CMP

Spotify: For Students.

I created an advert for Spotify to advertise the fact that they were selling Spotify Premium at half price for students.

My persuasive technique was set to be humour as in my initial research I found that it was the most preferred and enjoyed advertising technique, followed closely by repetition which, whilst my focus group stated that although they didn’t always enjoy the advert itself the fact that it was repeated meant that it would get stuck in their head and have them thinking about it for days after. Although whilst editing I found that I hadn’t quite used humour as intended, to combat this and ensure my persuasive technique that I was planning to use was enjoyed I stuck closely to the idea of repetition and did this by using fairly similar shots and the same music track throughout. Repetition can build brand familiarity, which is what I was hoping to achieve by creating similar shots and following the same genre of previous Spotify ads, however it can also lead to consumer fatigue, where consumers become so tired of an ad that they ignore it or purposely avoid the product the ad is attempting to sell. I found that whilst creating mine I was able to avoid becoming too over-repetitive through having shots that weren’t extremely similar and by using a soundtrack that wasn’t extremely popular or a soundtrack that had a repetitive jingle that can get old very easily. Another advertising technique I used was the bandwagon technique. I attempted to show this through the group of teens shown having fun with the product and the catchphrase being “The soundtrack to your teen years” which makes attempts to convince the customer that others are using it and they should join the crowd as well as implying that if they don’t purchase the product they will be left out. However a limitation to this I found was that it can be a very patronising technique, even if it did work on the majority of people. 36% of my focus group commented that the writing, that I was using to attempt to show what the customers could be gaining by using the product, felt childish and made them feel as if they were being talked down on.

I was surprised to see what advertising technique my chosen demographic thought I was showing, with the most thought of technique being Humour followed by Sex. I can see where people would see Sex as an advertising technique as throughout there are people in swimming costumes and then a scene where two girls remove their bikini tops. However the swimsuits were not intended to be portrayed as an advertising technique which people took it as, this showed me that I need to be careful when looking at and using Sex within an advert as you can intend for it to be taken one way and it’ll just be taken as another.

My idea has changed a lot from the initial concept that I had in mind, in terms of content and pace. Originally I had decided to show a variety of teens around Brighton; on the beach, on the pier, running, studying and in the sea life centre. I was also intending to use more than one song within it, to create a more diverse soundtrack. However as I was editing I realised that although I would have been showing the customers a variety of people using the product I wasn’t really driving home the benefits of what the product can give- using the Bandwagon advertising technique. So to fit this I decided to have it focused in one location (the beach) so as to be able to fit in enough shots from this specific location to drive home the point that having Spotify makes a day better. However if I were to re-film this advert I would definitely include the range of shots I had initially planned as most of my feedback stated that they felt the shots were too boring and that they ended up losing interest in the advert, 63% of people said that the advert could be improved by having a range of alternative shots in the ad compared to the footage used.

Before I filmed my advert I looked at a range of pre-existing ads for music apps, mainly a range of previous Spotify apps and ads such as Apple Music. Now that my ad is finished I recognise a lot of similarities between my advert and previous ones where I incorporated successful ideas that I enjoyed and ideas that my initial focus group said they enjoyed. The main similarities focus in on the lack of a voice over, a soundtrack that displays a light hearted carefree tune and often, text throughout the video. However there are also differences with my own advert, such as where I have taken my own interpretation on the writing that displays what you have to gain from the product, I added a variety of colour and mixed the font size up. This was to alter the text from something potentially dull to writing that fit the Spotify brand identity which they state to be “A bold and explosively colourful brand identity.” I also used a lot less people than what you would usually see in one of the adverts, this was to create a more intimate feeling video where you could see the closeness of the friendship group and as a customer you could picture yourself there with the people having fun.

Getting feedback was key throughout the process of creating and then evaluating the advert as it enabled me to gain insight to the advert through the eyes of the people the ad was aimed at (students aged 16-24). The first form of primary research I gained was through sending out a survey through social media which helped me receive a variety of responses from those within my target demographic; sending out a survey via the internet was extremely beneficial as I received a large number of responses that I would not have been able to get otherwise. It provided a way for me to be able to see exactly the type of responses people that see the advert would have as the survey was seen by many people from all over, vastly different to the responses gained through a focus group as those responses are all people from the same area (Brighton).

Gaining responses from surveys was tremendously helpful as it gave me clear set quantitative data that I was able to use in graphs that allowed me to clearly lay out my data and evaluate it, rather than having to dig through general comments. It was very straight to the point and allowed a variety of responses to be condensed into clear set percentages that made it easy to see what the responses were. I was only able to use percentages because such a large number of people responded to the survey which was an additional benefit to this method. I was able to gain clear data on things like what time the chosen demographic thought the ad belonged on, which was made clear and easy to analyse by using the quantitative data to create a graph.

Having a Focus group was extremely helpful as it allowed me to get straight, clear answers from my demographic and instead of having one sided answers like the ones you get from a survey I was able to have conversations that followed up a question and allowed me to be adaptable in the questions I was asking by letting my questions be contingent on their answers. As well as being extremely helpful when gaining feedback the fact that I didn’t know everyone in the focus group well was ideal as it allowed me to gain valuable insight into how my target demographic reacted without questioning if they were letting their personal attachments to me change how they reviewed the advert.

By doing a Focus group I was able to receive personal responses such as; “Looks like the sort of ad you would expect from Spotify, very professional.” and “The continuous fast paced cut editing made it really fun to watch, even though the shots were all very similar.” This helped me when looking at what went well and what I should keep. They also gave me clear criticisms to work with, like; “Didn’t really show the use of Spotify.” and “The advert works well for people that already know about Spotify as a brand, however it’s not very clear for people that haven’t heard of it before.” These were the most helpful as the qualitative data was personal and easy to use when looking for directions.