Peer Assessment.

I've had pretty good feedback from my group, which was great, I'm really relieved actually! You're your own worst critic, so it's good to know that so far I'm on the right track. I think going forward from here, I'd like to finalise the storyboard for the TV advert, I'm thinking to possibly have more than one, as they all fall under the same slogan. I also want to finalise my idea for a promotional product. I relayed to the group that I'm moving towards giving away free samples of Brut from the retailers of the product, so that will need an advertising poster. It will be pretty simple, straight to the point kind of advertisement.... maybe even a link to the new advert that's also on YouTube or Facebook? It's just a supporting product piece, but still important I think.

Video Recording Session.

For this task of 'A Chance Encounter' short film, my group and I decided on a modern version of Cinderella. The concept being she gets invited to a party, and things keep going wrong.. her phone gets broken, she can't get transport because of her lack of phone, and her outfit gets ruined from an accident! Out pops the Fairy Godmother, who give her a new phone, a new outfit, and a car to get her to the party! I was really apprehensive about this task, mainly because I didn't want to star in it! But also I don't have any experience in short film making. The group of 6 that I was part of was only 4 on the first day of pre production, so that was a great start! I happily volunteered to direct, and also volunteered to star in it if the others didn't turn up for the following session either... luckily for me, they did turn up! We all discussed roles each person could take so there were no 'passengers', and also allocated roles for the absentees, and told them the following week. I think the planning went well, it was well prepared and thought out, so the shooting day was a breeze, considering some complicated scenes, such as making something 'appear', went OK. A few mistakes were made, such as people forgetting we weren't doing a practise run and were now filming, so we would have to roll back the tape and get it in the right position to start filming again. But other than that it went relatively well. If we were to do it again, I think we would shorten the length of time, and definitely simplify the scenes for smoother running. I didn't see all the scenes run after everything was shot, so I'll be watching it for the first time with everyone else in the class! Here's hoping that it's not a complete car crash and it actually shows a strong narrative to the audience.

Storyboards.

I've finalised three conceptual scripts into a storyboard, and decided I won't be using story 4 in the end. It's mainly because it's the odd one out in the group, and I think the other three would resonate more with the general public in terms of real life situations but with a 'parodied' twist to it.

Story three I have adjusted to be simpler; rather than the guy talking about renting a movie etc etc, I've gone with the guy splashes on some Brut after girl says no to him going out, goes back down the girl who becomes hypnotised from the scent, and he convinces her that she said it's OK for him to go out for a drink. He leaves, next scene celebratory 'chink' of the pint glasses, then the Brut smash!

The New Concepts..

OK so I've had a play around with this new, funnier/less serious take on the brand... and I've come up with 4 different concepts for a TV advertisement, which would then lead to a poster campaign. They would all end with the slogan "Brut. Strong Stuff". I'm no comedian, so I've found this really hard! But I'm pleased with the ideas, I think they have a much more light hearted feel to the product, it's not taking itself seriously but will appeal to the buyers market because it's got a positive look on the perfume.

I'm going to draw up some storyboards for each idea, then from that I will choose the favourite concept to use as the final remarketing campaign. I've also been thinking about how to promote it to people further other than just a TV advert and posters, so I looked back over my survey results and it gave me the idea of giving away free fragrance samples within the same context as the adverts, such as if I was to choose Story Three it could be pushed as 'your powerful punch' or something. Virtually everyone voted that scent is the main factor in buying a perfume, and with the advert being used to gain their interest, re promoting the scent in free samples such as through signing up to their website, or stalls set up within busy public areas like shopping centres could seal the deal for the customer to go and buy it. I also mind mapped some other ideas that could be a good promotion:

I think the stronger ideas out of those is a competition, free samples and t-shirt giveaways. I'll go into this further when I have the final decision on the advert concept.

Brain Wave.

After yesterdays session and talking with the tutor, I've had some different ideas pop into my head! I'm being far too serious with a product that's going to struggle to be taken as seriously as top perfume brands! So, and this is just a very loose idea, I've thought about maybe playing on the fact that the perfume is so strong... make a sort of parody of some sweaty guy that hasn't got time to have a shower before he leaves, sprays some brut on, sniffs himself, and then a slogan of something like 'STRONG STUFF' comes up. The perfumes power will cover any smell... anyways I'm going to get on with some sketches and ideas, see what I come up with!

Rough Ideas/Sketches

Survey and Poll Results.

I've managed to get 64 people to take the survey, to me that's not the best but it's all I could get out of people! A nice round number of 100 people would have been great, maybe my expectations are too high? Anyway, here are the results, along with personal answers from people:

 

 

My conclusion from this survey is that I should take this forward as a television advert by creating an animatic, or a poster campaign as these were the most successful in people opinion of gaining their attention. Throughout the answers it's given me an insight into what people want and gain from an advertisement, and what they expect from a company. I've also got opinions back on what slogan they preferred of a perfume:

From these answers, I can now further my ideas, and result in a more successful campaign.

The Slogan.

Checked my survey results, 51 people have taken it! That's pretty crap considering how many people I've sent it to... but still, it's better than nothing!

One of the questions I asked, was what would make you remember the advertisement for a perfume, 28% said the slogan, and 32% said scent descriptions... So I've spent some time coming up with an idea for a slogan and trying my hardest not to be mega cheesy or too cliché, and so far I've come up with quite a few!

The favourites of mine that I keep coming back to are:

• Be Different. Be Brut.
• The Gentlemans Code.
• Experience The Possibilities.
• Define Your Style.

But, it's not necessarily up to me, so I've put the question to the public to see if there is difference of opinion... I've got a great feeling about the 4 above!

I'm also still in the middle of mood boards; it's really just to get some ideas rolling of how I will start an advertisement... I know this is only rough stuff, but I need good grounds so I can do more than the minimum of 3 worked up concepts for the second deadline :).

This video is an advert for Brut in South Africa; it is pretty cool... what better way to get a mans attention than to parade beautiful women in front of him?

I quite like it (these models could make toilet paper interesting!)... it's kindof somewhere that I want to be with the new campaign, the perfume is being shown in a much more mature way, not the stupid gimmicks that are going on here with 'BRUTSLAP'... I feel like I'm heading in the right direction!

Planning Initial Ideas.

OK just checked the results for my survey, and 32 people have taken it already! How exciting!! But I'm disappointed that not enough men have taken the survey (yet!). Out of that number, 21 have been women... I hadn't really thought about there maybe being a huge difference. However, I've re-posted the link to some online groups, some of which have thousands of members to try and drum up even more results (and I've specifically asked that men take it, but that it's still open to women). So watch this space!

Anyway, so today I've been thinking about the colour palette for the product, and if I can use the ingredients in the perfume as an inspiration which I talked about in a previous post:

Top Notes

Lavender

Anise

Lemon

Basil

Bergamot

Middle Notes 

 

 Geranium (What's great about this is that there are so many different colours for this plant)

 

Ylang-Ylang

Jasmine

Base Notes 

Sandalwood

Vetiver

Patchouli

Oakmoss

Vanilla

Tonka Bean

There are some great colours here (a lot of green too, but I want to steer away from that), really rich browns, blacks yellows and violets... great places to start! What I'm going to do now, is create a couple of mood boards just to get some sort of idea of where I want to start with the campaign (plus it will keep me busy while I wait for my results from the survey).

Survey Link.

Finally done and it's activated! I've shared via Facebook, plus emailed to over 100 people, so I'm hoping I do get a good percentage of feedback... now to get back to housewife mode and get on with cooking dinner. Andy if you want to add to my results, please do and click the link below!

The Perfume Survey