The Slogan I chose to use for my Starburst Commercial is "Unwrap the Party!" This tagline will appear at the end of the commercial, or for ads in magazines. "The tagline is the catchphrase that conveys the brand or group's benefit or spirit and expresses an umbrella theme or strategy for a campaign or a series of campaigns; it also is called a claim, end line, slogan, or strap line." (Landa 101) I chose this specific slogan because it's a play on words and actions associated with Starburst Fruit Chews. Each Chew is wrapped in paper squares in a variety of colors representing the 4 flavors in every package. By saying "Unwrap the Party!" it emphasis that each chew has a burst of life, a party in every chew. It describes the excitement and energy that is inside each bite! "The visuals and the words should work cooperatively, complementing each other.." (Landa 96) I'd have to say its unique in its own way because the slogan caters to a younger youth age groups such as teenagers and young adults. It's the perfect slogan to have because many people these days want to have fun and have a party! By having this slogan we can target "party-goer" audiences and even audiences that don't like parties but want to just break away and enjoy a little excitement. The font type of this slogan will also have a unique feel as well. It will be hip, flashy lettering, and will be used with a plethora of colors depending on the magazine, television, or web ad. My approach to conveying message in the advertisement will use the method of Problem/Solutions and Endorsements. My commercial will have a DJ and party that has a problem, the party is dying. To solve this problem, the DJ will consume a Starburst Chew that will reignite the fun and "unwrap the party!". "The problem/solution approach is sometimes used when the product, service, or group successfully solves an actual problem (think flaking skin, stains, identity theft, cleaning, cyberbullying) in one's life and/or the greater community." (Landa 117) The solution to the dying party is the Starburst. To make this commercial even more fun, it will feature a cameo appearance by a super model or actress endorser. Towards the end of the commercial you'll catch a sexy glimpse of your favorite actor passing a Starburst Chew to a male model. "An endorser can be celebrity, media personality, politician, or any supporter of the product or service. An endorsement is when a celebrity certifies a brand or group's claim or gives testimony to a brand or group's quality. Through projection and association, the brand or group acquires the cachet of the celebrity, borrowing the celebrity's regard, social status, or expertise in the field." (Landa 114) By having a star such as Kim Kardashian we can combine identities. Her persona is known to revolve around partying and hosting club events. A model such as her would fit this commercial perfectly to depict to the audience of a great time!
The brand behind the Starburst candy is The Wrigley Company, a subsidiary of Mars Inc. One of the biggest competitors to Starburst are Mamba's by August Storck KG, and Now and Laters by Farley's and Sathers. Now and Laters as well as Mamba's resemble Starburst very similar. They are both square shaped taffy fruit chews wrapped in colored papers. The main difference between these 3 brands is focused on the texture of the candy. Now and Laters' texture is hard at first, and softens later as you eat it. Mambas are soft all around when consumed. Starburst is in the middle because its candy texture is not too soft and not too hard. All the flavors of these 3 candies are similar as well. Mamba has 6 pieces of 4 different flavors, about 24 pieces. These flavors include lemon, orange. strawberry, and raspberry. Now and Laters are sold with 4 pieces of 3 different flavors. The combination of flavors usually has watermelon, cherry, grape, or apple flavors. For Starburst their packages feature multiple original flavors of strawberry, orange, cherry, and lemon. After doing research throughout the internet it is learned that Mamba and Now and Later candies don't do a whole lot of marketing for their taffy treats. The only commercials found for Mambas and Now and Laters were older ads from the 60's and 70's. Because these candies have been out for such a long time the general public knows about them and they rely on word of mouth for their marketing. Their approach seems to be unconventional and not your typical advertisements on television. This could potentially be there tactic on purpose or potentially because of financial reasons within the companies. "Often, clients and agencies turn to unconventional marketing when the budget is too low for television or for rich Web solutions" (Landa 246) Starburst on the other hand is known to sponsor people and celebrities such as Michelle Branch (in 2003) to help both the cause and the candy. To feature a cameo appearance of a celebrity in their marketing campaigns would be no surprise to the general public and still contribute to their advertising success. I think some of the challenges that other companies may be facing is trying to keep in the spotlight with today's younger youth. Almost everyone buys candy sooner or later it doesn't matter how old you are, but younger adolescents and children are the primary focus because you can brand them early on. It is important to target those age groups. Some things to think about when promoting any campaign can be: "Does the campaign enter pop culture vernacular? More importantly does it positively affect the popular culture? Does it have a point of view of philosophy that changes things?" (Landa 192). By analyzing how Starburst has stayed in the spotlight these past decades it is evident they are tending to the mainstream consumers. Some of their recently successful commercials have been "Berries n' Cream" in 2007 as well as their "Contradictions" commercial aired during the 2010 SuperBowl. The SuperBowl alone is watched my millions of viewers, so I believe Starburst is in a good advertising standing. I believe their intent was to start a viral phenomenon. With today's social networking that was just another medium for Starburst to utilize. Not only would they have watched the commercial on television, because it was comical they would search for it again on the net, and then share it with friends, resulting in a viral spread. "Online marketing goes viral when people are infected by it (like a viral infection), and they spread it to others. To become infected, people have to like the content enough to share it; they must be engaged by it and want to pass it on to their friends and family." (Landa 244) Techniques like these have not been seen in advertising campaigns by Mamba and Now and Laters. Becuase Starburst known to endorse celebrities this also leaves room for a potential spokesperson to represent Starburst. "A spokesperson is an individual -an average person, actor, model, or other celebrity- who positively represents the product, service or group. If the role is a recurring one, that individual becomes the face and voice of the brand or goup." (Landa 112) Snickers did a similar tactic with a previous SuperBowl commercial a few years ago when they used Betty White to represent Snickers' candy bars. This not only rocketed Snickers' sales but also reset Betty White's Career. This is an incredible opportunity for Starburst!
What's going to set this campaign apart from everyone else is that we have fully analyzed our market. We've come up with advertising tactics that our competitors have not. To attract our customers we are going to advertise our commercials on the most popular viewed television stations such as MTV, Comedy Central, VH1, and the like. We'll target youth audiences to brand people early on and emphasize channels where many young adults and adolescents can be found. Our campaigns will also be seen in magazines most commonly read by younger adults as well. We'll try to focus on magazine that pique interest in popular fields like fashion, teen magazines, or specialty sports like racing and snowboarding. Our main goal will be to target today's popular culture. Our ads will be memorable everywhere they are shown, and they will all be linked to one another within the same campaign. "A campaign must have visual impact, whether a visual surprise, graphic interest, visual drama, or a breakthrough appearance." (Landa 204) In return this should yield us the most beneficial results because our attention will be set on the popular interest of society. Sites like myspace, facebook, tumblr, google, and any other high demand website will also feature our advertisements. "When a brand enhances or helps someone's online experience, that is called smart marketing. To the surprise of many, people become brand fans when they can relate to what a brand or group is doing in their social space." (Landa 242) This broad span of media will all benefit each other because all our ads will be spread throughout all mediums. Our campaign won't have to change much because it will automatically adapt to the culture as its continues to spread. "Online ad campaigns could be used to drive visitors to a platform, which is an online media destination that people integrate into their lives and come back to again and again." (Landa 226) Everyone will be affected by our commercials because we'll make them understandable. Everyone will be able to relate on some sort of level. When someone thinks something is cool, they'll most definitely tell their friends about it! We'll take this idea to a grander level so we can get the most attention for our ads. "The content would make us feel altruistic-we think our friends would benefit from what we find compelling" (Landa 245) The Starburst commercial will resemble the ads placed on websites and magazines. This campaign as a whole has not been done by any of Starburst's competing products like Now and Laters, or Mambas. This campaign alone will make Starburst shine within society!
The picture posted up above was a concept I put together in Photoshop. This is a general idea of what the magazine advertisements would look like. The idea can be put together on any medium. It doesn't necessarily have to be composed in Photoshop, I'm certain a freeze frame from the actual television commercial could suffice as well. To help promote Starburst even farther we could potentially use a known DJ too. The DJ pictured here is a known DJ among the house scene. His name is DJ Afrojack. This could help publicity because we could incorporate his identity into Starburst's advertising tactics. This idea not only has to be featured in magazines it could potentially be a billboard or web ad on a popular website. This picture would be perfect in a town such as Las Vegas because people will constantly be reminded of Starburst every time they go out to a club in the city. We can even feature these ads on the actual websites of the clubs themselves. If a tourist is looking for a hot destination in Las Vegas they would immediately see this ad on the clubs home page. For this particular concept I decided to choose one of the fonts i had brainstormed in a previous blog post. I chose this one because it's colors were vibrant and it similarly matched the yellow found in the yellow Starburst Chew. "Letterforms or words may stand out by using weight for contrast." (Landa 218) It also went well with the picture because the photo was basically blue, and the yellow helped the words stand out more. It accentuated the picture quite nicely. "The main visual message is called the visual or image. Together, the line and visual should communicate and express the advertising message. In fact, in a really good ad, the line and visual, in combination, should have an additive effect.." (Landa 208) One of the biggest focuses I had prioritized in this ad was the eye tracing. I wanted the "Unwrap the Party" to have a huge emphasis. By placing the text on the bottom right corner of the ad really made it stand out. Naturally when first viewing the ad you are trying to figure out what it is exactly is falling down from the sky.Your eye movement starts its way at the top and follows downward. As your still looking downward to figure out what it is, you do find out, when you see the "Unwrap the Party!" text and realize its a Starburst ad. The falling Starburst chews made this ad very effective. "Have you guided the viewer through the composition using arrangement, movement, alignments, and transitions (A.M.A.T.)?" (Landa 212) By no means am I graphic designer but I did focus on what the Robin Landa had mentioned was important when creating magazine ads. As a consumer I have realized that audio in a commercial plays a major role. One of the biggest things people love to hear is a catchy tune or an awesome song. "We have all heard advertising jingles that we can hum or that stay with us, provoking endearment to brands or nostalgic feelings. Audio provides a strong component in screen-based media, lending to the audience enthusiasm, engagement, and a way to make the piece memorable, to make it stick. (Landa 220) For my television commercial version of this advertisement I'm going to do a 30 second spot. To model my commercial after a succesful idea, I am going to base some of the music liek what car commercials do. The latest Lexus commercial for the CT 200H has an amzazing song that flows very well with the ad. The reason why the ad is so successful is becuase people are desperate to find out what the song is, or if tehy already know, they are reminded later as the jingle is caught in their head. Theyll be singing it later, and later reminded of the car ad. Even after that they might even search for it online, just to be caught into more ads from the car company.. My idea is to use a similar tactic for the Starburst commercial!
Posted up above are scanned versions of my storyboard I sketched the the "Unwrap the Party" Commercial. Also included is a scan of the Script I wrote for this commercial. I've never scripted a commercial before that was actually going to be shot so I had taken the time for this project to do it efficiently as possible. To do this, I used a functional technique of storyboarding. "A storyboard is a series of drawings, sketches, or photographs of key shots of a planned television commercial, accompanied by text, used to visually explain an idea." (Landa 222) Storyboarding not only helps describe what is going on in the clip but also it has specific instructions that will guide the viewer. These storyboards are the first step to telling the story visually. I made sure to give extra detail in the story board so it can make filming much easier. "The visuals are drawn inside small frames, in proportion to a screen; and the action, sound or special effects, and dialogue are written underneath or next to each frame. It acts like a diagram of the commercial before it goes into production." (Landa 223) Like I had mentioned in an earlier post my main emphasis is to get these commercials online as well as in television. The goal is to make the commercial so memorable people will want to share it with their friends. The whole concept I'm presenting is sure to catch our viewer's attention. "Whether these are films, stories, brand-sponsored series, or any other form, the idea is to engage people enough that they will view is once, twice, maybe more, and share the item.." (Landa 224) When playing these commercials I think the most valuable air time could potentially be at night. It is a commercial of a club environment so night time will target more adult audiences. Adults are statistically proven to watch television more at night rather than during the day. People will love this commercial because it will get them hyped even in the night. When you've come home form a long day at work and your watching T.V. this ad will get you pepped up! "Television commercials, with a few exceptions, air more than once during a period of time. It is important to structure the ad so that it is interesting when viewed multiple times!" (Landa 222)
