A whole new set of tasks awaits us this week as part of the module. We’re gradually expanding our knowledge of marketing tools & strategies that are applied in order to have us take notice of advertisements/use products. The realisation that every single detail of an ad or campaign has been specifically tweaked and decided upon to get the customers/consumers attention, whether it be why that ad is on the side of your local bus or why the inside cover ad of your magazine is a multi-million pound movie production, nothing is successful by accident, however we were given an example of how an idea can greatly backfire and be unsuccessful by accident.
This week we worked on the creation of a visual ad for ‘Pillowtalk’, which magazine would suit its market best and how would it look/put itself across for the average reader of such a magazine. To appeal to both genders we agreed that the ad should feature in both a male/female publication. In keeping with the ‘gadget’ side of the product we chose a video games magazine which is primarily read by men, most likely young adults who have disposable income to spend on games consoles/games (which can be expensive) so the price of Pillowtalk has less chance of scaring them off. As for women we decided on a ‘lifestyle’ magazine, slightly more upmarket than ‘Heat’ or other gossip magazines, Glamour & Cosmo for example may be better options, with the primary reader being a 18-30 year old woman in full time employment. Our final mock-up ads can be seen below.
As for the imagery we played about with the idea of a ‘heartmonitor’ visual connecting a couple as it’s recognisable and works both in the ‘lovey-dovey’ & CPU sense aswell as another poster of a world map with links from country to country to illustrate how the product works over any distance. We had a range of attempted ‘catchy’ taglines which we used, such as, “Nothing beats a heartbeat”, “Though we may be far apart, you will always have my heart” and “Wonder what it would be, to have you pillowtalk with me” taken from the film by the same name. Arguabley, since one of its main draws is that fact it uses cutting edge technology (apps, wi-fi) a facebook/twitter & web address were added to the poster aswell as a QR code that ‘tech-savvy’ viewers (which Pillowtalk has most chance of appealing to) can interact with. Looking at Ludic Quality and the possibility of adding something a bit out of the norm for the ad was too good a chance to pass up, played about with how pages could fold in order for the couple (who are facing opposite directions) to come together. all thanks to the wonderous Pillowtalk product of course. A ‘fold out’ option was created aswell, inspired by ads which seem to use a different stock within magazines to draw even more attention, though they may be irritating seem to be effective.
