M1- Evaluate Different Cross-Media Adverts

  M1: Evaluate different cross media advertising campaigns for consistency of message

Assessment Criteria for M1:
This can be built on from evidence of P1 with learners selecting campaigns that deliver/communicate across at least two media pathways.

Choose a similar promotional campaign which delivers across at least two pathways. An example might be two different campaigns for a soft drink.

Background

Monster Energy began in 1935 as Hansen's Natural Corporation, originally not making energy drinks but rather selling juice to film studios and other retailers in Southern California, where the company was founded. Eventually expanding and deciding to produce Energy drinks, among many others.

It had many former drink products such as Soda, Drink Mixers, Juices for children, etc. But as of 2015, all non energy drink brands were sold to the Coca-Cola company. The rebrand from 'Hansen's' to Monster was only in 2012, just before the other products were sold.

Monster Energy since the rebrand very quickly identified it's target audience, reaching out to Motorsports, Action Sports, E-Gaming and Punk Rock scenes. While competitors like Goliath (aka Red Bull) already occupied these places, Monster offered a more aggressive alternative – a trait that the audience identified with. It promoted and sponsored many sports events such as UFC, BMX, Skateboarding, etc. In addition to the promotion of many punk rock bands such as Asking Alexandria and Five Finger Death Punch.

The company deliberately avoided advertising toward the mainstream, and instead targeted directly towards a specific target audience and capitalized from it.

The company's growth now means they hold about 39% of the $57 billion US energy drink market.

From 21st October 2013 to the 31st December, Monster Energy had a partnership with Activision for promoting the latest release in the Call of Duty franchise. Call of Duty: Ghosts. To do this, they released print advertising and different products of Monster which featured Call of Duty artwork on the can, aswell as a redeemable code underneath the tab for in-game prizes and rewards, such as the 'Double XP' promoted in this example ad.

The Target Audience of Call of Duty is not too dis-similar to that of Monster, while Call of Duty is an 18 rated game, Activision is in full knowledge that its main audience are mainly angsty teenagers, and so by partnering with a drink company very associated in the niche gaming scene, it allows both customers of Monster and Call of Duty to mix, gaining a massive amount of synergy from both the incentive of in-game rewards but also by being a part of that kind of community.

The advert itself uses very dark shades of black for its backgrounds, and then contrasts this with the bright green and blue of the logo. The product is also featured on the right hand side of the ad, blending in with the colour schemes of the rest of the ad, using the same black and blue colours, making the product being advertised small and almost un-noticeable, the main focus here is on the cross-promotion with 'Call of Duty: Ghosts' creating synergy between the target audiences of both Call of Duty and Monster Energy.

The overall tone of the ad is very dark and aggressive, fitting the aesthetics expected of Call of Duty and then using it to promote Monster, cross-promoting and causing the products to be associated with each other effectively and send customers of both to each other.

Another print ad for Monster Energy is this example, which features the tagline for Monster, "Unleash the Beast!" shown prominently just beneath the logo. This increases the aggressive feel of the ad, aswell as the reach to its target audience. Making the promotion intentionally dark and edgy so that it seems cooler and distinct from most other soft-drinks, reaching a more niche demographic and taking advantage of cross-promotion and synergy in order to sell and make profit.

The product is featured much more prominently in this ad, taking up the majority of the left hand side while still matching the colour scheme of a dark black background contrasted by a bright, glowing green. This is still mainly to just make the product stand out and look interesting to potential consumers, making the products identity well known enough to cross-promote and gain synergy as easily as possible.

                               https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QskJmmAQME

Focusing on another media pathway, this Audio-Video Monster advert from 2017 features celebrity endorsement from popular UFC Fighter Conor McGregor, using the promotional hashtag "#IAmTheBeast" This is done to both draw attention from fans of Conor McGregor, but also promote the energy given from Monster from an athlete endorsing the product, making it seem even better to potential consumers who are interested in sports and wish to be full of energy to perform as well as possible.

The advert itself is just clips of McGregor training with Monster product placement and logos being placed on different pieces of equipment such as the banner on the boxing ring, the punching bag and a drink bottle. This is used to affect the public image of Monster, and have people associate it with training and athleticism so that people who wish to train and regularly exercise/go the gym feel inclined to drink Monster while doing so.

P4- create the media components to be used in the planned campaign

P4: Create the media components to be used in the planned campaign (*Synoptic assessment from Unit 3 Create a media product)
Assessment Criteria for P4:

YOU must produce your planned media components to be used in the advertising campaign. You should provide an introduction to your advertisement components you will be producing and present, as evidence, views of your advert and supporting materials.

What do I have to do? (This is an individual task?)
Create the components for your advertising campaign and present them on your blog using a range of mock ups.

Powerpoint- Unit 20 Advertising Horror/Thriller

P3- Unit 20: Advertising Campaign

 P3: Create a pre-production plan for the media components in the planned advertising campaign

Assessment Criteria for P3:

YOU are required to produce pre-production materials for their planned media components.

These may include: pitch documentation; research into genre and conventions; images and mood boards; production schedule with proposed launch dates; any other relevant material (i.e. sample footage and sounds). 

Evidence could be produced in the form of a formal word-processed document, presentation or hand drafted documentation with supporting notes and digital files.

Genre- Thriller

Advertising campaigns for thriller movies all share very similar codes and conventions in how it reaches its target audience. While the advertising itself may be greatly different, they all use similar conventions which prove to be effective with other successful films.

-As seen here, the promotional material all seem to focus on a person, usually in a close up or extreme close-up shot. This is used very commonly because it gives a feeling of claustrophobia or danger to the viewer, drawing them in and setting expectations for a threatening presence throughout the film.

-Another convention used in thriller promotional material is the use of an item as a form of iconography. Such as the 'It' red balloon or the knife in 'The Shining', these are symbols that hold meaning to its audience and people can recognize/ associate with the film, meaning that fear can be created with subtlety from simply the presence of a single object.

-With all these aspects considered I believe it would be best to include them in my own promotion, following the codes and conventions of separate thriller films while still attempting to remain unique to make the film have its own identity.

Mood Boards

Colour Palette for Promotional Material

-I plan to use a colour scheme of primarily red and black, dark colours that make the audience feel unsettled and afraid, while also remaining mysterious enough to draw people in with intrigue.

-Text on the poster will likely be minimal except for the title, presented in a large font that appears boldly but still fits in nicely with the rest of the design.

-Use of graphics for the sake of showing either people or creating iconography, such as the Hellraiser face, the Saw spiral pattern, Jason Voorhees, etc. making the work instantly recognizable and distinct to average audiences.

Typography for Promotional Material

-The font I plan to use is a very detailed, artistic display font. This would allow for a lot of detail and personality in the title, preparing the audience for a thrilling, fearful film.

-Display font being used for the title also means it is likely to stand out more and stick better in the viewers mind, making the product much more iconic and recognizable.

-The colour of the text is also important when considering typography, as the majority of the example display text logos used red text, which is reminiscent of blood. Creating the atmosphere needed for  a violent thriller, both excited the audience aswell as inciting fear, which is why I will likely choose red text for advertisement designs. 

-White also resembles elements of the supernatural, and encouraging viewers to feel fear of the impossible and unknown. This is used most famously for films like Alien, so I may consider incorporating in my design.

Layouts and Graphics for Promotional Material

-The layout of all of these posters consist of a very close up figure/symbol. The text is kept to a minimum of usually a large title, a small tagline, release date and then an even smaller cast list of the people involved in the creation of the film.

-The figures on the posters are close up or extreme close-up photos of people which are edited to appear more horrific and supernatural. The impossible nature of the image creates fear by itself, discomforting the viewer and showing what they should expect in terms of horror and graphic content, acting as a teaser for what's possible and what the viewer should be scared of.

-The other layouts that feature symbols rather than people also prove quite successful. Such as the 'It' red balloon, these are effective as they create tension without even showing anything explicitly scary, rather the warning of what could happen and creating more fear from simple iconography, and so I will consider how important symbols/items are when creating my promotional material.

-For the designs I will use graphics which involve a religious, cult-like imagery. Ensuring it to be as ominous and threatening as possible using familiar, common iconography that unsettles people and puts them on edge. For example I could make promotion with an extreme close-up on the example mask in the mood board with a bloodstain on it. This application of graphics into the promotion both creates iconography and sets up expectations of horror in a subtle way without being cheesy or overly graphic. 

-The idea of including masks as a part of the graphics is because it takes away the viewers perception of identity for the horror, creating the fear from not just a single person, but a detachable symbol that can better communicate a specific emotion to a target audience, and the use of it on a poster and in advertising will be incredibly effective in getting across this idea.

Risk Assessment

When making a risk assessment, I must account for a large number of different factors that could possibly create issues or cause harm. Such as filming locations, in which I must account for our permission to access the location, transport for cast and crew, safe operation of equipment only by professionals, as well as food or water so the cast and crew aren't hungry or dehydrated.

P2- Unit 20: Advertising Campaign

P2: Create a plan for a cross media advertising campaign in response to a client brief.

Assessment Criteria: You are required to create a plan for a cross media advertising campaign to a client brief. The information gained from P1 could inform the advertising campaign 

Working Title: Disciples

The Product I wish to create is promotional material for a horror/thriller film. I will use promotional material in formats of AV and Print, designing posters, logos and billboard alongside a short trailer with the purpose to entertain audiences and promote the film effectively.

Some of my examples for inspiration are the promotional material for the films 28 Days Later (2002) and It (2017),as they both have similar colour themes and horror imagery which isn't too overt but rather subtle and unsettling to audiences. 

My design, inspired by these will have a dark colour scheme, making use of reds and blacks, while also appearing minimalist and simple, inciting as much fear and mystery as I can with as little as possible, giving an ominous atmosphere to all the print material. I plan to use imagery of weapons or puppet-like masks, these paired with dark lighting and minimal text or images will give the exact eerie, unsettling atmosphere I intend.

The layouts between the two posters are quite different, It places most emphasis on the image of the clown and the child, placing the title and slogan around it. Whereas 28 days later places the title in the very centre in bold, large text, with a similar sizes slogan above it. The graphic is secondary to the title, making it seem more emphasized and drawing the audiences attention. I will likely use a poster layout more similar to It, placing the audiences focus on the graphics rather than the title.

Text in the design would vary, using small, serif fonts for taglines in order to keep the design minimalist, but the title itself would be large in either a sans serif font or one that appears very graphic and detailed similar to the font in the It poster shown above.

The Target Audience is 17-25 years old, making it suitable for young adults/older teenagers, with a gender demographic of 70% Male and 30% Female. This means when creating the promotional material, I have to draw in people of these demographics as effectively as I can. In this case, for a horror/thriller film, I need to make the advertising as ominous and unsettling as possible without being too overtly explicit or vulgar. The audience being adults means I can trust their intelligence to pick up on subtle details which help make a poster unsettling and creepy. This prepares the audience for the content of the film and what to expect, without seeming cheesy or too overt.

The resources and personnel I have for this project consist of Adobe Photoshop and InDesign, aswell as Sony Vegas Movie Studio software available to me from the school computers. I also have multiple personnel of people who are willing to portray characters on camera in photoshoots, people who can do make-up and costume and also assisting with photography, while I will primarily be editing and overseeing the creative aspects in making the promotional material.

Furthermore, the distribution and marketing can be used to produce posters and billboards posted around public areas, aswell as online promotion via social media accounts and pop up ads that promote the film and make more people aware of it and intrigued in the film. I could also cross-promote and feature the film in magazines to draw in more audiences and in return, send audiences towards a specific magazine to learn more about our film.

P1/M1- Unit 20 Advertising Campaign- LO1

 P1: Describe an existing media advertising campaign.

Assessment Criteria for P1:

Learners are required to describe an existing media advertising campaign. They should consider the advertisements used within existing advertising campaigns across a range of media products.

One example of an advertising campaign is the promotion It (2017) In most of the promotional material, the monster itself was hardly even visible and mostly obscured him in shadow, but left the focus on the iconic red balloon, creating iconography and a symbol that people can associate with the film, people all around the world even putting red balloons on sewers, encouraging people to watch the film by putting it so clearly in their mind with such simple, unforgettable imagery. This strategy clearly worked since the film made $292.9 billion from licensed merchandise sales and becoming the highest grossing horror movie of all time.

It also approached it's target audience incredibly well, making the advertising incredibly unsettling and eerie and clear that it was a horror film, but not overly explicit or violent in promotion, meaning that even if children see the poster, it won't scare them too much while still leaving older audiences fully aware of what they're seeing and make them feel unsettled going to watch the film and prepared to be scared.

The advertising online on social media was primarily carried via official and influential social media accounts, the official movie accounts appeared on every major social media network, making posts of eerie, unsettling images from the film alongside text encouraging the audience to overcome their fear, promoting positive, encouraging messages to be brave and see the film.

Influential social media accounts also had a massive impact, such as the Instagram of the films director, Andy Muschietti, in which he would post behind the scene images, storyboards, props, etc. Giving the audience a small look into the production process. Making fans feel included in how they made the film, aswell as making sure old fans were pleased by showing them that the film would be more similar to the book itself rather than the source material that strayed quite heavily.

M1: Evaluate different cross media advertising campaigns for consistency of message.

Assessment Criteria for M1:

This can be built on evidence of P1 with learners selecting campaigns that deliver/communicate across at least two media pathways.

Another famous advertising campaign for a horror film similar to It is 'The Blair Witch Project' A part of the advertising campaign for this film involved making people question what was and wasn't real, such as the missing person posters they placed around college campuses in America. The link to the website and the mystery that intrigued people managed to draw them to the film before it came out, creating both conversations about the films promotion to be common-place and make people feel tense and nervous about the mystery.

The vast majority of the promotion wasn't the print, but rather digital formats of advertisement and how this spread on the internet. A website that described the urban legend of an evil witch. This website ended up getting 20 million page views from people all over the world. They also posted interviews with the 'families' of the missing people from the print promotion missing posters, making them seem as real people with actual lives, confusing people as much as they can. The popular online forums had conversations on this also, with the film-makers feeding false information into the thread.

This promotion essentially became its own online phenomenon, creating mystery and unease for all the seemingly real victims and urban legends the film revolves around. While the film itself isn't held in high regard as an actually good film, its amazingly genius advertising cannot be ignored and the reason it gained $250 million in the box office, becoming one of the most successful independent films of all time and landing a spot on Esquire's Scariest Movies of All Time.

One of the small details this campaign did well was finding its target audience. The missing person posters with links to the websites were intentionally placed on college campuses, ensuring they reach young adults/teenagers who they wish to advertise to, and creating a mystery and starting the promotion right where they are.

This type of campaign is incredibly similar to the 'It' campaign previously mentioned, they both advertised films of the horror genre and used the world as a way of setting tone, bringing the fear out of the film and into reality to make people feel tense and uneasy, while also maintaining subtlety and ensuring the promotion material reached its target audience, both being teenagers and young adults, so even if young children saw the advertising they likely wouldn't understand it and not be worried or scared.

Horror/Thriller Moodboards

    Horror Film Mood board

Thriller Film Mood board