TV Advertisement Evaluation

The Brief

The Brief we received was from Unilever; the Anglo-Dutch multinational consumer goods company. The task was set to re-brand one of their existing products. This was to gain a new target audience which then results in a higher amount of sales meaning a higher amount of profits for Unilever. At first the task was individual, we had to choose a product to re-brand, consider, demographics, psycho-graphics, BCAP codes etc. The product that I chose to re-brand was BRUT as I though it had a lot of potential. After this we were put into groups and all had to decide which product we would focus on and complete a re-branding advert for. We all decided that BRUT was the best choice, as the advert idea was strong and was a more realistic idea.

The current target audience for the product I felt was males between the ages of 30 and 70. This is due to BRUT being at its 'cash cow' stage in the 70's/80's, therefore the men of that generation sticking with the manly like product to present time. Due to this perception I chose to target the product at males in their earlier stages of life; 15-28 year olds. As all three members of our group fit into that category, we felt we could have an idea of what young men would want and that we would understand their wants/needs.

After the production process we began to come up with a number of questions. We then aimed the questions at people who fell into the demographic that we were aiming the product at. As a group we thought of the questions together and then individually collected some feedback. We each created an online survey (my choice of website being freeonlinesurveys) and then combined our results.

The vast majority of people who took part in the survey were between 15-19 and go to college as I know them. Below is the survey result.

We also found out that the majority of respondents hadn't heard of the product BRUT before. We predicted this would be the case with people from this particular age range.








Below are around a quarter of the results we received when we asked what their favourite part of the advert was. As a group we found that our results showed people mostly liked the exaggeration of the appliance of cologne and the last shot with the BRUT bottle in shot with the couple walking out in the background.

The below result shows that only 5 out 18 respondetns would buy the product after seeing this advert. I felt this was a dissapointing result as I think the advert is persuasive and although there is a lot of room for improvement we did what we could with the available equipment.

However, we did find that 9 out of 17 people who answered the question below thought that the advert would be successful. I am satisfied with this result although I do not think the results reflect our hard work and commitment.

Lastly, we asked what the respondents thought could be improved. We received different opinions on ways we could improve the add for example, not have the boy shouting 'get off' to his mum as this is un-gentleman like which I do slightly agree. Also another response was to have a female say the voiceover at the end rather than a male as it would sound more soothing and seductive.

I believe the technical qualities of the advert worked rather well considering the lack of equipment and time that we had, also it didn't help that our location was 8 miles away from college. The mise-en-scene within the BRUT advert I feel is very homely and authentic, however it was difficult getting two adults to play the role of the mother and father, therefore we had to compromise with using fellow media students Lucia and Guy. Even though this wasn't ideal we strived to create an authentic, professional advert. One of our best uses of mise-en-scene is when the father looks in his 'man drawer', in this scene we see:

• Razor blades
• Floppy disc
• Allen key
• Old baseball
• Old cinema ticket
• Barry White CD
• Picture of baby (daughter)
• Pencil

These items, we thought were items that a father would most likely have in his 'man draw', therefore giving off a sense of authenticity. 

When it came to camera shots and so on we felt we tried our hardest, on the scene where I (young man in suit) am walking down the stairs in slow motion, a lot of people in our class felt that this was way too shaky. However we were already aware of this criticism, we had no other choice but to shoot the scene handheld as we did not have the right equipment for it to look professional. I believe the best uses of camera work are when I am spraying the aftershave on me and there are little jump-cuts. Also, the last shot, where the young couple are leaving the house to go to their prom and the camera is focused on the BRUT bottle. Editing was a very successful part of our production. We used the time carefully to make sure we had edited our advert as best as it could possibly be.

Some editing techniques which took a while are the garbage mat, we used the 16 point garbage mat so we could leave the bottle of BRUT at the end of the ad green whilst the remainder of the picture black and white. Another piece of editing we used was slow-motion, we wanted to use this to over emphasise the importance and sexiness of the BRUT fragrance. However we didn't want to overuse the technique so we had to decide together how much would be necessary.

When it came to sound we had a lot to think about because when we were filming initially we thought the sound of our voices would be loud enough for the ad, however, when we played the footage we came to the result that we had to record the dialogue again so that the audience were clear of what was being said. Although, I did not like the idea it proved a better idea, dubbing over rather than straining to here the adverts content. The same went for the sounds effects, we recorded each sound effect separately and it was dubbed into the advert so that it could be clearly heard, for example, the draw opening or my hand slapping against my neck.

Overall, I feel that our finished advert does effectively sell the product to the specified audience through its storyline. Through creating a short storyline it catches viewers eyes and they would want to watch it until the end to find our the result. We have a definite protagonist who clearly fits into the specified audience. The storyline/situation could also be related to through past experiences, even parents could view the advert and feel the need to buy the product for their son to create a situation like the one of the adverts. Through the use of mise-en-scene, editing and camera-work, I believe that we would be successful in our task set by Unilever. 

Persuasion techniques are very important when it comes to adverts, here a re just some examples:

• Repetition - E.g Go Compare Adverts
• Humour - E.g Aldi adverts
• Slogan - E.g Adidas Adverts
• Product comparison - E.g Tesco Adverts

There is also a sales method which is called AIDA. It is an abbreviation for Attract, Interest, Desire, Action.

I believe that we:

1. Attract through the POV of the BRUT in the drawer
2. Interest when the father is cradling the BRUT in his arms
3. Desire through the use of the montage - the young man spraying the fragrance on himself delicately
4. Action to be taken by the viewers after seeing the ad

The message that we wanted to send to the target audience through our advertisement is that BRUT is not just an older man's aftershave, it has the potential to be used by the younger generation. Therefore we thought we'd base a story on a young man going to one of the most important days of his teenage years (mostly thought by females) so it'd be interesting to swap the roles to a more modern view and have the male really care about he's appearance and most importantly he's odour. Most importantly we wanted people to
watch the advert and think "Wow, maybe if I buy BRUT I can be more of a gentlemen too".

Overall, I do feel the advert is fit for purpose. We created the ad with our upmost professionalism with the equipment that we had. Although, with the right equipment it could have easily been improved for example the shot where the young man is walking down the stairs, the camera is shaky and unstable. I also believe that we did not break any BCAP codes which are enforced by the Advertising Standards Authority. We complied with the advertising regulations and did not include things such as pornography, alcohol or gambling which would have breached BCAP codes.

The advert is slightly different to my original intentions. You imagine the ad in your head completely different to how it comes out but that's due to not having all of the equipment needed to create a fully professional advertisement. However the overall message and structure of the ad are similar to how I wanted them to be. Through the pre-production process e.g storyboards, shot list we developed our ideas for the advert and as a group thought of ways to improve it and progress in creating a better grade. The improvements that were made were noticed by fellow students as we all had peer feedback after our adverts were completed and uploaded to YouTube. However, this process also helped us to find out the weaknesses of the ad and what could have been done to make it better.

If the task was to be undertaken again I would probably try a lot harder to find certain pieces of equipment to help us with the production process and create a more professional finish, also I would make sure everyone in the ad brings the same costume and props in every time. This is due to when filming we expected a member to bring in their costume they previously wore but didn't. Luckily we edited the shot so the continuity error wasn't that noticeable. Throughout the creation of the advertisement I believe I played the lead role within the group. The initial idea was mine so I had the vision in my head of what I wanted the outcome to look like however I was open to other ideas from the other two group members, Alex and Vlad. When it came to directing the ad and deciding character positions, facial expression, mise en scene etc I was the one who made most of the decisions whilst not brushing off any one elses contributions. Alex mostly took charge of the editing side of the process as he knew most about it. Vlad helped out with what he could when it came down to it! Overall, I do feel we worked well as a team even if some members of the group put in more effort than others, our goal I feel was completed and we are all happy with the BRUT advert.