Advertising

My original idea for my Lucozade sport advert was to have a person enter the gym, and start to work out, but does it really slowly and sluggishly. But he will drink the lucozade sport, and when he does, he will have the energy to complete the workout with effort and with ease. The strategy behind this idea is the advert will be used to advertise Lucozade Sport in a positive way, and I believe this will happen with this idea, as it will show that by drinking Lucozade sport can help with sports performance. The target audience for my advert will be both men and women aged between 18-35 as this is because previous research showed that this is the most likely and most popular age group to use Lucozade in sports performance.

Before the shooting of my TV commercial could begin certain pre-production had to be completed, this work had to be done to a high standard as to not cause any problems when shooting, and to also help make sure that the advert is completed to a high standard. My primary research for this advert was to survey 20 sports people and ask them various questions about my chosen product, lucozade, such as did they drink lucozade sport while taking part in exercise and stating reasons for their response. I also asked whether they drank lucozade sport when not taking part in exercise and their reasons for it. This was done in order to see how popular Lucozade Sport is and also to see if my advert could be aimed at sportsmen and women as a target market.

My secondary research was to research the history of Lucozade and the owner/producer of Lucozade, GlaxoSmithKline. I also researched and analyzed different adverts of lucozade over a period of time to see the changes in their advertising techniques this was done for inspiration and brand approval to ensure my ad would be fit for purpose, it also helped with the planning of my commercial production as it helped me generate ideas about how to advertise the product and it also showed what Lucozade has done too produce a successful advertisement campaign in the past.

Before I could start storyboarding my commercial I had to decide which of my ideas to use. I had 3 initial ideas, all of which I could have used for my production. My first idea was that all different runners drink Lucozade before a race, they race and all finish first in a record beating time, but the problem with this was that finding enough actors for this would be tough, and also trying to find a location to suit the shooting would be a struggle. Another idea was to show different people drinking bottles of Lucozade Sporting different situations throughout the day/ I decided against this, as it would not show Lucozade sport as energy, just as a soft drink. The idea I decided to use was someone in the gym drinking a Lucozade sport in-between exercise; as it would show Lucozade in a positive light and would also show it’s sport connection, the main reason for drinking it, to refuel and support energy during exercise.

After storyboarding my idea and completing various planning documents, I was ready to shoot. I had the equipment booked and an actor and location for use as well all the approatite permissions for this. I was able to shoot all the footage I needed within day one of the shoot, this was because of good planning, such as a call sheet, so the actors knew where and when to film, and what to bring in terms of costume. I had also had all my equipment set up before my actor arrived to make it easier once commencing filming. On the day most of the shots I planned to do could be completed, but there were some shots I could not get due to spacing requirements in the locations. This could have been avoided if I had used the photos from my location recce and planned my storyboard more accordingly, but I failed to do so and didn’t realize until the day of shoot, so I had to ditch those shots. Another aspect that went well with my shoot was the actual shooting in terms of the quality of footage. I would watch every part of the footage recorded and see if it had any problems, or if I had to re-shoot on location during the process before moving onto the next part of recording, so I was actively constantly assessing the takes during the production.

One thing I would improve from my shoot to ensure quality was the lighting of it. For my advert I used natural and artificial light. The lights used inside the location did not cause any problems at all, but when I started to shoot outside there were problems. I started to shoot quite late in the day, which meant all my external shots ended up being in the dark. For some of the shots the darkness was intentional, but at other times it wasn’t and caused an issue. Another problem was that the artificial lights could not be moved outside to counteract the darkness without them losing power, which meant I had to use colour correction when it came to editing as the shots were very dark and could not have been used if it wasn’t for the facility of colour correction on Final Cut Pro.

After my shoot was complete I started the editing process for my footage in order to make my advert. After capturing my footage I saw that I had enough footage to complete making the advert without having to re-shoot any parts of it. This happened due to my good planning on the day of shoot, such as using documents such as a call sheet, script, storyboard and shot list so I could collect enough appropriate footage in good time. With the variation of footage it meant that some shots would not be used, as they wasn’t needed. For example, I had a shot of the actor on the gym equipment working out, but it was not used as I thought the angle it was shot at was not good enough. With the variety of footage, I could experiment during the edit with different footage combinations. For example, I had two different shots, which includes the actor using the punch-bag, but I thought that both parts of the footage were too long.

So I cut segments from both in order to create one piece of better quality footage. This did however mean having to put together the footage carefully without it looking jumpy. One change I had to make with some of the footage was the colour correct, for example I changed the outside shots where the actor was skipping because the shot was too dark by the time I came to film it. Colour correction was also used in order to improve the quality of shot and to help produce a high quality standard of advert overall.

There were also some shots that could not be used for different reasons. For example, some of the shots of the actor exercising could not be used, because of the product placement of the Lucozade sport product was not being shown effectively enough.

These shots were replaced by new alternative footage, which showed the product in a better way. In my advert I did not choose to do a voiceover for sound, instead I used a song for a non-diegetic soundtrack, which starts once the actors, enters the gym. I wanted to pick and song that had a high tempo, which might be listened to when exercising. I researched various gym friendly songs and decided to chose FatBoySlim-“Right Here Right Now” one of the reasons I picked this song is that I thought it could also link to my target audience in terms of age, as well as it provides the repetitive beat and dynamism needed for a gym workout. I also thought that it would give the advert a higher quality by using an appropriate non-diegetic soundtrack than a voiceover.

The rough cut of the advert was shown to an audience for feedback, comments and a questionnaire for feedback. Some of the opinions I received indicated that the advert was too long. I believed this as well, so I re-edited the footage in order to shorten the advert’s length and address the criticisms. Most of the feedback from the questionnaire linked to the advert was positive so the only changes I made were to shorten the footage and the overall length of the advert. After completing my advert I had to make sure that the strategies used for the advert were successful. My strategy for this particular advert was to show Lucozade sport can help an athlete when exercising, that’s why for my storyboard I included shots of the actor drinking from the bottle of Lucozade Sport in-between the exercising, to show that Lucozade Sport helped the actor with more energy, using the persuasive strategy can link to success and self esteem, suggesting with the energy provided from Lucozade Sport you can exercise more energetically and effectively. Another aspect that had to me ensured after editing was appealing to the target audience, and my target audience was aimed at mainstreamers between the ages of 18-30 of both genders, in my advert I cast a young actor to play the role of the athlete, to link to my target audience. For example if I showed an actor of middle age, it would not apply to my current target audience.

Another aspect linked to target audience is soundtrack; I used a non-diegetic

soundtrack with a high tempo, which can help influence the athlete when exercising. I also chose this track and repeative as it is quite modern and will help make connections with the target audience. Whereas if I had picked a soundtrack with a slow tempo, or an old fashioned it would not have linked to the target audience as effectively.

I was aware certain technical qualities would have to be used in order to create a high quality advert. For example, I used colour correction to improve some shots that were dark in order to make sure the shots were useable. I also ensured the advert would flow smoothly with no jump-shots or missing frames and before finished the advert, I watched it numerous tomes in order to check for any shot gaps or missing frames or jump cuts, ensuring the advert was produced to a high quality. After completing my final advert I believe that the production of my advert was successful. For example my pre-production was done to a high standard, which meant that my day of shooting could be done easily without any problems, which meant that the shots I collected could be used and none had to be re-shot, also after watching my advert and receiving focus group feedback it was clear it was created to a high quality and it was fit for purpose as an advert targeting sport focused mainstreamers aged 18-35 of both genders effectively.