Final Evaluation

Final adverts and analysis of project

Evaluation

It's been quite the ride since the beginning of the NEA. Many hours have been put into researching, planning, assessing, creating and editing. Lots of different elements have gone in to creating these images, as well as researching how to. In the beginning it started with researching different food adverts, as well as finding out what they do which makes them unique and able to get consumers to use the product. Through this, I found many different ways of creating them. To finish researching, I transitioned to planning via using an online survey which I sent to many people on social media. My aim was to reach 15 different opinions, so it wasn't particularly troublesome if people didn't answer (many didn't!). In my opinion, this could've been improved if I had reached out much further rather than only finding 15 people. If I were to have got at least 30, that would be quite a refined survey.

I then began to take the photos for the images, after finishing planning and scouting. I managed to plan quite well, however the first meeting had to be aborted due to a lot of different conflicting plans. Other than that, it was pretty successful. In the actual shoot, it was quite windy so there was implications from that. However, I purposefully brought a Tripod to keep stability in less than positive conditions. But there was also an issue with a lot of activity in the town centre too. After taking around 5-10 photos for each, they all ended up with good photos. The first one actually had an extremely large amount of activity. There was a group of young people who were around the area, and some of them had bikes and where often ending up in the shot. This just required sufficient patience instead of any intervention.

After the photos were created, I went to edit them in post via Photoshop and Camera RAW. Each photo was quite easy to edit, however the blue hoodie was still a bit of an issue, so that could be improved if I tried this again. The editing however was completed without hitch, and ended up very pleasing in my opinion.

In conclusion, while there could be any improvements, in the end I believe that it has been quite successful.

Creation and Construction

How I made the final images

When it came to completing the advertisements, it was important to know where they would be positioned in real life. For example there is the issue about whether it will even be virtual or put outside. In my opinion, it seemed like the best option to fit it between the two ideas. This gives more versatility to the usage of the advert, as well as making sure it looks aesthetically pleasing in different places. After deciding this it was time to think about the visual elements to make it into the final cut.

Primarily, it is important to make sure the main strap-line and masthead are very clear and concise, as well as being interesting to the reader, and in symmetrical areas. My ideas for the photos should always link to what the text refers to, as well. Speaking of - I believe the four photos should be along the lines of: 2 direct mode of address photos, side mid-shot and maybe one of a phone screen. To relate to this, I could refer to the lack of focus in the background, or the use of maybe an app that people can use to access YourFood. Furthermore, the masthead should also be similar to and follow the colour pallet used for the advert.

In my idea of the colours are around the general pallet that has been used for past adverts and any logos I've made. However, I also want it to feel quite minimalist and modern, following the current style found in today's advertisements. I feel like two colours should match that, but one as a main colour and one to contrast the other. A mix of carmine pink/brick red (the main logo colour), and then plain white to contrast on any dark backgrounds. 

In the end, it is also important to capture the audience's attention after looking at the advert, not just showing it to them in the first place. As humans, we are typically apathetic when we look at adverts. We've all had that feeling where there has been a very interesting advertisement which could help with something in daily life, and it has piqued interest, but the advert never goes into long-term memory because there's nothing to look for after. Which is why social media is vital, it keeps the audience for longer, giving them more time to consider on whether to buy. For example, having a QR code on an advert which leads them to the website or social media that the advert uses would be great because it would allow the viewer to involve themselves further and find more information on what they might want to get into.

To put this to a close, I'd like to describe how important it is that there are not only aesthetically pleasing components, but that the final images have some repeating pieces, like a regular slogan. For a slogan, or tagline, I've decided already it would be best to be placed around the bottom third, by the logo. Through the survey, it seems the most preferred tagline shall be "whenever, wherever, however." This as well as the logo and social media icons shall fill the bottom third and stay in all four photos.

Audience Research and Feedback

Exploring Research into the target audience

Segmentation

Audience segmentation is a large part of stereotypes and research into audience. It all depends on the socio-economic factor. E.g. Gender, Ethnicity, Age, Regional identity, and then social class.
Social class continues onto a more detailed factor;

[NRS Social Grade Table]
A Upper Middle Class - Higher managerial, administrative or professional
B Middle Class - Intermediate managerial, administrative or professional
C1 Lower Middle Class -Supervisory or clerical, junior managerial, administrative or professional
C2 Skilled Working Class - Skilled manual workers
D Working Class - Semi and unskilled manual workers, students
E Lowest level of Subsistence - State pension, widowed, casual, unemployed or lowest grade worker

Target demographic will likely fall into anyone of any gender, of Essex origin (no particular ethnicity), around the ages of 16-25 and most likely between C1 and D social status. This most accurately reflects the people who would be buying a takeaway in the first place, so that would mean more casual adverts with more complacent/enjoyable themes.

Gender;
For gender, it's slightly more likely that males will end up buying rather than female. This is because of how women are much more watchful of their weight, and are also more likely to end up buying healthy stuff over unhealthy items. To match the bias, I'll focus parts of the advert towards males very slightly. This can be done by using a blunt tagline, or showing stereotypically "manly" food. However, to represent the female identity, I will not have anything representing overtly singular-gendered items in the advert to both support equal rights, and follow print media rules by ASA. It is important to reach those who are more likely to buy it, however equality is much more important.

Ethnicity;
There are many grey areas when it comes to this. For example, I could make an advert showing fried chicken and it be represented by a black person. This is more likely to reach the minority identity, however, it could also be seen as insensitive and racist. For my adverts, I will not be using any ethnicity-specific taglines or photos.

Age;
Lots of people of different ages can be found ordering takeaway, however people under the age of 16/without a job don't really order takeaway, so that is a factor that came into play for the 16-25 age. In the adverts I will be focusing on making it related to what maybe people wear, or stereotypes might wear.

Region;
Speaks for itself. Essex region, and I'll be trying to make at least *some* links to its location.

Social Class;
In my opinion, I believe people between C1 and D will order takeaway from Your Food on a regular basis. This means that I will base my adverts on slightly lower class things. For example, it could be taken in front of an urban area with graffiti.

Consumer Characterisation
Cross-Cultural Consumer Characterisation model

There are four categories of the CCCC:
Main-streamers, Aspirers, Reformers and Succeeders. With auxiliary categories Explorer, Resigned and Struggler. Consumers are motivated by the level of security, control, status, individuality, freedom, survival and escape. Much like everything in life.

Potential Questions
---Section 1---
What is your first name? (Open Q, optional) (only to know which survey is which)
How old are you? (Multiple choice, optional)
What do you identify as? (Multiple choice with "other", optional)
---Section 2---
This image is of a mock-up for a new advertising strategy for YourFood™, a takeaway service based in Essex. Do you believe this is effective at enticing you to use the company? (Multiple choice)(show mockup)
How far do you believe this advert is accurately portraying the region of Essex? (Multiple choice)
If not, please explain why (Open Q)
Which social class do you believe this advert to be structured in? (Multiple choice)(show social class img)
We have decided to research straplines and slogans for the company to use. Which do you prefer? (Multiple choice)
We have decided to research improved logos for the company to use. Which do you prefer? (Multiple choice)
---Section 3---
In your opinion, how likely are you to use this takeaway service from the information provided? (1-10)

Here we see an almost-unanimous response for being between the ages of 16-17. This means that every survey result must be taken into account.

There is a wide variety of gender identities shown within the group who have been surveyed (other than the clear "alien" joke which will not be accounted for due to it being anomalous), which is perfect as it means people from a wide variety of backgrounds have seen and criticised the mock-ups so far.

The closed results show that the advert is interesting to the consumer, and the advert catches peoples eye. However, 20.0% of people do not agree this is a good advert. We'll see why in the open question, but this shows there is clear ways to improve.

This advert has different results compared to the previous. 33.3% of people disagree with the advert, which means the advert isn't as effective as it can be. There is room for improvement and it is likely this won't be one of the main ways I create the final designs.

Before I start, these are both the same question, just with multiple screenshots due to the length and amount of answers. Quite a few of the answers are talking about how the adverts don't match the Essex style which was intended. It is apparent that they look too ambiguous to be considered an Essex brand, which means there needs to be more discerning features to the final designs. This is great feedback.

The results for this describe the adverts as being unappealing and having a lack of professionalism to them. Furthermore, they are following apparent clichés, as well as the fact that the adverts would theoretically "blend in" with the other adverts around it. I take from this that there needs to be a cleaner feel to them, with more professional taglines, straplines, captions and better areas to photo. Furthermore, there needs to be something which makes the adverts stand out.

This question is mainly on finding out if I have aimed to the target audience. I find that I've correctly reached the target audience, as people between the ages 16-25 are typically low wage workers (first time jobs are usually E class), as well as how people who order takeaway typically seem to be of lower wage. There is an anomalous decision of "Upper class", which will be dis-counted.

This clearly shows that the logo should either be the Essex-based logo, or the print logo of the burger buns. This helps as it has been a difficult decision on what logo should be used.

Just like the previous question, this gives some easy insight into what should be used. In this instance, the slogan "Whenever, Wherever, However" shall be used (the slogan in the survey was incorrect, but the survey is closed now).

These questions are less important and just show if the adverts will be successful or not. From this information I can find that people are definitely interested in the product, albeit with a few people that are less interested. However, people are less likely to spread the word about the product. This means that if it ever was truly advertised, the reach would have to be very far out and reach as many people as possible, due to the lack of word of mouth.

In conclusion, I see multiple areas to improve. It needs to be more professional, have a location which matches the brief, it needs to use a better tagline and it *must* stand out. Furthermore, it would be helpful if the adverts were aesthetically pleasing to the eye.

Location Scouting & Costumes

"Where, how and who"

In the final images, I am hoping to get a variety of different photos in a multitude of places around Harlow Town Centre, more specifically "Broadwalk". This area is especially interesting because it was created around as far back as the 60s, yet all the shops around it have grown and been modernised. The outside scenery however hasn't been "updated" since that time. It's been maintained, but there haven't been refurbishments or replacements, making it one of the most Essex-y places to take photos. Furthermore, it is perfect for making very grungy themes.

For the photos, I've decided it would be a healthy idea to try and get two different subjects to get photos of, both of them being asked in advance for specific clothing and where they will be having to go. When it came to costume, I wanted something that matched the theme, while contrasting from other pieces. The first two photos focused on generally bright areas, so it seemed fitting to have the subject wear generally dark clothing. There was, however, an issue of a brand logo on their clothing, so it was important to remove that in post prior to finishing the photos. The other subject was told to wear a red tracksuit, however there was a big issue surrounding the fact they lacked a red one. Because of this, I asked them to wear a blue hoodie instead and I would edit it in post. This is because of how blue is the opposite of red, making it very easy to change the colour of the hoodie in Photoshop. 

Mock-Up Designs

Creating "test" designs

To test the waters, I decided to create multiple mock-up pieces which will visually describe a rough idea of what the final advertisements will entail. I took to Photoshop after finding some stock images of eateries and culinary staff, using them with the intent of confirming ideas for the final designs. Obviously I must disclose the two copyrighted images are owned by Papa Johns (usage of John Schnatter's (Papa John's) likeness), and the other being a well-used stock image from an unknown source (after detailed analysis via searching the web, no results).

During my time using Photoshop, I explored the different ideas and experimented with new techniques and ways to create a good advert which will match what consumers want to see. The first thing was going to be the strapline. Because of the location-based study, I had a variety of Essex-themed straplines, as well as some regular and more professional ones to match what one might see in a real advert. 

Next was about the caption and other areas of the mock advert. Before all of this though, the most important thing to do is create a layout of guidelines which show the border of where anything other than the image should go. This is because of accuracy of printers. During the printing stage, there is always the possibility of minor variations in the parts that a printer might print or miss. This is why there is always a 5mm minimum gap between where any informational parts of an advert go, and the actual edge of the advert. This secures the different describing parts of the design, making sure it looks professional as well as giving any viewers the intended view. You wouldn't want an ad with half of the logo missing, right? As well as this, I used the guidelines to make an area to match the rule of thirds. This is a rule which guides where to put different elements of a photo to make it more appealing to the viewer/s in question. For example, having the man on the X left third and reaching the top of the middle Y third, it is quite good.

Post-guidelines, I added the strapline as well as the caption. Captions should usually be further information from the strapline, or something which entices the audience to have further interest in buying or using a product. Adverts don't always need captions (or straplines for that matter), but the style I'm following will be using both of those elements. For my advertisements, they will have a sort of punctual, short and snappy strapline, with a caption that further describes what is said. This is to attract the audience to read more on something which is suggested through the strapline. For example, if you use a relatable phrase (e.g. Snickers' "you're not you when you're hungry"), with a response that relates to the advert and the product being sold to them. This creates a personal level for the consumer, which in turn raises the likelihood of the consumer buying or using the product in question. This is used a lot in advertising, as people are known to not trust adverts most of the time. However, the weakpoint of emotion is relating to an individual. Put bluntly, it's very easy to manipulate someone by relating to them. Relating to someone for an ulterior motive is used everywhere, albeit it's quite nefarious. Friendships, relationships, advertisements and all the way to interrogations and interviews. Tangent over, and to summarise: manipulation is one of the "best" ways of advertising.

Nearing the end of editing, the trivial pieces of the advert are added. The logo so people can recognise it, and multiple social media icons which show that the company is involved on social media. Social media can be very advantageous as it gives a personal contact between the consumer and provider. Other than that, it's now time to aesthetically improve the photo. Prior to editing, the advert might have clashing colours, lowkey lighting and a dingy feel to it. This is why editing can be very important. So I began by improving the exposure, contrast, clarity and more of both photos, as well as matching the superimposed manager in the second advertisement to the background. After making a brighter and "sunnier" photo, I focused on colouring. For the first advert, I had an issue with the white font and the background. As I was finding, using the red colour used for the company would not work, as it looked too dark for the background in some areas. So instead of that, I experimented with using shadows to create more of a bold presence for the tagline, strapline, etc. As well as this, I changed the strength of the shadows depending on where they are found, like how on the logo and social media logos they have less shadows compared to the strapline at the top of the photo. If need be in the final images, I will use the same technique, as well as using white in areas where red won't match the background. It's all about having colours that compliment with bold lines and strong things to look at which really catch someone's eye. 

Statement of Intent

Advertising Research

Researching the psychology behind advertising

In advertising, there is a variety of different ways to portray the adverts to the viewers. For example, there are ads which play on the emotions of individuals, or advertisements which inform the viewer. These techniques are used to influence the audience to decide to use or buy the product shown. For example, using an emotional advert showing someone feeling happier after eating or buying their product.

The first advertisement I found shows the famous image of "Uncle Sam" from American wartime posters, except edited to show him after eating a messy chilli-dog. This is used in this way because it is being advertised in America, and therefore reminiscing with the very militaristic population. It brings nostalgia to people and also links to American culture. Furthermore, it describes the food as the "best weiner in town", making people think this option is *the* best one to go to.

This second poster was for another American advert of an unidentified company. It has a tasty photo of their new product, the "Meat, Cheese, Bacon". However, they do an interesting technique due to how much of the western world is weight watching. They have a piece of information giving the viewers insight on how the burger is, health-wise. "Only half the calories" rings a bell with those hoping to lose weight while eating fatty foods, as many who do diet end up eating unhealthy items just like this thanks to the straplines which make the audience very interested.

Gherkin or gherkout? The age-old question. McDonald's has really pulled this out the bag with their advert catering to a question based on how people are quite verbal on their tastes. As many know, the gherkin debate is a love/hate issue. With some people absolutely loving eating gherkins and others despising them. McDonald's use this to their advantage by asking the audience about their opinion on the food sold. Much like the new Big Mac advertising scheme. However, it also shows that people who don't like gherkin do have the option of removing it. "There's a McDonald's for everyone" links to how you're able to choose just what you want with your Big Mac.

Hungry House is a takeaway service which hasn't been spoken about for a while, but did have some good advertising schemes. The one shown is taken from a moving image and shows a friend group after buying takeaway from Hungry House, all enjoying each-others' company while enjoying the food. It links to the emotional value of takeaway and makes it seem like you will have a good time while eating from their service.