1) The original plan for the radio advert was changed in two ways - an oriental bed was used throughout the entire advert rather than being inserted later, and a gong sound effect was added to represent Far East culture while the planned sound effect of laughing children was removed. 2) Working individually, the creator found it difficult to generate ideas and preferred collaborating with others. Editing the advert was also challenging as that skill was stronger for their partner. 3) To engage the target audience, the advert used rhetorical questioning, discussed the product price in a positive tone to build trust, and added humor despite advertising a serious product.

1. Radio Advert
Evaluation
Nat Thorne

2. What creative decisions did you have to make
to solve problems and how did this depart
from your original plan?
One creative decision we had to make for our advert was to have an
oriental styled bed playing throughout the whole advert whereas in our
initial plan we were going to insert the bed later on into the advert.
Another creative decision was that we put the sound of a gong in as some
SFX to show the denotation of gongs and the Far East. Initially the only
SFX we were going to use was the sound of laughing children. We
decided to put a Japanese word in the voiceover at the end of the advert
to show some authenticity of its cultural background although the word is
just a translation for ‘head’. Originally we had not decided to have any
phrase at the end of the advert because it was not felt that it was needed.

3. Both individually and working with
others how did you work and what
challenges did you face?
Working individually, I found the that my work was quite restrained
because it did require two people to generate ideas for the trailer. I myself
found it much harder trying to think of ideas on my own so I found that
working with someone else made the task easier. It was also a help
editing the advert because when it came to thinking of ideas, that was my
stronger area whereas the editing of the advert was a stronger area for
the person I had worked with.

4. What advertising techniques did you
use to hook your intended target
audience?
One advertising technique that we used for this advert was rhetorical
questioning, at the start of the advert we used two or three questions in
order to get the intended audience's attention, this makes them curious of
what this magical mystery product could be. Another advertising
technique we used was where we stated the price of the item in a positive
tone of voice, this leads to a trust the audience has leading them to
believe that the price is reasonable. We used repetition as well when
stating the price so that it gets stuck in peoples' heads when stating the
price. Another technique we used was humour, although advertising a
serious product, we managed to insert humour to appeal to the audience,
it makes it friendlier in a way.

5. How did technology enable the creative
process? Was it difficult to use any of the
equipment and did you learn any skills?
Technology helped significantly in enabling the creative process, this is
shown throughout the advert and without it then the advert would be
poorly structured. The technology used enabled us to insert beds and
voiceovers in correct orders and at right times, without it then the advert
would just be a voiceover with nothing to be denoted from it. I didn’t find
using any of the equipment particularly difficult except for the editing,
that was a weaker area for me. I can say that I haven’t learnt any skills
from creating this advert that I didn’t already know.

6. What conventions of radio adverts have
you used or not used and why?
I have used the majority of the radio advert conventions in my radio
advert, this includes a bed, we have the bed playing throughout the whole
advert and it is typical oriental music so that it gives the Japanese cultural
effect to it. Another convention used is SFX, this has been used where we
have the gong sound effect. Again this shows an oriental effect which can
be denoted from the advert. A convention that hasn’t been used is a
jingle. This hasn’t been used because to find a jingle that suits an advert
such as this is incredibly difficult and it is not one of the most important
conventions of a radio advert.

7. What or who are you representing
in your advert and how?
In this radio advert we are representing people of the Far east,
specifically Japan. We have done this by sing the advert on a product
where you rent a sumo wrestler. This suggests that all sumo wrestlers are
from Japan when actually there are a significant amount of sumo
wrestlers from other nations around the world. We have also put the gong
sound effect in which happens to be a particular instrument that is highly
associated with nations in the Far East. The bed is oriental music and this
has been selected because it gives a Japanese cultural effect. All of these
represent Japan and our advert because they are all things we would
imagine Japan being associated with, these are very stereotypical
representations of the Japanese.

8. What feedback did you get and did this
help you realise anything about your
product?
I have received some positive feedback, the person who listened to it has
said that the advert has achieved a lot of the conventions of a radio advert
but has picked up on the fact that there is no jingle, saying that it would be
even better with one, and he has also said that the bed is too quiet. One of
the positives that has come from the feedback is that he has said that my
use of diagetics is very good. From this feedback I have realised that my
radio advert is of quite a high quality but there is always room for
improvement. In other feedback I have received, it has been said that I
needed more layering in my advert but on the whole it is quite good.