Welcome to my television advertisement blog.
In this blog I will be defining the different types and styles of TV adverts as well as analysing four adverts in detail. I will also expand on how TV adverts target their audiences using various techniques.
Typically TV adverts provide a message to the intended audience so they purchase advertisers product/service. The TV adverts are usually funded by organisations, this is where the TV channel will get their funding from. As the BBC is funded through TV licensing, the BBC channels don't necessarily show adverts persuading the audience to purchase a product or service. Instead the BBC channels promote future programmes of theirs or tell the viewers what's coming on next. TV adverts usually range in length from a few seconds up until a few minutes at the most for the majority of the time, this helps retain the viewers attention.
As technology has advanced, so has the quality of advertisements on TV. For example the popularity of the internet has allowed advertisers to vote for what happens next in the series formed TV advert, a notable example was the BT adverts in which viewers could go online and vote for how they want the series to progress.
Purpose of television adverts:
The purpose of television adverts is to promote a product, service or future programming. Promoting the product on TV allows the advertisers to portray their product/service in anyway they want as long as it follows the Advertising Standards Authority. The advertisers have a maximum of a few minutes to reel in their audience and persuade them to consider purchasing the advertisers product/service. |
| The man featured in the Go Compare adverts. |
When organisations want the viewer to donate money to the charity or organisation, they will often use shock tactics to scare the viewer into donating. They will also put in statistics so the viewer can see how series the cause is. An example of this is the World Wide Fund for Nature's Amur Leopard advert in which they show the leopard and the first thing you hear is "Only around 35 wild amur leopards remain". The narrator then goes onto repeat herself putting emphasis on the fact that there are so few of the leopards in the wild.
Advertising Standards Authority:
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) is the organisation which regulates the content of adverts, promotions and direct marketing. The ASA has a code of practice which adverts must follow, it is considered as the rule book for advertising. The ASA investigate into any complaints made about adverts that go against the ASA's code of practice.One code for example is that the advert broadcasted cannot be misleading. An example of a notable case is when Apple advertised their iPhone and claimed it could access all of the internet. This was misleading because the iPhone wasn't able to access all of the internet due to the lack of major plug-in such as Flash.
Another example is a Coca-Cola advert for their drink Oasis, the advert featured a mother and a daughter. The daughter in the advert is clearly pregnant, the mother also refers to the pregnancy. However there were many complaints about the pregnant daughter looking too young which meant that Coca-Cola was condoning teenage pregnancies and underage sex. This stopped the advert being broadcast as it breached various codes on the ASA's code of practice. The advert breached the Offence, Health and Safety, Mental Harm and Physical Harm codes.
Standard Occupational Class:
The Standard Occupational Class (SOC) is a system that the government uses to identify occupations. The major groups are:- elementary occupations
- process, plant and machine operatives
- sales and customer service occupations
- caring, leisure and other service occupations
- skilled trades occupations
- administrative and secretarial occupations
- associate professional and technical occupations
- professional occupations
- managers, directors and senior officials
NRS Social Grade:
The NRS social grade is a system of demographic classification. The NRS social grade has become a standard for market research. It's important to know you target audience as best you can when trying to advertise a product or service to them. The classifications are based on the occupation of the head of the household and are as follows:- E - Those at the lowest levels of subsistence (This includes those who rely on welfare for their income and pensioners.)
- D - Working class (Semi and unskilled manual workers.)
- C2 - Skilled working class (Skilled manual workers.)
- C1 - Lower middle class (Supervisory or clerical and junior managerial along with administrative or professional)
- B - Middle class (Intermediate managerial, administrative or professional)
- A - Upper middle class (Higher managerial, administrative or professional)
