Persuasive techniques

 In today's session, we learnt that persuasive techniques are used in advertising in order to convince someone, encourage someone and tempt someone into buying something. Their purpose is to sell a product, aiming at a certain target audience to appeal to their emotions and personalities.

There are many codes and conventions with persuasion such as the ones listed below:

*Emotive words.
*List of three.
*Rhetoric questions.
*Superlatives and adjectives.
*Alliteration.
* Facts and statistics.

These all contribute to a persuasive advertisement, making people feel as though they want/have to buy a certain product just due to the persuasive language.

Print Advertising

Print advertising is a form of advertising, using physically printed media such as magazines and newspapers to reach out to businesses, prospects and consumers. The are usually used to enhance the image of the company, attracting in a visual way through colours, shapes and fonts. Not only this but they point out and create a need for products/services, announce new programs and services and convince customers that a companies services are the best. They were introduced in the 1920s, the first printed adverts being about tobacco, promoting it rather than express the dangers of it. Not only this but make up brands such as Maybelline also made printed advertisements to promote new products, old products and upcoming products, and also different food products were advertised, for instance Kellogg's, all shown above. The effects of these adverts led to them being carried on and are still being used to this day. Since then however, there have been massive changes to the adverts, with reduced text and more visual effects, leading them to be more aesthetically pleasing and eye catching.

What's included in printed advertisement?
*Model - direct contact.
*Colours - strong and bold.
*Font families.
*Logo of brand.
*Image of product.
*Slogans/straplines.

https://www.fedena.com/blog/2014/02/advantages-disadvantages-print-media.html - After using my own research, I found different advantages and disadvantages of print advertising. One way in which advertising is good is because magazines and newspapers are very common in our era, and so print adverts are noticed on a daily basis, therefore always allowing the advertisement to be seen by someone at some point of the day. Not only this but print media is an easy medium to spread awareness or advertise to any particular area geographically. Also, some forms of print media have a huge and trusted followers.

All printed advertisements come under one of the three: Pathos, Ethos or Logos.

Ethos: This is an appeal to ethics, and it's a meaning of convincing someone of the character or credibility of the persuader.

An example of ethos is "Doctors all over the world recommend this treatment".

Pathos: This is an appeal to emotion, and is the way of convincing an audience of an argument by creating an emotional response.

An example of pathos is: "If we don't move soon we're all going to die! Do you not understand that?"

Logos: This is the appeal to logic, a way of persuading an audience by reason.

An example of logos is:  "History has shown time again that power corrupts absolutely"

These can all be used with print advertisements, explaining what a company's message is to many people.

The first print advert:

This is a Mac Cosmetics print advertisement, advertising their different products on different facial features. The purpose of this advert is to show that their products are for everyone, suiting every skin type.


They have added their logo to this advert, showing who it is selling this product. This is what people recognize about Mac Cosmetics, simplistic due to it being sans serif in white. With it being in white makes people feel as though MAC is pure and innocent.


The ad itself is creative, using layers of different facial features. This is trying to show how you can buy any of these products and have them work for anyone. This fits under Logos due to it persuading an audience by reason. Within the text it's using statistics too, informing the audience about the products, therefore making the products seem safe to use. By adding in facts and figures it makes the brand much more trustworthy, therefore leading people to buy it. The advertising model it would fit into is AIDA, attention being the advert drawing people in due to it being vibrant and bold, interest being people reading into the products on the advert and making people think about buying it. The desire would come from how it looks on the person in the ad, due to products matching certain faces people would want to look the exact same, and so would feel like buying the product just so they can look as good as the models do. Finally, the action would be to buy the products, and if they feel they're as good as they're made out to be then they may recommend to other people, leaving a bigger audience for MAC Cosmetics. Mac also follows the codes and conventions. This is because they use bright and bold colours to draw people's attention. They deliberately chose the colour red for her lips because red is a passionate colour, dominant and easily spotted. Not only this but they added in their logo to show that it's their brand and they're proud of it. They also include images of products, which run at the bottom of the advertisement, showing the different skin care they have. Also, you could say they use the continuity theory, looking from left to right, which, if so, the customer will look left to right at the products and see what order you apply these products on your face in.

However, they don't use a model, someone people recognize. By them not doing this, people aren't as willing to spend the price they ask to be paid on this product as they don't see anyone famous using it. For years people have used a model on their print advertisement because that way your brand is associated with that certain celebrity, so every time you saw them on the TV or heard their voice you'd instantly think of that brand, the bigger the celebrity, the more popular a brand will be, and so by MAC not using a celebrity on this print advert they haven't successfully got an advert which people will be trusting in. Not only this but MAC have also put quite a lot of text onto their print advert. In some cases this can be seen to be good because people like to know about a brand and what's good about it, however people aren't going to want to look at a paragraph of text, they just want to be given the message through a couple of words, persuaded to buy something just by looking at the advert.

However, MAC does still portray the message of their product suiting all skin types, and so they have been successful in creating a print advert that explains how everyone can shop at MAC Cosmetics.

The second print advert:

This advertisement for Moms Demand Action is extremely effective. The company has used this to create shock, leaving it to be Pathos. This is because it's striking emotions straight away, comparing something so innocent to something dangerous. 'Moms Demand Action' made this ad aimed towards children in schools to raise awareness. The reason this is so effective is purely because of the innocence and vulnerability of the two children on the advertisement. Kinder Eggs are a chocolate egg, a favourite treat of many children across the UK, and so by this being compared to such a dangerous thing it's showing how appalling and disrespectful it is.

Not only this but they're also in a school, which again reinforces how the ad is aimed towards children in schools, wanting to express how they shouldn't be using guns, putting themselves and others in danger. As well as this, it gets the readers involved by telling them to "guess which one". This places power into the reader's hands and therefore helps them to engage with the advert.

It follows certain codes and conventions, such as having the logo of the company in the corner so the reader knows who it is who is trying to put this strong message across. Not only this but the colours are also effective. The choice of colours the children are wearing was deliberate, using the purple and white striped top to represent a vulnerable girl, growing up in a world of danger rather than living the golden age. The boy is wearing a red top, symbolic in the way that red represents danger, showing how guns being legal in America should be banned for the safety of children, as well as other people. Having the colours contrast the logo also follows codes and conventions because it allows us to spot the logo in the corner straight away and helps us to see who it is who's wanting to spread awareness. The logo is recognisable and memorable, so every time someone sees the logo they will instantly think of what they represent and their purpose . 

However, this company isn't well known, and so people won't relate to it as much due to them simply not knowing who they are. Not only this but they don't use someone people know on the ad. However this may not necessarily be seen as a bad thing because it's using children which Mums can relate to them due to them having children themselves, so know what it feels like when they feel as though their child is in danger.

Yet this ad still successfully delivers the message they intended to put across, aiming it towards both children and adults in order to help them see the stupidity behind banning a Kinder Egg yet allowing children to carry guns. This advertisement effectively uses pathos to strike emotions in the readers and successfully does this.


The third print advert:

This is a campaign to stop smoking, making it illegal to do in order to save rather than take lives.

The campaign uses a monochromatic colour scheme, creating a dramatic effect, leaving the reader to see it to be a very serious issue that needs to be seen to. Not only this but it's very simple, having no over the top background, leaving it to just be black. This is effective because the main focus is therefore on the girl rather than what's happening around her. This advert is pathos because it's striking emotions to the reader as it's showing the effects of smoking near a little girl.

The advert itself is showing a ruined childhood. Childhood is shown by her blowing bubbles, a child's favourite when younger. Instead of it being bubbles of water, it's rings of smoke to show how even if you don't see it affecting your child physically, it's affecting them in ways you can't see.

They've used a sans serif style in order for the reader to be able to see this as well as the image. By having it in white can relate to the purity and vulnerability of a child, and also can show a contrast between the background and the text. Not only this but it can be a contrast between the good and the bad, the background of black representing darkness, and the white text representing the good of stopping in order to stop smoking affecting a young child.

As well as this to have the model being a little girl makes the reader feel sorry for her, having to be around people who smoke all the time. It shows how she can be affected in more ways than one.

It follows some of the codes and conventions such as it involving the slogan for the campaign, and also even though the colours may not seem bold and vibrant for a campaign, they're effective in showing a dark side to smoking. However to make this advert better they could've used a logo of the campaign as I don't know which campaign is trying to stop people from smoking. With it not having a logo brings the risk of it not being noticed as much as other campaigns so may not be taken as seriously as other ones. Not only this but it doesn't use a well known person on it, doesn't help when trying to make people more aware of the problems.

However this ad tries to make sure people can see the problems with smoking and so successfully shows that by using a little girl, keeping it simplistic and effective.

Radio Adverts

Radio Advertisements are a type of commercial promoting a certain product, brand or business. They tend to be short, simple and also informative. They aren't time consuming and also are low in cost. They sometimes use catchphrases or puns, with the intention of grabbing someone's attention. If someone finds a radio advert funny or clever then they're more likely to listen and want to buy whatever it is being advertised.

Radio adverts were first introduced in the 1920s, and since have been massively popular, becoming something used every day for promotion. The main purpose of Radio Advertisement is to make money for the radio stations, then their purpose is also to advertise new or existing feature and lastly to gain more listeners. Many of us listen to the radio when driving to work, to college, even on coaches you're able to listen to the radio, and having an advertisement after a few songs is good for people to listen to.




Before recent adverts, Queen's English was how they spoke in advertisements, using received pronunciation, however in the 1990's Boddington's Beer advert was shown, using Melanie Skyes' Northern accent as the voice over. Her Northern accent was seen to be straightforward and trustworthy, so other companies wanted to use the same sort of voices for theirs, changing the way radio adverts used to be and nowadays most are used with certain accents portraying friendliness and the ones that sound trustworthy.


www.radioadvertisements.com/the-facts/how-advertising-words/ - using my own research I was able to find several facts about a successful way to make a radio advertisement. One way they make a successful advertisement is to keep them concise and simple, the longer they are the less interest people will have and so are less likely to listen, yet if they're short and quirky people will enjoy them.

What's included in radio advertisement?
*Jingles.
*Often 15-60 seconds long.
*Have instrumental sound in the back.
*Contain a slogan: easy to remember the advert.
*Persuasive language.
*Include a voice over - usually they may use someone popular, a celebrity, such as Mr T for the Snickers radio advert, as people respect Mr T and will want to buy snickers because he's the voice for it, as well as the face of the company.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g86RPUZNbB0
This is an example of a Northern radio advertisement, following the codes and conventions as this accent is friendly and trustworthy, working to Alton Towers' advantage, advertising scare fest at Alton Towers in 2007. This advertisement is 1:07 long, keeping it short yet engaging due to the sound of roller coasters in the background. This therefore links to the advertisement due to it being a theme park. Not only this but its a Northern voice, therefore relatable for both me and many others. It's a friendly voice, as well as funny, which makes the ad seem entertaining and easy to listen to when having a break from songs on a certain radio station.

However, this radio ad can also be seen to be boring due to it being repetitive. Sometimes when an advertisement is repetitive it seems like a good way to get the place into someone's head, it links into the Ehrenberg model with nudging. This is because it's constantly played on the radio, and also repeats the same sounds on the advertisement so reminds you of it all the time. This advertisement also doesn't have a slogan, leaving it to just explain the event that's happening. A brand is usually associated with a certain slogan, enabling people to differentiate one brand from another due to its slogan, and so by this radio ad not having one, in some people's opinions it will leave it less memorable.

Not only this but the radio advert has a person speaking that nobody knows. The only relatable thing about it is the Northern accent, other than that there's nothing special about it in regards to who represents the advert. Some adverts include a celebrities voice because people tend to want things or do things that a certain celebrity does, however because the Alton Towers ad doesn't have that, people aren't wanting to go as much as they would if someone famous was representing it.


However, this advertisement is straight to the point, understandable, concise and simple, therefore easy to listen to when waiting for the news or another song.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLvBRCyNHJs
This radio advert is only 24 seconds long, meaning it's fast paced, straight to the point and concise. The advert involves clarity and a bit of fun, by having someone list several items which have been reduced in price, linking into the DRIP model because it's claiming to be better than competitors due to them having good value food at an extremely cheap price. This advert also includes two famous people's voices: Julie Walters out of many films, including Mama Mia and Chris Clarkson, actor and presenter. Having these two likeable people on a food ad will make listeners want to go to TESCO rather than any other place just because they're the voices of the advertisement. It therefore associates the brand with these two, so the more you see these two on the screen the more you think about TESCO.

Not only this but "every little helps" is used as their slogan on both printed ads and radio ads, and so this slogan is memorable, and so just by using this it makes people think of TESCO straight away, therefore never being able to forget about this supermarket.

However, this advertisement doesn't have any instrumental background, only the sound of someone's voice, therefore leading it to be quite boring some may say due to it not having any sound other than talking. Sometimes, someone talking on a radio advertisement doesn't engage as well as having some sort of music in the background, which this ad lacks.

Yet the advertisement is consistent, with both TV advertisements, printed advertisements and radio advertisements as they use the same two people/voices and so it's recognisable.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDj8QYigFnw

Lastly, this is a Coca-Cola radio advert, taking only 30 seconds to refresh everyone. This advert was brought to radios in 2009, using sound effects, music and speech to create a successful advertisement.

This advertisement is fun, creative and concise, saying everything they need to, getting their point across almost immediately. The advert to me seems to show how Coca Cola is refreshing and tasty, instantly showing that with the sound in the ad. The music is calming, relaxing to listen to when having a car ride. Not only this but it will make people thirsty, this is because it uses the sound of someone drinking, therefore cleverly making someone else want a drink, and due to the advert being coca cola they'll want this sort of drink. 

However, this advert doesn't use a famous voice, therefore leaving people unknown to who the voice of the brand is; having someone who they know would increase the chances of people going for coca cola rather than competition such as Pepsi or Sprite. 

References:

Mediagin Creative. (2106). The Facts. Available: http://radioadvertisingfacts.com/. Last accessed 19th Jan 2017.

Mr Gradger. (2007). Alton Towers Radio Advert. Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g86RPUZNbB0. Last accessed 25th Jan 2017.

Chris Clarkson. (2012). Tesco price drop radio advert. Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLvBRCyNHJs. Last accessed 25th Jan 2017.

Tobias Ambs-Thomsen . (2010). Coke summer sound radio. Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDj8QYigFnw. Last accessed 25th Jan 2017.



 

Advertising models

Advertising models are there to show progression of what you're doing, as well as show criticism for things you do. They enable you to see the strengths and weaknesses of your product. An advertising model is a use of an advertising medium, with the goal of reaching a certain target audience. An advertising medium is the type of media/vehicle the advertising is placed on.





The first example of an advertising model is Maslow's hierarchy of needs, a pyramid of general life. It explains 5 topics within the pyramid, including psychological needs, safety needs, belongingness and love needs, esteem needs and actualization needs.





Aida Model (E. ST Elmo Lewis)  -


A - Attention: This makes people think "what is that?"
 I - Interest: People are then seen to think "This seems interesting"
D - Desire: People will at this stage feel they need this product.
A- Action: This is when people buy the product.

This model is showing how to follow steps for a successful ad, created by E. ST Elmo Lewis in the 1980's. The purpose of it is to gain attention, interest, desire and action, ending with someone buying the product.





An example I got from this was a Mini Cooper advertisement. The reason I see this to relate to the AIDA model is due to the following:

 * Attention is given by the consumer when they see the colour red, this instantly makes people turn their heads as, Joe Hallock states with the colour theory, red is a dominant colour, attracting people due to how vibrant and powerful it is.

*Interest is shown towards the main car, this is because the advertisement makes you think it is a fast car due to it looking like the car is driving past its surroundings at a high speed pace. Interest is also shown because it shows someone exploring the countryside in this car.

*Desire is shown because people are attracted to fast, new cars. People want the newest type and so by this advert showing a red coloured, fast car, people are more likely to be drawn towards it.

DAGMAR Model (Russel H Colley, 1961)-



The DAGMAR model shows unawareness, awareness, comprehension, conviction and finally action when buying a product.

Defining

Advertising

Goals for

Measured

Advertising

Results

An example I got of this was the new film advertisement "SPLIT". The reason this relates to the DAGMAR model is due to the following:

*Unaware comes from it being a new film that nobody knows about. To have this poster released excites people and makes them want to go and see it just due to them seeing that there's a new film being released very soon.

*Awareness is made by the poster. As soon as people begin to see it they realise that there's a new film for 2017, something to look forward to as well as something they want to go and see.

*Comprehension is shown because the consumer is benefitting by getting entertainment out of the film, as well as a time to have some time to themselves, family and friends. They will benefit because they will have then been one of the people to have seen this brand new film.

*Conviction is given because the graphics are simplistic, edging the consumer to want to go and see the film. Also, the poster isn't giving too much away meaning you're left wanting to go and find out about the man with "24 personalities."

*Action is shown because the consumer is left buying a ticket due to the build up to the film being good. They have shown an interest in wanting to see the film.


EHRENBERG Model - (Andrew Ehrenberg, 1997)




  This model is showing awareness, trial, reinforcement and nudging, used within many beauty brands recently as well as supermarkets such as Tesco, ASDA or Sainsbury's, a clever model to try and get customers to buy their products.





An example I got was J'Adore from Dior's perfume brand. The reason I chose this was because it follows all the steps within the model as follows:

*Awareness is made by the posters and adverts made which are everywhere for everyone to see, a constant reminder that people should be buying this perfume due to how luxurious it is and because they believe it's worth the price.

*Trial can relate to how they put some samples in magazines and also on shop fronts some workers sometimes ask you if you want to have some sprayed on your wrist in order to see what it smells like, therefore leaving people wanting to buy it due to it being a nice scent.

*Reinforcement can be shown by the fact Dior use the same model for every advertisement they do, Chanize Theron. This links to brand association because if you see her you instantly think of that same perfume, not only this people feel like they're more willing to buy it because she's the face of the perfume.

*Nudging is shown because you're constantly seeing it on posters, as well as getting several emails off of many companies saying there's a deal on this same perfume, so people then decide they really want it.


DRIP Model - (C Fill, 2000)





This model is showing how to differentiate, remind, inform and persuade, a common model used when advertising. This model is for companies claiming they're different from the rest, such as companies like Compare the Meerkat, with claims that they have better deals than their competitors.

Differentiate - Being different to competitors.

Remind - What the company stands for.

Inform - What's new about the company.

Persuade - Why it's right for you.

An example I found was from Compare the Meerkats.

This shows the different stages of a DRIP model:
*Differentiate is shown because it's a meerkat dressed in a suit, dressing gown and tie. This is different, a fun and quirky idea that makes people smile when they're watching it.


*Remind is shown when you get a free meerkat toy. This is representing them as a company, and people do sometimes switch to companies like this to get the free toy, so by them doing this they feel they'll get more customers coming to them.

*Inform is shown because it's showing on the advert that it's cheap car insurance, not just any sort of car insurance. People are mainly drawn to something when they see that it's not as expensive as what they're currently paying out for.

*Persuasion is shown due to it being cheap and again getting the free toy. It could be seen as giving out a gift in exchange for them to come to Compare the Meerkat.

Audio production and Visual production - units 5 and 6.

Within this assignment, we will be given the opportunity to research into a variety of print and radio advertisements in order to develop our knowledge and understanding of how to create a successful product. After researching, we will be given the opportunity to create our own radio and print adverts for a local company. I will use the skills I have gained in previous tasks, involving shape theory, colour theory, typeography and also my skills in Photoshop, however I will also be introduced to new skills, such as how to use new softwares, especially when creating my radio advert. I will record all progress made in this blog so I can see what I have done throughout the project.

Unit 5 : - Investigating audio production and technology.


This unit will develop my ability to critically analyse and integrate knowledge and understanding gained in previous units and to investigate the specific skills and attributes needed for creative production and technology in audio-based media platforms.

I will be:
*Analysing the requirements and parameters of an audio-based problem in creative media production.
*Applying research activities to support different solutions to an audio-based problem.
*Demonstrating the ability to plan, organise and present solutions to an audio-based problem.
*Applying practical skills, understanding methods to solve an audio-based problem.
*Analysing the effectiveness of solutions to an audio-based problem.

Unit 6 : - Investigating visual production and technology.

This unit will develop my ability to critically analyse and integrate knowledge and understanding gained in previous units and to investigate the specific skills and attributes needed for creative production and technology in visual-based media platforms

I will be:

*Analysing the requirements and parameters of a visual-based problem in creative media production.
*Applying research activities to support different solutions to a visual-based problem.
*Demonstrating the ability to plan, organise and present solutions to a visual-based problem.
*Applying practical skills, understanding methods to solve a visual-based problem.
*Analysing the effectiveness of solutions to a visual-based problem.

Research: I will research using both primary and secondary research, gaining knowledge about both units. I will listen to many different types of radio adverts to see what they all have in common and also what differs between the different types. I will also critically analyse them, explaining the pros and cons of radio adverts. Not only this but I will find plenty of printed adverts, comparing them to one another. Because I am going to be creating an advert for a local company, I will be looking around my local area to see what adverts around my area are like so I can fit what people like to see and I will also ask to see what people would like to hear/see and what would draw their attention to one of these adverts.

Proposal: I will use my skills gained from previous tasks and the new ones made in this task to create my adverts, using the research I have collected to see what people want. I will do this within a time limit so I'm not in a rush, taking my time to make the final product the best it can be. 

Production: I will create a radio advert with Adobe Audition, something I will need skills in, which I will gain through the assignment, and I will also use my previously gained skills in Adobe Photoshop to create a printed advert.

Evaluate: After creating my products, I will then set a SMART target, and also address what went well, what could've gone better and what I would change if I was to do it all again.

 For this assignment, I will be recording all my research and my development on my blog, keeping up to date on what I've done in each session in both the classroom and at home as well. By doing this I will always know what I have already done and what needs doing and then therefore all my research will be easy to find and easily updatable if necessary. I aim to achieve a pass excellent and so to do this I will keep on top of my work and work to the best of my ability, making sure I don't fall behind and gaining all the knowledge I can, both from tutors and peers also, gaining self - development as I am reaching out and asking for the help of others to gain the best possible grade. Not only this but I will work independently, using my research skills to find out all that I need for this assignment.



DEADLINE: 8TH MARCH 2O17 (6 WEEK PROJECT)