The brief for my Unit 20 Advertising campaign required me to create a multi-media campaign that meets the technical and aesthetic requirements of my chosen brand, with the purpose of the campaign to promote and sell the product. This is the campaign I created:
DID I APPLY CODES AND CONVENTIONS?
With my chosen brand being a wedding cake creator/decorator, I was creating a campaign in the genre of Weddings. Common connotations/themes of weddings are elegance, order, perfection, purity and happiness. I followed these codes across each component of the campaign by creating a theme of visual imagery that is present in all elements. For example I made the flyer very structured with features such as a visual list, a strong border and campaign titles that layered onto of each other like a cake. This was to create a sense of order and elegance on the material, which causes the consumer to be comfortably reassured in the genre conventions I'm using and makes the client seem more reliable, causing the campaign to fulfil its purpose and sell a product.
As well as following genre codes and conventions, I also followed the codes and conventions of advertising campaigns. In my research of campaigns I found that they all use a common theme across each material to increase the amount a consumer is exposed to that specific material, and so use colour schemes, tag lines and similar fonts to create that repeat exposure. For example the Yorkshire Tea Toast & Jam campaign uses the same pink colour scheme and meta humour across each material to create an effective campaign. I followed these codes and conventions by creating an overarching theme/tag line for the campaign of 'Your Perfect Wedding'. This was a unique to the campaign idea that specifically focused on giving the consumers a fast step-by-step list of how they can achieve their idealistic, perfect day by ordering from my client. This meant that each area of the campaign specialises in delivering the message; the flyer gives a more detailed overview of the process, the audiovisual engages viewers in a more exciting way (as well as offering images of what their completed products look like) and the social media account is a way of distributing that information to a more larger audience. This resulted in me creating a very stream-lined, theme appointed campaign that is especially effective at delivering that information to my target audience. I further invoked the codes and conventions of campaigns by using a white/cream colour scheme synonymous with weddings, similar fancy fonts that feel personal yet formal and minimalistic, structured designs to connote the order and purity of my genre.
DID I FOLLOW CONCEPT DOCUMENTATIONS?:
I made sure to follow my concept documentations closely as they were well thought out and detailed. This was achieved through clear and constant communication back and fourth with the client through every stage of the campaign. For example before production on each component began, I talked my client through the concept documentations, including the storyboard and visualisation diagrams. This provided a way for the client to also have creative control in the campaign so that I could form it to my clients requirements. An example of this happening was in my initial creation of campaign material ideas where I showed her a concept of a sticker for the print material idea. She then gave me feedback that a flyer design would be much better to suit her brand, this caused the campaign to turn out much better as the switch in material meant the campaign felt more through-lined. This also greatly benefitted me I the long run as it meant that in the later stages of the campaign my client had very little feedback as the materials were created to her taste, so drastic redesigns weren't needed.
WHAT WOULD I DO DIFFERENTLY NEXT TIME?
One area of the campaign I am not happy with is the final design of the social media component. Although I designed the social media components to match with each other well (both use white space for minimalism with a marble background) the social media design itself doest match with the print and audiovisual design. The fonts used in both the flyer and promo remain consistent in the campaigns branding, as well as the tag line itself 'Your Perfect Wedding'. None of this is present in the social media design however and it causes that area of the campaign to feel more disjointed. Although the social media channel itself is supposed to be the official account for my clients brand 'The Amazing Cake House', it still isn't effective for promoting the campaign which is what the purpose of it is in the first place. As a result next time I would add the 'My Perfect Wedding' title to the banner in the empty space, as well as a solid colour behind the text that fades into the background banner of the same beige on the flyer. This would cause it to not only stand out more with an interesting design, it also directly creates recognition for the campaign itself and not just my clients brand. This would greatly help the material to achieve its purpose of marketing a campaign.
HOW I USED AUDIENCE FEEDBACK TO IMPROVE THE PRODUCTS:
Feedback from not only my client, but my audience too were vital in helping me improve my campaign to be effective in targeting that exact audience. If I only relied on myself for areas of improvement the quality of the campaign would be very subjective to me, so by having an open mind to feedback it means that all can be satisfied with the campaign materials.
Gaining feedback from multiple sources was the most useful part of collecting feedback as it allowed me to recognise trends in what people like/don't like with campaign. For example my client mentions in the annotation feedback task that the title on the back of the flyer doesn't work as it isn't noticeable and doesn't stand out which its very similar to my audience saying it isn't needed. This allowed me to understand that that specific area of the flyer causes an issue as people don't like the look of it and therefore don't want it there. If this is a common complaint it means that, to my audience, they immediately recognise the flaw in the design and it causes them to be put off. Because of this, I created an effective redesign that's much more complementary on the eye and causes views satisfaction to increase. In a follow up survey no complaints were put towards it.
Furthermore, gaining positive feedback such as this (image on the right) whilst working on my editing was very effective in helping me improve my advertising campaign. Knowing that people enjoy the visual design of the flyer (the fonts, colour scheme) let me know that my design choices are well received so that I can implement them into my work. In this instance I used the positive feedback to improve the audiovisual document. As at this point in time the audiovisual had barley any editing, I was still trying to find the right fonts to use for my text. After putting out my feedback survey I couldn't help but notice the very positive reception to the flyer pages so I directed my attention there (with only one complaint being the use of the title on the back page). This meant that people very much enjoyed the other fonts I used for the sub-headings which made my decision much easier for what I would use in the audiovisual, which had the added benefit of creating a clear and consistent design across my materials. 
