Project Rationale for my latest design brief.

1. Study Task 11: Project Rationale Brief 04
Although my website is designed well, has good user experience and
something useful to provide its audience with, none of this will mean anything
without that audience finding my website. A certain amount of this is
mediated by the search engine optimization that we have learned throughout
this brief, but there needs to be more to let people know that this resource is
available. This is where an advertising campaign comes into play. The
campaign needs to communicate not only that this website is in existence but
also what it does and why. A part of this is also creating positivity around the
website brand and identity. So that people feel ready and happy to use the
resource. Some of this function is performed by the branding I have already
designed for my website. However, I must be careful to help create continuity
with the brand I have already created, so that people know where they stand
with the brand. This can be achieved by carefully shaping the tone of voice of
the campaign through consideration of the format, materials, message and
placement of the campaign, to match that established by the brand and the
website design.
The message that this campaign sends is the lynchpin upon which other
decisions are made because it is so important in shaping the tone of voice. The
main limitation is one that I impose on myself. It concerns the complexity of
the message that I choose to communicate. It is very easy to get lost in the
number of different messages that this campaign could communicate. For
example: what the website does, walking can be easy, these locations are so
close, get out and get some exercise are all messages that I could choose to
communicate. However, I cannot communicate them all, or rather it would be
more accurate to say that I cannot communicate them all equally because this
would be so confusing for the audience. The best way to pin down this central
message a tag line or slogan is very useful. So, perhaps it would be wise to
consider this early on in the project.
Materials and placement are aspects of this campaign that definitely go hand
in hand. My campaign has already got numerous limitations on the location
because of the way that it is all material relating to the north Norfolk coast and
its surrounding areas. This limits my campaign almost exclusively to the
Norwich area. This is because my target audience is young urban
professionals and although these could be found in cities like Kings Lynn the
real center for these in Norfolk is Norwich. This means that I can really tailor
the campaign to specific locations in Norwich. This also informs the materials,
for example, if I wanted to use a specific pavement I would have to use floor
stickers. This would also dictate the cost not only in the sense that these
materials would cost but also that I would have to pay to use these spaces for
advertising, this is where the more inventive forms of advertising tend to hit a
snag. However, I will not let this limit my creative ideas because I could be
really inventive within the confines of a budget and that would be great and

2. useful and sensible, but I have years to be sensible and although I will always
be aware of the cost of things, I will not let it stop me from being as inventive
as possible.
The tone of voice is something that has been established by the website design
and needs to be continued through to the advertising campaign. The tone of
voice is most accurately summarised in the name of the website; Salt of the
Earth. It’s a down to earth tone of voice that isn’t too whimsical or trying to
say these places are ‘magical’ but in a conversational and friendly way saying
that these places are great and you are a bit of an idiot not to go on these
simple little walks.
The time-frame for a print based advertising campaign is one this that is hard
to pin down. You can’t dictate when someone is going to pick up a magazine or
look at a poster very precisely and you can’t stop people engaging with a piece
of print that was intended for the end of the campaign. So, the major
consideration here is flexibility. I need to think about the fact that people will
not encounter the print pieces in the order that you want them to so making
them work together in any order is really the way forward. There is also the
seasonal consideration; because my website focuses on outside activities it
would make very little sense to do this campaign in winter when people don’t
really want to go onto the coast. So, my campaign would probably be best
taking place in the spring to summer section of the year. This means that
possibly the print adds could be outside because they have less extreme
weather to contend with.
Must do’s and do not’s
- I must tailor the format of the design to the location.
- I must ensure that location is one that relates to my target audience.
- I must not compromise the tone of voice established by the existing
design work.
- I must use this opportunity to innovate as much as possible.
- I must keep the message of my campaign clear and concise.
- Each of the three print outcomes must be different but work as a
cohesive whole.
- The use of Augmented reality must be grounded in the message of the
campaign and not a pointless addition.