Test 2

Perfume Advert: Result

After several hours Photoshopping, I have produced two different designs for the perfume advert project. I tried to keep my results close to my sketches, changing bits that would not work or did not look good. I went for an angelic, dreamlike effect to best suit the theme and target audience, and to keep an interesting theme to the advert which could be carried through to other parts of the product.

To create this image, I used 2 main layers, the girl in the foreground (a friend of mine) lying in the grass, and the more colourful backdrop, which was created using a photo I took of a sunset mixed with a set of brushes that look like stars. I first changed the colours and made sure to remove all the blemishes in the model's face. Then I dropped the photo on top of the background and used the eraser tool on the foreground to make it show through. I then created the font for the word "dream" using "Century Gothic", which I then edited slightly. The font itself I split into three colours and played with until I found the perfect fit. The colours themselves I will mention later. I took the perfume bottle from a site on the Internet and changed it to better suit this image and mirrored it on the floor. I wrote a sentence to anchor the image, and then ended up with the finished image.

This one would be used as the advert that would appear on magazines and posters as it is the simplest and better follows my original plans. The advert was mainly designed with a A4 magazine advert in mind, which is why it is the right size and is positioned in the right way for it. The positioning of the parts of the advert were all very carefully thought out, and I played with the positioning for a long time before settling with what I have now. The image has been changed in small ways at least two times since posting it on here, as I got some feedback from teachers and friends. The advert is created in a way that makes the viewer follow the "lines" of the advert, for example, look at the top left corner, then notice the hand, then the face, then the other hand, and finally the bottle. This works in starting from the upper right too, but you would instinctively follow the arm along, leading you to the title and the bottle, two central parts of the ad. This further leads you on to the other hand, going to the short piece of writing which explains why you should buy the perfume. This works well, as it shows the perfume, and then explains it. The face is very central, and does not need to be linked to, as it stands out so much due to the editing on it. However, I do fear that the grass makes it harder to link between the "middle", being the face, and the rest of the advert, although the colour of the grass links in well with the other colours used, especially the blue. The ring of colour around the outside is also used to guide the eye, as it moves around in a circle, showing the viewer all the parts of the advert subconsciously.

The second image I created, using the same method. This image would be best in A3, spread across two pages of a magazine, with one face on each page, but it could work in other places too. I based it around the last idea I had sketched out, and changed it to be aimed at women, not men. This change meant that I had to make the woman seem dominant, hence her looking at the camera while the man looks at her. However, if I were to take this photo again, I would reflect this by having her head higher than the mans, so it made her look more important than the man. Overall, I am not sure that I would want to use this advert due to the other design being superior.

The first problems I had with the advert was the lighting, as I could never get the sun to be overhead and still bright, so instead I used softer lighting, and made it look like the sun was out by using the "soft lighting" layer effect, "brightness and contrast" and "colour balance". The latter was used a lot to make each individual bit stronger, especially the hair, which I boosted a lot, particularly in the first advert. One of the major problems I had later was that the grass was too sharp and clear, and looked wrong surrounded by the soft background and skin, so after playing with it for a while to find a solution, I decided to use a strong "gaussian blur" on it to make it look less focused.

I think that my choices while editing fit my target audience really well, and everything I wrote about on my initial design still stands, but there are some things that I could not show on my sketches that I have shown here, such as the effect I used for the backdrop. It fits really well as the soft colours and slow transitions between them keep it out of focus and keep attention on the model, as well as working as anchors, telling the audience what the image is all about. I also changed the colours and cropped the image to best support my yellow/pink/blue colour theme which goes towards showing the image as soft and innocent, as that colour theme is mainly used in association with babies and women, which are mainly seen as innocent and pure, especially the sort of woman I am advertising to. The women chosen for the two adverts were very carefully chosen, as they both represent the feelings I was trying to get across. This is one of the reasons that I prefer the first advert to the second. The model in the first advert looks far more at ease, which fits into the style of the advert. She also has better physical qualities for the theme, as well as easier to edit. After realising that it would be too hard to have a naked model for the advert, I decided to have a white dress, which suggests innocence and purity. However, after taking the photo, I realised that using the close up shot, it would be easy to Photoshop the dress out entirely, meaning I could essentially have the naked model as in my sketches. As the image was cut off at about neck height, it also removed the problems of making the image "family friendly" which would have been hard to solve without the perfect shot and length of hair like that in my sketches. Another quality I prefered in the image was the hair. I thought that ginger hair was too striking, which didn't fit in to the soft, dreamlike quality of the advert that I wanted. I did try to edit this first, but it is very hard to completely change hair without it appearing fake, which is why only small changes are ever used, which is what happened in the first advert, changing the dull brown colour to a more vibrant one. However, it was brightening the highlights in the hair which gave it the soft, perfect, bright quality which they both have, especially in the first advert. The eyes were important too, and I wanted to make sure they were blue, as it is a natural eye colour which not only fits the theme, but are also the lightest, most striking natural shade.

The starry sky effect I used on top of it was to relate to dreaming, as well as keeping with the idea of innocence. Stars are often associated with dreaming and dreams, and are regarded to be objects of hope and purity, which is what I needed to show in my advert but failed to show in my sketch. We were told to take a picture of a perfume bottle off the Internet, and so I searched until I found one that suited my design, which happened to look similar to my sketches of an ideal bottle. My problem with it was that it was hard to make it look transparent, as the white background shows through the bottle. To resolve this, I added colour to it and made it look like the bottle was showing the colour underneath it, which worked quite well and made the bottle look transparent, to an extent. I also experimented with ways to use the bottle first, in an attempt to find out how the bottle could be worked with well and created one design, "Flow". It is through playing with this that I thought of using the white background the bottle is rested on to my advantage. I also took the idea of the reflection from this design, and this was influenced by the "Insolence" advert that I looked at near the beginning of my blog. I also really liked the ripple effect I created, but I didn't think it would have fitted into my current designs.

In the end, of the three adverts I had sketched out, I only chose to use two of them. The one I did not use was the full length figure. Although I did try to use it, and took several full pictures, I could never get it to work, and I think its because of the grass that surrounded the figures. As I already mentioned, the grass effect didn't work as well as I had hoped, as in my sketches and imagination the grass was taller and neater, swaying all together in the wind, with the sun giving it an emerald green hue. In reality

though, the grass was too short and the lack of sun made it too dull and lackluster. Even with editing, it still didn't look good, so I abandoned that idea. Here is an image I spent a bit of time on while trying to get to grips with the theme and how to go about it.

Perfume Advert Target audience

The target audiences for my perfume advert are the B and C1 classes. They have the money to spend on expensive perfume, and the two classes take up over 50% of the "UK Adult (15+) demographic classification of audience" chart. Audience Segmentation: From this list, I choose to aim at the reformers group, due to all the nature connotations in the draft. However, the advert is aimed at the idea of nature and being "green" being part of everyday life, and as these things are getting more and more fashionable, the advert is also aimed at the mainstreamers, although the focus is still far more on the reformers. Social Value: The self actualisers would be the group most suited to my advert, as they are the group most likely to fit into the choices from “audience segmentation”. “Enthusiastically exploring change”, a very useful thing to have when marketing a new product. This also means that if they don’t fit into my audience segmentation target, they would likely change or still give the product a try regardless. In a way, I am aiming for the contented conformers, as, I will try nothing radical in my advert, and are likely to follow the self actualisers group if it becomes a trend. Independence in choice is also one of their key aspects, and are free to buy the perfume if it fits with their choices with the segmentation or for other reasons.My advert is created with the theme of nature, calming, beautiful and free. The pose must reflect this, and still show confidence, fitting in with the higher, more complex tiers of Maslow's hierarchy of needs. The bottom tier of the advert is avoided, as I expect the target audience to be more sophisticated and be above the simpler things. Although it does fit into the second tier of the triangle, "Safety", the advert is more focused on the higher tiers.From all this data, I have come up with a summary of the ideal buyer.I am aiming at a confident, secure woman; calm, but happy to try new things. She is young, in her 20s, and is at the stage of her life when her dreams in life could well become reality. She has a boyfriend, who they share a large, clean flat with, and is very happy and secure with their relationship. Although very much in touch with nature, modern technology is not beyond her. Although environmentally concious and does her part, but this barely affects the way she lives her life.

Dream

To help me to create my own ideas, I created this document explaining simularities between different existing perfume adverts. This not only gave me a good idea of the standards and ideas used but helped me to find an idea for my perfume advert.



As a concept, "dream" is bright, heavenly. I will use the theme of nature to show this, bright green grass, the clear blue sea or soft white clouds.
Whichever I choose, the pose of the model will be dependant.
I will use bright colours to make everything dreamlike, and emphasize shimmers and lighting effects.
Lighting is very important to the theme of ad- streaks of light of heavenly light will be used to shine in, to look magical and dreamlike, exactly the effect I’m looking for. A lens flare could also be used for this effect, with the added bonus of adding some bright, positive colours to the scene. The font will be used to reflect the nature of the perfume and its audience, colourful and light-hearted. To create this effect, it must be sans-serif, simple and colourful, possibly all in lower case.
My target audience is a B or C1 class, as they will have the money to spend on perfume, and still take up over 50% of the population.
From the audience segmation list, I am aiming mainly for the reformers due to the theme of nature and because they tend to have a lot of money, but particually the more mainstream side of them, as the group is rapidly becoming mainstream as fashion gets closer and closer to nature and recycling. This fits into the simple ideas of my advert, as it tries nothing new or unexpected.

A close up version of the original to be used as a a different version of the same advert. Would be primarily used for smaller prints, as the face is easier to see.
A version of the ad aimed males so they will buy the perfume for a girlfriend. I'm not too fond of this one, but there are ideas that I could incorperate into the advert, like using a man and woman.

Influences
Thatgamecompany
Yiruma
Cloud Cult

Clever Advertising

This is possibly the most original advert for anything I have ever seen. The game revolves around shaking the Wii remote, which affects areas on screen. The best thing about this advert is that with every shake, parts of Youtube rattle, break apart and eventually fall off the screen, ending with the video itself falling down. After seeing it, i was convinced to click on the link to the games website, and am definitely going to have to rent it at some point. The site shows that the video was the 8th most subscribed to this month, so the advert must have been a complete success. I can't say I expect to be able to be that original for my perfume advert, but the power of originality is still worth keeping in mind.

http://uk.youtube.com/experiencewii

2009

More recently, at 11am on Thursday the 15th of January, 350 dancers, disguised as regular people performed a synchronised dance to advertise T-Mobile's mobile phone network in the middle of Liverpool Street station. The 2 minute show was captured by hidden cameras while onlookers, first confused, began to join in. Just two days after the original performance, the show was broadcast during an interval of "Celebrity Big Brother". The performance is now on Youtube, which is where I first saw the video. Again, this is a prime example of originality and innovation playing a major part in advertising. A fresh idea really seperates one advert from the crowd, for the better or worse.

Insolence Advert Analysis

Insolence. Guerlain. In powerful upper case, the advert tells us what it is, while a confident, angelic woman gives us an integral, solid look, completely sure of herself despite, or maybe even because of her nudity, her shimmering hair flowing behind her, the image of true confidence. This audacious woman is the key to this advert, instantly pulling your gaze towards her, with no distractions. The slightly low angled shot tells you that this woman is better than you, because she is all the things you want to be. The answer? Insolence. Even the name of the fragrance, “Insolence” is meaningful, straight forward and clear, literally meaning boldness and contempt. This advert is very clear in its purpose and concept- to be powerful, like the independent woman of today should be. The dark background, pierced by a holy light, is symbolic of this, breaking a boundary, held back by nothing. The bottle, a slick masterpiece of curved glass, shines in the light, its refection captured in the bright white light coming up from the bottom-left hand corner. The chiaroscuro lighting is used powerfully in this advert, banishing the otherwise dark background in streaks of light. This is chosen very carefully, no natural light pierces the darkness so perfectly, which too, is a metaphor for what you become after using this perfume, breaking any boundary you want. The dark veils of shadow sliding out from the side of her neck and hair are also symbols, this time of hidden power, maybe you could unveil these with the piecing light of the perfume? Asking all these questions instantaneously, the advert holds power over the potential customer, making them feel that this is what they need, to be insolent.

Wii Advert Analysis

The Nintendo Wii, one of the most successful games consoles ever created, and partly responsible is its style. The sleek, white, fashionable games console was designed to seek out new audiences with games, especially through its low price and 'Touch! Generations' series of games, which have all been massively popular. The entire marketing campaign is based not at one specific audience, but nearly all people, from toddlers to people in their 80's, featuring different games to suit these targets. This advert, however, is aimed at a younger target audience, at a glance, likely women in their 20s to 30s. However, the advert is carefully designed as to not rule out any other potential viewers of the advert.

Set in a clear, modern, open plan room, the advert features two people both all too clearly using the Wii controller, with an expression of joy and humour on both faces, especially in the young woman in the foreground. She is central to the advert, and is instantly seen to be a pretty, sporty, independent woman, which is a very popular idea in today's society, appealing to men and woman alike, as a potential girlfriend or role model respectively. At the end of her reach is unmistakably a Wii remote, the sole link the ad has to the console at all, cleverly used to stop the viewer looking straight for a logo and moving on; most people already know what a Wii is. Instead, the adverts central image is the girls face, the first thing the audience will look at. Upon seeing this, they will proceed to moving along the length of her arm (cleverly lengthened with the camera positioning) and see the Wii remote subtly placed there. The Wii is no longer just a name, it is now an object which they could be using, enjoying just as much as her. For females, the advert is asking them is this is the sort of thing they would like, to be that perfect woman clearly enjoying herself on the fashionable console, with a man in the background to share the moment with. For males, the pretty young woman is going to have a similar effect, but will want to know more where to get the woman than the console, but upon seeing the two linked, they will ask themselves if a Wii is the right way to go. The man in the back of the image is the person they will relate to; laid back, having fun, and in good company. Notice that to emphasize this, his remote is pointed discretely at the girl, as if to ask “would you like her?”. To appeal to the stereotypical housewife, the Wii is seen more as a fashion accessory, and a way to bring enjoyment into the home, so well furnished and lit- just like in the magazines. To them, the Wii then becomes a mean of accomplishing this. Everything about the Wii responds to this advert, even the name, 'Wii', using the successful iPod tactic (which too, has a very wide target audience, meaning their advertising schemes often work in a very similar way), using personal pronouns to directly question the buyer, but changing it to create a more social image, just like the one in the advert.