Comm2411 assignment 3

COMM2411

Communication & Social Relations

Assignment 3

Collaborative Group Publication (Advertising Discipline)

Tutorial (17) Friday, 11:30am-1:20pm Lecturer: Buck Rosenberg

GROUP: Janine De La Zilwa (s3236545)

Tira Burgess (s3280541) Betty Wee Puay Tey (s3205349)

Jody Caruana (s3287183)

COMM2411 Communication and Social Relations Janine De La Zilwa s3236545

Advertising artifact:

LʼOreal Melbourne Fashion Festival Advertisement

LʼOreal Melbourne Fashion Festival is a well-known and recognized event that takes place in

Melbourne. It is primarily an event for fashion critics and all round fashion lovers. It is an event

that has a large advertising budget. You would find advertising for the event in such places as

magazines, flyers, promotional posters at supporting festival partner outlets (i.e. Sportsgirl,

Westfield etc.), T.V commercials, on the web (having its own promotional website), on

billboards, buildings, trams, buses etc.

Fashion is something that is everywhere, whether we choose to follow it or not, it both shapes

and impacts the city in a significant way. Melbourne is very diverse in terms of its fashion. In a

day you would see the clean, sophisticated and classy style of a businessman or women, the

laid back, comfy and casual style of a university student or day shopper, the torn, old and

unclean style of a homeless person and the vintage style of the elderly. Melbourne is very

welcoming to all styles of fashion; everyone is seen as an individual as it is a visual that

defines us.

Dyerʼs section on advertisingʼs effectiveness states, “Advertising is generally successful in the

sense that one can normally chart a growth in the sales of a product after a corresponding

increase in advertising”. He also states that, “values such as love, friendship, neighbourliness,

pleasure, happiness and sexual attraction are the staple diet of advertisements” (p 80).

The LʼOreal Melbourne Fashion Festival is catered and advertised to a certain audience. Not

everyone has an interest in fashion and keeping up with the latest seasonʼs trends.

So, for the events target market their participation may be considered, regardless of

advertising in and around the city.

COMM2411 Communication and Social Relations Janine De La Zilwa s3236545

McKee implies in his article ʻHow to create better advertisingʼ that if you want your advertising

to be effective, it must reflect your company and event theme. It is important to understand

that products and services come and go though it is the brand that remains.

The LʼOreal Melbourne Fashion Festival has developed a theme throughout its advertising

(brochures, promotional website etc) this year being a three-colour job emphasis, comprising

of yellow, white and black. The comment made about products and services coming and

going relates to my artifact in the context of fashion trends that come and go though it is the

brand that remains on producing new trends and ideas.

In the ʻtourism and the branded cityʼ articles it states that “Personality is one category of

statement associating a brand with a quality” (p 4). It further implies that a brand personality is

not only established by the brand representatives and spokespersons, but also ordinary

people that attend the event.

The LʼOreal Melbourne Fashion Festival has developed a recognisable type and style of

people that attend the event. You wouldnʼt particularly find dull, hard metal listening, non-

fashion lovers attending the event. The advertising designs and styles have been designed to

not appeal to this type of person. The overall sense of personality and identity portrayed

through the events campaigning is one that appeals primarily to fashion loving females aged

from 18 to 40 years, the overall mood is one that is fun, out there and busy. It is in fact this

group of people that help shape the overall brand personality and identity of the event.

References:

ACADEMIC SOURCE #1 (Scholarly from a communications perspective) Donald, Stephanie and Gammack, John G. Tourism and the branded city: film and identity on the Pacific

Rim, (p. 45-61). Aldershot, England; Burlington, VT; Ashgate, c2007.

ACADEMIC SOURCE #2 (Scholarly from a cultural studies perspective) Gillian Dyer. (1982), ʻAdvertising as Communicationʼ (Part 2) Chapter 4, ʻAdvertisingʼs effectivenessʼ/

ʻCultural effectsʼ pp. 78-80, Published by Methuem & Co. Ltd, Available at: http://books.google.com.au/books?hl=en&lr&id=58StsR8D0gYC&oi=fnd&pg=PP11&dq=styles+of+adver

tising&ots=FoMPN1cFsb&sig=hiBVaA7J9Ybnrbp8rZqYMYDXpNE#v=onepage&q=styles%20of%20advertising&f=false

SECONDARY SOURCE #3 (Non scholarly)

Steve McKee. (April 16, 2010), Business week, Sales and Marketing, ʻHow to create better advertisingʼ, http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/content/apr2010/sb20100416_222501.htm

COMM2411 Communication and Social Relations Tira Burgess s3280541


Tram ticket

The Melbourne tram ticket is a portable advertising platform crucial to advertising Melbourne

exclusively. It is a little piece of barcoded cardboard, that once validated, allows public

transport users of trains, trams and buses, legal travel in and around the city of Melbourne. In

focusing on Melbourneʼs trams we can address something that no other Australian state has

– freedom and mobility attributed to trams within the city, especially the City Circle Tram.

In recognising that our trams and our tickets are our brand, we have fulfilled branding criteria.

When we travel the city circle in our trams we “capture and shape the city as a product”.

(Donald, 2007) “When we walk in the city we are indifferent to representations” (Hubbard,

2006) because when we view the city through a moving tram window we have to absorb

everything the city has to offer very quickly. That the city is fast-paced and that our tram travel

is fast-paced means that as a traveler we must grasp everything we can within a few

seconds.

Walking on foot “we get a distorted record of a cityʼs redevelopment” (Hubbard, 2006)

because our pace does not match that of Melbourneʼs. Despite having more time to

appreciate what is around us we actually miss what is happening because we are not

“happening” with the city. If we consider that “happening” means to move as the city moves,

we shall be a skateboarder whose “engagement with the city may be conceived as a ʻrunʼ

across its terrains”. (Hubbard, 2006)

COMM2411 Communication and Social Relations Tira Burgess s3280541

Or, we could tram it to the LʼOreal Melbourne Fashion Festival and the Comedy Festival, and

then walk through Melbourneʼs laneways to Southern Cross Station. We could “come

rumbling out of the Third Street tunnel” (Hubbard, 2006) in a tram if we had a Third Street in

Melbourne. However, what we do have in Melbourne is freedom. “The free-running

parkouristes who climb and leap across the cityscape in an often death-defying manner”

(Hubbard, 2006) express this freedom that the majority of us can only acknowledge.

The Melbourne tram ticket gives us freedom. The freedom to visit the Shrine of

Remembrance advertised on the tram ticket, the freedom to travel on a tram to get to the

Shrine, and the freedom that makes us realise that we are free. Unlike the tram ticket, the

advertising “plastered all over the urban environment” (Dyer, 1982) does not fit in our pockets.

We could not ʻkeepʼ the advertising like we could keep the ticket. We could not ʻtakeʼ the

advertising home with us to reflect on the city of Melbourne.

The Melbourne tram ticket is disposable. We discard it and purchase another, fulfilling

advertisersʼ dreams. As Dyer says, “advertisers want us to buy things, use them, throw them

away, and buy replacements in a cycle of continuous consumption.” (Dyer, 1982) This

continuous consumption is how tram tickets advertise something different every week thus

promoting Melbourne constantly.

References: 1. Tourism and the Branded City, Chapter 2, Page 45, Stephanie Donald, 2007.

2. City, Page 98, P. Hubbard, 2006.





7. Advertising as Communication, Part 2, Page 1, Gillian Dyer, 1982.

8. Advertising as Communication, Part 2, Page 1, Gillian Dyer, 1982.

COMM2411 Communication and Social Relations Betty Wee Pauy Tey s3205349


Melbourne Laneways

Melbourne laneways comes with a proud history of public art with its streets and laneways

providing its backdrop for a wide range of tradition and contemporary artworks. The laneways

comes in all shapes and sizes where some are elegant, sophisticated, seductive and

enclosed not a bluestone out of place while the others are inked with graffiti exposed to

summer haze.

Behind the sensible, ordered grid of city blocks is a world just waiting to be explored. Each

has its own story to tell and each is not shy about telling it. Some lanes have been reborn and

hum with quirky city life. According to John Arnold and artist Tony Irving (2001, p. 4)

ʻsometimes seedy history has added rather than detracted from their appealʼ The

Melbournians describe the lanes by contradicting its atmosphere between the air of mystery

and romance about them. The lanes successfully provided Melbourne the seductive imagery

as a lusty imagery in an environment where it is admirable and at the same time presenting

an unfinished 'to be continued' sense of storyline involving in the laneways it selves.

The transitional streets in the Central City are people-oriented spaces created by narrow

roadways and pathways and enclosed by tall buildings. These spaces have a rich and lively

urban character and life through layers of activity, from interactive ground floor shop and

business outlook to residential and business activities above. These streets feature

pedestrian-oriented lighting and are largely paved with bluestone. Combination of these

elements provides a highly attractive and interesting environment for pedestrian traffic as well

as street activity. Outdoor cafés contribute to the life of these areas by providing space to sit

and relax, to observe street activity and to meet and socialise.

COMM2411 Communication and Social Relations Betty Wee Pauy Tey s3205349

The lanes not only build itself with personality through designs but also provided consumers

like us to fascinate and value what designersʼ hard work. Great choice for breakfast would be

best served in the heart of Flinders Quarter, in and around the lanes and alleys branching off

Flinders Lane between Swanston and Elizabeth Streets. The atmosphere of this precinct is

modern, with its high fashion and crowded cafés, while at the same time charming and old-

fashioned.

It is seen as spaces of attraction, quant beauty, its multicultural image and sophisticated

relaxation publicized as a unique part of Melbourne's urban individuality. Melbourneʼs coffee

culture surrounds one in the laneways and arcades with street cafés and funky coffee shops

around every other corner. From shopping to linger over a latte and watch the world go by.

The laneway image provides certain desires and identities within and what these images are

and what they mean and who is being presented by and within them can be questioned

through promotional television shows, advertisements and the place-making strategies of the

City Council, all of which build-up the publicity and dream surrounding Melbourneʼs lanes.

The concept of the tram ticket providing its freedom and mobility enables us to view through

that little window grasping the sense of gratitude towards these laneways distinctiveness ; as

for the LʼOreal Melbourne Fashion Festival creates an abstract vision of the urban

environment. As mentioned ʻMelbourne is very welcoming to all styles of fashion; everyone is

seen as an individual as it is a visual that defines usʼ. The comedy festival flags chip in its part

in promoting the ʻhappeningsʼ that is going on within the city taking hold of pedestrianʼs

attention in or out of the tramʼs destination along the streets. Melbourne lanes generally

provide its valuable studies of its culture; Internationally marketed appealing with the truly

iconic Melbourne experience, laneways have been transformed and consumed as part of city

desires for Melbourne to be counted as one of the world cities.

References: 1. Blayney, M. (2008) ʻMelbourne's laneways: Gladly off the gridʼ

http://travelinsider.qantas.com.au/melbournes_laneways_gladly_off_the_grid.htm Accessed

20 May 2010

2. Fung, P. (2006) ʻThe seduction of the laneways: making Melbourne a “world city”ʼ,

Crossings 11(2): 1-12. Available at

http://www.inasa.org/crossings/11_2/index.php?apply=fung. Accessed 09 Feb. 2009

3. Bate, W (1994) Essential But Unplanned; The Story of MelbAurne's Lanes, State Library of

Victoria/City of Melbourne. Melbourne, Victoria

COMM2411 Communication and Social Relations Jody Caruana s3287183


The Melbourne International Comedy Festival

The Melbourne International Comedy Festival which was held on the 24th of March to the

18th of April 2010, is one of Melbourne's most popular festivals and has grown to be one of

our largest cultural events. Promoting the festival are bright pink flags all around the city of

Melbourne. The advertisement encourages those in the city, whether it would be locals or

tourists, to attend to this exciting event.

Advertising techniques are used to sell a brand to an audience, this way the particular

message is seen or heard. In order to sell the event, The Melbourne International Comedy

Festival is publicized and promoted through advertising. The advertisement of The Melbourne

International Comedy Festival is not only displayed on posters and flags around the city of

Melbourne, but also advertised in newspapers, magazines, television and radio commercials.

Media partners are important with events such as the Comedy Festival as they help to spread

the word to it's large audience about the event. Media partners of the Comedy Festival are

The Age, Nova FM, Channel Ten and 774 ABC Melbourne. According to the Branding the

City article by Professor Stephanie Hemlryk Donald and John Gammack, 'personality' is

essential when associating a brand. 'A strong, distinctive brand personality can also provide a

meaning to which consumers can relate emotionally.' (p. 48). By attending the Comedy

Festival, the public are able to connect themselves with the humor of the event.

COMM2411 Communication and Social Relations Jody Caruana s3287183

Stephanie Hemlryk discusses how cities are branded and how they are in constant

competition with eachother. Therefore, cities need a unique brand to separate themselves

from one another and create it's own meaning of the city. In Steve Mckee's Business Week

article 'How to Create Better Advertising,' he also states something similar as he says

'branding can be used to enhance the meaning and value of the company'(para 2). Melbourne

brands itself as an event city. Festivals and events are happening all the time, such as music

festivals, The Grand Prix, L'Oreal Melbourne Fashion Festival, Melbourne Food and Wine

Festival, Australian Open Tennis, Melbourne Fringe Festival and Jazz festivals. The

Melbourne International comedy festival is known to be one of the three largest comedy

festivals in the world, alongside Montreal's Just For Laughs Festival and Edinburgh Festival

Fringe. Branding can 'shape the city as a product and knowable entity for residents and

visitors.'(p.1) Melbourne events and festivals motivate a wide variety of people to take part,

such as the public, tourists, cultural groups and citizens.

Advertising plays a major role in communicating what it says about a city. In Gillian Dyer's

book 'Advertising as communication', Volume 1982, Part 2, he states 'The purpose of creating

advertisements is to persuade and convert potential consumers,' in hopes of getting a

particular message, or selling a particular event such as the Comedy festival across to it's

audience. However communicating a particular message can be perceived in different ways,

some may be more influenced by an advertisement then others. The Comedy Festival's bright

pink flags may seem like a strong advertisement as it stands out in the busy streets of

Melbourne and is visible by all.

References: source 1

Donald, Stephanie and Gammack, John G. Tourism and the branded city: film and identity on

the pacific Rim. Aldershot, England; Burlington, VT Ashgate, c2007.

source 2

http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/content/apr2010/sb20100416_222501.htm

How to create better advertising, Steve Mckee April 16, 2010.

source 3

Advertising as communication, Volume 1982, Part 2 By Gillian Dyer

Documents

Comm2411 assignment 3