Research Portfolio

Carter Soft Drinks understands the importance of new technology and digital media when promoting their product. They need to be convinced that you have an excellent understanding of this too.

Learning outcome 1 (U20): Know how existing advertising campaigns embed advertisements across a range of media products.
Included:
P1: Describe an existing media advertising campaign
M1: Evaluate different cross media advertising campaigns for consistency of message 

Learning outcome 2 (U24): Understand the products that are produced within and across media industries.
Included:
P1: Describe the media products for an identified industry sector 

Research Portfolio

P1 (U20): Describe an existing media marketing campaign

An existing campaign such as the Share a Coke advert took over social media, TV and stores. They re-created their product and made it personal. Printing over 1,000 names on both their glass and plastic bottles and nearly 20,000 virtual bottles shared online via the e-commerce store, this campaign took the world by storm.

With more than 150 million personalised bottles sold, over 730,000 glass bottles personalised and purchased via the e-commerce store and 17,000 virtual bottles shared online it was the clear the campaign did the job. 

advert used on the sides of buses, magazines, newspapers to promote the campaign 

Aims and Objectives:

They created this personal campaign so that customers could ‘Share a Coke’ with the people who matter the most to you. Coca-Cola enabled the public to generate feedback as well as this Coca-Cola allowed us to buy a bottle with our loved ones names on it and share them all around the world. Their primary aim was to increase their sales and secondly engage with their customers. They wanted to be able to create a platform where the customer won’t just consume the product but engage with the brand too.

They wanted to create a bond between their target audience and their product, this meant that friends, family members and co-workers could connect with each other or re-connect if they lost touch in a comfortable, informal way. Usually the aim of a campaign is for a business to promote a new product to the market whereas this Coca- Cola campaign was to rebrand an existing product.

In order for their campaign to work they had to have a creative strategy where they would design posters, billboards and adverts to re-connect with their audience about their existing product.

Target Audience:

In terms of their target audience their core is younger people of both genders and those who enjoy carbonated drinks. By using the younger generation, they realised they are more likely to get social media attention by having them ‘share their cokes’ on their pages. They wanted to try and aim it more at those people who had never tried a coke before.

The way they included over 1,000 names on bottles and more online shows that the target audience gets wider to everyone even if they don’t enjoy the drink they could still buy the bottle because it has their names on it. This shows that they inclusive to all races, ethnicities, genders and ages. Coke didn’t just print names they also printed popular jargon used by their millennial demographic including “bestie” and “wingman”, this also increased their target audience. There was a real wonder for the public to see their names on such an iconic branded bottle. They wanted to get the message of friendship, family and love across to their audience by allowing them to buy personalized bottles for those they love, even the ones with the jargon enabled the consumer to express how they felt with just a Coke bottle.

Approach:

In terms of their approach, Coca-Cola approach this idea slowly at first in Australia as it was their summer season, then once a 2.5% increase in their sales they came to the realisation that their success in Australia would be mirrored if they made it global. So they did. Their TV ads were all filmed with a diverse range of people of all different ages, male and female, all shapes, sizes and ethnicities.

Their approach was majorly online as they went viral within the first thirty-six hours of launching their campaign.

Key message:

Coca-Cola

-       Elevate social interaction

-       Create inclusivity for the public

-       The public feel part of the brand

-       They adjusted the names on the bottles to fit in to the countries they were being sold in

-       But ultimately to make themselves money

They created inclusivity for the public by having specific names on bottles for specific countries. For example, in America, they had the most common names for that year. It was the same for India, they used the most common names so that there were more bottles being sold.

Representation:

In terms of representation they made sure to be all inclusive, including ‘actors’ of all ages, both male and female and all ethnicities. This ensured that the brand covered anyone who would buy a coke which allowed every spending power to have an opinion and choice on whether or not they were going to buy a coke.

Campaign Logistics:

The campaign was planned to be panned out over a long period of time unlike many other campaigns that only run for a certain amount of weeks/months, ‘Share a coke” planned to elongate their campaign for years.

They had a budget of nearly $3.5 billion when they launched in 2013 which is £2.4 billion. Before the idea of this campaign Coca-Cola’s sales weren’t on the rise, in fact they were some of the lowest the brand had ever seen. Once they launched they had seen a rise in their sales for the first time in a decade.

In terms of their logistics they first launched in Australian summer season and spread to over 70 countries. Their main source of advertising was their hashtag which started to trend on all platforms of social media.
The adverts where all filmed in the same setting, a red background in a photo-booth, this allowed for minimal cost as it was just a backdrop needed.The red background ties the advert to the Coca-Cola brand. They had to set up their Facebook page as well as their Instagram page and set up their #. This would have been minimal work for no cost as all these social media pages are free to set up and run. 

This allowed the audience to focus on what the actors where saying and not the special FX. 

Choice of Media:

The Coca-Cola bottle is one of the most iconic designs for a drink bottle in the world and there is a real wonder for the public to be able to see their name on the famous design.

Social media played a crucial role in aiding the success of the campaign. When the public were successful in finding their names on the bottle they were encouraged to share their bottle on any social media platform using their hashtag #ShareaCoke. This created a frenzy for people to find their names so they could join in and share their cokes. 

As well as their hashtag, the brand went beyond customised bottles as they creative interactive billboards and websites as well as mobile kiosks where customers could customise for Coke products. All of these actions allowed the public to interact and share their cokes which gave the brand the publicity they desired. Their TV adverts including the song “Tongue Tied” by Group Love. The lyrics “take me to your best friend’s house” is played louder than any other part of the song, this allows Coke to push the word ‘best friend’ and get the public to share cokes with people including their best friends.

Call to Action:

A tweet from social media that
 shows a customer finding her
name on a bottle

Their call to action had a clear message, get the public to #ShareaCoke with anyone and everyone. They were inclined to share their personalised bottles which gave the Coca-Cola brand the publicity they wanted from the campaign. Coca-Cola wanted publicity and acknowledgement, they wanted new people to try their brands products and the way they thought was most effective was to let the public advertise for them. Coca-Cola made it their aim to target a wider target audience and become bigger than they already were and allow more and more people to #ShareaCoke and buy their products.

Relevant Legal and Ethical Issues:

The names that were printed on the bottles were a huge issue for the Coca-Cola campaign, they had to ensure that the names they were releasing into certain countries were suitable and not offensive. To put this into context, names that are popular in countries such as India aren’t the same names as those that are popular in the U.K or America.

Another issue that they would face would be the representation of actors in the campaign adverts and billboards. They hade to make sure that they used actors from different ethnic backgrounds, they had to be of all ages and different genders this was to certify that the company couldn’t be labelled as ‘racist’ or ‘discriminating’.

In terms of ethical issues, they faced the problem of not printing certain names onto their bottles. They got their fair share of complaints when it came to returning customers saying they couldn’t find their names on a bottle in any store and the only way they were able to get theirs was to order which was more expensive. This led to members of the public feeling isolated from the campaign which progressed them to file complaints to the company directly and to social media where there complaint was out for the world to see.

 Regulatory Bodies:

Every advert is monitored and check by the ASA (advertising standards authority), they regulate all adverts across the UK. Coca-Cola didn’t have anything misleading or untrue in any of their #ShareaCoke campaigns and the ASA allowed them to keep airing them. However there was an incident in 2013 where Coca-Cola had an advert banned as the ASA felt that the ad led customer to assume that their drink only have 139 calories, many felt hat in contained misleading information.

Another successful existing media campaign is the Shell V Power: The Hunt.

They devised a treasure hunt where customers had to think laterally (solve the problem in an indirect and creative way) to win a prize.

Logo for campaign/product

Aims and Objectives:

Their aim was to showcase the technical partnership between Shell’s V-Power Nitro+ fuel brand and the Scuderia Ferrari racing team. Their aim was appealing directly to customers so they offered an award if they were able to complete a relating task. They wanted to see how they could celebrate and sell a product such as fuel/diesel without the consumer actually seeing it. Shell wanted to see if they could launch a worldwide treasure hunt to promote their new fuel. This only issue they faced was that the consumer couldn't actually see the product before they bought it however, they could see the effects it would have on their cars once they did. They wanted to get the world talking about their new product and they believed the best way to do this would be to create a frenzy in the media so the public would get involved and share their experiences. Their video ad was to promote their fuel and show drivers how their cars could perform if they used this petrol. 

Target Audience: 

Considering the prize for the treasure hunt (tickets to F1 racing) Shell limited who they were targeting. Formula 1 racing has a mass audience is dominantly men, with them taking up a staggering 92%. This means that the prize they are giving only appeals to around 50% of the world. In addition to this the majority of their audience are aged between 18 and 40 (58%) with the second highest being 27% being aged 41-50. Taking into consideration their campaign is a treasure hunt that is based on social media publicised clues they are presuming that all of their audience are on some type of social media platform and with them having a slightly older consumer they can’t count on the fact that all these people will hear and get involved with their ‘treasure hunt’. They took a survey to find the main locations and found that London, Germany and Poland where their biggest European markets. This enabled them to create the hashtags for these specific countries as they knew they would get the biggest response. However, it did limit them to who was competing.

Key messages:

Their key message was to promote the technical partnership between Scuderia Ferrari and Shell V Power, they wanted to promote that they were going into partnership with such an well know, well to do brand. They wanted to communicate to the public the brands innovation. They want to show the world that they have paired with a brand that has taken their product and made it better. Since they product they are advertising is a fuel they want show ‘it’ but they can show what it can do and how it performs. They showed cars using the fuel, and how it made any average car act like a Ferrari one of the world fastest cars.

They wanted to share with the world that their latest V-Power Nitro+ fuel is designed to minimize negative effects from carbon deposits, corrosion and wear. They wanted to share that it is better than any other fuel they have created.

Approach:

There were three stages to the overall experience, the first part was a pre-event campaign video that introduced ‘The Hunt’ via a cameo from F1 driver Kimi Raikkonen. This was broadcasted online and entice participants from London, Germany and Poland. They were led to the Shell website where they were to register to take part in ‘The Hunt’ experience. They were told a specific day and on this day the participants were asked to arrive at a specific location in the city at a certain time. They were sent an image (this was to overcome twitter’s 140 character restriction). These acted as the clues for the day which directed the participants. The ‘hunters’ had to head to three checkpoints, taking a selfie at each and retaining information about V-power. Once they had finished this part they then had to race their competitors to find their city’s Ferrari and win their prize.

They made sure the tickets they were giving away were the best in the house, they were in Shell’s trackside seat which are VIP.

Representation:

The video created by Shell for the Shell V Power Nitro+ fuel included a diverse range of people.

Both men and women even though we discovered that only 8% of F1 audience were women they still participated for the chance to win tickets. They also had a cameo from Kimi Raikkonen an F1 driver.

There was a range of ages however it was majority 18-35 year olds. They were all wearing a piece of Ferrari clothing which represented the brand they were playing for.

social media posts
about the campaign
showing it went viral 

Campaign Logistics:

The campaign didn’t last any longer than 4 or 5 days, this was because there were so many people looking
for the same thing in the city, they were competing for a prize and wouldn’t let anyone stop them.
Launching their fuel at the start of 2015 they waited until just before the Belgian Grand Prix that was
taking place on the 21st-23rd of August . This allowed the public to see how the fuel performed and
then once they had seen it they launched the campaign to re-ignite the spark of talking about the fuel.
They made that in their video they advertised the car they would be hunting for. This got the brand more
publicity and advertising.

The campaign made the impression on social media platforms. On twitter nearly 100,000 users were
following the campaign with nearly 2 million impressions made. Footage was captured by contestants
and the public and then shared over the platform with the #TheHuntLDN (London) #TheHuntBE (Berlin)
and #TheHuntWWA (Warsaw). The hashtags were tweeted hundreds of thousands of times and created
online frenzy for who was going to win the stay in a five star hotel and the Shell sponsored suite on the
track tickets. In regards to the budget of the campaign it is unclear how much they spend exactly but by narrowing down what needed to be paid for we can establish a rough idea.

What needed to be paid for;

use of the product

-Kimi Raikkonen's time

-Camera Equipment

-Renting the Ferraris

-Sponsorship for the seats at the Grand Prix

-Editing of the videos

-Publishing of the video

Choice of Media:

In terms of Shell’s choice of media they mainly used social media as their marketing platform as they believed they would benefit the most from this as it was free, easy and instantaneous. They advertised their video on all these social media platforms as well as making the video public on Youtube. It started to trend as everyone wanted to know the prize and how to win.

Shell published their video featuring Kimi Raikkonen was featured on youtube and vimeo. This let them gain more media attention at no cost (expect from the production costs).

The way they used social media allowed them to continue posting updates about the contestants progress which encouraged the rest of the world to watch and allow them to voice their opinion on who they think may win.

Call to Action:

A call to action is a piece of content intended to induce their viewer to perform a specific act.

In the case of Shell V Power: The Hunt, They wanted the public to gain and raise awareness for their new ‘better for the environment’ fuel. They wanted the public to understand what they have created gets continuously better and they improve as a brand. They got their audience to retweet their hashtags as well as spread the message of better fuel for the environment.

Relevant Legal and Ethical issues and Regulatory Bodies

Shell claim that V-Power Nitro+ fuel is designed to minimize negative effects from carbon deposits, corrosion and wear. If they haven’t tested the fuel and got a respectable document saying that this is true then they could face major legal and ethical backlash for lying and misleading the public. One of the main reasons why customers will use this fuel is because of what Shell have said about it and how it minimizes negative effects, if this comes out as untrue then customers could feel betrayed by the brand and not use them again. Along with this they are advertising the prize for finding the Ferrari as “a 3 night stay in a 5* hotel and tickets to the Grand Prix in Shell’s luxury suite”. They have to provide what they are offering exactly as they are advertising it. This is where regulatory bodies come in. Again the ASA (advertising standards authority) can take down their adverts if they see that Shell had mislead their audience by advertising something that is untrue.

P1 (U24): Describe the media products for an identified industry sector

This is a list of different media products within advertising:
-Print ads
-Radio ads
-Audio visual ads
-Magazine ads
-Leaflets/posters
-Web and digital ads
-Social media ads (i.e. Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter)

There are many different media products within the advertising industry,

Coca-Cola ensured that all their products (billboards, videos, hashtags) all linked together and that the message was easily portrayed, even though they did it in different ways they had to make sure that the message was the same. There are many different media products that Coca-Cola used; newspaper ads, audio visual, web and digital. They linked each of the platforms together so that each of them included the # which allowed the reader/audience to instantly notice that the advert was for the share a coke campaign. Coca-Cola uses different products such as;

-print ads

advert for share a coke campaign 

Using print ads is an easy way to influence the customer as the public are affected by what they are reading and majority believe what they are reading. Having the content in their hands makes it feel more real for the consumer. Even if the consumer hasn’t purchased the newspaper or magazine that the ad is featured in they are more than likely to view it in secondhand readership whether that is on the train, doctors office or at home.

-audio visual (TV, web ads)

screenshot from campaign video

TV reaches a large audience where on majority of channels between shows there are adverts that the world watches. On catch up players there are also adverts that play however you are more likely to skip over them. Other platforms such as youtube are free to upload and view content. This allows a wider audience to view the adverts as they don’t have to pay to use it.

-web and digital (apps, mobile sites)

Apps linked with campaign and distributor 

Coca-Cola has created an abundance of apps that are free to download onto iphone and android smartphones. They include games, drink mixers and emoji keyboards, this allows all kinds of ages both male and female to download and enjoy.

Ways in which products are adapted:

Media products are all adapted in different ways to fit the platform they are going on.

For example, Apple use the same images for both newspaper and magazines ads. This is because they are of a similar size and don’t need to be changed however, when they advertise the same product on a billboard on motorways or city centres they adjust the images and text so that it fits to the space.

advert for apple on a billboard
over a motorway

advert used in a magazine for apple

These are two apple adverts, the left one is for a magazine and the right is a billboard over a busy road. For the magazine there is a small line of text with the name of the product and an image of what they are selling. The brand didn’t have to use their name as they are so well established and the world knows who creates the ‘iphone’. The billboard ad doesn’t include the line of text as it could be distracting to drivers who are concentrating on driving. This shows how it is adapted for the platform and location of the advert, they have used the same image and font style of the products but just removed some of the text as it isn’t appropriate for where it is located.

Another example could be McDonalds, yet another well established brand that is known worldwide.

ad used in magazines and
newspaper

ad used in magazines and
newspapers

The ad on the left is a print ad that was placed in newspapers across the world to advertise McDonalds
and their food. They have included around 30 words that takes around 30 seconds to read. The newspaper
was the best place to use this advert as they consumer is already reading the material so they would read this
as they come across it.

The advert on the right is again, advertising McDonalds and their food but this was a advertised on a billboard,
this is why it doesn’t include an overload of text as it could be on the side of a bus or at a bus stop where people
are going to stop to read an ad. They have their iconic logo on their food packaging and their slogan that is
known around the world. They are a trustworthy brand so people don’t need to be persuaded by their text to

buy their products.

How institutions create brands and cross media products across platforms to engage audiences:

Apple, The world’s biggest technology and entertainment company are so well established that when they
are advertising their products they don’t even have to use speech to tell the audience what it is they are
advertising or who they are. At the end of their TV and web ads they place their simple ‘apple’ logo in the
middle of the screen and that is it.

different uses of apple logo

and it can still be recognised

can be changed to any colour

They are such a well known, sophisticated brand which allows them to advertise at a minimal cost as

they don’t have to hire actors to take part.

Other ways that Apple advertise is through celebrities, they hire the biggest faces in the music and
entertainment world and create an advert of them using the newest products with the newest features.  

Each advert they produce for each other products is designed to target a specific sector of their target
audience, certain ads include more verbal communication to cater to the older generation target audiences where
they have a explicit explanation for the product whereas others have no talking at all just images and words
popping onto the screen, which caters for the younger audience. This is because they are more aware of the
brand and what they create. Apple stay up to date with what other brands are doing and try to prove that
they do it the best way, all the audience needs is their trustworthy, sophisticated logo that can change
colour or location and still be recognised.

M1 (U20): Evaluate different cross media advertising campaigns for consistency of message
The message apple wanted to communicate to its audience was that they are introducing a new product that is
better than anything they have made before. They wanted to show the different ways that the product could be
used with one hand instead of both, to provide ease for the user.
Apple communicate their message across all different types of media pathways, for example they have TV
and web adverts, billboard adverts and adverts in magazines and newspapers along with social media clips
and pictures. Evaluating the way they deliver their messages its clear that Apple are able to use simplistic
yet powerful techniques to communicate their products. They ensured that all their billboard, print ads and

audiovisuals continue with the same message. Apple hold keynote speeches for each reveal and launch

of their newest products they include the thought process, the design and every feature that the new product

can do. Apple are such a well know and well respected brand which allows them to advertise on one platform

or 100 platforms and can still be confident that their product and message will be received globally and to

an extremely high standard.

They have ensured through out their reign as worlds best technology and communications brand that their

advertising campaign have the same level of consistency with the message they are trying to portray.

We can see this by the amount of publicity each of their new products gain through their adverts.
For example, when they released the iPhone 5 in 2012, there main attraction that they believed would
captivate their audience would be the 'thumb'. They shared with the world that their newest iPhone would
be operable with just the use of their thumbs, it was compact enough to use with one hand but could carry

out millions of tasks right at their finger tips. Once they released the adverts they were able to see how well

they were received. Sending the world into a frenzy they created billboard ads, radio ads, audio visual
ads for the TV and social media sites such as youtube.
The audio visuals explained in minimal words how the 'thumb' was the way to use the phone. Billboards

copied this by just using a sequence of images.

to promote new iphone

clip from apple video

This showed the customer how they planned for them to use their newest piece of technology in the easiest

most effective way. With 91,000,000 sales world wide their advertising was clearly effective as majority

of them were pre orders. Since they were pre-orders it shows that the customer was impressed and understood

the message of the adverts. With any campaign it is vital to have a clear message that can be easily translated

onto all forms of media. Apple were able to communicate their message of an easy to use phone with just an

of the product and someones hand.

iPhone 6 billboard advert

Ultimately the message is consistent across the different platforms. Although there is a more of a narrative within the video at itself, the language and text used within the ad and the billboard highlight that it is the best iPhone ever created. Their social media adverts that are mentioned above also contain the same image of the iPhone in question. The billboard advert includes the same image of the smart phone with the same font for the text, this allows the audience to instantly see the product and know what company is advertising it. As well as this the Apples Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages all contain the same images and texts so that they are easily recognisable as well as being consistent with the message they are trying to get across to their audience.

Apple are so easily recognisable from their logo that at then end of each of their adverts they just use their logo of the apple, this allows each other their adverts to be minimalistic so they can focus the rest of their adverts on the product. 

Their TV adverts also use minimal speech as it is clear what they are selling as well as it being conducted in a sophisticated manner with their basic colour scheme and logo. 

Dumb ways to die was a campaign by Metro Trains in Australia and the USA. It originated from a video that

went viral over social media that sang a song about literal 'dumb ways to die'. They created games for

Andriod and IOS devices which therefore increased their audience size as people of all ages where playing the

game and sharing the video.

They plastered train and bus stations with their posters that reiterated the dumb ways to die campaign.

The campaign was consistent with their characters that the 'dumb' ways they died. Their apps had the same characters as well as their posters and newspaper article ads. They used many different media platforms to help their campaign maintain its popularity. The 'music video' is amusing as it gives such ridiculous reasons that you realise are so stupid however it gets the message not to do these things as well.

The colour scheme for the campaign was consistent through out with its bright colours that also lightened to mood around the message that the campaign wanted to get across. There was also a hashtag that went viral #dumbwaystodie. 
Social media is the biggest free platform for people to advertise and when the public realise they can get involved from their phones hashtags, videos and images can go viral within hours. 

Image taken from the app itself

The bill board increased the popularity as the colour scheme is extremely bright and the cartoons are known to be from dumb ways to die. This increased the amount of views that they had and also made their customers become attached and extremely happy and educated whilst watching dumb ways to die.

Billboard images from campaign

The campaign made the message consistent to its audience by having the same characters and colour scheme throughout, they use the same theme music so that it is easily recognised without having to even see the images. These character all feature within the video ad and the music video of the song, but are individually advertised on billboards and magazine ads. This maintains consistency as the way that the individual characters are 'killed' are still shown on the billboard itself.