Most advertising today is about communicating the complex range of messages about a product known as branding. A brand is a product or range of products that has a set of values associated with it that are easily recognised by the consumer. A brand is distinguished immediately by its name and/or a symbol (e.g. the Nike tick, the Adidas three stripes). Brand Identity is created by using the following: 1. Brand Essence - a way of summing up the significance of the brand to stockholders and consumers alike of the brand in one simple sentence 2. Brand Slogan - a public way of identifying the brand for consumers - often associated with a logo 3. Brand Personality - marketers can describe their brand as though it were a person, with likes and dislikes and certain behaviour 4. Brand Values – what does it stand for/against? 5. Brand Appearance - What does it look/sound/taste like? 6. Brand Heritage - how long has it been around? does it have customers who have been loyal to it for many years? 7. Emotional benefits – how it avoids/reduces pain or increases pleasure 8. Hard benefits – bigger? better? cheaper? washes whiter? As consumers, we tend to be more familiar with a whole brand, as opposed to individual products. The process of advertising allows us to associate values with products that may not have a real connection to them - for instance, Nike has always selected rebellious athletes to promote its shoes, the 'bad boys' of basketball, tennis & football, and therefore the Nike brand has connotations of rebelliousness.

Print Screen or place the image of your advert here. Print Screen or place the image of another advert here. Evaluation of Advertising 1. Annotate your advertisement, to show how it follows the conventions of advertising; include logo, brand identity and visual connotations This follows the convention of billboard advertising for its simplistic layout where brand identity is displayed through the logo which stands out due to its white font on opaque black background. This makes the logo and slogan (brand slogan) pop out and catches attention for its monotonous touch. The logo is from a famous brand which this arouses customers who are looking for products with brand heritage that gives trustable satisfaction. The whole billboard is unique as it would stand out if displayed in reality due to the contrast with the everyday colours we see outside in the open air. Using the prop of a basketball behind the product (shoe) itself hints what type of shoe it is (sports) and what the product is designed for, this is to support the brand appearance. Usually billboards don’t have much information but just the main like the brand, slogan that intrigues the audience and the image of how it looks like. This helps create curiosity and makes the audience search about it. Comparing it to an official billboard advert I found from the company “Adidas”, its similar in a way that everything in the background is monotonous apart from the difference where product stands out due to it’s bright colour. Additionally, I was able to imitate the way they display brand identity where the much famous logo along with a certain caption is in a font colour (white) that contrasts against the black background. Simply leaving it as the only text on the advert (this is known as brand essence), nothing much competes with the image of the product. The simple style shares a chic professional ambiance as well as connotes how the shoe is unrivalled as it is left with nothing to take the spotlight away from the shoe.

Question 1: How high is the standard of the production? Does the advert have a high quality to it? Does it accurately look like a film poster? How have you manipulated your images? In my opinion, I think the production of my advertisement accurately mimics something the real company would put out as I found some similarities to their official adverts that are already displayed. I manipulated my images in a way where the colours would make one curious to why it would be in such way (black and white). The product placement is at a place where it catches attention because there is nothing else to really see in the advert apart from that area where a prop and product is clustered together. Yet it also allows space to include brand identity though logo and brand slogan. The quality gives off a stylish modern yet mixed with a retro effect through the colour palette of the advert, this makes it seem professional for its artistic play/attempt. Question 2: How does the advert adhere to the codes and conventions of advertising? Have the group included all key elements such as a logo, slogan, brand identity, product images or production information? What the advert adheres to in the terms of codes and conventions of advertisement is the trustworthy feel conveyed though the logo which killing two birds with one stone, the logo gives brand heritage as it says the name of the production company that many people would know and have purchased a item from. This attracts consumers for the familiarity to the brand/production company (in this case Adidas). As consumers, they tend to find customariness of products from a whole brand first before to looking at the individual items itself. Unfortunately, what I missed out would be the product information such as the product name, however I intended to have it like so as I want the audience to feel inquisitive towards the product and search for it with only the given product image in. The product image & slogan/caption under the logo portrays some brand values as it hints what the product is for = basketball and jumping high enough to “fly and soar”. Question 3: What is your brand identity when looking at your advertisement? What connotations does your poster convey? Wanting an image of a qualified billboard advert that could be something the real brand would create, I wanted my poster to convey the main focus as the product itself and remain simple yet bold. Using the classic effect of black and white, it can give the connotations that the advert is original. The brand Identity when looking at my advert is how the whole appearance remains to be sophisticated and simple to give the effect that even though it may seem quite understated as a advert, it still does its purpose through the unique difference (being in a monotonous colour print) out of most posters where there are colours. INSERT YOUR YOU ADVERT HERE