Evaluation

Evaluation

Brief

For this assignment we were instructed to create an advert with the purpose of rebranding a Unilever brand’s product to an alternative target audience to the original demographic. For this assignment, my group decided to rebrand pot noodle to a higher social class than the original demographic, we did this by not only addressing how quickly prepared it is; leaving more time for work to be done, but also its popularity; as the higher social class tend to purchase the most popular products. Our secondary audience would be students whom also have a lot of work to do and would therefore benefit from such a quickly prepared snack.

Feedback

In order to receive feedback, I created an online survey on surveymonkey.com and sent it to people I know. The positive feedback I received referred to how the advert effectively sells the product on its simplicity and how easily prepared the snack is. However, some of the negative feedback gave constructive criticism on the dialogue being delivered without emotion and also on how the volume of the music kind of blocked out some of the dialogue. Overall the feedback showed that the advert adequately addressed the target audience and sold the product effectively.

My advert aimed to present pot noodle as a quick, easy ultimatum to cooking a full meal for the busy white collar workers and the over-encumbered students with lots of work to do and little time to prepare food. This was represented by the man working hard in the office taking a small 4-minute break to prepare his pot noodle before returning to his work.

The audience responded well to how the person in the advert directly addressed the camera/the individual viewer as this gave a ‘straight to the point’ kind of feeling which was appropriate for the target audience. For the background music we used a calm sort of elevator music, this was used as it didn’t distract the viewer from the main purpose of the advert but it gave the ad more depth. Also, the office workspace and the desk covered in paperwork gave a more immersive, realistic aspect to the advert, allowing the target audience to relate more.

The survey showed that the slight majority felt more compelled to purchase the product after viewing the advert, the rest stated they neither felt more nor less compelled. This suggests that my advert successfully promoted pot noodle. The people whom the survey was sent to majorly consisted of 15-25 year-olds and were mostly students or white collar workers, suggesting that the advert successfully addressed the primary and secondary target audience. I think the survey should be redone and sent to more high social class, middle aged people to give more accurate data.

In our advert we used a number of techniques to persuade the viewer to purchase this product, for example, we focused on the two primary selling points of the product for the target audience: the products simplicity, it’s quick, easy instructions and its popularity. We also directly addressed the viewer as an individual which works to gain and hold the viewer’s attention. My survey suggests that the people that did take the survey were influenced by the contents of the advert, implying that these techniques did in fact work in the way we anticipated prior to the release of the video.

The message of this advert that we were attempting to convey was that pot noodle is a convenient fast and easy ultimatum to preparing a full meal, we portrayed this by showing a white collar worker take a small 4-minute break from working to prepare a pot noodle, this acted as a practical demonstration of the products convenience. Also, the environment adequately represents the target audience’s work space and allows them to relate.

The outcome of my adverts responses make me feel that the video did work well in its challenge to advertise pot noodle as a product for the higher social class. The majority of the responses viewed the advert positively this gives me confidence in its effectiveness. And the negative responses we received were entirely constructive criticism allowing us to use it in future assignments.

The advert includes nothing that could promote actions that would harm the audience or people around them, and has not violated the BCAP code in any way. The advert also obeys the rules of ASA, which says that the advert should not be misleading or lie to gain sales or promotion.

Personal Reflection

The final advert has developed a lot from the storyboard and shot list, as when we first got the shots we planned we felt as though the ad lacked any attention grabbing aspects so we decided to take some more shots to add depth to the advert, for example, we added the shots of him walking to and from the table with the kettle and the pot noodle in order to give the advert some transition. We also added the shots of him working before addressing the camera and also him answering the phone, this represented the busyness of the target audiences. The constructive criticism that was given to me via the responses to the surveys were helpful and gave me a lot of ideas that I would be able to interpret into a second draft of the advert or in future videos I produce. I am satisfied with how effectively the advert rebranded the product, however, if I was to redo this advert, a number of improvements would be incorporated, for example, balanced audio allowing the dialogue to be clear over the background music, also the actor would be less robotic and portray more enthusiasm. The original idea of rebranding pot noodle to a higher social class audience was mine, and I feel this advert was a great extension of that idea. Throughout the project I also completed some of the preproduction paperwork, filmed some of the shots and directed each shot to resemble my idea as closely as possible.