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Silver Fox. Photography Shot By Matt Knoth

A commercial that recently surfaced the television waves (early November), is now officially my favorite commercial of 2012. The “The Center of My Universe” collection by Forevermark is beautiful, and to represent that beauty, Forevermark produced a commercial that would leave a mark, pun intended, on its audience, and then some.

The television advertisement incorporates elements that a commercial needs, but in such a special way, I almost cry watching it. However, its not the things that pop out right away to most consumers. Sometimes, I stop and think about what it is in the ad that makes me so emotional or affects me so deeply. In this case, it wasn’t the good acting or the beautiful meaning of the words, but rather, the cinematography of the commercial, which often takes on the likes of a still photograph. The movement of the actress throughout the commercial is captivating, as the camera follows her graceful manners. The dark, rich color tone used in the film shots affects viewers, and they don’t even realize it. It enhances that sense of emotion you feel as you watch the commercial. It’s the tone of the man’s voice speaking. It’s one thing to say the words, but how the man says those words can make all the difference. Another aspect of the advertisement that not many people notice is how music can make a huge impact on the tone of the commercial. In this one, the music is so soft and lovely. Without this choice of song, which was apparently composed specially for the commercial, the commercial would have half the effect it does on consumers.

One last thing to mention. Forevermark strategic planners for advertising hit the nail on the head with this one. I believe Forevermark researched its consumer markets very well, and then used the findings to come up with a concept, the one used in the commercial. What woman doesn’t want to be loved for many years? As the commercial shows, from engagement, to 5 years in the marriage receiving the necklace, and still happy as ever. What woman doesn’t want to hear those exact words come out of their husband’s mouth, and in that truly loving tone? I might be wrong, but I am pretty sure every woman is jealous of the one in the commercial. Including myself. And that is what makes the commercial so good.

#Forevermark #The Center of My Universe #best commercial 2012

This video (commercial advertisement) for the new Lacoste polos uses AV effects that represent Lacoste's advertising strategy. Lacoste wants to start a whole new world of futurisitic polos that represent our current day in age, the technological one. The video's effects are vibrant, colorful, and technologically advanced - instantly changing sizes and styles of polos on the people wearing them and pressing or flicking the alligator logo to change the color and style of the polo. Even the music is futuristic. Ad Age describes the shirt as having intelligent fibers and a dynamic surface.

Strategy: Futuristic filming effects in the video

Message: The future of the Lacoste polo or "Polo of the Future"

Effect: Consumer recognition and intrigue

#Polo of the Future #Lacoste #strategy

Charmin's Idea of an Engaging Print Ad

Charmin really had to be confident about this one. There isn't another print ad like this one; I don't think. It has no images!? And it is made specially for consumers on the toilet for more than a couple minutes.

Charmin's strategy behind the advertisement is blatantly stated in the text,

"...We assume you already purchase a few rolls of Charmin on your last trip to the supermarket. And in case you forgot all about it, you can always use this page. While it's not even close to the softness and quality of Charmin, it sure is better than our competition."

Using a comedic strategy, Charmin intends to point out just how much better its toilet paper is than its competitors'. Even its print ad is softer than the other brands!

I just think that this is an interesting take on advertising for print, because it is text-heavy, doesn't incorporate any images or visuals, such as photographs, to help sell the brand. It's simple, and hardly incorporates any of the elements of design, except for a lot of white space. That being said, I think this is an example of a clever, witty, and successful advertisement that takes on a different approach to print advertisements.

#Charmin #strategy

I never read, I just look at pictures.

-Andy Warhol

I can't get over this quote. It truly inspires me. I believe people can learn so much, if not more, simply by examining, studying, and staring at pictures. Just as we learned in class, staring at a picture for a few minutes, or however long it may take for your mind to spark with creativity, can give you the motivation and inspiration you need to go further in generating ideas for the big idea and the main strategy for your advertising campaign. I also believe this forces people to "put a thinking cap on," a different kind of thinking cap. One that takes your creative thoughts, not words on a page, to describe feelings and emotions within a person. Consumers and strategic planners can benefit from this sort of practice, as well as any individual who is searching for ways to think outside the norm.

#Andy Warhol

The Longest, Most Beautiful Process

I want to take a break from discussing things I have learned in class, and just take this entry to point out one of my favorite ways to advertise.

Now that I have taken this advertising class and other marketing courses, I have found myself watching commercials and actually analyzing them as I watch them! It's pretty funny, because I won't realize that I am doing it until I catch myself in the middle or at the end of the commercial, and I literally think something like, that commercial used several interesting points of view; that really caught my eye. But as someone who has a passion for photography, my favorite commercials, and in my opinion, most effective, are ones that use stop motion photography. I find this process to be beautiful, because it takes time and effort that is like none other. You have to appreciate anyone who attempts this and perfects it. Amazon Kindle books mastered the stop motion photography effect to respond to the pressure of Apple's iPad.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYUVpjrzvXc

The creativity in each shot of the commercial is amazing. With stop motion photography, you can do anything you ever imagined as far as creativity, because you can retake each photo, and take things in and out of the picture as desired. The reason I feel this is an effective way to advertise in a commercial is because it keeps viewers engaged in each individual shot. I can't take my eyes off the screen when I watch those commercials; they truly are artwork!

#stop motion photography

Elements of Design in an Advertisement

When creating a print ad, there are elements of design to consider incorporating into the graphic, image, or photograph. This isn't something new that I learned, since I took two AP photography courses in high school, a course called Visual Media, and a course called Designing Documents for Print where I repeatedly learned the elements of design. I distinctively recall CRAP - color, repetition, alignment, proximity. I always found this acronym crude, but genius, because I have never forgotten the elements, and it has come in handy many times. Just to name a few elements: lines (lead the eyes a certain direction), color, shape, texture (makes things seem more real), form, pattern, typography, icons, graphics and images. These elements can then be implemented by using them in the following ways: depth and perspective (such as depth of field), balance or tension (like contrast), geonety (the shapes you create), scale, movement, proximity, pattern, and unity (images create a cohesive whole).

This advertisement for Land Rover is creative and definitely uses the elements of design in ways listed above. The first thing that popped out to me was the texture in the ad. It looks as though the paper is being pulled and crinkled, and looks 3-D! The Land Rover is the subject, and the only subject, placed right in the middle of the page to emphasize the intended focus on it. The typography is a straight (Sanserif) font that gets the point about the car across. There is white space, and the image is clean with clean colors as not to clutter the ad; the 3-D effect is powerful enough.

A good print ad will go that extra mile to affect viewers. I think the 3-D effect to show as if the Land Rover is pulling the page across is something different and unique. Sometimes simplicity with one major statement can be enough to make consumers believe in the brand.

#elements of design

The Big Idea

Hey! What's the big idea? One of the first steps to beginning the production of your creative brief is to figure out the big idea of the advertisement you wish to create.

My strategic planning team had to produce a creative pitch for Cuties, the small manderine oranges. Some quick points about the creative brief we were given to go by:

The single minded proposition is, "Cuties don't take time out of play time;" they're fast and easy to eat, and they are healthy for you.

The target is an athletic, popular 4th grader boy named, Alex.

The insight is the idea that kids want to put Cuties in the grocery cart, not just the moms.

Referring to these points in the brief, we decided to revolve our advertising campaign around the big idea of, "How Do You Get Your Cuties?" The little girl we chose to use in the commercial and print ads, dressed as a ninja, playfully hides behind corners, tip toes to the cart, and throws in a box of Cuties oranges. This is how Allie gets her Cuties, and we created a website to ask other kids to go on the website and show how they get their Cuties as a way to engage kids and parents with the brand. We used photographs as the main part of the print ads, and used unusual angles to emphasize her ninja-like moves as how she gets her Cuties.

#big idea

Don't Just Grab Attention

When Kelly Fisher, who has worked a lot with the Got Milk? ads, came to speak to the class, she told us that grabbing consumers' attentions is really important; however, that doesn't mean the ad is a good one. There are other aspects that tie in to making an advertisement a good one. Take this Volkswagen print advertisement for example.

The strategy of this ad is to point out the brand's history and the fact that the automobile make can last through time. Generations of families can share memories of using the same car, perhaps for different reasons, as the title of the ad represents.

This print ad grabs attention with a simple photo of an old Volkswagen van and a lot of white space. White space can actually be one of the best attention grabbers in a photo. The splash of lime green adds a nice touch of color to the subject of the photo. Not only does the ad grab attention with the photograph, but it is also persuasive in that it uses history as a brand equity attribute. The success of the Volkswagen is shown through the years of just one van surviving many generations! That's pretty impressive.

The ad doesn't rest on grabbing attention with the photograph, although visuals are often the first step in making a good advertisement. It does more than that. It's persuasive, focused on the consumer's concerns, breaks through clutter presenting one main clear idea using one clear photo, and begins from a sound marketing strategy; the ingredients for which creates a perfect advertisement.

#advertisements that grab attention

Creativity Is Key

CAUTION: Excessive creativity when mind is at play.

As far as what I have learned, this statement may be true. When you let go and be silly, be playful, your mind will surprise you with its flourish of creative thoughts, which is super important when putting together a creative pitch.

A creative pitch follows the creative brief. It is basically an example of what the planners imagine the ad to look like as a result of the creative brief in hopes that the creative team will come up with something similar. To do so, though, creativity is key.

When making the creative pitch, it is important to connect unconnected things and come up with innovative new ideas from those connections. Great ways to start making connections are mindmapping, brainstorming, starbursting, and brainwriting. When you find words you like that may work for your pitch, begin to interrogate that word and its meaning.

These are all great tips and ideas to help bring out your creativity, but a little advice of my own to bring out your own personal creativity and innovative ideas is to look at images. Just look at images created by artists and photographers. Examining images and photos can tap into your creative side more than you ever imagined. Just like the image at the top of my blog, looking at a photo can educate, inspire, and affect you as much as reading words can. Truth.

Let's look at this photo:

When I view this photo and think deeply about it, I feel the movement of the snake. I see a different and uncommon point of view for someone to look at a snake. The pattern of circles on the snake's skin are interesting. The body of the snake leads my eyes upward toward its head and moves me all at the same time. Even the color of this image sets a mood and a tone for what is going on in this photograph. Perhaps this photograph tells a story, and all the elements foreshadow and give clues as to what will happen. Now, the imaginative and creative side of my mind has been sparked!

#creativity

My Group's Successful Creative Brief

The success of my group's creative brief in my advertising class has made me even more knowledgeable about the creative brief process. We wrote one for the clothing company, Uniqlo in Japan, currently trying to expand into the U.S. I now know what makes the presentation and brief more interesting. The class chose my group's creative brief as, essentially, the best one, the one they wanted to work on a creative pitch for, because it made clear what our problem was and how we wanted to change it with an interesting insight. Our target was realistic and one most people in the class felt they could work with.

I analyzed our brief and presentation to determine the best parts of our brief and presentation using my own knowledge as I went through the creative brief writing process and the comments after we presented it to the class.

The problem: People like what Uniqlo has to sell individually, but the way the Japanese culture puts an outfit together does not appeal to the U.S. fashion. Our target is someone who feared getting dressed in the morning, because they don't know how to put their clothing options together to form an outfit that expresses their personality. "They're not sure how to dress and always go back to the 'uniform'." Our insight, "I fear my closet;" our single minded proposition, "Design your personality piece by piece." All these aspects of the creative brief were successful, because they flow and make sense. People believe they can create something great out of our ideas.

Not only was the creative brief itself a success, but also, our presentation we showed. The images we used in the presentation allowed the class to really visualize the type of person we wanted to target. I remember the class laughing at the images, because they were two guys from our class all dressed up, posing for a picture. At the same time, they were realistic.

The boys stood in their closets looking confused and scared to represent the target of the creative brief.

The other pictures we used were of the boys dressed in the outfits after they were inspired how to dress to express their own personalities to exhibit the anticipated outcome of the creative brief.

Emotional Connections to the Public

The speaker in my advertising class that I previously mentioned in my blog, Chris Shumaker, pointed out some great ways to write a creative brief that allows the creative team to go forth and make something amazing.

What I want to talk about in this entry is the emotional connections advertisements can make with the public. These emotional connections originate from the creative brief and are projected through what the creative team produces. Shumaker used many examples of advertisements the creative team made including the two companies, Scope and Crest. The advertisement below is an example of emotion-eliciting advertisements.

This print ad elicits the emotion of missing a loved one, friends or family. Australia Post uses emotional appeals to convey the message that their brand can connect loved ones, family and friends.

This ad, entirely comprised of a photograph, makes people laugh and feel endearment toward babies pooping, which is not normally endearing. That being said, Huggies has discovered a way of doing so, by creating this successful ad.

Elicited emotion in an ad connects consumers with the purpose of the product or service, and also allows the consumers to really understand the company's point of view. As we have learned, ethos (credibility and trustworthiness of the advertisement), logos (the logic and reasoning of the advertisement), and pathos (the emotional appeals in the advertisement) are extremely important in any persuasion effort. In my opinion, however, pathos exceeds ethos and logos, because it seems to grab people's attention more than the other two. Emotional appeals are strong and important to incorporate in any advertisement.

#Chris Shumaker #emotional connections

"Just Do It" a P.O.V. to Live By

Nike's famous ever-lasting tag line, “Just Do It,” has given the company a lot of leeway for it to take different advertising directions. After looking through a few Nike print advertisements, I assumed the company’s point of view, which is important to have established before ever creating an ad and presenting it to the world. What came across to me in each advertisement was Nike’s “balls to the wall” attitude. Not only do they refer this ‘tude to athletes, but to everyday people who take on the challenges of life. As I studied the particular image below, I realized that Nike means what it says, “Just Do It.” If you have to pee, man, just do it. On the wall, right then and there. If you feel the need to do something that will help you feel good, then go for it. This little boy peeing, for example, made him feel good. Nike knows where it stands and what it stands for; it knows its point of view of itself as a company. Therefore, the company has thrived in the advertising realm.

#Nike #Just Do It #Point of View

P.O.V.

Chris Shumaker, Vice President of Publicis, gave a presentation to my advertising class last week. He, like many of the other speakers, showed advertisements of companies that took new and different measures to revamp their brands. He showed many examples and offered plenty of ideas to the class about writing a creative brief.

What I mainly took away from his presentation though was, to me, the most important part of planning and writing a creative brief. Know the point of view your own company - first and foremost. Why is this so important, you ask? It's like when your present yourself to the public, you need to know yourself in order to know how to represent yourself in a good light and prove what you have to offer. If the company can't even figure out its POV, then the neither will the public.

To exhibit your company's point of view in an ad, images and visual aids and cues can be useful.

#point of view #Chris Shumaker #Vice President of Publicis

You're Not Filling Out a Form

My team and I are currently putting together a creative brief for the company Uniqlo. As someone who has never written a creative brief in her life, I realize the challenges of fully grasping the process of writing the creative brief. Needless to say, it's not an easy thing to do. What I have found is that I am actually thinking too much! That might be worse than not thinking enough, because I am using my brain more than I need to - for no reason.

After using unnecessarily big words, drawn out sentences that seem to be considered "marketing bullshit," and filling out the questions as though I am filling out a form, I have learned what not to do. All of the above. Instead, as far as what I have learned, I need to write the creative brief as I would speak about what the company should do to improve its image and brand.

According to Howard Margulies of AdAge, oftentimes, the creative brief is “joylessly ‘filled out.’ Values are plugged into fields. Facts substituted for insights.” Just like the point I made above, Margulies says that creative briefs are filled out rather than well-thought-out ways to enhance a company’s image or brand. Margulies later states the purpose of writing the creative brief and why is shouldn’t be “filled out.” He states, "You're crafting the story of your product and its reason to exist and thrive in the world." I agree with this statement and it embodies the true meaning of the creative brief.

I find that in a creative brief images might not be as necessary, because you're just getting the main points across in simple sentences. The images come later once the creative pitch. However, the layout and design of the actual creative brief can enhance it as a whole and change the attitudes about the ideas presented of those who read the brief. Images and visual aids such as photographs can be helpful to get the message across about the creative brief idea.

Brandon Thornton of Wieden-Kennedy: Experience vs. Novelty

Brandon Thornton, Lead Strategic Planner at Wieden-Kennedy, presented to my advertising class Thursday insightful ideas for producing a creative brief. Thornton explained that when he and the planning team at Wieden-Kennedy began crafting the creative brief for a particular company, rather than focusing on the novelty or the product itself, they would focus on the experience the target (consumer) would gain from the product. An experience is something you can have forever, whereas a product is just for that moment and not always with you. Not only do consumers want to use the product, but they want to enjoy it and take away something from it, such as the experience of navigating an awesome website or what you did wearing that particular brand of tennis shoes, like climb that mountain you thought you could never climb!

Another way to create an experience rather than simply using a product is to create an advertisement that takes people to a past experience or creates a whole new one for them. An example of this is through a photograph. When people view a photograph or image in an ad, it can enhance the advertisement when those who view it are taken to a past experience that made them feel good, or creates a new one that makes them feel good.

Ponder this print advertisement for Diesel jeans:

In the photo advertisement above, the focus is not on the jeans or the brand, but rather, the experience of wearing the jeans. The ad exhibits a youthful girl feeling of free and fearless when wearing Diesel jeans. Not only does the ad represent an experience, it may also remind viewers of the ad of a similar feeling or experience, linking them emotionally to the jeans and ultimately the brand.

#Brandon Thornton #experience #novelty #product

Visualizing Shit Girls Say

Kyle Humphrey and Grayden Sheppard, creators of the YouTube and Twitter sensation, "Shit Girls Say," have capitalized on their huge success in the past year (since Shit Girls Say began). Shit Girls Say now has its own website, has taken on social media (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and YouTube), and even published a book!

Just recently, Shit Girls Say has been working to discover new ways the sensation can grow its fan base and advertise. Co.Design, a website focused on business designs, presented Shit Girls Say's photo series of artistic demonstrations of Shit Girls Say quotes. Now, instead of a video visual to go along with the quotes, viewers read the quote and see a comical still picture to accompany the quote.

This clever way to advertise Shit Girls Say, keeps fans coming back for more innovative and laughable "shit" from Humphrey and Sheppard.

Check out the photos here.

#Shit Girls Say

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