Analyse 3 Existing Products (Billboard)

Billboard Analysis

For one of my ancillary tasks I will be creating my own billboard to promote my product. Beforehand I will be analysing three existing products in order to get a good knowledge and understanding of what is required on a billboard, its location and how it attracts its potential audience. With the amount of billboards and advertisements that pop up around us all the time is forever increasing and it’s becoming more and more competitive.

As this game debuted back in 1977 it gained big publicity through its advertisement mediums and became one of the most universally acclaimed video gaming series. To advertise the release of Grand Theft Auto V (or five) these super-sized billboard creative’s have appeared along L.A.'s busy streets, and the individual ads focus on two of the three main characters in the new game. The giant-sized billboard spied along Wilshire Boulevard on September 4, 2013 features 'Michael', a rich and miserable family man (and former bank robber) who's addicted to chaos and looks like he's about to have a major mid-life crisis. This character from the video game would attract a lot of young adults to buy the game as this character is dangerous as he is ‘addicted to chaos’. This would then relate to a media theorist as Hebdige said that ‘Youth is fun, Youth is trouble’. The general rule of thumb for a billboard is not to include that much writing as were always on the move we generally only have around 6 seconds to see a billboard so 6 words or less should only be included on the billboard which works well on this one as its dominated by pictures and this should already be recognisable but it still includes the title of the game in the centre.  Billboards are only supposed to contain a short and simple message which will stick in the potential customers head rather than containing phone numbers and website addresses. This billboard does this very well as I’ve stated before that it only contains the name and the release date, which isn’t too much information where people could become distract and not be able to take in all the information but at the same time it’s enough information to create a thought process in a potential customers brain. The main image is split into three large images of three men. These three men are the main characters of the game and are the most recognisable faces to anybody who has a liking to this game. Each of these three main characters has their own colour scheme/theme to them. Across all of the advertisements the characters have the same background colour, which changes for each characters plus the same colour of clothes. This is done so the potential audience can remember and begin to recognise them even if they didn’t mean to the brain would get used to this colour scheme. The colours are bold and that’s the beauty of them as they contrast each other and makes the whole billboard very easy to view. This billboard was one of the last pieces of advertisement to come out to promote this game so its job was to reinforce the colour matter and because of its size people would find it hard to miss the billboard. People would of already know about the product through other advertisements mediums so this again why there is next to no text and just colour as the producers are showing here and not telling the audience about the product. 

This is a very effective Coca-Cola billboard due to its colour scheme, slogan and its image denotation and connotations. The main colour used on this is the red background colour, which is very bold and makes it very noticeable. Because of the strong red in the background it makes the white text really jump out at you. The colours would really appeal to its potential target audience because neither of them is suited to one gender. The slogan ‘refresh on the Coca-Cola side of life’ suggests that you must buy this drink in order to feel fulfilled with life. It tells us that you will be refreshed and relaxed and that your life doesn’t have to be boring. The slogan is very short and straight to the point which is effective on the billboard as people will be able to read it while traveling past and it’s also short enough to be easily memorised when the potential customers wants to re visit the product. Coca-Cola as a brand is very well-known brand already so the billboard doesn’t need the ‘Coca-Cola’ in massive bold writing taking up 9/10 of the billboard because people already known who they are they are smart and let the infamous colours and design show the audience who they are. As also they are very popular it will appear to a vast amount of people, as they want to feel popular too. The target audience of this product is teenagers and the billboard would really appeal to them because of the massive Coca-Cola bottle. The motive though would probably be to encourage more sales and promote the product that perhaps has not had the opportunity to try it. The font is used is very basic and very easy to recognise. It’s also very casual because they do not use capital letters otherwise it could become too formal for their target audience and same goes for the boldness of the font. The font makes the text very easy to read even from a distance, which makes this billboard very successful as it does what it’s supposed too. The main image is an empty bottle with a straw in it and a ladder hanging next to it from the rooftop. This way it looks like somebody made a lot of effort to get to the drink.

The third and final billboard I’m looking at is this one from Adidas from their advertisement campaign ‘nothing is impossible’. In 2003 the company reported that its total sales in the United States had dropped 16 percent in the first nine months of that year. Further confounding Adidas, which sponsored the 2004 Olympic Summer Games, was the loss of its sponsorship rights to the 2008 Olympics to its competitor Nike. To gain an edge over the competition and to reenergise its business in the United States, in 2004 Adidas-Salomon AG introduced a $50 million brand-marketing campaign—the largest ever undertaken by the company—that included television, print, and Internet ads. Themed ‘‘Impossible Is Nothing.’’ This campaign was driven in order to focus on its primary target audience, which are sport enthusiasts between the ages of 12-24. The colour scheme on this billboard is very strong because its uses only two bold colours which is contrast so well off each other (Blank & White). The background is a strong black so each bit of white writing on top stands out to the eye which is effective as people won’t see it for very long. The billboards layout is simply but effective as it only involves three parts to it, the main image, slogan and logo. The main image is a photo of one of the most legendary boxers who ruled the ring, Muhammad Ali who is then cleverly linked to the slogan. As you can see this is his famous quote, which then led to Adidas’ slogan. Muhammad Ali endorsed Adidas at the peak of its era and this is why Adidas got affiliated with this slogan: through brand endorsement and smart positioning. Adidas said that ‘Impossible is nothing’ as a brand and an attitude that is known and shared by all athletes around the world. In 1974 Adidas launched a series of the “Impossible is Nothing” campaign as short videos featuring the legendary Muhammad Ali. The first in the series was a boxing match between a younger version of Muhammad Ali and his three time female-boxing champion daughter, Laila Ali, at the height of his own boxing career. More videos was then released including more legendary athletes of recent times such as: Zinedine Zidane, Laila Ali, David Beckham, Tracy McGrady, Ian Thorpe, Haile Gebrselassie and Maurice Green. Impossible is Nothing has been a powerful Adidas slogan for many years and many people will continue to remember the brand with the same philosophy for times to come. This is what makes the slogan so recognisable now that Adidas don’t even have to but their logo on the billboard for people to know is associated with them. Although the logo is small and at the bottom but again in white which follows the theme for the rest of the billboard and also again really stands out from the black background of the billboard.

Roland Barthes research how an audience will view text. he said "If narratives are episodic this helps our reading. A chain of cause and effect is expected but the audience desires to see a story of morals." He argues that: "The audience look for signs to help them interrupt the narrative, these deeply rooted signs are based on expectations the audience has due to their prior knowledge of old tales or myths."
So looking at my last billboard by adidas, is has has many other representations. Adidas is now known to many especially youths as a fashion brand. You can also represent this symbol to a sponsor as your favourite sportsmen could be wearing clothing with the adidas logo on it. Furthermore, it can also be represented as a popular sports brand and a global company.