OUGD501 - Studio Brief 02: Contextual Research (Links to Theoretical Research)

Any relevant information about: Client background, Competitors, Industry, Scene, Culture and Mode of communication. Must include at least 3 references to reading/research done for Studio Brief 01. 

Reference 1 - Gauntlett, D. (2008) Media, gender and identity. London: Routledge.
Nowadays with technology, media and the internet evolving. The 'representations of gender online' as also changing dramatically. This is because the internet is necessarily diverse, and any two individuals could spend years on it without ever looking at the same stuff. Nevertheless many people use the same search engine e.g. Google. But each individual journeys are interesting to see between the others. However, there are specific websites that are generally more popular than others. For instance Youtube at the time of writing is the world's most popular website that's not primarily a search site (Alexa.com. 2007). In the YouTube site it is very straightforward on finding the most trending a popular videos watched on the site. For example: in June 2007 the most popular clip in YouTube's history is a performance by a male comedian, 'The Evolution of Dance' which received 50 million views. The second most popular is the music video of Avril Lavigne's hit single, Girlfriend (2007), this received 38 million views, in which she is assertive her desires clearly and forcefully. This representing the two top videos a man being humorous and a women being feisty. In addition the internet has many stereotypes, categories and genres. With this recurring pattern of gender in Youtube. Youtube videos tend to be short, amusing items or pop videos. Apart from this Youtube is a site that is generally for users to find entertainment. The ideology the site aims towards is one of general silliness. Again, the site is full of a collection of diversity. Youtube is mostly successful for making people on the internet become Youtube stars. For example, the most popular channel contributors of all time are Smosh (6.2 million views in June 2007), this channel consists on two 19 years old guys creating comical videos. This is the opposite for a female star on Youtube who is known as Brookers, a 21 year old women who also creates comic, often musical videos. Her success for this is her unique, quirky humour she gives to the audience rather than an internet model for her looks. To conclude Youtube is able to allow individuals online to become more open and personal. This is demonstrated as women and men on the site are less fake and stereotypical personality. Thus with this kind of movement their is more concepts that can be created within Youtube adverts. The adverts are able to relate and connect to the genders online, this is referred to the power of data/cookie data recording. The internet knows what these gender are interested in and able to show them what they would like to see. Even though the gender maybe be reversed. For instance, Boys into make up and girls into sports.

Reference 2 - Devereux, E. (2014) Understanding the media. London: Sage.
Defining the media, media nowadays is rapidly changing within the environment in which the media controls. The media offers the consumers a useful amount of set criteria through which the users can define as the contemporary media. McQuail argues that these features have profound consequences for the cultural life and political and economic organisation of contemporary societies. Everyday social life is strongly patterned by the routines of media use and infused by its contents through the way leisure time is spent, lifestyles are influenced, conversation is given its topics and models of behaviour new offered for all contingencies. Media allows the communication of messages or texts between senders and receivers, the mass media need to be seen in terms of their public and character. One understanding of the media as the medium of communication between senders and receivers. 

Reference 3 - Cooke, M and Buckley.N. (2008) Web 2.0, social networks and the future of market research.

Market Research is often accused of failing to provide the insights sought by our clients, and in an increasingly complex society we are challenged to embrace a different model of thinking with different principles at its centre. We believe that a Web 2.0 research platform and a social network approach offers marketing research new tools to meet the challenges of the future. We are currently undergoing a new media revolution. It is based around social computing. Which identified the emergence of ‘a whole new generation of consumers for whom online is becoming the lead medium and convergence is increasingly the norm’. 

The success of sites such as YouTube and Flickr is based on consumers who decide what videos or pictures they wish to look at, rather than on broadcasters who dictate their viewing. Third, today’s media is micro- chunked, rather than monolithic. At blogs, consumers read posts; at YouTube, consumers watch micro-chunked videos; they can watch as little or as much as they want rather than have the media experience pre-defined by the publisher. Fourth, the social interactions that develop around the content are the key to understanding the importance of this bite-sized user- generated content. It is the facility to rate, rank, comment on, review and respond to the new world of media that is driving the success of these new media properties. 

OUGD501 - Studio Brief 02: Research: Visual research/analysis

At least 3 relevant visual examples. Each image should be accompanied by a short analysis / explanation. 

Visual example 1 - Short video adverts on Youtube

Example of what a YouTube advert will be presented
as before previewing the actual video

Example response summary to online guide by Michael Stelzner about YouTube Ads: What Marketers Need to Know About YouTube Advertising demonstrates what makes a video ad successful and exploring how YouTube video adverts function. This is helped explained by an YouTube and video marketing expert known as Derral Eves. When Eves started creating his own video ads to help other clients answer recurring questions. Before executing a video he had to do some research which best trending videos to produce a successful advert. Why is it significant to create video ads? The reasoning of this is that video ads converts is at a very high level. Eves thinks that video marketing is a powerful way to deliver, engage and excite. He emphasises if a video is made correctly the more influential if executed well, however this can also gain negative response if done incorrectly. For instance, Eve discusses about working on the video advert project for the 'Squatty Potty'. Due to this the video has also reached 43 million combined video views on Facebook, YouTube etc. An important fact that Eves discovered that Facebook video is good for branding and engagement, whilst Videos on YouTube receive better conversions wit YouTube. Next topic is about the process for making video adverts. Eves indicates that there is short amount of time to accomplish this and walks listeners through the steps that he uses to create Youtube video ads: capture attention, talk about the problems and offer a resolution. Eves says that if the methods are done correctly, it can be repeated in several times throughout the video and with that it can keep the audience engaged throughout the process. For example, 'even though the Squatty Potty video is long (2:54 minutes), the audience retention was high and over 80% of the people who click on it watch the whole ad.' Eves explains the difference between educational videos and videos that sell products, and discusses his experience with short adverts versus long ads.

Visual example 2 - Pop up adverts

Responding from all pop up advertisements either on computer screens and mobile screens. Chelsei Henderson writes about a web strategy based on 'Pros & Cons of Pop-Up Ads on the Internet'. Pop-up ads can be very recurring inconvenience in to the internet users. Majority of any site that a user would click on will form some kind of pop-up with either a message or an action on it. This could either be the following: to sign up for the newsletter or blog, or get a downloadable from the site, pop-ups are everywhere. The pros of pop up adverts. If used correctly, pop-up ads provide vital information to viewers. These instructional pop-ups are not forms, but rather a source of significant information about the site. Additionally, though, large online companies and popular websites have seen the profits of having actual pop-up advertisements on the website. Therefore, pop-ups have a possibility of becoming a productive, efficient way of advertising. If combined in an elegant, professional manner, pop-up advertising generates revenue and becomes a successful means of advertising. The cons of pop up adverts are although pop-up ads have potential to increase revenue and sales among the company using the advertisements, equally powerful is the negative side of pop-up advertising. If the advertising becomes overwhelming for the viewer, he or she will quickly exit the website and find another suitable website. Likewise, if the use of pop-up advertising becomes intrusive on the viewers, pop-ups have the capacity to create an adverse effect and turn viewers away from the site. This generates a lack of web traffic, and in turn, a lack of profit. Also, if an internet surfer is browsing through poorly made websites, he or she may stumble upon inappropriate pop-up windows. The plethora of inappropriate pop-up windows makes children browsing the web a scary thing. Additionally, because of the above reasons, many computer owners have purchased a pop-up blocker. Therefore, the money in hosting pop-up advertising has no effect on a large group of web viewers.


Visual example 3 - Adverts on social media platforms

A sample of the adverts on social media platforms, Christina Newberry writes an online article based on 'Social Media Advertising: The Complete Guide'. In this digital age of  advertising it has become a key part of most marketing campaigns. Internet advertising spend overtook newspaper advertising in 2013. For example Facebook is one of the biggest social media platform in the digital advertising industry, indicating that social media advertising is front and center in the digital ad world. There are other examples like Twitter, Instagram and maybe LinkedIn and SnapChat. Some of these posts will resonate with followers; others do not. Some are tracked that collected the ones that are being clicked, liked, shared, and commented on. These high-performing messages make the best candidates for social ads. Nowadays traditional adverts are inefficient. One of many social media advertising benefits is that social platforms offer very effective targeting capabilities to address that problem. From targeting social media managers on LinkedIn to Stranger Things fans on Facebook, take advantage of this very useful targeting for more efficiency in advertising. Newberry then discusses how now more than 80 percent of social network users are accessing social media on a mobile device in 2016. This means most social media ads are being viewed on mobile devices as well. Your mobile ads should be specifically designed for the small screen, incorporating images that are easy to view on a pocket-sized device.

OUGD501 - Studio Brief 02: Defining the Brief: Problem definition/analysis

State what the issuer is and where is derives from, Explain why the issue is something that can be resolved using visual communication. State what needs to be communicated (essential and desirable). 

• Is there a (hypothetical) client? Who and Why? 
• Is there a target audience? Who and why? 

Issue - How important is Graphic Design to enable successful advertising in today’s digital environment?

This type of issue is something that can be propose by applying visual communication as it is one of the most crucial features for successful advertising. What needs to determined is how these particular essential and desirable methods are put into place. Especially how has this developed since the raise of technology and expansion on the internet. 

The hypothetical client or target audience of this specific issue could be mainly aimed for online users (any age/gender/interest) of social media platforms such as: Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, online retail shops etc. The reason for this is that nowadays its more of the users that have more control online, however some do not subconsciously know this. This is due to how the cookie data or mobile data recording each individuals who uses smart mobile phones searching function. With this the browser is able to collect the data of what the user  regularly searches for and then an ad will appear reminding the user if they still want to purchase the product or not. This sudden pop ups of adverts can become quite intrusive to the users when going online. With is constant ads users may feel like the browser are infiltrating their privacy, sometimes the ads that are shown on their screen is not what the user is interested in e.g. Youtube adverts before watching a video. This is quite a disadvantage to brands that maybe pay for the sites to adverts their products in a pop up ad as they may use potential future consumers and purchases.  

The brief is to design a better method/procedure of allowing users online the option on which adverts they would like to see when in a pop up ad. This is simply similar to a notification as users now like to be notified when someone has liked or commented on their picture. Instead this notification that they have chosen will allow them to have an alert on which brands are offering a great offer for sales about to start etc. This could be presented in an interface wireframe of a mobile or website. The main deliverables for this brief is to make sure that the correct ads show up for what the consumer is interested in: 

• How would it be display on a mobile screen or computer screen? 
• What are the functions of the users to select which adverts they would like to see? 
• Is there a way for the users to control when the adverts come on or not (timed? Set?)
• What colours and text would be the most appropriate for this type of function? 
• How would this new function be advertised for online users to purchase? (apps, disc, download?)

Below is the final written Studio Brief:

Essay Question - Bibliography

Bibliography - For Research question 'How important is Style to Graphic Design for successful advertising, particularly on social media platforms?

UPDATED - Question: Is Graphic Design important for successful advertising, and how has this evolved since the last decade?

2nd UPDATE QUESTION FINAL: 'How important is Graphic Design to enable successful advertising in today’s digital environment?'

EXAMPLE - World Wide Web: http://www.boston.com. Today's News, August 1, 1996.

• Christoph Hack, (March 22, 2011). The right brand style is more important than creativity and advertising. Brand-Trust, insight (Online) http://brand-trust.de/en/insights/articles/2012/brand-style.php. 
• Melanie Perkins, (November, 05, 2014). How to Develop a Strong Visual Brand on Social Media. HubSpot, blog (Online). http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/strong-brand-voice-social-media#sm.0008sh7q41agmemdpfr1dwfcch99i
• Carina Hassan, (May, 2000). Good Page Layout Design Elements. Department of Computer Science - University of Maryland (Online). https://www.cs.umd.edu/-mount/Indep/CHassan/element.htm
• Lauren, (May 31, 2011). The Importance of Layout and Templates. Publisher's Corner (Online). https://blog.magcloud.com/2011/05/31/the-importance-of-templates/ 
• Jamie, (January 21, 2013). Importance of Layout in Graphic Design (Online) http://www.designzbyjamz.com/importance-of-layout-in-graphic-design-materials/
• Erika Schneider, (September 16, 2014). Why is Typography so Important to Content Marketing? Content Marketing & Discovery, Out brain (Online) http://www.outbrain.com
• Diana Burns (Unknown). Advertising Design & Principles. Scribd, Blogger (Online) https://www.scribd.com/doc/23738532/Advertisng-Design-Principles
• Christina Newberry (November 21, 2016) Social Media Advertising: The Complete Guide. Hoot suite, Blogger (Online) https://blog.hootsuite.com/social-media-advertising/
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_popular_websites. Alexa Internet, as of December 28, 2016.
• https://pbwebdev.com/blog/11-methods-of-online-marketing. PB Web Development, 13 Methods of Online Marketing, (June 18, 2009).
• http://www.business2community.com/online-marketing/5-of-the-biggest-and-still-the-best-online-advertising-methods-0186358#VucS2LAXHKIlzFc8.97. Business2community, 5 of the Biggest and Still the Best Online Advertising Methods, James Debono, (June 5,2012).
• https://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=Zu00m04mba4C&oi=fnd&pg=PA9&dq=design+studies+theory+and+research+in+graphic+design+pdf&ots=kVwm8I65L3&sig=PvaFzkmgxnw0IqwP--Q9QbRj-DE#v=onepage&q=design%20studies%20theory%20and%20research%20in%20graphic%20design%20pdf&f=false. (books.google.co.uk) Design Studies - Theory and Research in Graphic Design a Reader by Audrey Bennett, Editor & Foreword by Steven Heller. Princeton Architectural Press, New York - 2006. (Online PDF Book) 
• www.huffingtonpost.com - How Social Media has Changed the way that we engage Consumers by Anna Johansson. May 11th, 2017. (Online Blog)
• www.adweek.com - How Social Media is changing advertising - Better and Worse by Mary C.Long. December 12th, 2016. (Online article)
• www.boxczaixon.com - How Social Media has changed the Dynamics of Marketing by Laurel Demoss. February 28th, 2014. (Borcz+Dixon Integrated Advertising - Online article)
• www.wordstream.com - Social Media Advertising for Small Business by Dan Shewan. February 3rd, 2017. (Online guide) 
• www.theguardian.co.uk - Google's bad week: Youtube lose millions as advertising row reaches US by Olivia Solon. Saturday 25th March 2017 / 10:00GMT (Online article)

Essay Plan

Question: How important is style to graphics for successful advertising, particularly on social media platforms?

1. Look up the most current popular websites online - First source 
2. Look up popular methods of advertising online (Must has some link / evidence to social media) - Second source 
3. Define what I mean by 'Style and Design' and see what principles are followed in the examples of advertisement. (Layout of the ad and what the ad has) 
4. Finding reasons for style that decides how companies use ads and decided which one has the most importance. 

List of Current Popular Websites Online

• Google - is an popular American search engine and a multinational technology company specialising in Internet-related services and products that include online advertising technologies, search, cloud computing, software, and hardware. 
• Youtube - is an American video-sharing website. The site allows users to upload, view, rate, share, add to favorites, report and comment on videos. Available content includes video clips, TV show clips, music videos, short and documentary films, audio recordings, movie trailers and other content such as video blogging, short original videos, and educational videos.
• Facebook - (FB) is an American for-profit corporation and online social media and social networking service. Facebook may be accessed by a large range of desktops, laptops, tablet computers, and smartphones over the Internet and mobile networks. After registering to use the site, users can create a user profile indicating their name, occupation, schools attended and so on. Users can add other users as "friends", exchange messages, post status updates and digital photos, share digital videos and links, use various software applications ("apps"), and receive notifications when others update their profiles or make posts. Facebook makes most of its revenue from advertisements which appear onscreen.
• Baidu -  is a Chinese web services company headquartered at the Baidu Campus in Beijing's Haidian District. It is one of the largest Internet companies in the world. Baidu offers many services, including a Chinese search engine for websites, audio files and images. Baidu offers 57 search and community services including Baidu Baike (an online, collaboratively built encyclopaedia) and a searchable, keyword-based discussion forum. Baidu Baike is similar to Wikipedia as an online encyclopedia; however, unlike Wikipedia, only registered users can edit the articles due to Chinese laws.
• Amazon.com - often simply Amazon, is an American electronic commerce and cloud computing company, it is the largest Internet-based retailer in the world by total sales and market capitalisation. Amazon.com started as an online bookstore, later diversifying to sell DVDs, Blu-rays, CDs, video downloads/streaming, MP3 downloads/streaming, audiobook downloads/streaming, software, video games, electronics, apparel, furniture, food, toys, and jewelry. The company also produces consumer electronics—notably, Amazon Kindle e-readers, Fire tablets, and Fire TV.
• Snapchat - is an image messaging and multimedia mobile application. Snapchat evolved into a mix of private messaging and public content, including brand networks, publications, and live events such as sports and music. Now Snapchat has more to offer to it's users this includes: events, media brands, and celebrity content, having a favourable opinion of those areas.

Popular Methods of Advertising Online

1. Websites and Blogs - If a company or user want to make the best of online advertising then they would need to have a website or blog. Most online advertising is geared to direct people to their website (a central hub). A large percentage of internet users use the internet as their preferred choice to find information about goods and services. The website or blog that they own is a permanent shop window that is available 24 hours a day 7 days a week.

2. Social Media Websites - Social Media websites such as Facebook and YouTube are constantly seeking to increase their advertising revenues. Both provide full details of their advertising possibilities on their websites.

Facebook allows the user to select their audience by location, age and interests and to test out simple image and text based ads. It suggests that companies advertising on Facebook can:

• Advertise their own web page
• Create demand for their products by creating relevant adverts
• Publicise an event such as a product launch or anniversary.

Payment is either made by “pay per click” or by “impression” (visitors see the ad whether they click it or not).

YouTube offers a host of resources such as “how to” Guides and advertisers playbooks that will show the users exactly how to set up and run your first successful marketing campaign with it. 

Twitter also recently announced that it allows users to place self serve ads.

3. Banners and Display Advertising - Display Banners, or Banner ads, were the first major method used for online advertising. By 2009, they had dropped to less than 23% of online advertising spend as pay per click or keyword advertising became the predominant force.

Display banners still have merit and are good for special offers or for reinforcing a brand. Banner ads are small adverts that normally come in various rectangle forms. They appear on websites and serve as a link directly to the advertiser’s website: when you click on a banner your browser instantly redirects you to that site.

4. Pay Per click (PPC) or Keyword Advertising - Search engines and many websites (including social networks sites such as Facebook and YouTube), carry small adverts with embedded URL’s. When someone clicks on these adverts, the company that put them there is charged. This is considered by many to be the best online advertising method by far and has been growing at a remarkable rate. Unlike traditional advertising pay per click is user activated. Users like it, because it costs them nothing and they only use it if there is something that attracts them.

The advantage of pay per click for advertisers is that they only pay for the actual click through to their site. With other methods of advertising, both offline and online, the user have no particular idea of how much it will cost the user to attract each visitor. A user that clicks through into your site is likely to be interested in what you have to say, because these users are actively looking for information or researching what you have to say, your product service or offering.

The largest Pay per Click advertiser by a long way is Google and they have a large library of information available to walk small business owners through the process of starting a successful PPC campaign.

5. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) - With the huge increase of companies operating online and selling on the internet there has been a dramatic increase in the competition between companies to get visitors to their websites. When carrying out research most people will only look at the first page of search results and quite often only the first two or three.

Making sure that the users site gets high up in the search results is important to the success of your website. There are ways to improve your search engine rankings, and search engine optimisation is the method of doing this.

The best online advertising methods can and will only be the best if you in fact have a sound, well thought out plan for the user advertising campaign; whether that is SEO or social media. 

'Style and Design'

• My definition of 'Style & Design' - A distinctive creation of a conventional appearance that of an object which communicates a principle. 

Reason of why Companies uses ads than think about the Style

• The purpose of marketing is to engage a target audience in a two-way system of interaction. Research is used to study what a marketplace needs or wants from certain types of solutions. Companies that effectively engage their audiences and identify their preferences are more equipped to develop or offer products and services that are marketable. It is also easier to promote the right benefits when the business has keen insight into the value customers want or expect.
• A primary distinction between advertising and other forms of promotion, such as public relations, is that advertising messages are paid for. While companies value free publicity, they also want to present promotional marketing campaigns that are designed, strategic and well-executed. Advertising allows a new company to create awareness. It also allows companies to promote new products to appeal to current or new target markets. With advertising, companies have the ability to communicate through various media, such as TV, radio, newspapers, magazines, the Internet, billboards, mobile devices and social media.
• Another benefit of advertising is that it can help a company establish its identity and increase its brand awareness. Companies want their products to be the first thing a consumer thinks of when a need arises. Consistent advertising helps do this by ensuring that the company's name stays in front of potential customers, even when they may not be ready to buy at that point.
• Over time, advertising can help increase a company's sales and ultimately increase its earnings year over year. This can also help attract new investors or partners, especially if a company has opportunity for expansion. Companies generally have control over their advertising and can change the message in ads to best suit their needs at a specific time.
• However, results of advertising are not always immediate, especially if the main focus is branding or name recognition. An immediate increase in sales can happen if there is a promotion or discount, but keeping these customers coming back is something that will need to be focused on going forward.
• The right brand style is more important than creativity and advertising. According to figures - Consumers respond accordingly: their contact with an ad lasts only 1.7 seconds (general magazine), for a mailing they take a mere 2 seconds for the first relevance check, and for a banner only 1 second. 
• That means that for a brand communication, every second counts. To be notice d in such a short amount of time, brand style is vitally important, as it assures, instant "association & differentiation" and shows the character of the brand. Over the years, we have closely examined the issue of brand style in our consulting practice and in studies. Today we know: 
• Style beats advertising 
• Brand style increases effectiveness of advertising 
• Consistency is more exciting 
• Style creates perception 
• The number of style element is not relevant. 
• Based on this experience, we have formulated three rules: Brand style must be unambiguous, Brand style must be self-similar and Brand style must be pervasive.