Advertising Week 6

04.10.16 (Week 6)

Jessica Ngu Wei King, (0323639)

Advertising Principles & Practice

Lecture

We don't have any lecture on Monday due to public holiday. On Tuesday, it's our submission day for Project 1, we had presentation one-on-one to the lecturer. 

10 sketches (week 6)

Feedback 

Specific

The use of emojis are great. But only if it is able to imply thin. I think you should pursue this idea along with any other that has been noted as good previously. The connect your dots is really good, perhaps using 5 different positions. 

Reflections

Experience

We had one on one presentation with Mr. Vinod. I didn't do well in my project 1 slides, because I (& most of the classmates) do not include the 'big idea' & strategy for play safe in the slides. 

Observations 
I actually prefer afternoon class even we have three classes back to back.

Findings 

I prefer afternoon class because I find out that I'm not that tired in the afternoon and can focus more during the class. 

Book of the week 

This week's book is how to make it as an advertising creative, Simon Veksner 

In the book, there's one chapter i find it interesting that talks about how to sell your work and how to deal with rejection. I will summarize it in bullet point forms:-

• When you come up with ideas, you will have a picture in your head of what you want the finished piece to look like, but to sell to others, it's essential that you get the 'reference' images or film that will help them see it. 
• However, when you show others the 'reference' that is similar to your idea, people might think it's not original. For that reason, you should only ever produce reference  for an executional style or technique, never a strategy to them. 
• The purpose of showing 'reference' image is that if people don't know what your ad is going to look like, they might not realize how good it it, hence you might fail selling it. 
• The book provided an example: 

• 99% of our ideas would probably be rejected, and in this industry it's totally normal. 
• Viewing rejection in a positive light: Whenever your ideas are rejected with an accompanying reason given, we can view it as a new piece of information about the brief or about the taste of the person issuing the rejection. 
• Each rejection is valuable, it's actually bringing you a step closer to success. 

Advertising Week 5

26.09.16 (Week 5)

Jessica Ngu Wei King, (0323639)
Project 1: Individual

Lecture: Role and responsibilities of an Advertising Art Director 

On Monday's lecture, Mr. Vinod started the lecture by asking one of the classmate to read the lecture slides about the definition of an Art Director. He then explained the definition of Art Director. He also explained the role of an art director and its position in the organizational hierarchy. In the sides, it also included the job scope of an art director, Mr. Vinod briefly explained them as well. Then we have an in class exercise, which we were required to come up with a twisted headline for an ad. On Tuesday, as usual, we had discussions on our 10 sketches. Before dismiss, Mr. Vinod brief us about our project submission and showed us some examples on how to create a good ppt. 

Outcome from the lectures: 

I understood that:-

• What an art director is
• The organizational hierarchy of advertising agency 
• Art director works under Creative director, following by graphic designers and production
• CEO is usually from a marketing background 
• Job scope of art director
• Art directors ensure that their clients' desired message and image is conveyed to consumers. 

Instructions 

In class exercise

As usual, we were divided into two groups. For this time I grouped with Merry and David. We were to come out with a twisted headline for Digi ads. 

An online news photographer was tasked to capture images of the mass demonstration known as BERSIH, which champions clean and fair elections. The movements signature color is yellow. In one of the images posted online, a massive number of protestor is seen nearby a Digi Telecommunications retail outlet. Seeing that color yellow also happens to be corporate brand identity color of Digi, the opportunistic marketing team at Digi has decided to leverage this scene to their benefit. 

Your task is to come up with a slew of twisted headlines for the image attached. 

Hence, we came up with these ideas:

10 sketches (week 5)

Feedback 

Specific
Slides are clear, however the slides do not have conclusions after every topic area- what is the insight developed from the data/ research. Research is concise but there is not much evidence in depth or amount of details (source or evidence or references). Need to summarize and conclude charts or data collected. The strategy and Big idea needs to be clearly stated at the end. 

Reflections

Experience

This week's lecture was quite fun for me, as we get to do activities instead of listening to lectures. Working in groups is always better for me as we can discuss together and come up with lots of ideas, because I think I wouldn't think of an idea that fast. Discussions on idea sketches took even more time, probably because most of us started to come out with more interesting ideas that could be discussed more. 

Observations 

I realized that I have difficulties in understanding what the lecturer say sometimes, it makes me feel weird, because I kept on questioning myself is it only me? Or there are still people who doesn't understand it too? Besides, I find it interesting to see how others solve their problems while they are stuck with ideas during group activities. I also find it starting to get busier in week 4-5. 

Findings 

The reason why I have can't understand the lecturer sometimes is probably because he talks really fast and uses really deep English (for me), plus I'm from Chinese school, so it takes some time for me to understand what he is talking about? I find out how my classmates solve their problems while they are stuck in a situation. Usually they redraw mind maps and narrow down the topic, then they think an alternative way/ change their direction of thinking/ think what is missing to seek for another solution. I find it interesting and I would love to try, and hopefully it'll help me.  

Book of the week 

This week's book is truth, lies & advertising (the art of account planning), by Jon Steel 

For this week's book I read online as I forgot to borrow it from he library. I will summarize what I have learnt from the book in points:-

• Planning comes first
• Effective advertising incorporates client's business goals, the agency's creativity and the consumer's opinions and prejudices
• Advertisements work best when audiences decide what an ads means instead of being told 
• Planners must understand the importance of creative brief to be more effective
• The objectives of creative brief is to inspire and inform the creative teams
• Briefs that consists of present insights, suggested solutions and interpret informations from different angles makes an effective brief
• Planners should provide answers to these questions when writing a brief:

      1. Why are we advertising? What should it achieve?
      2. Who is the ad directed at? What do we know about
          this target audience?
      3. What's the main idea that should be in the message?
      4. What's the best way to get that idea across?
      5. How do we know we are on the right track? 
           (Jon, 1998)
      6. Good briefs are straight forward and uncomplicated, 
          keep it simple. 

References
Jon, S. (1998). Truth, lies, & Advertising. United States of America: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Advertising Week 4

19.09.16 (Week 4)

Jessica Ngu Wei King, (0323639)
Advertising Principles & Practice (BGCD)Advertising Practice In Support Of Marketing 

Lecture

Outcome from the lectures: 

I understood that:-

• The definition of free market economy
• In free market economy, the prices change depend of supply and demand
• The functions and effect of advertising in free economy 
• What product differentiation, market segmentation, and positioning is 
• The product life-cycle (Introduction, Growth, Maturity, Decline), everything has a shelf-life 
• Explanations for each cycle

Instructions

In class exercise

On Tuesday class, we were given an in class exercise. As usual, we were divided into  groups., Zizi, Yana, Merry and I were in the same group. We were required to watch a video on times. The video was about a Volkswagen's Polo ramming a Malaysian Police car from the back and then speeding off. The incident was recorded by a dashboard camera and was uploaded onto YouTube which then went viral on social media. Our task for this activity was to leverage on this advertisement on behalf of Volkswagen's Polo brand of cars, and increase the brand awareness of the car. We can approach this by using humor, wit or any other means necessary and make play of the incident to ride on its popularity. 

We come out with this Headline, 'Heil Polo"

10 sketches (week 4) 

Research

Primary research

For this week's research on the competitors, I've went to the shops out there few weeks before, and I found out that the few competitors for Playsafe condoms are:
1. Durex
2. Okamoto
3. One
4. Care
5. Playboy

Fig.1 Competitor brands that found in one of the stores 

Secondary research
I went to Sunway Pyramid to see whether there's any condom ads around, but unfortunately I can't find any. So I went online to find the ads for other competitors. 

1. Durex 
I've seen a lot of Durex ads online before, they are good at advertising their products in a creative way and very different from others. They really focus on advertising their products, which I think this is why it gained trust and create awareness for the consumers (Most of the people know this brand).
Few ads from Durex which I got it from google: 

Fig 2  

Fig 3

2. Okamoto 

Even though Okamoto doesn't really focus on advertising their products, they still produce quite interesting ads for the 0.03 series condoms. 

Fig 4, 5, 6 Okamoto 0.03 series ads 

3. One 

I couldn't find much ads for this brand, but they still do have ads for it. 

Fig 7  

Fig 8 Only found on the packaging of the condom

4. Care

Fig 9, 10, 11 Care ads uses girls/ women to advertise their brand

5. Playboy

Fig 12 

Fig 13

Even though there's no condom ads can be found outside, they still do have their own fan page on Facebook and advertise through it. 

Fig 14, 15, 16, 17 Durex advertise their product through their Facebook page

Fig 18, 19, 20 Care Facebook page 

Fig 21 Playboy Facebook page, they had roadshow to promote their product last December 

Fig 22, 23 One has their own page too, they also uses popular people on Internet to advertise their product 

I also did a lot more research on Gen-Y based on their buying behaviors/ patterns: 

Since Gen-Y are always connected to the Internet, they tend to make purchase online more often too. However, most of the millennials would review blogs or comments first (especially comments given by theirs peers whom they trust) before making their purchase, compare to the older generations, where they rely more on traditional media  (Dan, 2015). 

• 65% out of 100% of people in Malaysia shop online
• In Malaysia, Gen-Y tends to shop more online, which takes 40% 
• Surprisingly, guys in Malaysia shop online more than girls
• Free shipping, convenience and deals are the turn-ons 
• On the other hand, most of the people who wouldn't buy online is because of the expensive shipping fees
• Most people bought clothing & accessories online
• The final buying decision is based on the detail about the product, following by reviews and deals. 

However, I've noticed my friends buying behaviors:
When purchasing online: 
- The prefered platforms for online shopping are Instagram following by Facebook, websites and carousel. 
- Ask for more detailed photos of actual product before buying
- Check review and quality of the stores
- Most of them prefer paying by cash/ bank transfer rather than cards (reason being: they are afraid to use credit cards online)
- Reasonable price and good quality
- Don't buy electronics online (except for official websites)

When buying in physical stores:  
- If not sure which brand to buy, they will stick to the ones that are more familiar/ recommended by friends/ seen in their house before
- Prices are always the first consideration
- Next its the quality 
- Always want to find cheap yet good quality products

Besides, I've interview few of my friends about their attitude towards advertisements, and I've found out that:-

• They will not be influenced by ads (especially on tv, radio, games, and YouTube) at all.
• They find that ads are annoying and its wasting their time
• Some pay money to get rid of ads on games/ spotify
• They tend to remember Facebook ads that shared by friends rather than ads from tv/ banner & etc. 

Feedback

Specific 

Good work on the in the in-class challenge! Research on competitors was evident, there were a lot of samples however you need to articulate your thoughts about the samples. What did you learn, what was your view? etc. Some interesting idea developments. Need further explorations.

Reflection 

Experience

This week is quite stressful for me, as there are a lot of work to do for every week and for different subjects. I can still manage to jot down notes from the lecture, but sometimes I am still unable to focus. The discussions for sketches is getting interesting as everyone of us starting to have some ideas that have 'legs'. In class activity was fun. 

Observations

I realized that work with groups are better than working alone. I find out that It's getting difficult for me to manage my time. It is also getting stressful for me every week. I find out that it is really time consuming to think if an idea every week, as it is quite difficult for me. Whenever I am out of ideas, I will improvise my last week's sketches in order to come out with a new one. 

Findings

Group work are always fun than doing it all alone because there are variations of ideas and it can be generated very quickly. I personally like group projects than doing it all alone. Maybe I will reduce my time for procrastinate in order to get thins done faster. Improvising ideas is good as well, but I'm trying to come out with more new ideas that make me doesn't get bored drawing the similar ideas sketches every week. I also try to be more sensitive about my surroundings every time in order to find new inspirations for the sketches. 

Book of the week 

This week's book is 100 ideas that changed advertising, Simon Veksner

The book started with a brief introduction of advertisement and how it changes over the years. Then, it introduces then 100 ideas that changed advertising. I will summarize some of it that have a stronger impact to me in bullet point:

• One of the ideas is publicity stunts. The stunt itself may only be seen by a few, but if it is bizarre or controversial enough, the resulting PR could be seen by millions, and its all free advertising.
• Sex in advertising. Sexual imagery has gone from non-existent to virtually omnipresent today. Sexy ads achieve significantly above-average recall scores. 

• Product demonstration ads. No selling method is more successful than someone showing you exactly how a product works.
• Comparative ads. This method of ads has an undeniable power and is frequently used by the 'underdog' competitor, such as Pepsi vs Coke (I personally think its interesting to see ads like this, but unfortunately I've never seen this kind of ads here in Malaysia).
• Ambient. It appears everywhere, at its best, the use of this ads can create power; and provocative ads. The best thing about this ambient is that it can surprise anyone at an unexpected place. 

References 

Dan, S. (2015). Forbes Welcome. Forbes.com. Retrieved 24 September 2016, from http://www.forbes.com/sites/danschawbel/2015/01/20/10-new-findings-about-the-millennial-consumer/#1a9e758c28a8

Advertising Week 3

13.09.16 (Week 3)

Jessica Ngu Wei King, (0323639)
Advertising Principles & Practice (BGCD)
Creative and effective advertising message for a specific target audience 

Lecture

This week Mr. Vinod started the lecture by asking the class "Do you think you are creative?" and "What does creative mean to you?" All of us has the similar answers for it. After that he started with different definition of creativity. Mr. Vinod explained to us how creativity works in this field and the importance of 'blind trust' in advertising. He also showed us some advertisements from old spice which allows us to understand more on how an advertisement make people to remember them in an unique way. We had an in class activity which we were paired into groups of two and search the meaning on different market segmentations. For my group, we did a brief research on geographic segmentation. After the lecture, we had discussions for our weekly sketches. 

Outcome from the lectures:
I understood that:-

• The definition of creativity
• How creativity works in this field
• Some amount of imagination is needed to be creative
• We need to be able to generate new/ different possibilities 
• The more you create, the higher chances to be creative
• When you aim for creative ads, you need the 3 things,  make a relevant connection between brand and its target audience, present a selling idea, and be unexpected. 
• Achieve 'blind trust' from target audience, and that kind of trust will be difficult to change.
• You can't be just doing what people like all the time, because they don't know what they will like. 

Instructions: 

In class exercise

Market segmentation

We were divided into groups of two. Each group were to define and explain one of the market segmentation. As for my group, we were asked to search about geographic segmentation. We have 5 minutes to search about it and discuss together later on. 

The four market segmentations

1. Behavioral Segmentation

    Division of market based on patterns, audience,

    responses, buying habits

2. Geographic Segmentation

    Division of market based on location

3. Demographic Segmentation

    Division of market based on age group, ethnicity, race, 

    religion, gender, income, education, etc

4. Psychographic Segmentation

    Division of market based on consumer's: interest

    personality, attitude, values, etc

10 sketches (Week 3)

Research

Primary research

Secondary research

For the target audience insights research this week, I've started the research by searching the definition of Generation Y. From what I searched on the Internet, Gen-Y, also known as the Millennials, is the generation born in the 80's and 90's. 

Through some research and the youtube link that Mr. Vinod provided on TIMeS, I have summarized the characteristics of Generation-Y in a mind-map. 

Meanwhile, I found some interesting infographic from pinterest about Gen-Y

Feedback

General
Whenever you look at research/ insights, you need to use your observations, take that information and synthesize it.

Specific

Please correct the info at the top to week 3 from week 2. Documentation of in-class exercise was visible, good. Documentation of the information in words and synthesizing the information will help in your understanding but also facilitate your progress for Project 1. Uploading diagrams does not showcase understanding. What did you understand from your research? Good book, hopefully it will give you ideas on developing techniques for the said. 

Reflection

Experience

This week's lecture is slightly longer than usual, especially during the discussion time. However, I enjoy looking at others idea sketches,because it can be surprising to see what my classmates think, but I never thought of it. It is interesting to see that there are so many possibilities for the condom ads. 

Observations

I observed that during this week's lecture, I was unable to focus that well compare to the previous weeks. I realized that I can take down notes very quickly. I also find out that I am really running out of ideas for the 10 sketches every week, even though Mr. Vinod said that the ideas are everywhere, yet I still can't find any inspirations from my surroundings. 

Findings

I was unable to focus probably it's because I slept late the previous night, and because we always have morning classes before Mr. Vinod's class. Since I am running out of ideas for this week's sketches, I've improvise my previous sketches based on the feedbacks during the discussions. I hope I can produce new interesting ideas for next week's sketches, until week 8. 

Book of the week 

This weeks book is Basic Advertising Ideation, Nik Mahon

I find this book interesting because it use examples with clear diagrams and inspiring imagery to explain its content, which I find it quite easy to understand. The book provide an essential introduction to the process of generating creative advertising ideas and concepts. I've found some interesting ideas from the book.

The mind map charts out various thoughts in order to
come out with an creative ads for low-fat donuts

The Morphological analysis

It allows you to explore different, interesting and unusual combinations.
The images can be combined to prompt ideas.
(I personally think that It is something
like a mind map, but in a more systematic way) 

However, I will summarize the book in bullet points:

• A great idea can come to us at anytime and anywhere-often when we least expect it.
• Our most creative moments can sometimes occur when we decide to break the rules or turn them on their head.
• Asking lots of questions is just one way to open up your thinking and have fresh creative advertising ideas each time. 
• Every so often, try breaking your normal routine- everything from your daily schedule to the way that you tackle creative problems. 
• Don't be afraid of exploring alternative routes of particular reason other than the fact that they look interesting! If you already know its going to work, then you're not going to produce anything new. 
• Try out different things, take a risk and experiment. 
• Remember: quantity equals quality and for every 100 ideas you have, you may create one or two 'gems'.
• Take a look at what other products in that category are doing, it may help to tackle some creative ideas. 
• Look at what makes people laugh, cry, get angry or curious.
• The key to communicate with the audience is to demonstrate empty within them.

Link to Project 1

Link to Project 2