TV Advert Evaluation

TV Advert Analysis

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The Brief:

For this assignment, we had to choose a Unilever product, and re-brand it so that it would be suitable for a different target audience. They wanted to open brands to a larger audience.  There were many brands that could have been chosen, but for our group, we decided to go with PG Tips.

PG Tips is a tea brand that is owned by Unilever. We had three other options on the table for products that we could have made an advert for, however, we chose PG Tips democratically, but putting pieces of paper with the names of the four products that we had decided, and chose one out at random. PG Tips was the brand that was chosen through this method, and it was also the most convenient brand to do, as all it needed was a simple setting, compared to the others, which were more complex.

The current target audience for PG Tips is those who are middle-aged and above, who already own a house and those who would typically drink tea. We decided that we wanted the target audience to be students, those who might be ad university or those who just like drinking tea. We wanted to do this because it would open the tea drinking market to those who aren't usually known for drinking tea, boosting the sales and increasing revenue. It also seems suitable to appeal to this audience, as we are students ourselves, allowing us to portray what it would be like easily, allowing the audience to identify with the situation.

The Finished Product & Feedback:

The feedback that I have was collected using a website called "Survey Monkey". This website allows you to create a survey and than gives you a link or the option to print it off to distribute it to people. This allowed me to easily create a survey that gave me feedback on the advert that we had created.
The data that I collected showed me that many of the people that gave feedback on the advert were of the target audience - all of them being students. Though many of them were male, a large majority of the responses said that it was a good advert. The majority also said that it did well for the new target audience, with an average rating of 5.56 when it came to how well it was shot. Nearly all found the advert humorous and said the advert completes its purpose. A large portion of them said it was suitable for it's purpose, and there was mixed responses when it came to keeping the audiences attention all the way through.

I believe that the advert that we created managed to get the message across to the audience that Tea can be for all ages; it doesn't matter whether you're still a student. However, I believe it lacked what was necessary to persuade them that they can drink tea, no matter what the age, as it didn't have much relevance to that apart from the age of the actors, who looked like students. It would've been more appropriate to base the idea of the advert around the different audience, linking it to them in more ways than just the age of the actors, and have an off-topic subject for the advert.

In our advert, we tried to use props that would give the scene a homely feeling, so that it didn't just look like a staff room. We tried to achieve this by using a kettle. However, this didn't prove to be very effective, and there was still a lot of items on the walls that meant it had a staff room look to it. To give it a personal touch, a rubber duck was added in the background for a scene, sitting on top of some books. 
The camera work throughout was rather shaky, but we used different shots, including a vertical pan when looking at the person making the tea, and a horizontal pan at the start of the adverts. We included a range of different shots, including close ups & medium shots. Apart from the pans, there were no other intentional camera movements, as the camera was supposed to be static for the rest of the advert.
The sound we used when everyone had a breakdown was used to create tension and help the audience realise how strongly they felt about the tea being made incorrectly. We used music similar to what would be played in elevators for the tea being made correctly, as it gave a nice ambient background and made sure it wasn't just silence. We also added a muffled sound of music being played when the person making the tea had his headphones in, giving the illusion that he was actually listening to music, which worked well.
The editing at the end using the screenshot and making the text appear on the screen when the slogan was spoken was a nice touch, along with the boxes of the product and how they faded out afterwords, marking the end of the advert.
I think the technical and aesthetic qualities of the advert were good, however, they had a large amount of room for improvement. 

I think the advert could've done a better job when it came to selling the product, as there was no emphasis on the product, and instead all the emphasis was on the making of the tea, which barely showed the product, as it was the first step, and was briefly mentioned. Compared to the other PG Tips adverts, where they have emphasis on the product, the advert was focused on the production, meaning it didn't do an effective job of selling the product. If the product was given a much larger role, using some editing techniques and a greater mention, it would of sold the product much more effectively than it did. With no story line in the advert apart from four people making tea, there was little that helped sell the product.
We used entertainment as the persuasion technique for our advert, which revolved around the person making the tea incorrectly and everyone having a breakdown about it. There were others that we could've used, such as stating a 'Unique Selling Point'.  This means to point out what is special about the product compared to other products of a similar nature. This was done in the 'PG Tips Digger Advert', where the whole advert revolved showing the different between PG Tips and a generic tea bag brand.

The message that we were trying to send to the audience was that you don't have to be of a certain age to drink tea and enjoy it. We tried to do this through the use of the age of actors, and what language was used in the advert, but we could've also done it so that the scene made it look like we were students, and mentions of classes. However, because there wasn't much of a story line, the mention of classes wouldn't have been possible. 

Overall, I think the advert is fit for purpose, however, there was problems with it. The biggest problem with the advert is that the camera was shaky for a lot of them, and there was better ways that we could've shot it. The editing was done to a professional standard, however, the sound could've been made quieter so that the speech could be heard easier. One problem with the BCAP (British Code of Advertising Practice) code that this advert might have is the volume levels. Because the soundtrack in the background is loud, as well as there being a pop in the voice-over, it might be undesirable for the audience, which would cause problems.

Personal Reflection:

Overall, the advert that we have created is true to our original intentions for the advert, and we didn't really stray too far from what we had planned on the storyboard, shot list and so on. 

I am not very satisfied with the advert, as I believe there were many things that went wrong and could've been corrected if we had thought about it and put more time into our work. The camera was shaky a lot of the time, due to rushing and not using a tri-pod, which had a negative impact on our final advert, and made it seem unprofessional. There wasn't any story line to the advert, and it starts abruptly with someone standing up and making tea. Without any explanation, it has the potential to be confusing to the audience. There was a lack of emphasis on the actual product and selling it for the younger target audience that we wanted to do, and instead it was more focused on the tea being made a certain way, which doesn't have any relevance for the younger target audience of the product as a whole. 

If I was to do the advert again, I would make sure that it had a lot of emphasis on the target audience and the product instead of an off-topic subject, and be sure to make the setting more suitable, to help identify with the target audience.