Flux Task 1 Brief

After being given the brief for this module earlier on in the week, I decided to re read it and begin to look at what was needed of me in order to complete the first task, Flux 1. As a group we spoke briefly and decided to begin with we would all gather relevant information for our specialisms relevant to the 4 topics related to change given; technology, social, culture and contextual.

To begin with I looked up the definitions of these to give myself a clear vision of what each topic could possibly involve:

Technology: "Machinery and equipment developed from such scientific knowledge"
Social: "Of or relation to society or its organisation"Contextual: "Relation to or determined by or in context"
Culture: "An integrated pattern of human knowledge, belief, and behavior that depends upon the capacity for symbolic thought and social learning"

Now I will begin to look into possible aspects of each of these areas, relating specifically, but not exclusively to advertising (as this is my specialism.)

Creating our own brief

After looking at the composition of a brief we were told to create our own for our Blue Star De-Icer campaign. At first I found this difficult to compile as we didn't want to restrict ourselves too much with our ideas but we did want to make sure we had strong lines to follow and a direction to head in, our first draft looks like this:

Background
The product is a powerful, fast acting deicer suitable for removing frost and ice from vehicle window screens as temperatures down to -15c. Starting prices available from £1.99.

Problem
This campaign should help achieve a larger customer base, allowing customers to know the advantages/properties of this product in comparison to alternatives and competitors.

Proposition
Blue star is extremely effective and more convenient than other alternatives. It is a quality, yet affordable a winter essential for every household.  Blue star de – icer is the solution to all your winter problems.

Tone of voice
Humourous, professional and encouraging

Target Audience
Potentially every car owner; however more specifically commuters and adults with families/children 

Mandatories
The campaign must include the company logo and product name. The existing colour scheme of white red and blue should also be considered.

Strap line
A humourous, relevant strap line should be created an included somewhere on the campaign; it should be relevant to the tone of voice created.

Now we have created our brief we are able to begin to develop our ideas making sure that they are within the briefs guidelines, which I feel will give us as a team more direction for our ideas.

How to make an advertising brief

Recently we were taught what needed to be included in an advertising brief, here is the outline:

Background
-Background to product and communication problem
-What does the client want to achieve
-Where the product is up to now

Problem
-(Not on every brief)
-What the campaign should achieve

Proposition
-Short summary
-What do you want to leave in the consumers mind
-What impression do you want to create
-What you want to communicate
-Communicating narrative

Tone of voice
-Humourous, respectable etc
- 2/3 words that set the tone of voice to communicate
-e.g Loreal could be confident, encouraging, professional

Target Audience
-Who are you talking to
-Who is it aimed at? Taylor it!
-Important for the brand to know WHO
-Can broaden it

Mandatories
-Logos
-Straplines
-Things that must be included
-Brand guidelines
-Colours

Strapline
-e.d I'm loving it
-e.g Just do it

Blue Star De-Icer Research

To gain some extra knowledge about the product, the market (such as its competitors or alternatives) etc I did some research into these. Below are a few of my findings:

I began my picking apart the de-icer product itself. Looking at colours, styles, information included and so on. Getting any useful information such as the temperature it works to, the price, can sizes and so on.

I also looked at competitors in the market which were all de-icers. I looked at their packaging, any word used, colours and what their main selling points were such as 'fast' and so on.

Then i looked at alternatives, this could be something to be used, comparing the new, modern de-icer to out of date methods that are still seen being used down everyones street during winter. 

Finally I looked at the idea of snow on a car, how this looked, where the snow fell most, how it sat.. Would de-icer be enough for these thick layers of snow? Would it work in extreme conditions?

Reading

After looking at the reading list, I went to the library to take out some of the books to read. However, none of them were currently available so I have ordered a few off play.com to get me going. In the mean time I took out a few books which I hoped would be similar to those on the reading list and that would be relevant to my specialism.

Idea Generation

In todays session we got taught a new method of idea generation which I had not used before. It involved having a short amount of time to come up with as many relevant words connecting to one main word. I found this useful as it allowed you to think of ideas less related than you may have expected but also helped me to create a general view of the title in images. 

Blue Star De-Icer

We have now been given our product for our first campaign, Blue Star De-Icer, we began looking at it by using words relating to it such as 'Car' and 'De-icer' and 'Frost' to begin coming up with ideas. We were then put into teams of 2 and began generating 50 initial ideas for this campaign.