Keeping up to date

As our group is made up of myself and 8 other design students within the Duncan of Jordanstone, there has been a great amount of creative input as we try to take on the mighty i. We have created a wordpress blog specifically to keep on top with one another, to share any ideas with the group/module leader and to overall try and inspire anyone else that is interested. 

Blog - http://dcadadvertising.wordpress.com/

Initial Research - Competitors and Availability

Having put together a strong team to take on the mighty 'i', throughly read through the brief  to identify all problem areas, it was time to get down and dirty with as much research as possible. After a few group meetings we decided what the weaknesses of i were. The independent had aimed to produce a paper that would be a short but good 20 or so minute read that had informative articles on basic daily news and current affairs. This aim also dwindled on business, leisure, sports and entertainment  sections but although it may have created a decent enough interest in large cities, it failed to grab sufficient interest throughout the nation. 

As we felt the each issue would contain only short, but informative articles, the paper should be used for people that are always on the move or have a small amount of time in their day when they are looking to do something, for example, commuters going to work. This caused a major concern as it would then be placed in a field of competitors such as City AM and the Metro, both well known and very liked papers for such purposes of a quick read. So how often are these papers sold? Like said before, the papers are bought for those who look for something to do on a daily commute. The Metro is probably one of the most popular as its meets the target audiences needs, as well as it being completely free. The i only tends to rise in sales when competing papers are sold out. The Guardian, Times and Independent have recently played a large role within the aid of online reading and have surprisingly generated a lot of interest amongst students. If the i takes on this same role within the online community and re-think how to gain student interest, it will go very far. Then again, the i is only 20 pence, students love a bargain and that certainly is one.

As Dundee is a largely populated student city, as a group, we decided to go out and individually explore where the i was sold in Dundee. I retrieved my information by going into shops I knew students would take notice in when walking to and from University. 

My first stop was at the Premier shop outside the union as it is right beside halls of residence and is passed by a large majority of students daily. Although the premier did have a few in stock, it certainly would not be enough to satisfy the amount of readers that other leading newspapers currently sell. That is if the i could even reach that stage of popularity. Another thing that was noted was the positioning of the i newspaper within the shop. The more dominant newspapers seemed to be place over the i, making the headline logo less visible to the eye. This could also be a design flaw within the newspaper. The i logo is positioned vertically down the left hand side of the page, making it almost impossible to view when one paper is stacked on top of another. 

The next stop on my journey was a visit to the canteena. Their selection of newspapers was limited as it was never mind having a single i. I questioned the lady at the cash desk to see if I had just been the unfortunate one unable to get my hands on one. The lady explained that the canteena's stock had nothing to do with them and that the premier was in charge of it all. They also explained that is assumed from previous sales that it would be a waste to get some in without insured sales of the i.

Perth road of Dundee is another area highly populated with student as well as myself. I visit Nisa (previously Londis) numerous times a week for snacks and drinks. If I was going there to buy a newspaper, I know for a fact it wouldn't be the only thing I would leave with. The idea of product placement within a shop became noticeable to me when I stepped into Nisa the other week. As a student, it would make more sense to have the newspaper/magazine stall placed closer to snacks and drinks (areas in which I mainly go straight to when in Nisa like mentioned before) instead of where they are currently situated (beside fruit/veg and breads etc.

YCN Student Awards

For our Advertising and Branding Module, the choice of 8 different briefs were handed to us to tackle for the YCN student awards competition as well as the end of semester 1 assessment. The YCN usually has a good range of competition briefs and this years seemed to follow the tradition. These presented briefs were for companies such as Fedrigoni, The Feel Good Drinks Company, Heinz Salad Cream, i Newspaper, Industry Trust, Peacocks, Swarovski and Triumph. 

We were divided into smaller groups to go away and investigate the company in which we were assigned with. My groups company was the feel good drinks campaign that allowed not only myself, but everyone else in the class to gain a little more knowledge when having to stand up and resent company facts and figures. This was a good learning tool, not only to learn about a handful of companies, but to get a better understanding of how you could help/develop problem areas. 

After our day research, I returned to my original team to discuss what brief we would most like to do. Although myself and the few others that presented with me really enjoyed what we found about 'feel good', we decided to go in the direction of tackling the 'i' newspaper. The brief seemed to be aimed towards a more specific target audience but also left it very open to develop ideas in whatever way desired. The i is a British newspaper published by Independent Print, owned by Alexander Lebedev, which also published the Independent. The i newspaper is a new kind of paper designed for people with busy, modern lives. Colourful and accessible, concise and intelligent, it's an essential daily briefing for only 20 pence.

The Brief:

'We would like you to engage with a younger audience, specifically students, to make i the most read newspaper amongst the student market, as well as significantly raising our readership numbers. In addition, we want to build a student community and have in-depth engagement/interaction with this market.'

The Merchant City

If there was ever a time to get a free lift down to my lovely home city, then this would have been it. The only alternative on arrival, was not to go see friend and family, but to view the Merchant City. The trip was organised by our advertising and branding module with hope of us exploring surrounding retailers to analyse how each one market their business' and if any specifically stood out. The only problem that stood out for me, was that Buchanan Street was considered as part of the Merchant City? I believe not, but maybe I am wrong. This point made, could be a possible message to put out to visitors or even Glaswegians themselves, some type of promotion or mapping of where you are in the city and small description on it.

The expedition began by passing through George Square. Unfortunately for Pete and Dave who I was with at the time, the excitement of getting a chance to step into a Philadelphia movie set was a month or so too late. We captured some photographs along the way.

It was interesting to hear from others in the class that were not from Glasgow themselves and had only visited a couple of times, how they would stereotype the Merchant City. The aspect that neither of them could really pin-point what and which things that were actually in the area, they still had an idea of the area having connotation of an upper class standard. This point became much clearer and more realistic when we continued our journey. The place is crawling with designer shops and high-end cafe's. The Merchant City also includes the nicer side of architecture within Glasgow. Like said before, signage within the Merchant City lacks tragically. The outskirts of the area can change depending on what part you head for which dampens the beautiful picture you are initially left with. Problems have to be solved.

Glasgow is known for its wide range of shops and is one of the most successful shopping points in Britain. But as well as it's wide variety of shops to meet everyone's needs, Glasgow is made successful as it provides residents and visitors with 'an unequalled shopping experience'. From breathtaking window displays, to live street bands, Glasgow and most importantly the Merchant City always finds some way to intrigue the public into whatever is presented in front of your eyes. 

Examples of these are as follows….

Apple Store Glasgow

Glasgow Buskers

All Saints Glasgow Store

Abercrombie & Fitch - Hollister Store

The Domino's have certainly not fallen this time....

http://mashable.com/2011/11/21/dominos-ipad/

Domino’s Pizza has found a novel way to engage iPad users and maybe sell a few more pizzas along the way. The pizza chain has created an app that lets you make a pizza onscreen and then order it in real life.

24 hour brief (updated)

The 24 hour brief picked up to be a more difficult and exhausting experience than initially expected. This became noticeable when trying to balance ideas from everyone in our very large group, but then again, I guess it was a good learning tool to understand how things would work in the real world of advertising. 

Our Brief was to come up with an advertising campaign urging women to persuade their men to visit the doctor on a regular basis. The twist here was being able to aim our advertisements at women. This was probably the hardest part of the brief.

Like mentioned before, our group was made up from myself and 17 other students that specialised in other art sectors.  As there was a lot of areas to tackle from the beginning - Brain Storming, Desk Research and Live Research - we split the group evenly into 3 separate groups so everyone had a role. Mind mapping was an important technique used within my brainstorming group to retrieve a wide range of answers to such questions as, 'Ways that women can persuade men to go to the doctors' and the most important 'why men don't go to the doctors'. Each student had post-it notes to personally write down their own ideas to stick onto an a1 sheet. We then reviewed all collaborated answers as the other two groups set out gaining information online and through different interviewing techniques.

The team that went around campus trying to interview any male that crossed paths with them, came back with some very interesting information. Some of the guys they chatted to seemed reluctant to answer any questions, and those that did, seemed to of answered rather dishonestly. The questions that were initially asked were ones such as, ‘How often do they visit the doctor’ and ‘Who persuades you most to go to the clinic for regular checkups’. Those that answered very stereotypically with a blunt and uneasy tone, made the team realise they needed a different approach. This approach lead to a better way of wording chosen questions, and the way they would actually ask them. Thus presenting a more fun and informal interview. And it did work. After asking the first few questions, we the began to slyly introduce if there was any female input within this area. They ate right out the palm of our hand and answered exactly how we wanted them to. The only peculiar thing was  serious a pattern of laughter within the guys as topic was brought up.  

After break, the shouting began in our chaotic atmosphere to agree where we were going to go with this. As we felt pinning individual ideas worked well previously, we decided to do the same but to a much bigger scale. As shown in the image above (top left), we drew up quick sketches and illustrations on our 'ideas wall' as prototypes for our advert. 'Humour' being the key to our adverts success, we jotted down everything we felt would create a funny basis to the scenario of getting a male to the GP.

As imaginative and creative all us art school students are, the two main ideas that stood out were – ‘Superhero’ or ‘Trapping’.  Both ideas must of been too much to handle at once as we could not make an immediate majority vote between the two. So we decided to split into two groups to cover more ground, and report back with the best idea. This later proved a bad decision as we were unable to decide on one idea and to miraculously merge the two together. The group was roughly divided in half with myself partaking the idea of superheroes having weaknesses too. Such slogans were generated:

‘The doctor doesn’t know your superheroes weakness but you do’ - this particular ad would be aimed towards women noticing their male partners/friends (superhero) having difficulty or suffering. And the weakness here, would be the emphasis of not seeing your GP. 

We also wanted to contribute some sort of comic book style with other tagline ideas being: 

‘Save your superhero, so they can save you’

‘Don’t let him become the damsel in distress’.

We made a few poster examples to try get our point across as clear as possible before reuniting with the rest of our team to share ideas.

I wouldn't say the other half of our team had a worse idea, but would also not say that it was better……… They decided to go in the direction of having to trap males in numerous ways (this is where the humour part began to kick in) to get them to go to their local GP. The image of their idea was painted in some description like this. The advert would show a woman hiding behind doors, jumping over bannisters and so on holding a giant net trying to capture males with presented text saying something like, “It must be easier than this”. As we were all excited and in high spirits about both ideas, for what reason, i don't know, but we decided to collaborate them both together. I assume it was to make things less awkward for both groups. This began to make us lose focus o the aim of the campaign, making it unclear and confusing for everyone as well as ourselves. Our ideas separately could of created a well structured deliverable and maybe if we had that tad bit longer to discuss, we could of realised. But i guess thats what design in the big bad world is like and I completely understand that.  

Fun Awareness Test

How many passes does the team in white make?