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Penguin Audiobooks

William Shakespeare literally putting the words of the book into the ‘listeners’ head mimicked as cups of headphones, through ears; appearing to be hallucinating in front of what seems to be a mirror, takes the listener into a world which has been created by the author thus igniting the auditory senses of the listener is what the current advert of Penguin Audiobooks depicts.

This advert has been conceived and executed by the McCann Worldgroup ad agency branch based in Mumbai. The campaign is a clear depiction of art and creativity and is directed by Rohit Devgun and Talha Nazim along with illustrations by Lamanoestudio which is an independent graphic design studio, focused mainly on illustration and character design. This work was awarded in most important festivals of the world like Cannes Lions, LIA Awards and Ad Stars 2013.

When it comes to books and literature, who can forget one of the most important and prolific writers in English language, known by almost everyone right from the kids in kindergarten to people of previous generations. His plays have been performed in theaters all over the world more times, in more languages and in more number of countries than any other writer. This is, thus, a very clever ad targeting a very broad spectrum of audience. Because this ad doesn’t target a specific set or an age of audience, the impact of this ad can be clearly seen by the fact that the awareness of penguin audiobooks increased by 15% and audiobook sales increased by 7%.

This ad can also target a set of people who are not much into reading books. ‘Listening’ to a book instead of reading can help the ‘listener’ visualize how the words on the page can come alive in a fluid, expressive way. It helps focus on the sounds of words read without interruption and provides a model of fluent reading. Audio books can also give an important introduction to listening — a skill that the listener must master in order to learn to read.

This ad accommodates a very good level of detail which is basically aimed at stimulating the right-sided part of human brain which deals with creativity, emotions, color, images and even recognizing faces according to a concept in psychology known as lateralization of brain function. This ad has been designed taking into account the same according to the research conducted by the makers of this ad. This is a very advanced level of marketing strategy in which focusing on correct human emotions, the message of sustainability does in fact have a deeper impact.

After all who would not want Shakespeare himself to deliver his work? What better gift can the reader ‘listener’ receive?

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