THE CAMPAIGN STRATEGY

I have chosen to visualise my campaign concept through the combination of positive affirmations and playing cards as I believe that this is the perfect solution. Positive affirmations can be used to stimulate motivation, encourage positive changes, and boost self-esteem. Neuroscientific research reveals that there is ‘MRI evidence to suggest that certain neural pathways are increased when people practice self-affirmation tasks. The reason why I have chosen to incorporate playing cards is for both conceptual and tactical purposes. The conceptual purpose of the playing cards is an act of feminism, reclaiming the way women are portrayed through the gambling industry, almost like a symbol of freeing women from the male gaze. The tactical reasoning behind the incorporation of playing cards is a technique to market my campaign concept. When exploring Generation Alpha as a future consumer, I discovered that the best method to market towards this generation would be to re-evaluate the 4 p’s of promotion. Rather than focusing on product, place, price, and promotion, it is believed that brands must turn to emotional branding, prioritising engagement, experience, exclusivity, and emotion to successfully market to this consumer. Generation Alpha desires brands that speak to the consumer, this means that brands must switch their thinking from ‘What should I sell?’ to ‘Why should I sell?’. This is exactly why I have created the physical cards to stimulate engagement and experience between my consumer and campaign. The reason why I have created physical cards is that consumers are craving in-person interactions, and longing for a sense of community and with one pack of my affirmation playing cards comes endless amounts of games and fun with multiple participants all while blindly manifesting selflove through the affirmation aspect.

The title of my campaign addresses the opinions formed by those who choose to live unapologetically themselves, in the way that they’re often perceived as unstable, erratic, and chaotic. The ‘chaos’ part of the title is the representation of our authentic identity, the escapism from the pre-set judgements of society. I have captured the ‘chaos’ through the technique of colour and expression within my conceptual styling shoots. Linking back to Generation Alphas’ consumer values, they prioritise branding that evokes emotion, this is partly why I chose to represent colour with chaos. From the styling to the branding of my campaign, I have been very selective in the shades of colours I have used such as pastels, purples, blues, yellows, and oranges as all represent positive, calming and balance associations. For the styling of the concept of ‘chaos’ I explored expression through the colour coding of the outfits, the positioning of the models within the frame, and the disproportion of the materials used. The ‘conformity’ part of my title evidently reflects the entire narrative of why I have chosen to create my campaign. The way in which I have creatively captured the concept of conformity is via the idea of uniformity, due to the lack of authentic identity due to the years of conformity to unrealistic expectations. The concept of uniformity represents the idea of everybody appearing the same and hints at the expectations set in place for uniform dressing in terms of school, the workplace, and the following of trends. I have chosen to display the concept of uniformity by utilising men’s ties, repurposing them into skirts and styling different shapes onto shirts and transforming them into belts. Ties were very fitting due to them being predominantly worn by men in power, this reflects the concepts which I explored regarding the way women are viewed as inferior to men.

When it came to selecting the models for my styling shoots, I wanted a diverse set of females that represents every kind of beauty. As there are 52 cards in a complete deck and I knew I was personalising both sides, equalling 104 in total, it was important that I had more than one face for my campaign so that it did not become repetitive. I acquired 8 models, who I felt were the best fit for my final major project and each one shared the very same values I was wishing to portray through my campaign. To incorporate a personal aspect of the models into the campaign, I asked each of them to share with me some of the affirmations that they use in their daily lives as a way of boosting their self-esteem. This supported the creation of 52 different daily affirmations for the back of each card. After capturing both looks 1 and 2 of my styling shoots, I then removed the background of the imagery and transported the subject onto the card templates I had curated. This part of my journey was a very long process but undoubtedly the most rewarding, as I got to see my styling concepts come to life after photographing, managing, and creatively directing 8 styling shoots and styling 16 different outfits to best fit the narrative of my campaign.