Unit 15 D1: Compare and Contrast Approaches
Introduction
In this report, I will discuss the comparisons and contrasts of the messages of audio visuals promos. I will analyse and compare the choice of multiple different key aspects like the audience, approaches, narrative and stylistic choices like the use of graphics, camera shots and editing. I have chosen two audio visual promos that I have previously analysed in my P1 document for this unit.
Promo 1
Promo 2
Compare the Audience
Firstly, the target audience for both the Barclays Digital Safety Promo and the Ed's Heinz Ad promo are undoubtedly different; this is due to the fact that both the audio visual promos have different purposes and exist in completely different markets. Due to the fact that the Barclays promo is to inform, they want to inform as many people as possible, meaning their target audience is quite broad, however I believe that the primary target audience for this promotion is adults aged 40 - 80. This is because the Barclays promotion is about digital safety and about scam prevention, this is of no use to children or teenagers as they don't have bank accounts that can get scammed as their parents are responsible for taking care of their bank accounts. Furthermore, I don't believe the main target audience is for young adults because they grew up around technology therefore they are more knowledgeable about the dangers of the internet and are less likely to fall for a scam. Many middle aged adults or elderly people are likely to fall for internet scams, this is because they are not too familiar with technology as it hardly existed when they were growing up. Barclays produced this promo to inform adults and elderly people to not trust anyone who says that they are their bank and to help prevent the scamming of older people. I believe the psychometric profile targeted most with this promo is the The Resigned, as this psychometric profile consists of old people who are seeking to survive and seek safety rather than a new innovative brand or product.
However, in the Ed Heinz ad, I believe the target audience for this promo is adults aged 18 - 40. This is a younger target audience compared to the Barclays ad. I believe that the promo is targeted towards adults only as because it is promoting a food product therefore it is aimed towards people who shop for themselves, so not teenagers or children as primarily their parents shop for them. Additionally, I do not think that the promo is targeted towards elderly adults because the advert uses the celebrity endorsement of Ed Sheeran, which older people may not be bothered about and are much less likely to be swayed into buying a product through celebrity endorsement compared to younger adults or adults who are much more interested in pop culture and celebrities. I believe that the psychometric profile targeted the most in the Heinz ad is The Mainstreamer; this is mainly because the use of celebrity endorsement and because Heinz is already the most popular brand for Tomato Ketchup sauce according to a food and nutrition 2022 survey. Mainstreamers are most likely to be interested in this promo because Ed Sheeran is an extremely famous and popular modern may mainstream musician, and his prevalence in the advert will interest mainstreamers and fans of his music. This contrasts the Barclays advert as the actress in the Barclays promo is not a celebrity or somebody influential, they purposely chose an ordinary looking woman to convey how anybody can be a scammer and not to let your guard down.
Compare the Approaches
The Barclays promo takes quite a serious approach due to the topic of the promo and the message it is trying to inform the viewer about. The promo doesn't rely on unique graphics and visuals to portray its message, instead the advert is as simple as possible. It is a woman sat in a call center seemingly innocent and doing her job until we find out she is scamming people and taking their bank details. I believe Barclay chose a simple and serious approach with their promo to get their message across to its viewers in the most efficient and effective way; they want you to pay attention to the woman and what she is doing and they don't want to distract you from the informative information with distinctive visuals.
On the other hand, the Heinz promo takes a much more comedic and interesting approach with unique story telling, this is not much of a surprise due to the fact that the promo has the purpose to entertain, so Heinz need it to be intriguing and funny in order to keep the viewers watching. It is clear that both the promos take very different approaches and this is to cater towards their target audiences. Both the promos have different purpose, the Barclays promo is aiming to inform and the Heinz promo is to entertain and sell; the Heinz ad has a product which they want to advertise whereas the Barclays ad does not. The Heinz ad utilises interesting visuals and editing techniques to create an entertaining advert.
Compare the Camera Shots, Mise en Scene and Editing
The camera movement in the Barclay's ad is very different compared to the Heinz ad. In the Barclay's ad, the camera is mostly still whereas in the Heinz ad there is multiple different camera shots from different angles.
Compare the use of Graphics
Compare the Narrative
The narratives of both the promos are different, however they share some similarities. This is because both the adverts are portraying a story but they are portraying these stories for separate reasons. Firstly, the Barclays ad story is to raise awareness and prevent scams whereas the Heinz ad is to entertain and promote a product. The Heinz promo is more than twice as long as the Barclays promo in run time, this is due to the fact that the Heinz promo's narrative is much more intricate and includes more detail, this is because Heinz want to entertain their audience in order to sell their product therefore it is longer so that it has enough time to feature an entertaining and comedic storyline packed with distinctive visuals and editing. The Barclay's ad takes place in a call center/office, where a woman is on the phone to a customer and talking to the customer about their bank details; it is a short conversation and at the end we see how the woman in the call center has tactically scammed the caller and now has access to their bank details. The whole narrative is structured to make us initially think it is a women working for Barclays, and then surprise the viewer by revealing that she does not work for Barclays and that she is a scam artist. This is to make the viewer understand that whoever you're talking to on the phone may not be who you think and even if they seem innocent they may not be. The narrative is simple and short, it is a woman on a phone call for the whole promo until the very end when we understand she scammed the caller and everybody in the room stands up. Although the promo is short and simple, it still has a shock factor; this shock factor is a key part of the promo because it is the part of the promo that informs the viewer about fraud and scams and people pretending to be your bank.
However, the narrative of the Heinz Ed Sheeran promo is quite different and much less serious. The advert follows Ed as he enters a "super posh restaurant", it is obvious to the audience that Ed does not fit in with the restaurant's atmosphere and the attire of all the other restaurant-goers as he is dressed casually. The narrative of the advert is unique as the plot focuses around Ed Sheeran's voice over dialogue. His dialogue is what drives the narrative forward because as he speaks the advert gets more intricate, he will mention an aspect about the advert and right as he says this it will magically show up in the audio visual promo. This means that the advert also has a sense of fantasy in it, perhaps this is to make the advert more entertaining to the spectator to further promote the product. In the narrative, they utilise the product (Heinz Tomato Ketchup) in a comedic fashion, this is the perfect way to make use of their product as it fits the entertaining aspect of the audio visual promo while also simultaneously promoting the product itself. We see Ed pull out a bottle of Heinz Tomato Ketchup and everybody in the restaurant watched in horror, this has a comedic effect because it portrays how the condiment doesn't fit in a fancy setting. To add to this, they used a slow motion effect to drag out the comedic shot and to amplify the severity of bringing out a bottle of Heinz Tomato Ketchup in a prestigious restaurant, this conveys the comedy in this shot.
Bibliography
BBC. “Target Audience - Revision 3 - GCSE Media Studies - BBC Bitesize.” BBC Bitesize, 2019, www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zy24p39/revision/3.
Heinz. “Ed’s Heinz Ad.” YouTube, 17 June 2019, www.youtube.com/watch?v=keOaQm6RpBg.
“TV AD | Barclays | Digital Safety.” YouTube, 8 May 2017, www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPJ6irUDmHI.
“UK Leading Brands of Tomato Ketchup Products 2016-2020.” Statista, www.statista.com/statistics/548715/leading-brands-of-tomato-ketchup-products-in-the-uk/#:~:text=This%20statistic%20shows%20a%20ranking.
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