Chapter two was about strategy. It is the first step in the advertising creative process. After strategy comes the concept and then the campaign. Strategy is defined as the thinking behind the concept, the overall marketing or selling approach. It sounds like one must put a lot of thought to create a successful strategy. It should come from the benefits of using the item, how it is used, the market, or the target audience and should have something setting it apart from its competitors. I love how this book gives examples such as the Flower and Plants association and the Apple ad comparing it to IBM. The Flower and Plants strategy was to get women to buy flowers while Apple's was showing that that Apple is as important as IBM. The chapter then explains some important things that we as designers should take into consideration when writing up a strategy (or "Creative Brief"). For example, is the idea to get non-users to use the product, or to get the current customers to use it more? I like how the chapter mentions the importance of research. I've been trying to research as much as I can about my projects before actually creating them.
Chapter three was really long. (How do I summarize it? So much information!) The main focus was on print. No, not print like going up to "file" and clicking "print." Print as in the type of ad, such as posters and magazine/ newspaper ads. There are different things to consider in print ads. Some ads, like billboards, are really only seen for about three seconds. According to the book, this translates to 8 words. How do they do that?! Advertisements in newspapers and magazines are seen a little longer, but they are competing with the articles that are actually interesting, so those ads must stand out. The chapter also gave advice for writing headlines. If it needs punctuation, it might not be that good. Putting a twist on a joke is good, while using puns is lame unless it has a double meaning and the same spelling. Asking a question can be good if it's not a "yes or no" question, uses and obvious answer, or is more rhetorical.
The best advice I found was the section on "reductionism." Reductionism is the practice of reducing the elements of an ad as far as possible, but still having the communication work. I feel like I might have trouble with that since people want to get as much information across as possible. The maximum number of elements that should be in an ad is 6: headline, subhead, visuals, body copy, tagline, and logo, and even then, you might not need it. I'm going to try and follow the book's advice of asking yourself if something is necessary in the ad, and if the ad would still work without it. Simpler ads have more of an impact.
Boo 17 minutes late. Ok, I resolve to have the next post done by Wednesday. Time for bed.
Chapter three was really long. (How do I summarize it? So much information!) The main focus was on print. No, not print like going up to "file" and clicking "print." Print as in the type of ad, such as posters and magazine/ newspaper ads. There are different things to consider in print ads. Some ads, like billboards, are really only seen for about three seconds. According to the book, this translates to 8 words. How do they do that?! Advertisements in newspapers and magazines are seen a little longer, but they are competing with the articles that are actually interesting, so those ads must stand out. The chapter also gave advice for writing headlines. If it needs punctuation, it might not be that good. Putting a twist on a joke is good, while using puns is lame unless it has a double meaning and the same spelling. Asking a question can be good if it's not a "yes or no" question, uses and obvious answer, or is more rhetorical.
The best advice I found was the section on "reductionism." Reductionism is the practice of reducing the elements of an ad as far as possible, but still having the communication work. I feel like I might have trouble with that since people want to get as much information across as possible. The maximum number of elements that should be in an ad is 6: headline, subhead, visuals, body copy, tagline, and logo, and even then, you might not need it. I'm going to try and follow the book's advice of asking yourself if something is necessary in the ad, and if the ad would still work without it. Simpler ads have more of an impact.
Boo 17 minutes late. Ok, I resolve to have the next post done by Wednesday. Time for bed.
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