(M1) Evaluating Different Cross-Media Advertising Campaigns

 I am writing this report to evaluate and compare two examples of cross media campaigns from two different brands. I will explain here the differences between the two brands, and how they could be improved to match their purpose of the campaign better. I will also discuss the different target audiences of each product and how they apply to their target audiences.

Fender American Professional Advert - 

This is a campaign promoting fender guitar products. The main focus on this advertisement is by using famous music icons that have used fender products to promote the success of their previous products.

This campaign used photos to advertise online, these photos linked to the idea that the campaign brings as they used guitar cords to pin the photos to a wall. This has a partial link to the continuity of the physical advertisement, as the billboard states the names of the figures that have been used in the online advertisement. 

Fender's target audience are very specialised. Their guitars are targeted at more serious guitarists, who are skilled and want the quality and the noise that only fender can deliver. Fender is very popular amongst musicians for being an extremely reliable and professional. The age range of fender varies, but it is mostly middle aged men, varying from ages such as 16 to ages over 70, as people love the classic feel or fender guitars, which suits the older generation very well. Fender sticks to this in the campaign, using very traditional materials such as wood, that people often associate with the raw and natural materials that Fender products are associated it.

The photos contained old, polaroid style photos of artists from various years that have used fender guitars. Most of them usually used a fender guitar as their 'main' guitar over the years. For example, Kurt Cobain has used a fender mustang guitar. To improve this, I would focus more outdoor advertisements on specific artists, and the guitars they use. This would appeal more to an audience as respectable  musicians are seen speaking positively about their instruments.

Celebrity endorsement is used a lot in these advertisements. This is used to immediately create a talking point, or something in common with the audiences. This is how they gain an interest from the audience and establish ground with them, as they are interested in what they are talking about. This means that the target audience will listen to the advert and read it, rather than just looking at it and knowing it is there. This is a very good idea for the campaign, as it means that people who enjoy Elvis Presley or Kurt Cobain etc will be interested in the product as some of their favourite musicians star in the advertisement. This means that a wider range of people who are interested in these artists will become actively interested in the advert, as they see the names they know appear in it. However, this will means that they must gain the permission of the artists to be able to promote their product using their names.

The advertisements have some levels of continuity. For example, The fender logo in the bottom left and the amplified logo in the bottom right maintain the same throughout both types of media. This means that it is obviously a continuation of the campaign to anybody who has seen the online versions of the advertisements. This means that it is more likely to stay in the forefront of someone's mind when they see it. This shows how fender are achieving their advertising goal. To improve these cross media advertisements, I would use a defining style and production of the adverts. This means that whenever somebody sees a different advert, they immediately associate it with Fender and the specific campaign they are using.

This is a great example for an advertisement on a billboard. It is simplistic and memorable which means that people will be more likely to memorise the brand name whilst driving. The names on the billboard are also a huge positive, as famous musicians such as Kurt Cobain with huge names across the world will be recognise on the advert, and this generates a talking point amongst people who have seen it. This means that fender get publicity from word of mouth which is a great advantage too. 

However, the billboard has very little similarities to the online advert in terms of presentation. For example, the online advertisements are digital photos from a camera, whereas the billboard is a graphic design piece, which has no relevance to the online presentation of the campaign. although Fender have placed more advertisements linking to this campaign, as on social medias such as Facebook, they have posted images of musicians names resembling a cable being plugged into a Fender guitar they owned. Another reason is that there is no design continuity between the print and billboard. This means that it is not obvious to the eye that this is a continuation of the amplified campaign. This is because the colours do not match, and don't follow the rustic wooden theme that fender has preserved for many years. This may give the audience the wrong intention to who Fender are as a brand, and stating them in a modern tone regardless of their classic feel.

The Fender amplified campaign has many similarities and differences to the Share a Coke advertising campaign. For example, the entire idea of naming musicians has stayed very prominent throughout the campaign which is very similar to how the names on the billboards and online has stuck through the Share a Coke campaign. The difference between both campaigns is the style and the continuity of design, for example, coke use very bold and saturated colours to catch people's eyes easily. The difference between bright red and bright white text is very bold and stands out to the audience. 

Share a Coke Campaign - 

The Share a Coke advertising campaign was created in Australia in 2012. The concept of the campaign is that people's names are displayed on a Coca Cola bottle. This means that people would try and find their name on the bottles, and if they found it they were very likely to buy one, due to the personal meaning it has to find your name on a product. The campaign started when 150 of the most popular names were chosen in Australia and placed on advertisements around the country with names on the coke bottle.   This campaign started in Australia, but became something that revolved around the entire world, as it spread to America and Europe after Australia.

This became a very public campaign, as it was across social media entirely. People were sharing the idea of the campaign on social medias such as Instagram and Facebook. People will share how their name, or friends names have appeared on coke bottles online. This emotional connection that coke can gain from the feeling of finding your name on an incredibly world wide product. This means that coke will have a much better emotional relationship with their audience, and that would carry on through even after the campaign has finished.

This campaign is very good idea. the advertisements are very personalised which means that people are going to look for their names in the adverts. This is great as it means people are paying a lot of attention to the adverts, which generates a huge amount of publicity for coke, and for the campaign, as people may tell their friends they found their name, or post on social media that they found their own name. This generates a lot of free online publicity too which is great for the campaigns success.

The campaign was mainly produced towards teenagers, as they are more likely to talk and post about a campaign such as this online. This means that coke can find an easy way to gain free views on top of the views they have gained from the campaign. This means that their campaign will be more successful amongst the age groups that they are wanting to impact. I feel that coke have done this so that they can be a memorable name to younger audiences, this is because older audiences know coca cola much better than younger audiences as it has been around with them for many years. They want to become memorable to younger audiences so that they can carry the brand name into a new generation of people, who may not have heard about coca cola before.

The campaign has very few differences between choices of media for advertising. For example, both the online advertisements and the billboards will follow the same colour scheme, with some even opting for the exact same design.

What was the ‘Share a Coke’ campaign? | Coca-Cola Australia (coca-colacompany.com)

Fender Guitars: Amplified Campaign on Behance