Tuesday 12 April 2011

Evaluation

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Our main product (the advert) has conformed to the forms and conventions of real media products in several ways. In my earlier research I outlined what aspects are vital in an advert to make it successful. I feel that we have successfully covered all these aspects in our final piece.
Firstly, one of the most important features needed in an advert, is the fact that the advert can connect with its audience. Throughout my research and planning I emphasised greatly on how important it was that we did this, through our advert being entertaining and attention grabbing. We wanted to be different and stand out, so our storyline needed to be interesting as well as addressing the audience about our product. We used the comical German voiceover to amuse the audience, but also to make them listen.
Another feature was making it memorable and easily recalled, possibly one of the most important of all because you want your product to be remembered when the consumer goes to buy. We did this by having several things, first we made a quirky brand name, ‘Lutz’  which is short and simple enough to be remembered easily. We wanted a comical aspect to it, so having the nutty German scientists made people laugh, which in turn made them remember the advert better. We also purposely chose the soundtrack, to be one that is already a popular piece of music, but one that can be linked with our product when people hear it outside of the advert.
One of the features we did challenge was possibly the only slight flaw in our advert. The fact that it didn’t provide the audience with information quickly and sufficiently, however from the beginning we said we were out to entertain and fascinate with our funny characters and special efects, and with that we grabbed the attention of the audience.
However this one feature we did do, which theorists have often mentioned is, not too confuse the viewer, making them hunt for the pertinent information. I feel that with our storyline and text and the start and end of the advert we were clear and precise in what we were trying to say about our product. We entertained the audience with our slow motion effects and stated the name of company and what it is, but we didn’t confuse the viewer.
The final feature that theorists recommend an advert have is its ability to call the viewer to action. I feel that we did to a degree, our advert was long but entertaining, and some aspects might have viewers wanting to watch again like the slow motion, to either see for themselves or show a friend. Also this could lead them to our website or links to our company.


How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

As a group we effectively managed to combine the ancillary texts (Radio Advert and Web Pop-up Advert) and the main product (Advert). We made sure that we maintained an underlying theme throughout all three media products, such as the German voice over and German mad scientists. By combining the media platforms we created a subconscious link between all three of our products in the mind of the audience. This actively helped promote the other products via the integration of the media platforms.
We deliberately used the over voice from the advert, of the German scientist in our Radio Advert and we used classical music to create an association. Also we wanted to stay comical, so that Lutz would be associated with producing humorous advertisements. We used images from the advert on our Web Pop-up, so people would immediately recognise the company if they had seen the advert. Even though you can’t see the Radio advert, you can go online to look at it and there we have used the same fonts and styles of text to create links between the three as well.

How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

I used media technologies throughout all stages of the production of our media product. One of the most valuable media platforms was the internet. Without this I would not have been able to research and plan efficiently. It allowed me to explore media conventions for our specific needs through platforms such as YouTube, there I was able to look at past successful adverts and find music and influences. Also, it enabled me to gain lots of information about the industry, which would have been extremely difficult had it not been for the internet. The Times online was especially useful to gain information and theorists views on advertising.
Another way the internet was extremely useful was through social networking, this allowed us to plan and share information effectively; meaning that we could easily contact one anther about dates of filming or share videos that could influence our own piece.
Using the apple Mac software was not a problem as last year I edited our piece, so this year was simply me developing my skills as an editor on the Mac. However, for our ancillary tasks, creating the Web Pop-up Advert was new to us but we found the creation site to be easy to navigate and use.
YouTube and Facebook were really key to us gaining feedback and analysis on our products. From these sites we were able to broadcast our product globally, creating a wider audience.

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Before filming, audience feedback was used to establish the age range of our main target audience and the influences advertising has on that target audience.
We found out that our target audience was not just old but young and that comical advertising was the most effective and popular, so we took this into consideration when developing our advert.
After filming and editing, audience feedback was vital for us as it was the best way for us to take constructive criticism from a wide variety of viewers. From this we can then go on to develop our product to make it better. From receiving feedback from teachers, parents and friends we have learnt a few things. Many of the comments made via Facebook and YouTube have been extremely positive and supportive so we are very pleased with that. However some have criticised the length of the advert, saying that it drags on too long and could be a bit snappier. But this is why we created the short version, just to get to the point/product and bit quicker. Our longer online version is aimed to be entertaining, we wanted to fit in a good storyline, as well as having effects and comedy. Taking on board what people have said, if we were to do this again, we would probably take some parts out.
Another comment made on our advert was the location of where it was filmed. We had to use the gym, because the green screen wasn’t going to be big enough. We tried to hide the fact it was a gym, however in some shots you can clearly see that it is a gym, which ruins the whole scientist’s laboratory effect. So if we were to film again, we would spend longer on finding a better location or get a bigger green screen to meet our demands.
The last main criticism made was that there wasn’t enough product placement in the advert, apart from the end, the viewer doesn’t see the packaging, so when they go to buy, it would make it harder for them to know what they are looking for. With this in mind, if we were to do it again, we would have the packaging placed on the table along with the science equipment throughout the advert, so viewers could clearly see it.

Feedback

After our Advert was uploaded onto YouTube, we wanted to gain feedback on it. One of the best ways to do this was through Facebook, so I simply posted on the News Feed on Facebook, a link to our video on YouTube, where people could watch it. Above our video I left a comment asking for any kind of feedback and then just waited.

A few days later I went back onto Facebook and found that we had gained a lot of feedback, which were all very positive.


Also YouTube itself allows people to comment or like any videos and here we had some feedback from an anonymous viewers, where its always better to receive constructive feedback when its not from your friends or people you know.


Monday 11 April 2011

Lutz Coffee Final Online Advert

This is our final 3 minute long online advert, which has been shortened down to 30 seconds as another version.



I am very pleased with the outcome of our advert, after all the research and planning we did I feel satisfied with all the aspects of it. We were able to get laughs, but also able to address the audience the way we wanted to, portraying the effort and time put into the product. We entertained the audience the way we wanted to as well having some action in ti to grab there attention, as the slow motion shots looked really good. I think that this advert achieves all the major factors that it needs to be able to sell packs of coffee because it offers an interesting talking point, a comical narrative to interest the viewer and a unique presentation of media techniques such as slow-motion imagery.

Lutz Coffee Short TV Commercial

We had a 3 minute long online version for people to view, but if we wanted our advert to go global we needed to cut it down to around 30 seconds so that it could be broadcasted on television, as a TV Commercial. We made sure in our short version we kept all the good/funny parts and still had enough for people to understand the story




It is commonly seen that companies will have longer versions of their adverts online or may at first show there long version on TV and after a while only broadcast the shorter version. For instance the 'Cadburys Spots vs Stripes' adverts are around 30 seconds when seen on the television but they invite you to watch the full version of the advert on their website. This technique not only saves the company money but it draws customers in to buying the other products on the website creating potentially more free advertising.

Lutz Coffee Facebook Page

This links back to what I mentioned earlier about media convergence that Facebook is a social networking service, it has more than 600 million active users. Users may create a personal profile, add other users as friends, and exchange messages, including automatic notifications when they update their profile. Additionally, users may join common interest user groups, organized by workplace, school or college, or other characteristics. Every day millions of Facebook users share information, including sharing videos they’ve seen, showing the latest products or generally sharing links to shopping, gaming and many other internet websites. Advertising has grown with these sights; people are seeing commercials and sharing them with friends over the internet at a very large rate.
It was important that we kept with the times and created a Facebook group for Lutz Coffee, which brings in a whole new audience which varies in age, nationality and culture all over the world, thus expanding Lutz’s recognition and audience.

Ancillary: Radio Advert




 
This was one of our two ancillaries, the radio advert needed to be direct, yet attract and entertain the audience. We needed to make sure we stuck to our theme of germen scientists, so that the audience could link the radio advert straight way with the TV commercial. This is a key factor to advertising because it gives the viewer/listener a unique part of the advert that they subliminally remember. This is evident when looking at the 'Go Compare' adverts, which now do not even need to contain lyrics to their songs to to be recognised by most of the population. The video of the radio advert also shows the packaging of the Lutz product which is viewable via the Lutz Youtube page or Facebook profile.
We made sure we addressed the audience about our product and urged them to try it, as well as being humorous about it, just so the audience enjoys it more.
this clip of audio is the correct length to keep a listener's attention and still highlight the main factors that our product has to offer.

Ancillary: Web Pop-up Advert

Pop-up ads or pop-ups are a form of online advertising on the World Wide Web intended to attract web traffic or capture email addresses. Pop-ups are generally new web browser windows to display advertisements. The pop-up window containing an advertisement is usually generated by JavaScript, but can be generated by other means as well. (Taken from Wikipedia Definitions)

This Web Pop-up Ads is to compliment the advertising campaign of my group's advert and to create a hub for potential cutstomers to visit our Web Site, Facebook page and Youtube profile. As research from looking at other Web Pop-ups suggests, customers like to know where the product their buying comes from and what it is sourced from. To ensure customer satisfaction the Web Pop-up leads to the website which deals with this issue. The second paragraph associates with the viewers of the television advert, it focuses on the scientists that created the secret recipe which makes LUTZ. Coffee so unique.

Fairtrade is also an essential part of advertising natural products because customers like to feel proud that they are giving money to help projects in third world countries. Fairtrade is a world renowned company that helps the farmers that supply to large companies get more for their produce to help support their families.

The Pop-up invites enthusiastic customers to try out new blends of coffee with the chance to win VIP passes to taster sessions of LUTZ coffee. I felt this option was a good way of connecting to customers and being able to build on the LUTZ franchise with more chances to interview fans of the product and find out what appeals to them about LUTZ coffee.

When the Pop-up is clicked on it dirests you to our web site where there are both links to the LUTZ coffee facebook page that allows customers to contact us about their opinions of the product and allows us to gain feedback and trust that could help build on the franchise. The youtube icon allows visitors of the site to view the LUTZ coffee advert in full and view other related videos to do with the LUTZ company.




Here is the link to our Web site- http://www.lutzcoffee.weebly.com/