TV Advertisement Evaluation

The Brief

For this advertising assignment, we

were given the task of rebranding a Unilever

product for a new audience. This involved

extensive individual research into the

Unilever brand and its many products,

determining the audience that already exists

for them. We were put into groups based on

the products we had chosen, with Reuben, Connor and I having all chosen popular tea

brands: PG Tips and Lyons Tea. This made settling on PG Tips as our product very easy,

especially as Lyons is rarely available in England.

We agreed that the current target audience of our product, PG Tips, was a

demographic of people between lower middle class and working classes and a

psychographic of mainstreamers. This is due to the humorous style and typical working class

household the existing adverts are set in which eliminates the upper and middle classes. For

this reason, we chose to attempt to rebrand the product to appeal to these upper classes in

order to widen the audience range; according to BARB viewing figures there are nearly 5

million more people who watch TV in the ABC demographics than the DEF demographic.

Feedback

To gather feedback about the advert, I created a quick and easy survey online using

the Survey Monkey website. To help get the survey noticed, I tweeted the link several times

and emailed it to friends, family and classmates. You can view the results in the embedded

slideshow below this embedded document. Unfortunately, despite many tweets and emails

only 14 people answered the survey, which I realise is by no means an accurate

representation for the audience of our advert.

The first 3 slides.

Nevertheless, the overall response to the advert was positive, with over 90% of

respondents saying they enjoyed it on the whole. The responses regarding audience of the

advert mainly appear to say it is gender neutral, which is what he had hoped for despite

having the main characters both male in order to increase the audience size; there is

confusion about the intended age range. As a general assumption, ABC demographics would

include people between 35 and 50. We attempted to get this across in a number of ways,

extending to the font we used in the end slate of the advert

which I think looks typically traditional to appeal to older

people. The survey results display an equal divide for 35-50

and 20-34, with some even concluding it was more suitable

for the 13-19 age group!

On the other hand though, a majority of people said they thought the advert was

appropriate for the product and they would purchase the product based on the advert

(slides 4 & 5). The suggested improvements (slides 6 & 7) vary slightly, although most

commented on the quality of dialogue and sound, which I would agree is a big issue for the

advert. Another common concern was the location of the advert not being suitable, which

again I completely agree with. A few mentioned the camerawork, others mentioning

transitions between shots and one or two commenting on the actors themselves.

Personal Reflection

Compared to my original intentions for the advert, I do not think the finished

product is quite what I had wanted. To begin with, I do not think we homed in enough with

appealing to our new target audience for the rebranded product, as pointed out by the

above feedback. The intended audience, of upper classes and succeeders were not

accurately represented by the set of the film obviously being a small caf. Although this was

out of our control due to four alternatively preferred restaurants refusing to allow us to film

in their premises; we had to use whatever we could get in the end. It seems that the

feedback received from the survey agrees with this, with many people being confused about

the intended audience. This was agreed with by peer and teacher feedback and because of

this I would conclude that the advert does not appropriately sell the product.

I am personally unhappy with several technical aspects of the advert. The

camerawork, whilst mostly following our storyboard, comes across on screen as being quite

amateur. This included some moments where the camera was very shaky, and in some

shots can even be seen in the mirror. With a lack of available audio equipment, we were

depending on the audio picked up by the camera itself;

when we reviewed the footage at the start of the

editing process it became apparent that the audio was

fairly poor. Both of these concerns of mine were picked

up on by feedback from the survey. Another problem

highlighted by the feedback was lighting, which on this

occasion was out of our control given we had not been

in the caf before we were unaware it would be an issue. The cameraman in the mirror

If we could re-make the advert I would begin

with finding a better location, as this would drastically

improve the quality of the advert. I would also then put

a call out for extras to be in the background all

smartly dressed and drinking the product - to assist the

impression given by the ambience audio track we used.

If we still lacked audio equipment I would dub over the

dialogue in the editing process to improve it immediately. An empty restaurant

Despite the changes I would make, I think we did a good job at editing our existing

advert. In my opinion it has a good pace, and some of the worst shots we found time to

rectify by removing shaky movements of the camera and boosting the audio. I am

particularly proud of the work we carried out adding steam effects to the cup and teapot to

make the scene look more realistic. The only negative comment we had regarding editing of

the footage was to make the transitions smoother, but I disagree with this as I think the

crossfade works nicely to demonstrate the progression of time.

I am also happy with how we stuck to the storyboard almost shot to shot despite

never going into the caf prior to the shoot. I think this is important as it shows that we had

planned very well and knew what we wanted to do. My favourite shot appears 3rd in the

advert as the two characters walk towards the table

amongst other diners. I l like this shot because it

creates a new perspective which does not directly

involve the characters, but we also cleverly hinted at

the product by showing two other diners drinking the

product in the foreground. I also stand by the fact it was

a good and well thought out concept for an

advertisement even if it wasnt carried out perfectly. My favourite shot

Our advert does comply with the ASA and BCAP guidelines because it does not

mislead the viewer or cause offence or harm. Specifically, our advert does not feature any of

the key concerns within advertisements such as political and controversial matters, children,

medicines, religion, homeworking schemes or pornography. The product we are attempting

to sell is not prohibited from advertisements (examples of which include breath testing

devices, products associated with gambling, tobacco, guns and prostitution).

advertisements should not mislead or cause serious or widespread offence or

harm, especially to children or the vulnerable.[1]

My Role

The roles and tasks I took on for this project were, in many aspects, the opposite of

what I would have wanted to do but it was nevertheless an interesting and insightful project

thanks to this. My involvement began by coming up with the whole concept of the

rebranded product and the advert. When it came to the day of shooting the film, I was

unusually in front of the camera (certainly something else I would change if we shot the film

again!) and had no involvement at all with filming, checking the storyboard or checking for

continuity.

Additionally, when it came to editing I played quite a large role in cutting up the

parts of the film and condensing the whole advert down to an appropriate length despite

having a self-confessed terrible understanding of the editing software, Premiere Pro. I also

sourced the music and ambience online, and ensured they were appropriately credited. To

conclude I think I still had an effective role in the project as a whole, but wish I had

participated more on the day of shooting.

Sources

[1] BCAP Code: www.cap.org.uk/Advertising-Codes/Broadcast.aspx