Applying Media Theories To Our Brief

Reception Theory/Audience Reception

Reception theory is a version of reader response literary theory that emphasizes the reader's reception of a literary text. It is more generally called audience reception. Cultural theorist Stuart Hall is one of the main proponents of reception theory. This approach to textual analysis focuses on the scope for "negotiation" and "opposition" on the part of the audience. This means that a "text"- be it a book, movie, or other creative work - is not simply passively accepted by the audience, but that the reader / viewer interprets the meanings of the text based on their individual cultural background and life experiences. In other words, the meaning of the text is created within the relationship between the text and the viewer/reader.

Applying this theory to our chosen brief of advertisement it suggests that our campaign will have to connect with the viewer and give them something to relate to. The energy drink advertisements I have previously analysed use this theory as they relate to the viewer by showing the effect that their product will have on their exercise. This is a common theme in many adverts, especially those of the energy drink variety, and will need to be considered when producing our advertisement.

The Hypodermic Needle Model

Dating from the 1920s, this theory was the first attempt to explain how mass audiences might react to mass media. As the picture suggests that audiences passively receive the information transmitted via a media text, without any attempt on their part to process or challenge the data. This theory was developed in an age where mass media was a fairly new phenomenon - radio and cinema were less than two decades old. The Hypodermic Needle Model suggests that the information from a text passes into the mass consciouness of the audience, i.e the intelligence and opinion of an individual are not relevant to the reception of the text. This theory suggests that, as an audience, we are manipulated by the creators of media texts, and that our behaviour and thinking might be easily changed by media-makers.

The target audience for sports drinks such as our product is a mass market meaning it is likely to be consumed by all types of people reguardless of their opinion and intelligence. This suggests that this theory is relevent to our product as the information in our advert doesn't need to be complicated. This is the case in the Rooney Powerade advert where the benefits of the product are shown quite clearly, in the form of pictures, and therefore absorbed easily by all viewers.

Consumer Involvement Theory

When the time comes to put pencil to paper, fingers to keyboard - to actually create a campaign or ad - it can be helpful to consider, "OK, what's the primary reaction I want from the target audience?"

You won't need to do this with every ad. But for new clients, new campaigns, or new ways of thinking, it can be clever to go back to basics.

What you will discover is that there are three primary responses your ads can trigger. Three basic things an advertising campaign can get people to do:

 

1.      To feel, to experience an emotion

2.      To think, to understand, perhaps remember

3.      Take action, do something

Our Advert isn't likely to make the audience feel too many emotions. It may cause the viewer to think however. We hope to make them think about the product, to understand how it can benefit them in the future and possibly cause them to remeber a time when they were in similar circumstances to that of the actor in the advert and how our product could of helped them. All of these will hopefully result in them buying our product the next time they go shopping (action).

Understanding Our Target Audience

‘Audience’ is a key concept in media, because all media texts are produced with an audience in mind – that is to say a group of people who will receive the text and make some sort of sense out of it. A media text is planned with a particular audience in mind. A media producer has to know who is the potential audience, and as much about them as possible.

Basic Categories for Audience

·         Age

·         Gender

·         Race

·         Religious Beliefs

·         Income/Status

·         Geographical Location

Audience Research

Audience research is a major element for any media producer. It is important that a media producer understands its target audience in order to tailor the media text to fit the needs of the specific audience.

1)      Demographics:

A common and traditional method of audience research is known as demographics. This defines the adult

population largely by the work that they do. It breaks the population down into 6 groups and labels them by

using a letter code to describe the income and status of the members in each group.

Producers need to know the demographics of their potential audience so that they can shape their text or product to appeal to a group with known vieing habits. In the case of our product it is difficult to say one demographic is the target for our advert. Energy drinks are consumed by a wide range of people. It is likely that category E aren't our main customers as an energy drink is not an essential product and this category is unlikely to have vast amounts of disposable income, however we cannot disclude them as we have no evidence to support this.

2)  Psycographics:

This is a way of describing an audience by looking at the behaviour and personality traits of its members. Psycographics labels a particular type of person and makes an assessment about their viewing and spending habits.

An energy drink is a mass market. We therefore want to aim our advert mainly at mainstreamers because they are the largest group with the most potential customers. We considered aspirers when designing our product label in order to attract such a group. We also wanted to emphasize quality in our advertisement campaign to appeal to succeeders and reformers. With an energy drink not a likely product of choice for strugglers we decided that targeting this group would not be neccessary.

Market Research

Energy drinks are typically attractive to young people. Approximately 65% percent of its drinkers are between the ages of 13 and 35 years old, with males being approximately 65% of the market. 20% of respondents ages 21–30 had used energy drinks in high school or college to stay awake longer to study or write an essay; 70% of respondents knew someone who had used an energy drink to stay awake longer to study or work.

US

By 2001, the US energy drink market had grown to nearly 8 million per year in retail sales. Over the next 5 years, it grew an average of over 50% per year, totalling over $3 Billion in 2005.

The energy drink market became a $5.4 billion dollar market in 2007, and it was predicted that it would hit $10 billion by 2010.

Within the United States, Gatorade accounts for approximately 75 percent market share in the sports drink category.

UK

The UK sports and energy drinks category grew 15.6% in the 12 months to October 2010 to £827.6m, according to Nielsen Scantrack.

Lucozade Sport is worth £103m and has a 62% market share of the Sports drinks segment. Lucozade remains the No.1 brand in the UK Sports and Energy market, with nine times the annual sales of Powerade or Monster and 31 times the annual sales of Mountain Dew. Lucozade sports popularity is largely due to its partnership with the premier league. Coca-Cola's Powerade also witnessed a decrease of 4.6% in 2009, with sales of £34.4m. The next biggest brand is Powerade, launched by Coke in 2001. Seven years on, and with the might of the Coke distribution model and the share is 19%. Gatorade has just 1.2% of the sales in the UK.

Worldwide

Gatorade is now the World’s No. 1 Sports Drink, worth over $1billion and has a 48% share of global Sports Drink market.

The demographic can be broken down as both committed exercisers and social players who tend to be 25 – 44yrs old with a male bias. They spend most of their free time out of home; as such they consume a lot of out of home media and are light TV viewers.

As sports enthusiasts they also consume a lot of media either about sport (magazines) or whilst in a sporting environment (gyms or ‘on the field’). However additionally the aim was to increase frequency and penetration with existing buyers and bring new users into the Sports Drinks sub-category.

Powerade grew 25% overall to obtain a 27% market share

The energy drinks market is largely dominated by the three companies. Therefore our advertisement campaign has to appeal to the viewer in order for our product to become successful.

Analysing Energy Drink Advertisements

This Powerade advert is advertising the new features that the drink has. Another product orientated advert this time concentrating on the features on the product and saying that the new drink replenishes 4 minerals lost through sweat during exercise. This advert is also celebrity endorsed this time by heptathlete Jessica Ennis, David Davies, a swimmer, and Richard Whitehead a 200m Paralympian. These three athletes have all competed in the Olympics which is the highest level of their competition. This suggests to the viewer that drinking Powerade has helped them achieve that because of its features. By using three different celebrities it shows that Powerade is used by lots of people and if you are not using it then why not. Also by using a Paralympian they have covered a much wider range of audience than before, Paralympians are also admired as they have achieved regardless of their disability and therefore suggesting perhaps some of this is down to Powerade.
This advert uses a lot of close ups on the three people to show clear signs that they are exercising due to the sweat on their faces. At the end of the advert rather than replacing the sweat lost with water there is a close up of the athletes drinking Powerade. This twinned with the non-diegetic sound of the narrator telling the viewers that it "hydrates better than water" emphasises the effect that Powerade has on the body therefore encouraging viewers to buy the product.
Sound is an important part of this advert. Throughout the ad is a sound track which could be associated with a workout. The narrator is present at the start, to describe the features of the product to accompany the onscreen images, and at the end to describe the effect that this product will have on your body. This is then followed by the continuation of exercise by the athletes.
The words "Preparation", "Determination", "Perspiration" and "Hydration" have been added to the advert over the top of the images at certain points in the advert. These words all end in ION4 to help remind the viewer of the product involved throughout the advert. Also should the viewer ever see or hear these words they may associate them with Powerade. Other examples of editing throughout this advert are the fast changes in scene in order to show all three athletes within the time.
The advert ends with the tag line "Keep Sweating." This encourages the viewer to keep exercising like the Powerade product does. Then the advert shows the sports teams that Powerade sponsor such as Team GB and Paralympics GB. This suggests that as it is used by the best that it is good enough for everybody else.

Analysing Energy Drink Advertisements

This is an advert for another energy drink, Powerade. This advert uses celebrity endorsement in the form of Wayne Rooney. This helps to promote the product as viewers will associate Powerade with Wayne Rooney whenever they see him. Also as he is an athlete performing at the highest level it suggests to the viewer that it is good enough for Rooney so its good enough for everybody else.
This is another product orientated advert concentrating on the positive effect this product will have on your performance. The advert is Rooney versus himself with the only difference between the two being one drinks Powerade and the other drinks just water. There are three different scenes. The first being a contest for the ball in the middle of the pitch. This is won by the Rooney who drank Powerade before he started suggesting that if drunk before playing it will help you straight away. The second scene is the Rooney who drank water before the start scoring a goal, emphasising the similarities between the two of them. The final scene is Powerade Rooney scoring whilst the other Rooney can only watch from the floor. This gives the impression to the viewer that Powerade will allow you to perform for longer than is possible without. The sound in this clip is mainly the narrator towards the end describing the product further to back up the images being shown. The camera shots are mainly medium to long shots in order to show both players and the effect that the product is having. The close ups appear when drinking the two different drinks. This informs the viewer of the differences between the two Rooney's and also shows the product for the first time. Apart from the quick changes there is fairly little editing in this scene to emphasise the simplicity of the scene and the realism of the effect the product can have.
The final shot is of the Powerade bottle on top of a sports bag. This is supports the tag line "Sports kit for your insides." This line suggests that Powerade is as essential as your sports kit, something which you would not play without. This is trying to encourage the customer into a repeat purchase suggesting that it is irreplaceable.

Analysing Energy Drink Advertisements

This advert for Lucozade Sport Lite is an example of advertising for a similar product to ours. This advert features people taking part in sporting exercise by themselves. The advert is suggesting that their product is the motivation to push yourself to the limit when you need it most. This makes the viewer believe that this product is effective enough to give them the energy to keep exercising.
This advert is very product orientated. It focuses on the effect the product can have on the consumer and the features of the product, such as the fact it only has 50 calories. The advert uses a variety of camera angles throughout. Many of these camera shots are long shots in order to set the scene. There are three different scenes featuring three different exercises. The long shots emphasize the fact that they are all alone and need lucozade to keep them going. The camera shot only changes to a close up when the product is involved. In two of the scenes it is a close up of the product being drunk in order to keep the athletes going. These shots reitterate the effectiveness of the product and also show the product to the customer so they know what product is being advertised. The other scene is a medium shot of a swimmer and the lucozade bottle on the side of pool. Without drinking a voice says "just two more lengths." This suggests that the lucozade can motivate you to keep going as the taste is good enough to wait for. There is fairly little editing in this advert apart from the changes of scene. This makes the advert more realistic and therefore makes the viewer believe the effects of this product are real.   
This advert grabs human interest through the effect that using this product will have. It is a situation that most people can relate to whilst exercising, as a result of this it means they are more likely to consider this product as they believe it can help them next time they are exercising. With no celebrity sport stars involved it helps viewers to relate to it as they are just ordinary people exercising and enhancing their workout with lucozade. The tag line at the end of the advert "Improve Your Workout" backs up the message portrayed throughout the advert and suggests to the viewer that this is the product they need to take their workout to the next level.

Early Ideas

As we had to advertise a brand new product we needed to find a product that we could rebrand easily as we could not actually make a brand new product. Originally we had a bottle of beer, made in a year 11 science lesson, that we could brand and advertise. After playing around with a few ideas and viewing current alcohol advertisements we decided that it was an idea we would be interested in due to the humour element in many current beer advertisements. However as we struggled to think of an appropriate brand name and upon discovering the additional regulation codes that need to be applied with alcohol advertisement we decided to rethink our ideas.

We decided to continue with the food and drink theme due to the fact that it could be rebranded at little expense. Our next idea was an energy drink.

What Makes A Good Radio Advertisement?

In 30 or 60 seconds, a good radio ad

• Grabs attention
• Involves a listener
• Sounds believable
• Creates a mental picture
• Spins a story
• Calls for action
• Manages to keep the product on center stage and the customer in the spotlight.

It is important that whilst achieving these above steps the advert does not become boring, pushy or obnoxous. When executed to its full potential a radio advert is almost a one-to-one conversation with the listener. This makes a customer feel valued and may result in them purchasing the product/service being sold. Radio adverts are often used to complement other adverts in a campaign, they are also used heavily by new businesses to get the word out to a large audience because they cannot currently afford to pay for TV advertisement. It is also important to match the advert with the type of music played by the radio station. For example advertising using modern music on a country and western radio station would not only be innapropriate but would also waste time and money for the company.

The Cost of Advertisement

Costs for advertising varies considerably for different types of media advertising. The price is not the most important factor when considering its the value for money recieved from that particular advertisement. For instance the most expensive advertisement is not always the best and the cheapest is not always the worst.

For example, you can pay 5p per click for ppc advertising, but what is it actually giving you, in terms of value for money. There is no doubt that on a cost per click basis, the pay per click format is hard to beat as you are only paying for the audience that are actually affected by the advertisement.
Other media like magazine advertising can offer a mixture of awareness, branding and corporate identity, as well as providing an effective media for 'new launch' campaigns and meeting other specific objectives. Usually, prices start at around £1000 per colour page and go above £10,000 per page in certain publications. Some magazines do have a very specific readership and rates can be lower for those that are part of a membership or club.
For Outdoor Advertising formats, prices can vary from around £2000 for mobile billboards on vehicles to £7-8000 per month for large billboard advertising on the high street or roadside.
With Radio Advertising, the costs vary enormously and depend very much on the time slot and length of advert. A typical slot of 25 seconds can be around £250 - £1000 per week, depending on the frequency and amount of listeners.
With newspaper advertising they will usually charge by the SCM or single column centimetre if it is for classified ads or up to £10,000 for full page magazine advertisements if it is in the display section.
The top end of the advertising sales scale is TV advertising. They can demand tens of thousands of pounds before running a campaign, but a lot does depend on the frequency and viewing audience. With this and Radio, there are going to be additional costs for creating the advert, so do build this into your media planning budget.

Regulation of Advertisement

"The ASA is the UK's independent regulator of advertising across all media, including
marketing on websites. We work to ensure ads are legal, decent, honest and truthful by applying the Advertising Codes."

Advertisement is an important part of every day life. It informs, entertains and promotes health competition. It is important for these adverts to be regulated for the benefit of the consumer and company. Without this regulation advertsisements may mislead, offend or harm the viewer therefore contradicting the purpose of advertisement.

The ASA regulates the following types of advertisement:

• Magazine and newspaper advertisements 
• Radio and TV commercials (not programmes or programme sponsorship) 
• Television Shopping Channels 
• Posters on legitimate poster sites (not fly posters) 
• Leaflets and brochures 
• Cinema commercials 
• Direct mail (advertising sent through the post and addressed to you personally) 
• Door drops and circulars (advertising posted through the letter box without your name on) 
• Advertisements on the Internet, including banner and display ads and paid-for (sponsored) search 
• Marketing communications on companies’ own websites and in other, non-paid-for space under their own control  
• Commercial e-mail and SMS text message ads 
• Ads on CD ROMs, DVD and video, and faxes
• We regulate sales promotions, such as special offers, prize draws and competitions wherever they appear.

On 1st March 2011 the ASA was extended significantly to deliver more comprehensive consumer protection online.

Our advertisement will have to meet the standards set by the advertising codes. If advertisements don't meet the required standards it is likely that consumers can complain through the ASA's website. Once a complaint is recieved the ASA must investigate and if they find the advert in breach of any rules they can ask for the advert to be removed. This is costly for the company and is therefore important that an advert adheres to these rules to save uneccessary costs.

As we are planning to make a short sponsorship for a programme featuring our product it is important to understand the regulation behind this. Ofcom are responsible for the regulation of these films. The codes for which need to be followed can be found here. Ofcom also regulate product placement, where companies can pay for their product to feature in a particular programme. The codes for this would also need to be considered if we were to do this.

The Future of Advertisement

As technology evolves advertisement evolves with it. The introduction of more TV channels and services meant that TV advertisement is currently the most popular form of advertisement. As a result it is the most expensive. As technology keeps on improving will TV be replaced as the main advertisement form.

Over the last few years DVR's, Digital Video Recorders, have rapidly become part of the British home. Sky+, the most popular form of DVR, allows programmes to be recorded to suit the modern lifestyle. When a programme is recorded the user can define the parts of the programme they want to watch. This often leads to fast forwarding the advert breaks to save time. Aware of this knowledge TV companies have launched On Demand services in which viewers can catch up with programmes on the Internet. These services mean the viewer has no control over the adverts and is therefore forced to watch them. 

The rise of social media has meant that advertising companies have had to change their strategy. Sites such as twitter and Facebook are funded by the revenue from advertising on the site. Facebook advertisement works on a pay per click system where the cost is determined by how effective the advert is. YouTube also has a form of advertisement on its site. These range from pop up adverts whilst watching a video to full adverts, some of which cannot be skipped, when watching videos posted by certain companies like channel 4s on demand service or the music video service VEVO. It is reckoned that TV adverts are far more effective when the user has seen the brand before. As social media sites are where most young people (16-34) spend most of their time, apart from watching TV, this seems a logical addition to an advertising campaign. 

Internet advertising has many advantages. Adverts can now be tailored to your browsing history therefore the advertisement is customised to the consumers interests. This means that the advert is more likely to achieve its target audience rather than on the TV. The Internet is the fastest growing form of media interaction. Therefore an advert reach a high number of people for a fraction of the cost of TV advertisement. 

However the effectiveness of Internet advertisement is unknown. It is unlikely that Internet advertisement will replace TV advertisement as the main form in a campaign. Despite the advances in technology TV advertisement is still as effective as it was 15 years ago. The future for advertisement is likely to be the cross media campaigns in which TV ads are supported online meaning that the consumer is in contact with advertisement for the largest possible time.

Codes and Conventions of Advertisements

Codes and conventions of Adverts:

• Using a celebrity to sell the product: John Smiths – Peter Kay
• Been unusual: Cadburys gorilla advert.
• Brand name advertised over and over.
• Using a popular song to sell....boots "Hear come the girls” whenever you hear it you think of them.
• Catch tag lines such as Haribo "Kids and grownups love them so".
• Fear factor: if you don't use this he wont love you, used in health products
• Using guilt, life insurance use this don't leave loved ones without anything.
• Shot styles....close up on face of person Charity's use this.
• Creating a mini series: BT adverts. This makes them instantly recognisable and rememberable

Advertising Tends to follow a basic format - a slogan or a striking imade catches our attention, the body of the ad contains factual information about the product, and a pack shot or logo reinforces the brand indetity. The combination of these elements, even though the advert is viewed for a matter of seconds, leaves us with an impression of the values that are attached to that brand, and a sense of the target audience.

What Makes a Good TV Advertisement?

TV advertisement is the biggest form of advertisement in the world. On average, we know spend more than a day (26 Hours) a week watching broadcast TV. We know view more than a hour longer of TV commercials than we did 10 years ago. With such a wide audience TV advertisement is expensive. For an advert in 2010 Britain's Got Talent it would have set you back £250,000 for a 30 second ad. It is therefore imperative for companies to make an effective advert in order to make such an investment worthwhile. A good advert will be worth the investment and increase sales. The Cadbury's Gorilla advert helped to  increase annual sales for Cadbury by 5%.

A good TV advert uses the same philosophy as any good advertisement. A standard 30 second advert has slightly longer to impress than most other forms of advertising but is still not a long time for advertising companies to work with. It is therefore important to get the message across quickly but give the consumer time to absorb the information.

A good TV advertisement has to interest the public. If an ad fails to spark a human interest the message is likely to have little or no interest to the consumer. This human interest may be in the form of engaging the viewer by giving them something to relate to. For example it could be a situation they often find themselves in. They would then relate to this advert and the product it is advertising.

Some adverts are product orientated some are consumer orientated.

Product orientated adverts often show off their product, describing its features and what makes it unique from everything else on the market. Product orientated adverts are usually technology products where the company is trying to stand out from the competition.

Consumer orientated adverts are based on the consumer. Usually used for advertising services showing the effect on the customer that a particular product or service will have. Charity advertising is consumer orientated playing on the emotions of the consumer.



An example of a well executed
humorous advert



Many adverts use the humour element in order to catch the viewers attention. A well executed humorous advert will be remember able when it comes to buying a particular product. Also they will achieve additional advertisement through word of mouth as funny adverts get people talking. However if a humorous advert isn't executed well then it can have an adverse effect and possibly cause viewers to avoid a certain product. As the picture to the left shows people want to see a good advert. Over 50million people have made the effort to view this advert on YouTube. Many of these will have seen the advert before but a minority may encounter this for a first time whilst on YouTube. This means that a good advert acheives a much wider audience.

Celebrity endorsement is another way of achieving a good advert. Using a role model for the public makes the viewer believe that if this product is good enough for them its good enough for me. Most health care and beauty products use a celebrity to help with promotion. This helps to convince the viewer to buy the product by making them believe that they will become as good looking as their celebrity counterpart.

Finally adverts don't have to be entertaining to be good. Adverts that are meant to provoke and annoy are going on the principal that there is no such thing as bad publicity. Many adverts, such as the GoCompare adverts, annoy the viewers however when it comes to needing their service they will think of that brand as it is remember able. In these cases the adverts have served its purpose however there could be occasions where consumers boycott the service due to its advertisement. In the case of Benetton after their controversial series of advertisements the Daily Mail called for its readers to look elsewhere so these types of adverts are potentially risky.

What Makes a Good Advertisement?

In order to make the best advertising campaign for our product it is important to understand the features of good advertisement campaigns.

In any advertisement, the time frame you have to make an impression on your audience is limited to seconds. For billboard and print ads, this may be as little as 3-5 seconds; for radio and television, 30 seconds is usually standard. It is then encouraging to overload the ad with as much information as possible. However this is unlikely to be absorbed by the consumer. A far more effective approach is concise information that appeals to the consumer. In other words less is more.

A good ad:

• Connects with its audience
• Is memorable and easily recalled
• Provides information quickly and succinctly
• Doesn’t confuse the viewer or make them hunt for the pertinent information
• Calls the viewer to action

An effective campaign may include a slogan. A well thought out slogan will stick in the mind of the viewer. They will then remember the slogan and the product it relates to making them more aware of the product, its features and therefore they are more likely to purchase the item. A slogan may also tie in with the advertisement: For example the Guinness Adverts use the slogan "good things come to those who wait" and one advert they used it with is about evolution that ends with them drinking Guinness suggesting that it is worth the wait.