The world of advertising
Introduction Emily Dove Isobel Donovan Leandra Hillenaar Yazan bargooti & Abdo hmid
In this project, we wanted to find out what audiences think of advertising in a variety of different forms, this included product placement, recognisability and manipulation, digital advertising, and celebrities.
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dvertising is a concept used to describe the selling or promoting of a product that relates to the form of marketing communication. The purpose of advertising is to encourage the consumer to buy a brands product or products thus proving that it is successful or viable. Advertising can be communicated through mass media including newspaper, magazine, radio, television etc. or new media that includes SMS messages, online advertising such as social networking and websites.
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the key attitudes towards advertising in a contemporary global media age
ADVERTISING 3
about the documentary
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or our documentary, we wanted to collaborate all of our ideas and proposals to illustrate the significance and popularity of advertising. We wanted to create a factual and entertaining documentary by including informative facts and interesting adverts and images thus this began our development plan. We filmed in one of the meeting rooms in Commons to create a simplistic yet modern feel. Our aim for the documentary was to create an answer to the question; ‘what are the key attitudes to advertising in the contemporary global media age?’. To do this we interviewed several people to understand the opinions of the consumer audience of particular advertisements. We used a combination of images, text and video to both illustrate and complement the information which is being suggested by audio in the documentary. This was accompanied by research on advertising as a whole in quotes featured amongst the documentary. Our main focus was commercials and celebrity endorsement, focusing on model turned actress Cara Delevingne as a case study to emphasise certain points in the interviews. Overall, we found that in this investigation that consumers are aware of the huge amount of advertisements that reach them every day, however the majority of these consumers see this as unavoidable in the contemporary global media age and therefore their attitudes towards advertising in general are mainly positive. However, many of the interviewees suggested that although advertising doesn’t bother them that much it could be dangerous for younger audiences, mainly because they are more impressionable and therefore more susceptible to believing the messages advertisements are promoting. 5
PRODUCT PLACEMENT
abdo hmid
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The benefits of product placement 1. Brand placement provides a continuity for the advertisement 2. Being associated with celebrities, brand placement can be perceived as being endorsed by them. 3. Brand placement is a convenient advertising strategy to target specific audiences 4. Lifespan of brand placements are considerably longer compared to other mediums of advertisement. 5. Brand placements provide opportunity of manipulating with commercial speech due to a big amount of ambiguity in them. 6. Generally audience’s attitudes towards brand placements are positive. n example of a product placement would 7. Brand placements enjoy less critical responses from audiences compared to other be the displaying of candy in movie E.T advertisement means. that has led to huge jump in their candy’s sales (source). Product placement is an effective method of promotion due to the tendency of people to associate the product Many of the major corporations relay on with a movie, show or even a person. Firms advertising grow their market share. Using product placement enables organisations to can benefit from the use of the product increase their sales Research shows that the placement technique to position theirs products in the desired place of the market. followers of a celebrity are most likely to purchase items this celebrity owns regardless to their need of this particular item. Aston Martin’s marketing strategy has Moreover, product placement usually take been closely associated with James Bond place in major events which are sponsored franchise films. It benefited the image of the company across the globe. This business by a certain brand for example coca cola sponsoring the Olympic games 2012. The relationship (Aston martin and James rational behind the implementation of a bond’s movies) is considered as one of the such a method is not to push customers long-term successful business partnerships to purchase specific product but to make (Superband, 2009). Given that it started them remember the brand in the way the with Aston Martin providing cars for Sean company desires them to. In recent years Connery in 1964 “Goldfinger” James Bond it has become easy to do so due to the film and still continues with Aston Martin social media and the power of information DB5 appearing in “Skyfall” film. sharing.
Product Placement = Displaying a product in a popular television show or a movie in order to entice the viewer desire an ownership of the product.
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DIGITAL
ADVERTISING EMILY DOVE
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The concept of digital advertising refers to the marketing media that is digitally displayed on the Internet, smart phones and other media devices.
To compare, “the advertising industry is evolving and growing at an incredible pace, moving increasingly toward online and IP-served platforms, which dramatically increases the importance of software for this industry” (Clark, 2007 cited in McStay, 2010: 20). Whilst traditional broadcasting television may diminish, other forms of digital advertising will take over. A report for Ofcom by Oliver & Ohlbaum Associates (2008) suggests that public service broadcasters n the past, television channels needed to will struggle to produce revenue due to the attract advertisers to buy air-time on their growth of user-generated content on the channels as television was originally funded Internet, search advertising and on-demand by these sales. However, with technological services such as Netflix and Youtube (McStay, advances and the rise of satellite and cable, 2010:20). It is evident that more people watch advertisers were led to change their strategy television online with 66% having viewed and introduce niche targeting which connotes television or film online, catch up television to the sense of narrowing the targeted market (58%) and missed series (28%) (McStay, 2010: but further afield. Once digital came along we 21). moved towards the masses and things started to progress and adapt due to impact of global Furthermore, in this chapter from Digital media on digital television. The ultimate Advertising, Allen believes that adverts can question is to debate the similarities and be misleading as “more than two-thirds differences between pre-digital and digital of online consumers believe that online advertising which connotes to the thought advertising do not tell the truth in their of whether digital television is making us advertising” (Allen, 2007 cited in McStay, consumers due to the media becoming a 2010: 24). Misleading adverts are becoming giant advert. more common amongst the public and
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scholars following people’s frustration but According to Plunkett (2010) 86% of viewers they seem to be worse for online consumers skip through advertisements whilst watching according to Allen. television shows, yet television remains McStay, A. (2010) Digital Advertising, Palgrave the most memorable form of advertising Macmillan, pp 1-100. with a 52% majority over newspapers and magazines. In comparison, 76% of people Plunkett, J. (2010) TV advertising skipped by 86% thought advertising was exaggerated and 71% of viewers, Available at: http://www.theguardian. said that a funny advert was more memorable com/media/2010/aug/24/tv-advertising (Accessed: 4 December 2015). and encouraging (Vaughan, 2013). However, “the online advertising marketplace has Vaughan, P. (2013) 76% of people think advertising is now matured through the dot.com period exaggerated [INFOGRAPHIC]. Available at: http:// into one which traditional advertisers are blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/34135/76comfortable placing their advertising as part of-People-Think-Advertising-Is-Exaggeratedof the marketing mix, or even utilising online INFOGRAPHIC.aspx (Accessed: 5 December 2015). solely” (McStay, 2010: 19). 9
Celebrity endorsement is a marketing
The current ‘faces’ of Calvin Klein; Justin tool companies use in order to boost Bieber and Kendall Jenner, are popular sales or promote a specific image to its amongst a huge audience which is audience. This type of advertising works predominantly made up of teenage girls. By in contemporary society due to the recent promoting the brand via these celebrities in growth in the internet and more specifically particular, Calvin Klein can use the celebrity’s social media. This has consequently changed already huge status ‘as a means of profiling the way companies advertise, and therefore and branding their products’ (Redmond a transparent experience has been created. 2013: 34), by using high profile celebrities Within this contemporary structure of similar to Justin Bieber the company ensures advertising the celebrity is significant as the brand will be advertised worldwide. A they have the recognition and trust from major factor in determining why a company consumers already involved with celebrity may use a celebrity to market their brand is culture, therefore when they lend their names the occurrence that the celebrity and celebrity to promote products, brands or services it culture will make the news (Kerrigan, leads to a rise in sales. 2011: 1505). Therefore, when the celebrity is endorsing the product not only in their Calvin Klein is renowned for using celebrities campaigns, but also in daily life through to endorse their products, especially paparazzi and world news and social media, celebrities who are well known in popular it creates an impact amongst their fans culture due to their influences on consumers. and followers.
leandra Hillenaar
Celebrities work to market the products by cross media promotion, therefore boosting sales even further, for example; social media platforms such as twitter and Instagram, and creating news stories in the press whilst endorsing the brand. Celebrities are a commodity and they exist to promote, endorse and sell as a part of the culture of being a celebrity and therefore can sustain this ‘through a series of synergetic, commercial industries, practices and processes that produce commodities for consumption purposes’ (2013:49). Therefore, defining the use of celebrity to sell ‘products and services through public events, endorsements, and life style choices; and encourage the practices and consumption through being idolised consumption vessels’ (2013: 49). This emphasis on social media in these advertisements show a target audience of the younger generation. 10
CELEBRITY ENDORSEMENTS & SOCIAL MEDIA By analysing twitter, it is clear to see many photos of young individuals showing their Calvin Klein underwear to their followers, more over spreading the brand further. Through celebrity endorsement Calvin Klein have managed to create a social media presence, and although Justin Bieber and Kendall Jenner haven’t been the first celebrities to endorse Calvin Klein, the popularity of these celebrities in particular has led to an increase in sales due to the fan base and target audience of a younger generation. The increase in social followers that Bieber’s casting earned the brand immediately after the campaign broke. Over 3.5 million on Twitter alone. “The hashtag #mycalvins has been mentioned more than 1.85 million times and counting” (Aboutaleb, 2015). Justin Bieber uses his twitter to advertise the brand, when the advertisements were released he ‘tweeted’: ‘It begins. @CalvinKlein #mycalvins :)’ (Bieber, 2015) tweet worked up over 170,000 retweets and 215,000 likes on his tweet advertising the brand. Celebrity endorsement works alongside multiple media platforms and therefore thrives alongside a multitude of cross media platforms. This is significant in the consumer driven society of today, collaborating with the rise of social media and consequently the company has seen an increase in popularity and therefore; sales.
Aboutaleb, B. (2015) Yahoo [online]. Available from: https://www.yahoo.com/style/justin-bieberkendall-jenner-have-boosted-cks-120616781888. html [Accessed: 27th November 2015] Bieber, J, @justinbieber (2015) ‘It begins. @ CalvinKlein #mycalvins :)’. 2:12 PM - 6 Jan 2015. [tweet] Kerrigan, F, Brownlie, D, Hewer, P & DazaLeTouze, C (2011) ‘Spinning’ Warhol: Celebrity brand theoretics and the logic of the celebrity brand, Journal of Marketing Management, Volume 27, (13-14): 1504-1524 Redmond, S. (2013) Celebrity & the Media. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan
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isobel donovan
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elebrities are used more and more to promote brands and products through endorsements. With recent studies showing that sales for brands increase up to 20% after starting an endorsement deal you can see why brands choose to use celebrities. It has also been found that approximately $50 billion is invested yearly worldwide on corporate sponsorships and endorsements. An article posted on the Advertising Age website in 2010 spoke about how celebrity endorsements continue to work in selling products. The article titled ‘Celebrity Endorsements Still Push Product’ goes into detail about the global advertising industry and how much both celebrities and social media are helping companies with sales. Dean Crutchfield, the author of the article, is an “international consultant on brand, innovation and growth”. The article goes into depth about the risks and benefits of celebrity endorsements and finds that the rewards definitely outweigh the costs. Crutchfield, also found that U.S. celebrities appear in more than 15% of advertisements but also in other countries the percentage has been much higher, for example, in Taiwan approximately 45% of advertisements have celebrities appear in them.
for sending a simple message out to their fans and obviously the more followers the celebrity has the more social influence they are perceived to have. Companies are paying more and more to get their brand mentioned by big shot celebrities as it creates publicity for them. It has been found that celebs like Khloe Kardashian who has just over eight million followers on twitter could earn anything up to $13,000 for just one tweet from her account.
Social Media advertising revenue is estimated to $8.4 billion in 2015 and after that continue to grow and grow as more companies change to using social media as their only form of advertising. Using websites like Facebook companies are able to find people that match their target audience and send their advertisements to them and them only. This does mean that it depends on what information the Facebook users supply but for most companies a gender, age and location can be enough for them and that is easily accessed through Facebook. Unlike search engine advertisements social media can advertise products before someone even starts to search meaning that the product can be shown to them before they even think about buying it. Social media now also allows you to promote and ‘push’ your page for a fee and so smaller companies can There has been research into how much celebrities start advertising their companies through social can earn from endorsements and more recently how media without having to pay a lot out when they are much they can earn from sending out a single tweet. just starting out. Websites like Facebook also allow Twitter is one of the biggest social media websites you to track your advertisements and your progress and enables people to interact with their favourite so you can see what type of adverts work better than celebrities. Celebrities are now getting paid others to allow you to make the most of it. 12
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ara Delevingne is the current ‘it-girl’ and with 27.9 million followers on Instagram and 4.9 million followers on Twitter you can see why the media adores her. At the start of 2015 Cara Delevingne got an endorsement deal with Tag Heure is a Swiss company that manufactures and designs watches and other accessories. Cara is one of the highest paid models and is also an upcoming actress. Delevingne earns approximately $79,000 a year through advertisements and endorsements – almost one third of her annual income. The CEO of TAG Heure, Jean Claude Biver, said that “We needed someone disruptive yet elegant like Cara to open our minds to the brashness and boldness of today’s youth.” Cara Delevingne has promoted TAG watches through her Instagram and Twitter accounts bringing thousands of new customers to the company, definitely making it understandable why she was chosen as an endorser of the company. Thousands of teens/young adults around the world look up to Delevingne as she is the current ‘it-girl.’
tie to the celebrities and this theoretically leads them to buy the products that they endorse as fans often think, if they use the same products and wear similar clothes as their celebrity idol, they will become more like them. Celebrity endorsements are highly rated in advertising as they are a very effective way to gain the interest of customers in a very large marketplace. Zwilling, M and Fruchter, G found that the use of celebrities in advertising stimulates the consumer purchasing and in most cases customers find the attractiveness of the celebrity used in the advertisements increases the customer’s intentions on purchasing the product. Brands have started using the internet and social media to promote more and a lot more money has started being spent in advertising online. Advertising on social media rather than on television enables brands to communicate and interact with consumers and also allows to consumers to interact with other consumers. Social media allows people to talk about the brands they love and so in turn will promote the brands without them having to pay for advertising, it can also work the other way with consumers sharing bad stories about brands and allows people to see live reviews on products that the companies might not want to be shared publicly.
Delevingne also works in major ad campaigns for Topshop, Mulberry, Chanel, and Balmain. Whilst being a model, brand ambassador, social media queen, collaborative designer (Mulberry). Cara Delevingne definitely uses all media platforms and this is definitely one of the reasons brands want her for their campaigns and advertisements and why she is paid so much for the work she does. Also, Cara has now even registered her Social media has become a massive part in everyone’s name as a trademark and can use this to endorse a lives and it is obvious why it now plays such a big variety of products that are guaranteed to sell. role in advertising. This has been just some research Celebrity endorsements are used to try and influence into the way brands are using celebrity endorsements to push promotion and why people are now more consumers to buy the brands product that they are likely to use the internet and especially social media advertising, celebrities are able to use their status to to promote their brands instead of more traditional endorse products and hopefully make them more media platforms such as newspapers and television. desirable to consumers. Companies and brands use Brands are trying to keep up with each other and this as a promotional technique and pay a lot of using the newest, biggest celebrity is how they are money to get celebrities to advertise their products. trying to do it. Through looking at examples such as Celebrity endorsements are used globally and in India Cara Delevingne you can see how much brands want for example 60% of their advertisements contain a her to promote their products as they are more likely celebrity, this percentage is however a lot lower in most countries and the global average is around 25 to to have an increase in sale is they have the current ‘itgirl’ behind them. 30 percent. Fans create a psychological 13
MANIPULATION AND RECOGNISABILITY Yazan Barghouti
Manipulation plays a key role in the world of marketing, regardless of what the product may be, one has to find a way to coax the consumer to consume. In this day and age, each and every part of an advertisement is meticulously designed to prey on the subconscious, with each different advert exploiting different a vulnerability.
Whether it be the way food is advertised through distinctive colour choices, or the use of trendy music in film trailers, every angle is designed to influence consumption choices. In particular, the ability to implant a feeling of recognisability in the consumer is one of the most universal tools in marketing a product.
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Furthermore, the notion of recognition as an influencing factor has scientific precedence in the way it preys upon the consumer’s recognition heuristic. The recognition heuristic is a cognitive decision-making ability, proposing ‘if one of two objects is recognized and the other not, then infer that the recognized object has the higher value with respect to the criterion’ (Goldstein and Gigerenzer, 2002 cited in Sauer, 2014: 376). Matthias Sauer sought to explore the relationship between the recognition heuristic and advertising, by conducting a study to evaluate audiences’ feelings towards unfamiliar trailers. The study involved one hundred and eighty eight people between the ages of 17-55, and
that recognizable actors could have, with Ice Age as an example of a successful animated film, and Titanic on the basis of it being an example of a worldwide success from an incompatible genre. The results showed that the majority viewed the trailers to be successful when associated with a familiar title, with Ice Age being the greater influencer between the two (2014: 379-381). In other words, when faced with two unfamiliar trailers for animated films (at the time), the majority went for the one that reminded them of a more recognisably successful animated film. This idea applies to any form of advertisement, all it takes is to instil a feeling of familiarity. Be it the
two trailers for animated films, being The familiar face of a beloved star selling Croods (2013) and Epic (2013). Sauer’s perfume, or an insurance firm spoofing the method of engaging the subject’s recognition latest viral trend, recognisability sells. heuristic was to present one trailer, having an association to a recognizable title (either Ice Age or Titanic), while having the other associated with an obscure, mundane title Sauer, M. (2014) ‘Cue-recognition effects in the (2014: 378). For the variables, animated assessment of movie trailers’. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 21: 376-382. trailers were used to reduce any influence
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In conclusion, we have
illustrated the importance of advertising and how it effects our lives. It’s a concept that is relevant to our everyday wants, needs and demands and is visible everywhere we go. Whether it is on screens or on paper, we are constantly being presented with products and are promoted to consume them.
It is interesting that our audience believe that they have become less influenced by advertisements especially when considering celebrities, yet they find advertisements are unavoidable in our society today. However, our research and audiences found that young teens are influenced by advertisements especially when celebrities are involved.
It seems evident that marketers are finding it increasingly different to ensure customer satisfaction and customer lifetime value and are constantly changing strategies to try and secure these efforts.
I believe our research and documentary prove that there are different attitudes towards advertising in our contemporary global media age stimulating from our proposals to our platforms. 17