Daniel James

Advertisement Evaluation

KMI

Connextcast were asked to create a cyber-safety campaign and in turn I

had to create a 30 second advertisement that promotes this. There were
some essential elements to the brief that Connextcast set. For example I
had to ensure that the target audience were school-aged teenagers, this
remained a very important focus of mine whilst creating the
advertisement because I had to continuously refer back to this
requirement and ensure that my work that I was producing was relevant to
this target audience. Moreover, I had to make sure that my campaign that
I was creating was vibrant and youthful. I would guarantee that this was
met by including bright colours for example. In addition, it was imperative
that the tag line for the advertisement was Stay Connected. Stay Safe. I
would use this at the end of the advertisement.
Within my advertisement there are a couple of techniques that I have
used. For example, compassion has been used and due to the nature of
cyberbullying I believe that this compassion has been vindicated clearly. I
tried to portray this by getting the actor to react negatively to the text he
received and storming up the stairs and slamming the bedroom door did
this. This section of the advertisement started with a low angle shot I also
attempted to include the technique of self-perception into the
advertisement. I wanted this technique to be included because I feel like it
would be very effective for an advertisement with this type of topic. The
way the advertisement was filmed, I wanted people to try and relate to
this and the way the actor ran to his room, I thought this was would be the
most common way someone would react to this and so a lot of the
audience could relate to this situation.
The style of my advertisement was for it to be dramatic. I aimed to create
this dramatic advertisement through the structure. I tried to make the
concept of it fit this style because the idea is very different to the common
structure of modern advertisements that are focused around
cyberbullying. When the male reacts to the message by running to his
room and wanted this section in particular to come across as dramatic and
the shot types did this. Furthermore my advertisement includes a lot of
conventions. For example when the advertisement concludes, a logo
appears of the company, which is of two hands coming out of two laptops
shaking hands; showing unity. In addition, music is played throughout the
advertisement. At the start the music is very sombre but when the
protagonist receives a text the music gets much more uplifting and joyful
which signifies the mood of the character. Moreover, a slogan appears at
the end of the advertisement 'Stay Safe. Stay Connected.' By having these
conventions, it makes the whole advertisement come across as being
more professional because of the conventional aspects of the
advertisement.
I believe that my advertisement that I created is very effective, especially
at the beginning of the sequence because almost immediately the
audience will know that it is about cyber-bullying due to the text message
that the male in the advertisement receives. Furthermore, the shots that
are used throughout the advertisement make it strong due to the variety
of shots used. For example, there is a long shot of the male running up the
stairs and the close up from another angle. The quick change in shots
break up the footage and it adds an element of interest for the audience. I
believe that it fits the purpose of the brief because it does come across as

Daniel James

Advertisement Evaluation

KMI

energetic and youthful. Additionally, there are a variety of effective

content in terms of shots. The best shot in the advertisement where there
is a cutaway to a close up on feet running up the stairs. I think this shot is
the most effective because it adds a variety to the work. I also believe that
the shots fit well with the frames, which adds a professional and slick
dimension to the advertisement.
I think that my final advertisement is very similar to my original intentions.
However I did add different shots, at the start I had simple camera shots.
For example close ups and long shots. But I thought I would need to add
different types of shots, for instance extreme close ups, cutaways and
wide shots. I also thought that it would benefit my advertisement if I used
different camera angles such as high and low angles, by including these it
added a different dimension to my work. Furthermore it would make my
advertising much more intriguing and understandable. Additionally, it
made my whole advertisement look captivating because of the variety of
shot types used.
If I could re-do the advertisement I think I would change the ending to it.
The advertisement finishes with the male walking away from the camera
and a variety of different emotions appear on the screen as thought
bubbles. I think I would change it to be more imaginative; I could possibly
have the male speaking to the camera explaining how he feels and how he
overcame the bullying. Eye contact would be made throughout this
monologue because the audience would then feel genuinely connected to
the male actor and his emotions.
My advertisement appeals to the target audience, mainly because the
topic is very common within among teenagers. In addition, the colours
used in the logo but also throughout the advertisement are bright and
vibrant and catch the audience of the young target audience. I decided to
use sombre, gloomy music to add a depressed mood. This was used from
the onset up until the point where the protagonist received the text from
the anti-bullying help line and the music then changed suddenly. The
music used from this point until the end was much more uplifting and
cheerful to vindicate the mood of the male. I believe that this is effective
because the drastic change in music coincides with the mood of the actor.
From when I started planning my advertisement I believe that it has
changed but not substantially. The storyboard that I created was followed
closely and this made the filming process a lot easier. However once I
received feedback from my client I changed a few things to the
advertisement in order to make it applicable for them. There were a few
scenes that I re-shot because of the quality of them was not adequate.
The opening shot was changed to a close-up of the male receiving the text
from the bully and this shot now allowed the audience to witness and
engage with the emotions of the victim. The advertisement concludes with
the actor walking out onto the street outside his house and then the
camera cuts to a shot of him walking away from the camera. I added
thought bubbles of the feelings that he would be experiencing, by doing
this it allows the audience to understand how he is feeling and by getting
help it has improved his emotions. I received feedback from my client at
different stages of my work. At first, they watched my advertisement and
suggested various parts I had to improve on. For example, some of the

Daniel James

Advertisement Evaluation

KMI

shots were not of a high standard and this had to be changed. In addition
the ending of the advertisement was weak, I improved this by adding
various emotions that the protagonist may be feeling. This enhanced the
vibrant requirement which was asked of me.
The clarity of communication was successful. I organised a focus group
and asked the participants a serious of questions. One question was what
do you think the advertisement is about? they all said that it was about a
person being cyber bullied and how people can get help. In addition, I
asked if they thought the advertisement fitted with what the brief required
(vibrant and youthful). They each gave individual opinions; one person
said that the music was upbeat which made it vibrant, another person
made a point about the age of the protagonist; they said that he was
young and this meant that she could relate to that person. The last person
mentioned the colours used at the end, he said that the colours were
vibrant and engaging. The brief asked me to ensure that the
advertisement related to school aged teenagers. When this was put
towards my focus group, they thought that my target audience were late
primary to secondary school children. Furthermore, when I asked them
what were the most effective parts they said that the long shot at the end
was effective because it looks optimistic, the camera shot that focuses
on the feet running up the stairs shows that the victim is in a hurry to get
away from their problems. The last person said that the graphics used at
the end shows optimism. I did ask my focus group what would you do to
improve the advertisement? they said that I should use dialogue because
it would help the audience understand his thoughts, they also said that
more close ups should be used and this would show emotion. Lastly, one
participant said that friends could be included to show a social side.
I believe that this piece of work is the best out of all my moving image
pieces of work. This is because of the experience I have gained and what I
may have done wrong in previous pieces of work or the quality and
creativity that I lacked, I made sure that this was portrayed in this piece of
work. The reason why I think that this is the best piece of work is that
there is an actual message behind the work and this makes it easier to
interpret. In addition, I think that the quality of shots has helped this as
well because some of the shots used are creative and thought has gone
into creating imaginative shots. Moreover, this advertisement had a clear
message compared to my music video. I believe this was the case because
I managed to plan the whole advertisement whereas I only came into the
filmmaking process of the music video in the latter stages. By creating the
initial ideas and then planning it, I had more of an idea about how to
portray a clear message.