Television advertising techniques NESSRINE BOUZIDI

Different ways of advertising

What is advertising?

Advertising throughout business organizations is a form of marketing communication used to encourage, persuade, or manipulate an audience.

This can be achieved using different forms of advertising however these are the most common methods:

Newspapers Bill boards

Magazines Leaflets

Direct mail TV advertising

Radio Social networking

Structures used in advertising: Forms

Narrative

Just as narrative theories apply to films and TV shows, they also apply to adverts. TV advertiser's main goal is to convince consumers to buy products and in doing so they create stories surrounding them. It’s a constructive format (which involves work of speech, writing, song, film or television) that describes a sequence of fictional or non-fictional events. Narrative advertising means the advertising has a typical story. It’s not only used to introduce products, but it also includes the story to help sell the product. This is known as an ad movie.

John Lewis – Christmas advert.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqWig2WARb0

John Lewis’ advert is mainly aimed towards their targeted shoppers. These tend to be 21-65 year olds.

The main story of the advert involves the bear who hibernated during the winter and his friend had planned out a special Christmas for him. Although it’s animated it can be targeted to all audiences as it’s a festive season that everyone celebrates.

Visual marketing

This is the studying of the relationship between an object, the context it is placed and its relevant image.

As a key component of modern marketing, visual advertising focuses on studying and analysing how images can be used to make objects look presentable to the audience.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TzgAmBhdt0

This is pretty much any advert as any company trying to advertise their product would encourage their product to stand out in some unique way.

The Pepsi advert has used visual marketing to a high extent. They’ve thought about all the colours in the advert. Colours used in the background are slightly dull and it’s during the evening so the colours are quite dull apart from all the lights used. This could allow the logo for Pepsi to stand out as well.

They’ve also chosen to use celebrity endorsement to encourage a wider target audience (like football fans).

Mini fiction

In many cases the adverts tend to use mini fictional narratives consisting of either an existing scenario or come up with a short plot to help advertise their product in a different way.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62xLWZgx4Ko

The Twix advert is an example of a mini fiction as the main storyline of the advert is based on a fiction movie.

As they have a large target audience they can literally make any story and relate it to their product. They’ve thought of a similar storyline to the film ‘Charlie and the chocolate factory’

They’ve made the audience believe throughout this advert that the two bars of chocolate are different by changing the wording slightly when it they’re exactly the same.

Animation

This form is used in most adverts usually when the target audience tends to be children or younger adults. It’s used to either present a plot which would either have a stronger visual impact as an animation or is very difficult to produce in real life. Animation used for TV advertising tends to be either 2D or 3D.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEzi33PtaSU

This Fanta advert is completely animated and is targeted to all aged audiences. With Animation can achieve the most bizarre special effects and be presented in the most abstract environments. Without any worries about footage or consuming time filming.

The colours throughout the advert are mainly based on the orange tone, and the music is quite up beat. Using the style animation allows it to be targeted to the younger audience as well and widens the target audience for their product.

Structures used in advertising Styles –Humour

Humour is a way of amusing or the quality of being funny. In advertising humour is added to the advert to grab audience attention and when something is funny it tends to be more memorable.

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

This Doritos advert uses humour with the little boy to make it more funny and appealing to the audience.

It has managed to use humour in a positive way, as sometimes it may come across as unacceptable and may offend people.

Doritos has successfully managed to include some humour with the little boy and linking this with the crisps, almost saying not anyone can have his Doritos.

Using humour can make the advert appeal to more people, and using this style can make it easier to appeal to more people. However with this advert it doesn’t tend to advertise the crisps themselves as much.

Surreal

Things that are surreal combine unrelated elements to create a bizarre scene. Surrealism has a tendency to be very common when it comes to advertising and seems to be very effective to the audience.

One of the most popular adverts that has successfully managed to portray this is the Cadbury’s Gorilla advert

http://youtu.be/hEJPLjhrsD8

Although a surreal may look easy to do, Cadbury took a big risk with this advert. The song by Phil Collins helped with target audience as only the older adults would be able to identify the song. And the colours in the back help relate to the colour of the packaging of the chocolate.

The Gorilla overall makes the entire advert very surreal as it’s not everyday you see an animal play the drums. Surreal adverts tend to be more memorable by the audience members themselves. They’ve also used the song ‘In the air tonight’ by Phil Collins. This song would only be identified by the older audiences and this a good way of widening your target audience.

Parodic

Parody adverts are usually fictional advertisements for a non-existent product either done within another advertisement for an actual product, or produced simply as a parody of advertisements used either as a way of drawing negative attention towards a real advertisement or subject/product being advertised.

Most parody adverts aren’t published on TV as they’re not ideal for the companies or sometimes they’re slightly explicit like the following parody advert

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x89xAXHd2l8

This parody involves lynx and Specsavers in one advert.

This is a parody of Specsavers as it’s implying that the lynx is actually the product which attracts the girls, whereas Specsavers would leave the man single without any attention from girls as it’s bringing his appearance down. The advert would be applied to young adults both women and men. It insures that the product is specifically targeted to their target market by using a similar aged man in the advert.

A reason why the advert was banned, was due to the explicitly as the women weren’t dressed suitably to be shown on national television and Specsavers product was advertised in a way that they could potentially loose their targeted customers.

Realist vs anti-realist

A realist narrative advert is an advert with a story, appearing to be both believable and realistic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43ItX_bPR1o

In this Nike advert, they’ve made it appear that all the players are actually in an underground prison on a boat by showing a small clip at the beginning of a boat at sea. They’ve also used famous footballers with in their advert to grab audience attention more. It’s almost likely that the audience will be so focused on what they’re doing that they’ll ignore the fact that it’s supposed to be a prison.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHB1O2j6BoQ&index=2&list=PL89357A1BE24CF86D

Where as this Walls advert uses a talking dog, it’s highly unlikely that the audience are going to believe the dog is actually talking. This advert also falls under the humour category as portraying two meanings.

Codes and Conventions in TV advertising

Mini-dramas - In TV, this commercial is a full-range 30-60 second drama that presents characters and resolution at a quick speed. When done for national agencies, these commercials are at the very top of production however they can be incredibly expensive to produce.

Spokesperson Presentation - Usually directed the person watching the advert directly. This type of commercial often involves a celebrity using their actual identity or an indirect identity, using someone who is recognizable as a character, but not necessarily themself. The spokesperson needs to have an authoritative presence, and an honest convincing delivery that will persuade the audience. The spokesperson tends to be someone well know who is easily identified as it makes the advert more successful.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VP7cX8iXQgY

Davina McCall is used in this L'Oreal advert to help encourage older women use this anti-wrinkle cream. As she’s already experienced what the cream, she’s able to persuade and target other women that are similar age group to try the product.

More conventions..

Voice-Over - Many commercials use a voice-over. The performer who reads the copy is not seen in a voice-over commercial. Although the performer's face isn’t shown to the audience, the voice is heard as a major component of the sound track.

• Brand name needs to continuously be advertised over and over again.

• Catch tag lines as this makes the advert more memorable and effective in reaching a wider target audience

• Use popular/well known songs to whenever they hear the song they instantly remember the advert

• shot styles for example, close ups on face of person Charity's use this as it’s a good technique to emphasis facial expressions.

Special effects

Most adverts tend to use special effects to make it more appealing and interesting to their target audience. Special effects allow you to create a scene or event that can’t happen naturally or in everyday life

An advert that helps show this effectively is the advert for the new Lamborghini Huracan

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJnWPhSQjPs

This car advert uses a range of special effects including:

1. Creating a natural disaster (hurricane) and this also links In with the name of the car

2. The location and different elements like smoke and making it look windy.

The advert is also like a mini fiction and almost telling a story as it’s being advertised. It shows off the interior and exterior of the car and demonstrated the high speed it can achieve. This advert wold mainly appeal to middle aged men who are highly financially stable as the car is very expensive.

These techniques and special effects have made it appear a premium product allowing their target audience to be very defined and specific.

Hidden and overt messages

Hidden messages are micro elements that occur without us even realising that they happen. They could be images or words hidden within a scene or ad we’re viewing that we’re not consciously aware of what we’re seeing/hearing.

Overt messages are very plain to see and overly displayed. Many advertisers will transmit messages in their adverts to sell their product. They’re often implied for a reason, for example advertising for whitening toothpaste will transmit a message that having white teeth is a good thing.

Emotional responses

•Advertisers recognise that emotions play a significant part in the products we choose to buy. We may buy a product which serves to:

•Solve a problem for us or for the audience.

•Stop something happening we fear from happening to us.

•Plays upon our guilt or compassion so we feel sorry for the people who are being advertised. A good example would be NSPCC. Presenting other peoples current position and they might not be as fortunate therefore encouraging more people to help/donate.

•Seeks to help our social position if we feel neglected.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gr-UPt54AlM

These type of adverts will try to grab the audience's attention by using elements that we don’t necessarily and using this against us and as a person you feel like you have to help them regardless.

Advantages over similar products

Differentiating different products or services is a strategy used by businesses or companies to distinguish a product from similar offerings on the market. When doing this the advert must deliver the message that their product or service is positively different from all the other products available.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcWJF9XvEVY

This ASDA advert uses the comparative method to persuade the audience that this supermarket is a cheaper and better alternative that other supermarkets, such as Tesco.

By giving you examples of what price the products will be in different places and comparing where you’re likely to find the best deals for you by providing the other market prices for the same product.

By using a comparative technique audience members are likely to go the cheapest supermarket which in this case is Asda and this will increase their customers.

Unique selling point(USP)

One thing which the product or cause has which nothing else does. It’s used to convince an audience that their product is worth buying. This element is very important when considering producing an advert for your product, as this will help make your product unique from others.

Iphone6 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZrfXDeLBTU

The iPhone 6 advert Is very simple. The only audio it uses is the two voices attempting to sing instead of using an existing song.

It shows all the elements that makes the phone worth buying such as the different phone filters, HD screening etc. and the overall new final design.

These are all unique features which make the phone unbeatable and unique to other phones and no other phone has the unique style and other software features which contribute to making it a unique selling point and this is why the target market for the phone is highly broad and isn’t targeted to a particular group.

Regulation

Advertising Standards Authority (ASA)

Their work includes acting on complaints and proactively checking the media to take action against misleading, harmful or offensive advertisements, sales promotions and direct marketing. As well as acting on complaints, they carry out many other regulatory activities to make sure advertising stays within the rules. E.g. the ASA checks ads in all media and regularly conducts surveys of advertisements published by sectors where there is either unsatisfactory compliance with the Codes or where there are societal concerns about that sector.

Ofcom

Ofcom is the communications regulator. They regulate the TV and radio sectors, fixed line telecoms, mobiles, postal services, plus the airwaves over which wireless devices operate. They provide annual reports, plans, policies and guidelines as to what can be shown on television and many other communication regulations.