an entire New York city block. Walker-Smith says it's all an assault on the senses.  "We have to screen it out because we simply can't absorb that much information. We can't process that much data," he said, "and so no surprise, consumers are reacting negatively to the kind of marketing blitz; the kind of super saturation of advertising that they're exposed to on a daily basis."  The conundrum for modern day marketers is how to cut through the clutter without alienating the consumer.  "All of this marketing saturation that's going on is creating this kind of arms race between marketers where they have to up the ante the next time out because their competitors have upped the ante the last time they were out," Walker-Smith said. "And the only way you can win is to have more saturation — be more creative; be more outrageous."  One company called Submedia has literally gone underground to find its audience. Submedia places ads in tunnels in subway and metro systems around the world. Using technology borrowed from that old fashioned toy called a zoetrope, Submedia creates ads that come to life with the movement of the train.  "With us its one ad in the tunnel," Peter Corrigan, the CEO of Submedia, said. "Everyone on that train gets to see that ad. So we're not competing with other forms of advertising in that space. So that's how we manage to cut through the clutter. You're riding the train and all of a sudden …Pop! This pops out at you."  Corrigan also said that ads need to be entertaining to be effective, an idea echoed by analysts and even regular people who are advertising's targets. Ads work because they entertain: engaging their audience without a full frontal assault.  "It's a very creative concept and advertisers like to reach the consumer in a way that doesn't feel like an ad," Corrigan said. "And that's what we are doing."  According to Mandese, engaging the audience with the product is "the mantra. That is the Holy Grail."  Other attempts to crack the market involve novelties: CBS is promoting its fall programming on eggs — 35 million of them to be exact. Another company called Wizmark is breaking the bathroom barrier. It sells ad space in urinals.  "Everybody will remember the ad they see in a Wizmark," Richard Deutch, CEO of Wizmark said. "Advertising in the bathroom provides the quintessential captive audience. You can't look left. You can't look right. You have to look at the ad and listen to it."  Some might ask, "Have we gone too far? Where does it end if our breakfasts and our bathrooms are now ad space for sale?" Companies are appearing increasingly desperate to make their mark anywhere.  But ad analysts say consumers have control of more than just the Tivo remote ads do have the power to sell, but not if they turn people off.  "Ultimately, the consumer is the judge," Mandese said, "if the marketer that's using eggs this season doesn't have a great record with eggs chances are they won't be using eggs gain, OK?"  "We need advertising," Walker-Smith said. "We want advertising and we like advertising. Consumers don't hate advertising. What they hate is bad advertising. So I think the challenge that's facing the industry nowadays is how to quit doing all the bad stuff that creates the kind of environment people are resisting and figure out ways to engage people in ways that they find to be informative and entertaining. And that's become our challenge in this super saturated world."  

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Technology is Changing the Advertising Business

It is sometimes difficult to grasp the vastness of the Internet as it links country with country, culture with culture, buzzing metropolis with distant one-horse town. Even more amazing is the fact that something so seemingly endless could become the vehicle through which an entire industry is transformed to become more personalized.

Such is the case with the advertising industry. With access to consumer information that is, in some ways, easier to collect over the Internet, and more sophisticated technology, companies are customizing their ads toward specific audiences, and even zapping ads to cell phones and Palm pilots. Web surfers can interact with ads in greater depth, and they can benefit directly from an ad’s personalized message.

For example, Excite@Home’s Enliven business unit, which provides interactive online advertising, has launched an updated version of its popular rich-media technology in the past two years. The technology ties multimedia banners to a database to create constantly fresh banner ads on the Web. The updated product can customize ads to match a user’s PC setting. So on one level, for example, Procter & Gamble can use Folgers Coffee banners tailored to the time of day, while on a more intimate level, customers who are known to frequently buy Rich French Roast might be sent e-mails or see ads promoting that particular product.

These technological changes, which only promise to become more advanced as bandwidth increases and provides more richly-textured opportunities for advertisers to tell their stories, are fundamentally changing the way advertisers relate to their customers. Customization has serious implications for the marketing business and the greater objective of brand development.

"The Internet has become more and more a part of the communications community in the past seven to eight years, more dramatically in the last three or four," remarks Richard Gillespie, president of Gillespie Advertising in Princeton, N.J. "The delivery of the message has been made easier. Rather than sending out junk mail and trying to gain a 1% to 2% response rate, the more I know about the person I’m communicating with, the more valuable I can make that information. Rather than my invading your space with generic messages, I can send you communications that have value to you. The power has moved from the deliverer of the message to its recipient."

These empowered recipients, the consumers, are reportedly responding well to the targeted approach. "People give you a lot of credit for advertising that goes out and finds them in their lives," says Evy Nabers, director of fusion marketing at Brand Buzz, a division of advertising agency Young & Rubicam that started a year ago. Brand Buzz’s objective is to combine a number of disciplines including database marketing and Web marketing, in order to find the best way to get a message to a consumer, whether on line or in person. "The more targeted you can get, the better," says Nabers.

All media have seen a greater ability to send disparate messages to disparate people, says David Schmittlein, deputy dean of the Wharton School and a professor of marketing. The second part of this equation, he says, is knowing the appropriate messages to send. That is derived from the collection and retention of information about a consumer, which Schmittlein says the Internet world has learned to do successfully from the field of direct marketing. "Customized direct marketing and direct mail led the way in demonstrating the value that exists in retaining customer information," he says. "The most valuable pieces of information with respect to purchase propensities and what matters to customers turn out to be – did they buy something before, when did they buy it, how much did they spend on it and what were the particular product attributes that characterize what they bought. If you know those things, you’ve got a great basis for customizing ads."

Schmittlein says a great experimentation is going on with respect to a customer’s willingness to be contacted, the results of which have yet to be seen. Good marketers, says Gillespie, will know "when not to cross a line."

While firms like Gillespie and other large advertising agencies are waving their interactive banners furiously, Leonard Lodish, a Wharton professor of marketing, says that customization is "an uphill battle" in the advertising business. "The advertising fraternity has not been very rational," Lodish says. "Advertisers still believe old wives’ tales like you need to advertise during the Super Bowl to be successful. Advertising agencies are not taking the necessary risks. They need to be more entrepreneurial and experiment more. The Web is the perfect application to do that." Lodish also points to traditional direct-response marketers, like L.L. Bean, as being the most savvy when it comes to reaching out to Web-based customers.

Advertisers will have to nurture their entrepreneurial spirit and put it to good use over the Internet, especially with the arrival of technologies like personal video recorders, which could drop TV ad viewership by as much as 50% by the end of the next decade, according to Forrester Research. As customization software and similar technologies become even more sophisticated and advertisers tap into the vastness of the Internet, they will learn to capitalize on the vastness of its possibilities for directly reaching consumers.

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Originality

o·rig·i·nal·i·ty/əˌrijəˈnalitē/

Noun:

1. The ability to think independently and creatively.

2. The quality of being novel or unusual.

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Advertising and the importance of originality

Originality captures the mass audience conscience overwhelmingly. This advert doesn't go without attention. Significantly, it posses the essence of originality that influences an acute and vivid recognition on what's been portrayed.

Originality acts as an attraction mechanism. A definite catalyst between the mass audience or readership and the relative products and services been advertised. The intrigue draws them close to regularly watch or read and ultimately take the step of embracing the products in the market. The showcased video scenes leave the mass audience with the urge of emulating the lifestyle or standard. If its intensely captivating, its reasonably original necessitating the overwhelm to relish the products or services in the life and livelihood.

Originality facilitates the advertisement with a guaranteed feedback from the mass audience, mass readership, consumers, business entities and the advertising industry. Its certain that the mass audience will give a definite opinion within the diverse forms of media communication. Commending on its out standing traits that sway and stir their conscience when its been covered. The business entities will pursue on the advertising agency that structured the advertisement. Its definite that advertisement will establish a concrete source of revenue. Facilitating multiple sources with other business entities having an intense urge to use the same agency.

Originality ushers new ideologies, concepts and facts in advertising necessitating others in the industry to emulate what's brought forth. This improves and elevates the developments of advertising fraternity impacting on desired growth and changes with the advance of times. Originality is a powerful tool that endure for the long-term period embedded within the advertising industry.

Its a business investment when its comes to originality in advertising. Originality offers a business platform that can withstand economic trends. An original advertisement can span for many years, nurturing the mass audience into consumers. More over, this can equally sustain the consumers within the frame of purchasing the same products or services portrayed. Originality maintains consumer taste in the market, ever refreshing their minds with the extra-ordinary traits of an advertisement.

Advertisements that have originality draw forth a formidable persuasive wave. Its new, its never done before, there are no traces of similarities in comparison with the diverse advertisements within the media coverage. This advertisement is bound to leave a crucial landmark both within the mass population and the advertising industry. It will seize prospective consumers tricking in the market to acquire the product or services that the advertisement compelled them to pursuit.

Ideal if the advertisement is bound to run successively secures its freshness in the market for a desirable period of time that will attract consumers. Originality brings in a different sound and taste that the mass population derived from mass audience or readership that will indeed embrace its content values for the long-term.

Its enhances active audience who rationalize, conceptualize, analyze and evaluate the strongholds and weakness of what's on offer in the market. This pursuits them to become prospective consumers and ultimately consumers. Originality will indeed reflect on the rate of sales pertaining to the relevant products or services. Its activates the mass audience to focus with keen and observant eyes from time to time depicting the meaning brought forth.

Originality secures jubilant mass audience. It offers entertainment that relaxes the mass audience conscience that are involved in various actives. They wait upon the advertisement to reflect and meditate on its refreshing pictures, text and vocals that amount to pleasure. On the long run, the advertised products or services will definitely form a suitable constitute in decision making.

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Can advertising be both a force for commerce AND a force for good?

Laure Desmond (CEO of the largest media agency in the world) believe sthat advertising has a responsibility to be more informative, more relevant, and more reliable in helping people navigate the landscape of choices in their lives.At the same time, honor our commitment and responsibility to our client partners to grow their businesses and build their brands. 

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I think advertising can be used for evil, but I think there are a lot of positive externalities of advertising in society. For instance it generates consumer demand, which fuels the economy, which generates revenue for the government, which helps fund schools.

Wesley Fryer

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WHY AMERICANS HATE ADVERTISING

1) Internet anti-advertising tools. At first glance analogous to zapping TV commercials by hitting the mute button on your remote, or changing channels, there's a leap here, since pop-up stoppers block ads completely. On TV you'll still catch a glimpse, or change to a channel with another commercial, which means advertising can do its job. Any fragment of any ad, however speedy the impression, serves to build the consumer society. (I won't repeat that, but you might, particularly if you're an agency dealing with a skeptical client.)

2) Spam , which people hate passionately, for good reason. A tidal wave of garbage, spam has darkened attitudes towards advertising. It just keeps on coming. It's ugly, deceptive, and obscene. It makes people feel out of control. Result: A dislike that virally infects people's feelings towards any and all commercial messages. Spam, by the way, is one of the reasons for the continuing health of direct mail, at least in the U.S. If it weren't for spam, email marketing would by this time have replaced at least some of what direct mail does. That was what pundits foretold back in the late 1990's. But there's always a joker in the deck when it comes to technology predictions, and spam is one of the biggest and nastiest jokers ever.

3) A ubiquitous and smothering corporate presence , particularly in the guise of sponsorships. There was once a time when a sports arena was simply called "Tigers Stadium." That's long gone. Nowadays, you can't enter a public exhibition venue, whether sporting or cultural, without running into a corporation. On the one hand, companies are practicing a degree of civic virtue when they sponsor an art exhibit. And business sponsorship of culture was already old when the Medici made it their specialty in Renaissance Florence. On the other hand, the "Nokia Sugar Bowl" (an annual football game in New Orleans ) is a sort of omnipresent reminder that life in the early 21 st Century can't be lived without continuous obeisance to Mammon.

4) "Stealth" advertising . Best example: product placements on TV or in the movies. When the hero cradles a bottle of Coke, you can bet that's not accidental. People resent stealth advertising when they catch on to it, because no one likes being fooled. Consumers think (incorrectly, alas) that when they know something is an ad, they can protect themselves against it. There's no protection with stealth advertising. You might say, Can anyone be so naïve as to watch a handsome actor drink a Coke in a movie, identify positively with the actor, and go out and buy a Coke? Well, the answer is yes, but it's not naiveté, it's manipulation.

5) The sheer vulgarity of so much mainstream TV advertising , as typified by the bozo 'n' bimbo beer commercials infesting the airwaves everywhere. Agencies love to target the 18 to 34 male demographic. If these young guys are anywhere near as vapid as portrayed in commercials, the future of the world is questionable indeed. Or think about car advertising, now heavily SUV oriented in the U.S. : vulgar messages promoting vulgar vehicles that hurt other people and the environment.

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The Next Challenge

After focusing so much on my first issue, I have no idea for my second design issue. While seeking for idea, stumble upon to this video. Which was one of the viral video that time. This video caught my attention and i was pretty amazed by it. I started to wonder, Why am I so attracted to this video? 

Is it because is it already a viral video or is it because it is something that I've never seen before. I understand the idea of using senor to play instruments is not new. but the idea of interacting on Vimeo, online streaming website is new to me. Usually people will used a microsite for interactivity, however, we can now interact with the video on Vimeo now and that attracts me to spend quite some time interacting with this video.

I started to wonder, is it the originality of this idea make me remember this advertisement?

What is originality?

Old Spice Case Study

Old Spice has returned with another interactive viral video, letting viewers make music with their keyboards (via a muscle-bound American football star, naturally). The new ad stars former American football and Expendables star Terry Crews, wired up to a series of makeshift musical instruments. Each time the actor and former NFL football player flexes his muscles he makes a sound. Once the advert has finished playing, viewers are invited to create and record their own version using their keyboard.

There is also the option for users to record and share their tracks.

Old Spice has worked with online video player, Vimeo to create the interactive advert. Vimeo was the only platform that could make this experience possible, according to Wieden & Kennedy, the ad agency behind the viral.

Production company MJZ and VFX company The Mill also worked on the project.

Speaking through their online blog, creative advertising agency Wieden+Kennedy, commented: “Never has so much stupidity and technological breakthrough been combined. It's the first ever fully interactive and sharable music video/player on Vimeo (or YouTube for that matter).”

While the video went live a few days ago, it’s generating serious buzz on Twitter this week and is trending globally.

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Design Research Proposal Nº 1 // Emotion

1. What is the PURPOSE of this research?

As the pace of society quickens, the pressure to achieve more in less time makes every moment of the day feel like a race against time. “We are trying to do more in lesser time. This results in people thinking that working faster and busier is better. We are hurrying through our lives instead of actually living them.” Carl Honore (2007) As society obsesses about being time efficient, people want to make every second count and we try to salvage as much of it as possible so that it does not go to waste. We want to apply it to good use. Especially on the Internet, according to a reading by Rob Weatherhead (2012), Users’ attention span and desire for in depth analysis in consequently diminished. The current generation of Internet consumers lives in a world of instant fulfillment and quick fixes, which leads to a loss of patience and a lack of deep thinking.

  In today’s context, simple advertisements just don’t make it in our fast-paced, cluttered society. Gautam Banerjee (2009) mentioned that every product and brand has to compete for retaining or increasing its market share; the society is forcibly exposed to thousands of advertising messages through different forms of media despite its fast-paced culture. According to Walker Smith, back in 1970s, the society is being exposed to about 500 ads each day as compared to 5,000 a day today. Ineffective ads that do not immediately contribute to one’s productivity or meaning will not succeed in capturing potential consumers’ attention, especially when the intense competition of the marketers surfaced. It is now even harder to grab the attention of the prospective buyer.

  According to a research by Harries Interactive (2010), when adults were asked which type of ads they ignore or disregard the most, over six in ten said Internet ads (63%). Among those who ignored Internet ads, two in five said they ignored banner ads (43%) the most and one in five said they ignore search engine ads (20%) the most. Smaller percentages said they ignored television ads (14%), radio ads (7%) and newspaper ads (6%).

  This survey clearly shows that majority of the potential consumers ignore online advertisements than offline advertisements.

  In a study by Eric Clemons (2009), Tradition advertising simply cannot be carried over to the Internet. When potential consumer is in the midst of something else on the net, pushing the advertising message at consumer when it has not been requested will fail as a major revenue source for most Internet sites.

  “My basic premise is that the Internet is not replacing advertising but shattering it” - Eric Clemons (2009)

  As ineffective advertisements fail to convey the proper message to potential consumers, it leads to a large amount of advertising clutter and the lost of trust in advertising.  According to Dan Ariely (2008), messages assigned to commercial source have much lower credibility and much lower impact on the perception of product quality then the same message assigned to a rating service.

  In current context, without the right marketing plan followed by dynamic advertising campaign, business objective are hard to read, as advertising has now become the backbone to any and every business. A successful campaign needs to identify the target market, and research what and when they want it. The understanding of the importance of media placement and corporate identification is very important. Emotional advertising could be one of the approaches as the bridge that connects advertisers and consumers together once again. According to Derek Thompson (2011), The most successful ads, at least in the eyes of advertisers, have board emotional and cognitive appeal. They target aspiration, persuasion, and emotion.

  “The essential difference between emotion and reason is that emotion leads to action while reason leads to conclusions” – Donald Calne

  A research by Orlando Wood (2011) says that emotions are an important component of system one judgments, not only influencing what we pay attention to but channeling the subsequent thoughts and associations, simplifying out decision and guiding our judgments. This shows that advertising that connects to our emotions is more effective than advertising that promotes product features only. Human tends to make decisions emotionally and then justify them rationally later on.

  One of the successful case studies that advertise through emotional advertising would be Coca-Cola’s Happiness Factory online advertising campaign.

    The objective of the campaign is to drive user engagement with Coca-Cola brand and build brand awareness. Launching a promo trailer for the film.” Happiness Factory 2’ on MSN video’s Cinema section built real excitement around the prospect of a full-length movie following on from coca-Cola’s TV campaign. An MSN Home Page Takeover further boosted awareness of the film the day of the campaign launch. Building on the buzz surrounding the Happiness Factory film, Coca-Cola and Microsoft Advertising created a special ‘Now Hiring’ community site where users could undergo personality tests and download Windows Live gadget kits including a Windows Live Messenger Emoticon pack, dynamic display pictures and a personal expression Limited Edition. Users could also apply for jobs in the Happiness Factory.

  Advertising through the idea of happiness as an emotional approach, Coca-Cola’s online advertising campaign delivered 61.5 million impressions, a record click0through rate of 16.5 per cent translated to 300,000 click-throughs. The film launch phase resulted in 26,000 page views and 13,500 video streams over two weeks and the “Now Hiring” phase delivered 730,000 pages views, 141,000 visits and over 30,000 personality tests in one week. Over 550,000 Personal Expression packs were downloaded from the Now Hiring site over 10 days

  Design Issue Statement

In today's fast paced society where people constantly strive for better, for more, they tend to neglect their surroundings. As a result, advertisements fail to convey the desired message to their intended target audience, rendering these ads ineffective. This also creates a large amount of advertising clutter and hence, brands are no longer able to justify the amount time and cost spent.

  Design Hypothesis

This research paper believes that in order to address the problem of advertising clutter, advertising should take on a more meaningful role than merely just attempting to create desire or to sell. This can be achieved by using emotions as a conceptual approach to inspire participation, instead of just selling.

   2. What is the PLAN of this Research?

1) A study of the physiology side of emotional advertising with the support of facts and reviews. (Interviews, Focus Group, User Survey)

Area of study

Emotional advertising: types of emotion in advertising (positive emotions and negative emotions)

Power of emotion: the psychology side of emotions as the role in advertising.

Visual research: visuals of successful and unsuccessful emotional advertising to understand the level of impact of emotional advertising.

  2. Research on fast-paced consumers’ behavior (Interview, Focus Group and User Survey)

Area of study

Consumer’s lifestyle: research of consumer’s hobbies and routines (Location for potential advertisements.)

  3) To gain in-depth understanding emotional advertising, trends in the current advertising market. (Case Studies, Literature Review and e-journals) 

Area of study

Emotional trends in advertising: Conventional and unconventional emotion used in the advertising history

  3. What are my INTENTIONS for this Research?

Objective

To gain knowledge of how emotional advertising can help to serve more purpose than just to sell or create desire alone and emotional advertising can be an effective way to connect to consumers emotionally.

  1.     To have an in-depth understanding of the background knowledge that relates to advertising clutter

2.     To have a better understanding of consumer’s behaviors in today’s fast-paced context.

3.     To obtain insights of emotions is a more effective ways in communication values.

  Primary Target Audience

The target audiences of this research are professional advertising designers: For example: Creative Director, Art Director and Copywriter. Who are directly involved in conceptualizing advertisements.

  Gender: Male & Female

Race: All race group

Age: 21-45

Marriage Status: Single and married

Financial Status: Stable 

Secondary Target Audience

Non-Creative Professionals such as: Traffic Managers, Strategic Planners, and Account Managers. This proposal is relevant to these professions because they part of their job involves in planning the timeline and workload for advertising designers.

  Gender: Male & Female

Race: All Race Group

Age: 21-45

Marriage Status: Single and Married

Financial Status: Stable

   4. What are my top 3 key Issues?

Key issue #1: Fast-Paced Society – The need to capture potential consumers living in today’s fast-paced society. How speedy society neglect surrounding that leads to advertising clutter.

  1.     Cost of today’s fast-paced society

2.     The lack of user attention span and desire for in-depth analysis

3.     Loss of patience and a lack of deep thinking towards advertisements

  Key issue #2: Ineffective Advertising – The lack of ethical responsibility in producing ineffective advertisements. How desired message are not brought across to potential consumers

  1.     Over exposed with advertisements through different media platforms

2.     The intense competition of the marketers

3.     Lost of trust in advertising  

Key issue #3: Connectivity in Advertising – The effective use of emotion in advertising in order to engage potential consumer. How emotion advertising can be a more effective way to capture potential consumers’ attention.

  1.     ­­­The importance of media placement and corporate identity

2.     Effective dynamic advertising campaign

3.     Board emotional and cognitive appeal in advertising campaign

  5. What are the top key research QUESTIONS?

Key Question #1

What are the key interests in today’s fast-paced consumers?

  Key Question #2

Why are ineffective advertisements lacks of the meaningful interaction in brand engagements?

  Key Question #3

What are the emotions use in advertising that are able to inspire consumers and how is it used in advertising?

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Don't be creative for creative sake.

Toffael Rashid

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Toffael Rashid

After doing all of these research, I finally able to finalized my first design research proposal. Personally I felt that emotion is one of the most effective ways to advertise a product, however, it could not be used on every product. Once I met a guy during Spikes Asia '12, Toffael Rashid, Regional Planning Director, and he told me that understanding the client and product is very important. If the best way to sell the product is to say "Buy This" then thats the best way to promote it. This made me realized that every product has it's best way to promote it and all of it are different ways. Emotional advertising could suit many products but it does not suit all.

I believe it is my part to find out what kind of product is suitable for emotional advertising and what's not. Another thing that he told me had enlightened me. which is "Don't be creative for creative sake." it made me realized how much time I have spent, trying to be different, impressive and creative for creative sake. I always wanted to be different and be creative but I didn't realize that my works show it all. Right now I understand the difference between being creative for the sake creativity or the brilliant idea itself suit the product perfectly. Right now it felt that its easier to brainstorm ideas and at the same time is felt more difficult be come out with ideas with being for creative sake. Good ideas are really hard to come by.