Adverts idea generation

By Daniella Blow

Reflection on the briefThe brief we have been given have given us a lot of points to follow. I read through it and made sure I understood it before even thinking about my idea. I will be planning and creating an advert for Youth Media, they want the advert to be exciting, original, and creative in order to promote the product. I recognise that the brief is aimed for 12-18 year olds male and females. Because the target audience is 12-18 year olds male and females, we were also guided that there should be an upbeat backing track included in this advert, because it is such a young audience, that is a good way to keep them interested. However the advert should contain dialogue to advertise the product and should be at a high quality. I am planning to record this sound using the sound studio placed in room 19 as that produces sound to a much higher quality than a camera mic. I also am planning on getting someone to record the voice over who has a clear voice and doesn’t get shy. Youth media have given us a couple of different options to chose from, with the different products they are advertising. The options were:

- A new deodorant for men

- A new fragrance for women

- A new clothing line

- A new energy drink

- A new range of hair products for girls and boys

From these different ideas it is down to us to decide which one you think will be most successful. The brief also stated that the advert must be between 30 seconds and 1 minute long. I understand that it must not reach further than the maximum time as adverts are very short to keep the audience interested, with my advert I want people to feel engaged with it and not want to turn it off. The actors/actresses I decide to use, should appear confident and outgoing which is also stated in the brief. I feel confident that I can find someone who will fit the role perfectly as I have friends who take drama and want to go further in life with a drama related job. I am aiming for my final advert to be ‘fresh and exciting’ but also maintaining the brand identity of Youth Media. I will do this by creating some reports and research about my ideas that I have come up with and will also present my plans for the production as its their first television advert in their new campaign for Youth Media. We were given brand guidelines that we are ordered to follow. These include colours and fonts. For the logo that we have to create to support our advert, we have to follow the colours that we are given and we are not allowed to exceed this. With the fonts, I will use the fonts given for the font on the logo advertising my product, and also for the label I use to stick on the perfume bottle.

Mood board

Initial Ideas for my advert

I am potentially going to be creating a fragrance advert for women. I find I am very familiar with these types of adverts and feel confident I can produce one to the best of my ability. Perfumes are also something I love so that’s a bonus too and feel I will enjoy creating the advert a lot more if its something I am interested in myself.

My first idea is to have a girl in a prom dress, spraying perfume in different locations, internal and externalMy second idea is also having a girl in a prom dress, being filmed and having a photo shoot whilst spraying the perfume on her, all different shotsMy third idea is to have two girls getting ready for a party, then the last thing they do is spray perfume and her friend falls in love with the smell and asks what perfume that is

I have seen several different perfume adverts before on the TV, and they all seen to have a similar feel. This is because they are all set in classy/high profile locations such as: at the side of a pool, in a posh building, in a field full of flowers or in a room with lots of lights. I have also noticed that the surroundings they are in, always matches with the bottle of the perfume, mainly the colour scheme with the background, the actress’ dress and the bottle all match. I have a few ideas of where I would like to set my advert and the locations I will film. The first idea is going to be Eastcote house gardens fields. I have thought of this location because it is a very well looked after garden. It is full of grass and flowers and in the sun it looks so beautiful. If I got an actress in a ball gown, walking down the flowery garden, in slow motion, whilst spraying the perfume on herself, I think that could have the potential of looking really successful. My second idea of a location is the black box in Haydon School. With this room being black, we can set up different lights, with different colours and make it look really edgy and cool at the same time. The third location I may use is room 19 in Haydon school. This is because this room includes photo-shoot equipment, a green screen, and a lot of room to move around in front of the coloured screens.

The props I am going to consider to use throughout my advert is going to be the perfume bottle, as that’s the main thing that I want people to focus on so it is important it is being seen a lot throughout the advert itself. Another potential prop I may use is fairy lights. By using these I would use it in the black box and have lots of little lights behind the actress whilst she is spraying the perfume on her. I also want a fan in order to make her hair fly about.

For my advert I am just going to have 1 actress. This is something I have noticed from watching other perfume adverts that there is only one girl who is acting throughout the advert. My possible people I will have feature in my advert is going to be Charlotte Blow, this is because she is confident in front of the camera and is available a lot for filming. My other choice is Sophie Van Der Hoogen, she again is confident but also very glamorous which I feel will fit with the advert very well.

The possible costume that my actress will wear is going to be a long and very classy dress. This could feature something like a prom dress or even just a ball gown type dress. I feel by the actress wearing a long gown dress, will make the advert look a lot more professional and classy at the same time. Her hair will be down and curly, and her makeup will be done very well with eye shadow to match the dress.

Evaluation of initial ideasBased on my ideas that I have stated above, I have three different ideas, all in different locations. My first idea which is having a girl all glamorous in a prom dress, spraying perfume in different locations, both external and internal. I feel this idea will work for my advert because it’s easy to access, with my locations being all public, for example, school rooms, fields, in the streets, in my bedroom, I feel if I get the correct access to them all I will be able to film in every location I want. It will also keep the viewers interested as it wouldn’t just all be set in one location. The limitations to this idea is that the weather could be really bad on the day I want to film externally. In my advert, I want the feel to be glamorous and happy and with the weather being all horrible and rainy it wont fit as well as I want it too. Also I need to book the rooms in advance so it will defiantly be free for me when I need it, this is because I need to book out the equipment in advance and let my actresses know when and where we will be filming so if the rooms aren’t free there will be some problems which is why I wish to book everything in advance. I feel this advert will produce a professional end result too, compared with my other ideas. This is because there is different scenes, which will keep the audience involved and happy, with the actress being in a prom dress will look glamorous and will fit in with the codes and conventions of a perfume advert.

My second idea which is to film my actress having a video shoot and a photo shoot for the perfume range. This will be shot in room 19 where all the equipment is. This idea could also work really well too because it is all easy to access, the room and the equipment, this location is also inside so there will be no problems with the weather. However, the limitations again are booking the rooms and equipment out in advance as I don’t want it to be nearer the time of the shoot and everything be booked up. I think this particular idea for my advert has the potential to produce the most professional end result compared to any of the other ideas. This is because by having a girl looking glamorous having a photo shoot holding the perfume bottle, in different positions, having different props in the shoot, could indeed make it look very appealing in order to advertise the bottle.

My third idea, which is two girls getting ready for a party, and when one sprays a bottle of perfume, the other is amazed. This advert could work, but not as well as the others, I feel this was a quick idea that I came up with and which I prefer the least out of the three. It is easy accessible as they will be getting ready in a bedroom at a house. The limitations of this one is the outcome will not be as good as the others as it doesn’t meet the codes and conventions of a perfume advert. Compared to the other two ideas, this one will not look professional and I will not be using this idea.

The idea I am going to be going to pursue in further detail, will be my second idea which is the photo shoot. I feel I could do various different poses and shoots with one item, and it will advertise it really well. If I have the model/actress looking really glamorous, with her prom dress on will look really good and will meet my expectations. As the advert is really short, 30 seconds I am planning to do, I feel by having a photo shoot and video shoot all in that time will look effective and will not lose interest.

Market researchExisting perfumes for women that will initially be similar to my own, I am going to be researching. There are thousands of different perfumes that are created every year and some become really well known and popular, and some become not known at all, its all about advertisement and how you advertise the product. By looking at different websites there are different categories for women's perfumes including: luxury perfumes, designer perfumes, classic perfumes, celebrity perfumes and travel sizes. You can find perfumes in loads of different shops, in the high street and also online, for example the perfume shop, boots, Superdrug, Debenhams, John Lewis, Selfridges, beauty base, Tesco and many more. I looked on a couple of different websites to which the most popular perfumes are at this current time. The perfumes I found are the most popular are: Pacco Rabanne Olympia, Pacco Rabanne Lady Million, Thierry Mugler ALIEN, Calvin Klein CK one, Gucci Bamboo. Another successful way to advertise perfumes is by using celebrity endorsement. Most perfume companies do this and it is proved to make the perfume a lot more popular as it widens the audience to their fans. Some examples of this is Beyoncé's perfume HEAT which was released 3rd February 2010 and made $3 million between Feb-March 2010. After this perfume was released, 5 other perfumes from Beyoncé followed. In 2013, as well as becoming the best selling celebrity branded fragrance line, the perfumes went on to being the third best-selling fragrance worldwide with $400 million earned globally. In terms of promoting and advertising this fragrance, in 2009 the shoot took place by Michael Thompson. The poster was published in fashion, beauty, and lifestyle magazines in February 2010. As well as advertising by posters in magazines, there is also a commercial advertising the perfume. The advert features Beyoncé wearing the same dress as she is in the poster and is her walking around in heels. The colour scheme is red, as you can tell by the perfume bottle, her dress, the fonts on the adverts. Right at the end of the advert the audience is shown a shot of the actual bottle so they know what it looks like, as well as a website below it to show where you can purchase the perfume. I also noticed, different perfumes have different prices. Some are more expensive than the others, these are perfumes that are more on the designer side of things, for example Paco Rebanne, Gucci, Marc Jacobs, Dior, Jimmy Choo, Armani and Dolce & Gabbana which are more towards £45-£50. then you also get the more classic perfumes which are a bit cheaper which include: Estee Lauder, Calvin Klein, Lancôme which range from £20-£30 which is slightly more affordable for some people and is more realistic for 12-18 year olds to afford themselves.

Audience researchThe target audience for this product is 12-18 year olds. Because most of the perfumes that I had been researching, was for older adults ranging from 20 upwards. However there are some perfumes that younger people like myself will wear too, fitting in with the target audience. The first thing I did was ask my sister some questions. She is 15 so right in the middle of the target audience. The first question I asked her was ‘if I was to make a new perfume for your age range, what colour scheme do you think works the best?’ the response I got from this was “I would say either pink or purple, because it is a fragrance for girls and girls are appealed to those colours, they are also bright so they will catch peoples eyes” which I took into consideration using the brief colours, I will use a grey colour for the main colour, and then for the secondary colours have purple or pink to make it stand out but again have some contrast. I then asked her “ what's the first word that comes into your head when you think of Justin Biebers perfume” and her response was “LOVE” I then followed that question by asking why…and she responded with “because I am a fan of Justin Bieber, I got the perfume without even smelling it, and then I smelt it and I loved it…also the bottle is really cool” which interested me, because as long as the young people are attracted to the bottle, they will buy it. I also made a survey which I posted on social media aimed at 12-18 year olds. I asked them two questions which I was interested to find out. How many people have heard of the more expensive, up market perfumes. And the other being about celebrity perfumes and whether they are interested in buying it.

The response for this question was that most perfumes had an interest in them, except Nikki Minaj’s perfume. This could be that they simply don’t like that celebrity, or they haven’t even heard of the perfume. The most popular one was Rhianna which everyone was interested in who took the survey.

Production researchThe production research that I am going to consider is what equipment I need to use and book out. The equipment that I am planning to use are:- Cannon 550D- Tripod/dolly- Slider- Photo shoot umbrella- 3 point lighting- Memory stick with SD cardAll of this equipment I feel comfortable with using as I have used it all in the past and I am very familiar with it all. Because it is very popular to hundreds of pupils in the school, I will make sure that I book it well in advance to when I am planning to film. Another thing I will need to consider is when the actress, props and costumes will be available to use too. The props and costume isn’t a big deal because I just need a fan, fairy lights, glitter and a prom dress which I can get very easily myself, the biggest thing I need to do is find when the actress is available. I need to find out when she has extra activities going on outside of school for example, work or a hobby, and work around that for when they are free as it is vital that they are free for a few hours as its very time consuming. In terms of budgeting for my production, I have created a budget sheet using my research for what I will need for making a production and how much it will cost which I will put on the next slide. We have 5 weeks to complete the advert from start to finish, meaning planning, production and editing which is why it is very important to plan the timings correctly. I am going to give myself 1 week to plan the production and get all of the pre production documents done. I will have 2 days to actually shoot the footage and make sure I have everything I need, one day will normally be enough but I want an extra day just in case anything goes wrong or I miss anything out. In terms of editing, which is very time consuming. I will need approximately 15-20 hours to edit it together as I need to add a voice over in it too. That will take roughly a week too. Planning your time is vital in a big production as so many things can go wrong.

Budget sheet

Legal ConsiderationsDuring the production of my advert, I will need to keep some legal considerations into mind. There are specific rules that you need to follow in order to create an advertisement. There is a rule that I thought was very important to make sure you don’t break. This is the Television only rule – Television advertisements, except for programme promotions, must not: refer to themselves in a way that might lead viewers to believe they are watching a programme, feature, visually or orally, anyone who currently and regularly presents news or current affairs on television, include extracts from broadcasts of parliamentary proceedings. This is something that the UK code of broadcast advertising has enforced and they have the power to remove or amend any adverts that breach the rules. Another rule that is vital to follow in creating an advert is to ensure that ads do not cause harm or serious or widespread offence. Which can include: shock tactics, unsafe practices and photosensitive epilepsy without giving a warning before hand. It is important you do follow these rules, which I will do with my own advert, as it avoids your advert getting complaints and heading it onto the CAP and a more serious thing goes ahead.

Another thing I need to take into consideration is that I cannot mislead any information about the perfume. Everything that is stated in the advert has to be 100% true.

Early stage treatmentsThe scene begins with a teenage girl, Sophie who is having a photo shoot just before her prom begins. She is in the middle of getting her makeup done by a makeup artist whilst she is sitting down listening to her favourite song by Justin Bieber. She is really excited for her prom so she has the biggest smile on her face. She also has her favourite perfume with her as she doesn’t go anywhere without it. she is scared that the smell wears off quickly so she sprays herself with this perfume every half an hour. Sophie poses in several positions, still holding the perfume of course. Once the photo shoot is finished, she then walks out the door, walks down the corridor in her prom dress, heels and perfume and has the best night of her life…

Campaign aimsThe campaign aim for my advert is to get people to buy the product. As the target audience is aimed for 12-18 year olds, I don’t want the audience to get confused as some of the target range is very young. In this case I plan to make my advert very clear and simple as my idea is simply a girl who is ready for prom and is doing the last thing that she needs to do which is spraying perfume. There is no emotional attachment to this advert, as I just want the main focus to actually be the perfume bottle. In a way some people can empathise with this advert as every year, there are people who will be getting ready for a prom and can relate to this advert. Because I don’t want my advert to get too complicated, I wanted it to be short and simple but clear at the same time. I want to make sure the audience know that the advert is about the perfume bottle and selling the product, more over the girl getting ready for prom as I don’t want her to be the main focus although she is a big part of the production.