Evaluation

Is your advertising campaign fit for purpose and why?

I think that my advertising campaign is fit for purpose, as it significantly presents the issue of

youth homelessness in general, where text has been included that has been presented upon

both of my media pieces which are in poster form and links to the theme primarily. The target

audience for SASH (16-24) are a group of young individuals who may not desire to look at a

high amount of text, therefore, my advertising campaign has been created for them in mind

where my posters are mainly image-based, which will attract their attention immediately. The

initial purpose of my campaign is to inform the consumer that if they are in fact homeless,

they can seek help from SASH. Also, my posters have been established in order to

persuade the secondary target audience (25+) to donate, with the use of persuasive

language to draw in the consumer, such as “Homelessness is Everywhere”, with significant

emphasis upon the last word to highlight the seriousness of the situation of youth

homelessness.

Does it communicate your message clearly and why?

The messages incorporated within my posters are communicated clearly to the audience, as

they are rather abrupt, including “86% of young people have been forced to leave home”

which is effective due to the fact that it has a statistic linked into it, which validates the stated

message and makes it more believable to the consumer. The use of statistics is very

common throughout many existing homeless charity campaigns, such as Centrepoint, who

use the emotive message “Just 40p a day could give John a warm, safe room” on their

website. This is an effective marketing technique as the audience are presented with an

undeniable fact which may convince them to donate to the charity. I tried to imitate this

creative tool into my own work with each piece of text featured upon both of my posters and I

am happy with how effective these messages have turned out to be, as they relate to the

theme and are relevant to the topic of homelessness.

Is it appropriate for your target audience and why?

Both posters are suited to the primary target audience of SASH, the independent homeless

charity in which I am basing my two advertising pieces on. The audience are aged 16-24, so

I had to produce material that would be deemed suitable for young adults. Therefore, I

Catherine Giggal

incorporated a high image:text ratio in my work, as the audience are likely to respond to this

more and will refrain from ignoring the content that has been presented to them, as a high

abundance of text may bore the audience and they will feel less obliged to view the posters

in full and the point of the campaign will inevitably be diminished. The image used for my first

poster is of a young person in peril, which is appropriate due to the fact that my campaigns

are primarily targeted at the ages of 16-24 and the consumer who views this poster may also

be in a similar situation to the subject and can therefore relate to the specific advertisement.

Compare and contrast your original intentions with the outcomes you arrived at.

Furthermore, I drafted several times before I completed both of my posters, so that I would

be able to gather enough pieces of work that could be presented as evidence as part of the

evolution of my media products. I have compared and also highlighted the differences

between my two SASH poster campaigns. These are my final two posters including the

primary stage of each of them:

Catherine Giggal

Poster 1) This was my original idea. I wanted to use the child as the main body of the poster, with text centred on the subject of the image. I later edited the image by making it darker so that it would add to the serious topic of youth homelessness. I think that low-key lighting is effective in setting the sombre tone of the image, which is the primary reason why I utilised it. I sourced this image from the Internet as I found it highly relevant due to the fact that it includes a young person and SASH targets this group specifically. I was going to use a standard Helvetica font for this poster, as I thought that it would appeal to the audience, as it is a readable font that will catch their eye and attract their attention.

Catherine Giggal

Poster 1) This is the final outcome of my first poster. In the end, I decided to insert a brick wall background and cut the young person out, which I thought was a better idea than my original one due to the fact it adds more depth to the poster and the subject of the advertising piece almost looks three-dimensional as shadowing has been added around the cut-out image which makes it stand out specifically, as opposed to just utilising the image of the young person. I kept the idea of having a standard Helvetica font, as I thought that it would appeal to the audience and the stated font was entitled ‘Impact’, which is ironic, as the ideology behind the poster connotes that it should make a profound impact upon the primary consumer. Links to social networking have been included as we reside in the digital era and this is a form of communication that the target audience will respond to, as this generation utilises this type of electronic interaction on a regular basis.

It is clear that the first draft of my poster was not entirely practical, as it did not include a bottom banner, whilst my final one does. I believe that it is effective because it initially ‘frames’ the poster and therefore makes it look professional.

Poster 2) The image on the right displays my main piece of text that is included within my second poster. Instead of creating a draft, I experimented with my poster with these fonts, as I thought that they were clear and readable and would therefore appeal to the target audience. I decided to utilise the colour red for ‘Everywhere’, as I wanted it to be emphasised so that the audience would be drawn to it as it is of primary importance.

How effective are the techniques you have used and why?

The techniques that I have used have been rather effective in attracting the attention of the

primary target audience, due to the fact that I utilised Photoshop as a way of successfully

creating my posters to a professional standard. I experimented with changing the tone of the

background image for both posters, as well as rasterising several pieces of font to add a

colourful edge to the text, which will make it stand out blatantly. Another technique that I

have used is persuasive text, primarily on my first poster, where I inserted the text “86% of

young people have been forced to leave home”. Utilising a statistic is an example of a

marketing technique that is used by many existing charities in order to gain the attention of

the specified audience. The “86%” section will draw in the eye of the viewer and convince

them to read further into the poster. I decided to use short, abrupt pieces of text for both of

my posters as when I conducted my primary research into existing homeless charity posters

I discovered that Shelter incorporated minimalistic amounts of text into their advertising

campaigns which proved to be effective, which is the reason why I decided to use small bits

of text and have a main emphasis on image. The layout of both my posters are similar in the

sense that they include a banner on the bottom of the piece of advertising material with links

to social media, contact information as well as the SASH logo. However, my first is portrait,

whilst my second is of a landscape orientation. I wanted to try both types of layout styles in

order to see which one would be more suitable to be utilised in a piece of advertising

material such as a billboard. I found that my first product was more suited for a bus stop,

Catherine Giggal

Poster 2) After experimenting with several different fonts, I decided to utilise the second font ‘Cardenio Modern’ which I sourced from Dafont. I decided to use this font because it was rather abstract in comparison to the font used on my first poster, so I thought that I would have this blatant type of contrast embedded within the second advertisement campaign to display a sense of diversity between my two advertising campaigns. I think that both types of font are just as effective in conveying the message presented by the poster equally. However, the text on this particular campaign is more appealing than the standard font utilised in my first poster. I have used the same bottom banner and links to social networking in conjunction with the SASH logo on this poster as in the first product. I chose this form of continuity as I thought that it worked well in the first poster and helped to shape the poster as a whole. I also kept the use of black and white photography, as I think that it suited the first poster as it added a unique sense of professionalism to the media product, so I wanted to continue this theme onto my second campaign.

whilst my second poster fitted the frame of a billboard more sufficiently than my portrait

piece. I think that both of my advertising campaigns are effective in the way that they appeal

to the audience aged 16-24.

Is the content effective and why?

I think that the content that I have produced if effective to some point, as it targets the

primary audience aged 16-24 specifically because of the way in which I have laid out the

content on each of the individual posters. I included a high image:text ratio because I

thought that it would be appropriate as a younger audience may not want to view a poster

that was heavily bound with text as it would bore them and the purpose of my poster would

instantly become irrelevant. The images which is have used on both of my posters are

relatively effective as they include low-key lighting, which adds a sombre tone to the

campaign as well as a sense of professionalism. I used this primarily because other charity

advertisement pieces have done this in the past and I wanted my posters to be as effective,

in order to promote the awareness of SASH. I attempted to make the text as successful as

possible, including terms that would make a profound effect on the reader, with my second

poster using the text “homelessness is everywhere, but you can’t always see it”. The

message ties in with the image and I wanted it to either encourage people to donate, raise

awareness of youth homelessness or encourage people who are in fact homeless to contact

SASH.

What impact do you think your advertising campaign will have on the public and why?

My advertising campaign is likely to have some sort of impact on the public, as I have

included imagery and text combined that both link to each other, as well as the use of

statistics such as “86%” which initially shows that the campaign has an element of truth to it,

which will sit well with the intended audience, as they will believe that they are not being

misled and that the advertisement is legitimate. I think that the image of the sad teenager on

my first campaign will have an impact upon the target audience as the figure may represent

individuals who are homeless themselves, so they will be able to relate to it immediately.

Also, the fact that this specific image is in black and white is relevant as it highlights the

Catherine Giggal

serious situation of youth homelessness as this image tone connotes solemnness. My initial

idea was to promote SASH through means of powerful text; however, I now believe that my

imagery is just as important in promoting the organisation that is SASH.

What are the technical and aesthetic qualities of your work?

I think the font in which have I utilised on my second advertising poster is aesthetically

pleasing, as it is not a generic font, much like the text used upon my first poster. I sourced it

from Dafont because I wanted to install a font that was different from a standard, sans serif

typeface to add a modern and unique twist in order to make my advertising campaign stand

out and therefore appeal to the primary target audience of SASH (16-24). I incorporated this

distinct form of diversity into my second campaign, as I wanted to experiment with different

font types to see which one would be more effective in targeting the consumer. Although, I

believe that both fonts are suited to the audience, but I think that the text on my second

campaign is more appealing visually, than the harsh typeface utilised on my first campaign

poster. The images used on both of my media products are of a relatively high aesthetic and

technical standard due to the fact that I have edited them which has added to their visual

appeal, where I have sharpened each image, as well as altering the levels of each of the

pictures so that they appear more eye catching, which will attract the attention of the

intended audience. Also, another blatant technical quality would be that I used Photoshop to

edit both of the posters in order to make them look professional so that I could meet the

requirements that were outlined by the brief of the project. I wanted my work to look as

though it could be used as an actual advertisement, which is why I conducted a good

amount of primary research before I created my two campaign posters.

Catherine Giggal

My advertisements (Poster 1)

Catherine Giggal

My advertisements (Poster 2)

I decided to display my poster upon existing pieces of advertising material, as I wanted to view them as though they were going to be utilised as an actual advertising campaign. I wanted to use a bus stop, as this is generally one of the most common places where you would find this type of product. Alternatively, for my second choice, I selected a billboard. I initially thought that this would not work due to the fact that most billboards are landscape, not of a portrait orientation. However, I thought that this form of advertisement worked, as it stands out and I believe that it would be effective in catching the attention of the primary target audience (16-24) because of the large, centralised image in conjunction with the bold text that the consumer will be instantly drawn to. On the other hand, I do not believe that my bus stop placement appears as effective due to the reason that it is significantly much smaller than my billboard advert and somehow does not look as professional. If the campaign that I was pioneering was in fact real, I would choose the billboard design to present my first advertisement poster on, as it is blatantly eye-catching and when people would drive by it, they would notice it immediately and therefore the awareness of the charitable organisation SASH would increase. I think that the red text on both of the posters is a successful way of obtaining the attention of the intended audience, as it connotes danger and is a significantly bright, vibrant colour that is an obvious piece of text that is used to draw in the viewer and convince them to read the whole of the advertisement.

 

Catherine Giggal

For my second poster design, I utilised a landscape advertisement placement, as it fitted the dimensions and orientation of my poster already, therefore, I deemed it appropriate for use on this particular campaign. I first decided to put my product onto a street wall, which initially added an ‘urban’ edge to this poster, even though it is based in the countryside. Although, I wanted to place this there, as if this campaign was actually going to be carried out, I would want individuals who reside in urban areas to be aware that there homelessness is not only apparent in a city environment, but also in rural areas also. Contrastingly, my second advertising placement is on a billboard in a suburban or possibly borderline rural area, so that awareness of homelessness is being issued in the area in which it is taking place, which shows a sense of relevance relating back to the message that is presented by the poster. I think that both of my products are placed in areas in which people will view them, either by walking, cycling or driving, which promotes SASH as well as the written material that is posed by the product itself.