Evaluation of my Pepsi Max advert. I wanted to choose a product that appeals to me, something that I personally use; however I could not choose between a few products, which were: Lynx Spray and Pepsi Max. To help me choose on this dilemma, we had class discussions about what products we may choose, and then we was given a theme of an idea to relate to the product. The main theme that intrigued me was ‘Absurd’ ideas. I used the Morphological Matrix to break down my product and suggest possible ideas and slogans. My first idea was to re-create the scene with Jesus and his 12 disciples, however replace bread and wine with just Pepsi Max, and relating to the theme of Absurdity, I had this idea of all of these characters to have a huge burping competition from drinking Pepsi Max, simply due to its vulnerability to make you belch. Overall I concluded that using reference to Jesus was a bit too absurd and may offend some of my target audience, which is everyone, however I really liked the idea of using burps in my advert as it used the persuasive strategy Inversion and Humor.
I looked for inspiration from previous official Lynx adverts and Pepsi Max adverts and fell in love with Pepsi Max adverts as they all made me laugh and was really unique, I thought I potentially found a gap in the market place for advertising Pepsi Max as I did not come across any adverts using belching/burping; which suggests my idea is as unique as the official adverts. I found the Lynx adverts to be too repetitive. From this point onwards it was clear to me that Pepsi Max was my desired product to use. I then continued doing more research on the product, using SWOT analysis to help me think about the possible problems and strengths of the product. The biggest strength was the reputation of the brand name and the
market place available for the product, however the biggest threat was its rivalry brand; Coke Zero. This pushed me straight back to my dilemma as I personally wanted to use the more dominant drink which satisfies my target audience the most. I found secondary research biased between this two drinks, which then triggered me to conduct my own Primary research on the two drinks. I brought in samples of both drinks in my media class in plastic containers to hide the identity of the drink. I had a small sample of participants, however I managed to cover both genders and three age ranges in these participants; representing a wide audience range in a microcosm. This, which projects on a bigger scale of how successful the product will be with these, desired audiences. Overall after collecting in both results of both drinks, Pepsi Max got the higher score out of the drinks. It was now mandatory I used Pepsi Max as my product as my target audience preferred it to Coke Zero; and I was delighted with passion to use it. (Please check my presentation for detailed information and statistics for my primary research.)
Whilst following the ASA/BCAP rules of advertising soft drinks to young children I came up with a few initial ideas and back up ideas just incase feasibility wise I cannot precede with the desired ‘belching’ one. First idea was recreating a calorie character, as Pepsi Max is only one calorie, I thought of giving this character a melancholy attitude, as it is the only calorie that has no friends and is lost in isolation. I did not choose this initial idea, as it would require a lot of time and effort in CGI animation, which I did not have; it did not help that I physically did not know what a calorie looked like. After further research I found out that an idea like this has been previously banned as Pepsi Max did a similar version however this calorie was extremely suicidal rather just isolated which is not suitable for TV.
Another initial idea was a huge Pepsi chase, where two characters one male and female, go through a dramatic chase to get this last can of Pepsi Max, and a catharsis is achieved to represent how good the drink is, however these were only back up plans if my first main plan did not work out. Ultimately I continued proceeding with advertising Pepsi Max via burping as I thought it was mandatory to do something unique and funny. The idea of burping can potentially make anyone laugh despite age. The idea of it being crude comedy, attracts a larger male target audience as Pepsi max demographics mainly attract females as a dietary drink, my primary research also proved that females preferred the drink more to males, which is why I think this idea will increase the target audience for Pepsi Max. I will attempt to make it appeal to everyone. The way of achieving this I thought was breaking down an advert in 3 stages, which include different scenes for different audiences. For example my main idea was to have one scene of a teenager and an elderly, to represent the range of ages, which I am targeting. Another scene was of two females representing the drink, I was also going to attempt in using sexual endorsement in this scene to further attract male to the audience, however limit how much exposure I make as this advert will be targeting everyone which may not be suitable for minors. The last scene was going to include two children playing about in a park, enforcing physical activity and joy in drinking Pepsi max. These 3 scenes in combination target all audience, any age and gender. Throughout the scenes smiling and socialization is going to be emphasized to represent Pepsi Max as a sociable, happy drink, which may also make some people conform to this drink to socially fit in. This method I thought would be very effective as it covers what I intended to cover which was to target this product to everyone.
Organized, effective and well-structured pre production planning was mandatory in this advertisement as I had a range of scenes to shoot with multiple different actors to work with. Finding actors who fit the role was challenging however I found them eventually and got them to sign all consent forms for me to film them and use the footage. The main pre production plan that helped ease the day of my filming was the shooting scripts, however I thought that just a shooting script was not enough, so I took the extra mile to color code and highlight all the shots which were going to be repeated in a structure, this allowed me to shoot all of the shots in one angle at once without having to reposition the camera. It did make narrative confusing as I was skipping through scenes however it allowed me to work effectively with the short time I had with my actors. I had many continuity issues due to the extreme weather conditions around the time I was filming; snowfall was on and off during the shoot. It was vital that I keep all the background scenery in my scenes without any signs of snow as I am linking all three scenes together and could not afford to have some scenes with snow and some without. Due to issues like this I created a contingency plan incase there were any changes to my footage that was not planned during the preproduction process, any changes are written on there in all scenes that I decided to alter last minute.
Production days were extremely stressful as my actors reliability on the days of the shoot were not professional, which delayed the organized time we was meant to shoot. However for the short time I had to film I think it went very well. I was really impressed with getting some scenes that were hard to shoot first try under so much pressure such as panning the camera whilst changing the depth of field from
shallow to clear and graphic matches, however I spent countless hours preparing and planning exactly how the angles will be executed because I had a feeling I would be put under last minute pressure. Between days of the shoots I kept uploading footage my computer at home and pictured how the edit would look and recording this on the edit decision list and footage log. I filmed multiple different angles of the same shot as I knew what angles were different due to my color coded shooting script. Due to my actors finding it hard to perform well under camera and pressure, in combination with the weather situations and limit to filming time meant I needed to organize a re shoot. Due to little technical faults such as not fully focused scenes and some shots were missing which I would not accept as it was mandatory the first dining room scene was perfect as this was the main structure of the whole advert. I ensured the re shoot would go perfect and ensured all variables such as clothes, scenery and prep were kept the exact same so my shots are fluent, the re shoot was very successful; all extra desired shots and footage was filmed on this re shoot which concluded all of my raw footage in 4 days of shooting.
The post production stages of my first draft were structured well as I had already planned in my edit decision list how the shots will fit together. During editing process I came to conclusion that I did not like the length of the advert and many shots in scenes 2 and 3 of my advert because it felt as if they were just dragging on and did not interest me as much as I imagined it in my head. This ultimately put me off the whole idea of my full advert, however I proceeded to continue editing and putting it all together in the best transition I possibly could because I felt it was not up to me to choose what I should keep and what I should delete in the advert, it was my audiences decision. I tried to give insight of how the final advert would look by
including some sound effects and sound tracks to the advert so it let the audience picture what the other scenes would be as the content all mirror each other just different audiences and situations. In my first draft I was very impressed by the graphic match and depth of field in some shots as I felt as if it really advertised the product and made it stand out. To gather some feedback of my advert I showed my media class the advert and recorded a discussion about strengths and weaknesses off the content. Overall my media class concluded that the advert was so long it was possible I could get a series of adverts out of this one advert, they particularly did not like how the dining room scene stood out the most compared to the other scenes of the advert and advised me to cut the advert down to just one scene so its no longer then 1 minute 30 seconds. I still felt as if I did not have enough confidence to choose what scene I should keep, therefore designed a questionnaire specifically highlighting what scene stands out the most and what scene makes them buy the product more. Questions asked specifically for age groups and gender and gave a choice of quantitative data answers as well as qualitative on a scaled preference. In conclusion from gathering the overall results from the questionnaire, 92% of target audience said that the advert and shots were too long, and 100% of all responders preferred the first dining room scene and 83% of these said the burping in combination with sound track made them laugh and enjoy the advert most. Successfully all 100% of responders said the advert did influence them to try or buy the product. From this questionnaire it was clear to me that my target audience preferred the first dining room scene therefore concluded my final edit of the advert is just going to be just the dining room scene, taking in advice from my peers and targeted audience by shortening the advert majorly. In the final edit I did major edits to the advert ensuring the aesthetical qualities are up to a professional
standard, this included colour correcting and edits to sound track to specifically fit the purpose of the screen action. I spent a lot of extra time at home on the rhythm and timing of the advert ensuring every second carries a flow. Whilst editing my advert I realized that the content of the advert is still targeting to a diverse target audiences as the central characters both represent teenagers all the way up to elderly years. I have emphasized the product in the final length by making the product itself center of attention throughout the advert. A lot of the shot durations have been trimmed down and a split screen has been used to combine two shots into one, which trims down the advert even more. I’ve constantly infiltrated the Pepsi max’s logo in the screen action, I used Photoshop to grab the symbol of Pepsi max, which I then edited to create a final slogan to add to Pepsi max “Max it up” to wrap up the final few seconds of the advert. I’ve used more sound tracks and effects to really liven up the advert, which also creates tension whilst watching the advert. I think this ultimately let me use the persuasive strategy of humor and inversion to its potential, finding the correct sound track was vital to achieve this.
Overall I was very pleased with the final advertisement, despite the fact that most of the footage filmed could not be used. I felt as if I still managed to aim this product to all of my audience through use of age range of my characters. I was very pleased with the aesthetic qualities of the cannon 550D; the use of lighting in the advert really brings the screen action to life. The high definition 720P recording I think gives this advert that professional feel with high technique qualities. The last minute editing on sounds, colours, effects and slogans I think really appeals to my target audience, emphasizing humor and inversion within my advert. I was pleased with the length I managed to trim the advert too, I think the fact that there is so
much changes in the screen action it catches the audience’s attention to the advert; keeping them engaged throughout the advert. Overall I think it was a very successful strategy, which from my questionnaire actually does make people want to buy the product, which was the aim of this whole project.