Advertising

Here are the links for the advertising assignment. 

First, the prompt:

Propose a multimedia ad campaign for radio, television, and online.  You can choose any product, including your comedy, drama or documentary program.  Write a 1-page proposal explaining what your campaign will do (what marketing problem your campaign will solve) and why you believe it will be successful. 

Begin your proposal with a one-liner explaining the concept that holds your campaign together. These ads should all be related by a common theme, slogan, appeal, or other device (such as a character or spokesperson).

Write complete scripts for a 30-second radio spot, a 30-second TV spot, and an interactive version for online. Here are some examples as downloadable Word docs:

Attach your assignment in MS Word format in an email to grodman@brooklyn.cuny.edu with the file name firstname lastname ads (1 or 2) . 

Be original, be creative!  We don’t need knock-offs of the student samples or ads that we’ve seen and been annoyed by hundreds of times.  

Checklist (download as a Word doc here)

Quick reminder:  Sorry for the rush, but at this point we’re drawing this course to a close and if you don’t get first drafts to me on time (or earlier) I won’t be able to get them back to you in time for you to make the necessary changes by the drop-dead deadline for the final draft.  Plus, you have to make the final deadline so I can get everyone’s grades in on time.

Here’s a checklist you could use to make sure your ad assignment is complete:

  1. Propose a multimedia ad campaign for radio, television, and online.  An ad campaign is different from just an ad.  A campaign has something that holds all the components together, like a slogan, jingle, or character that we will see or hear in one ad that will remind us that we saw or heard that ad, even in another medium.
  2. You can choose any product, including your comedy, drama or documentary program.  Just be creative.  Humor or drama can work, but originality is key.  If your ad looks and/or sounds like ads we’ve heard and avoided a hundred times before (hard sell huckster or two friends talking about a product), it’s not creative.
  3. Write a 1-page proposal explaining what your campaign will do.  First, explain how It will solve a marketing problem, like why a target audience is not buying the product, or why a product name or image is unknown to the general public.  This will require research.  
  4. Tell us why you believe your campaign and approach will be successful—in other words, how it will solve the marketing problem that you have researched.  
  5. Write a script for a 30-second radio spot, a 30-second TV spot, and any form of online ad.  The radio spot should use audio creatively.  The TV spot should use visuals creatively.  The online ad should use interaction creatively—in other words, the audience has to do something with it or respond to it actively.  Use split-page format for the TV ad.  See the samples for radio format.
  6. If you are submitting this for my comments and a grade, attach your assignment in MS Word format in an email to grodman@brooklyn.cuny.edu with the file name firstname lastname ads .  When posting to Blackboard, use the name of your product or campaign.

Advertising Blackboard Assignments (download as a Word doc here)

  1. As soon as you know what your product is, post it in the “Advertising Assignment” forum with a quick explanation of what approach you’re using and what your theme is.
  2. Respond to as many of your classmates’ ideas as you have time for.
  3. As soon as you have a first draft, post it in the same forum.  You can post as many drafts as you like.
  4. Respond to as many of your classmates’ drafts as you have time for.
  5. As soon as you have a final draft, post it in the same forum.
  6. Respond to as many of your classmates’ final drafts as you have time for, but make it quick because I will close the grading a day or two after the deadline for final drafts.
  7. Remember to submit your final draft for a grade to your professor by email.  That’s the one that will be graded for your final assignment grade.

Three responses are required for this assignment.  More responses will improve your online participation score, although quality is more important than quantity.  Make your responses substantive, insightful, and helpful.  

Your links:

1.  For sample ads, go to YouTube and search for terms like “best radio ad” and “best commercial.”  You can also search for best campaigns and slogans.  

For example: The Derek Jeter Budweiser commercial of 2017 had a lot of heart:

2. How to Plan a Successful Advertising Campaign (see this link also)

Don’t forget the concept that holds your campaign together–theme, slogan, appeal, character spokesperson, etc.  

3. 10 Essentials to an Effective TV Commercial

4. How to write a radio ad

5. For an example of visual storytelling in ads, go to YouTube for:

Cartier watch commercial

L’Odyssée de Cartier 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaBNjTtCxd4 (video marked as private)

See also: Cartier – Behind the scenes of L’Odyssée 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hovsQl2heUk (video marked as private)

6.  Most importantly, watch some TV ads, listen to some radio ads, and observe some online ads that you think are effective.

Here’s recent one that’s fun to emulate:

Analyzed here or here.

7.  An example of a PSA that is lengthy but pushes the right buttons (Environment warning)

Here’s an example of an effective political ad.  This one helped the unknown candidate, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, beat the #4 Democrat in Congress:  

or

Compare with Elizabeth Warren’s announcement ad 2020. (link missing)

8.  Your product doesn’t have to be real.  You can make one up, but it has to be good.  An example of a product that would be great if it actually existed:

Another from The Onion.

Or from SNL

9.  A couple of other worthy examples:

Organ donation PSA: The World’s Biggest Asshole 

There’s some comments about this campaign here.

In this French ad, a boy comes to appreciate dad dancing.

John Lewis Christmas Advert 2015 #ManOnTheMoon