Interrupting Advertisement

Advertisements have made their way into almost all of the media we consume and the way they get our attention is usually by abruptly interrupting our TV shows and pausing our radio station while we are enjoying the music. Instead of interrupting the viewers, I think that the advertisers need to find creative ways of drawing in viewers so that they want to watch it and allowing them to share it with their friends because they choose to. For instance, this ad for DermaBlend tattoo primer draws the curious consumers in while showing off the products features.

Both creativity and productivity is what makes a brand or product ad stand out not by bluntly throwing your product at the consumer and expecting any good results. In fact, many advertisers have had a bad reputation for being obtrusive and failed in communicating their message because viewers are becoming more aware of and are avoiding being subject to advertisements and would rather pay a fee to remove them completely.

The growing number of people adopting subscription services such as Pandora and Spotify are pushing abrupt advertisements in between songs which some think is unfair but they do offer a paid version of the service with fewer interruptions.

Skype, another service used by millions of people all around the world each day will be adding more and more advertisements in the middle of peoples conversations, successfully disrupting the callers. In a report from arc-technica, the ads are set to appear during Skype-to-Skype audio calls for users of the Skype for Windows client. It will only be targeted at non-paying users, those without Skype Credit or subscriptions, the company said. Skype promised there would be no degradation of call quality. "Skype call quality will remain the same. Ads will be silent, non-expanding and run after we've completed our regular detailed quality checks on your connection," the company said. I think that its only a matter of time before our own conversations will be paused for an advertisement with audio appears. My only concern is that there will no longer be any room for creative advertisements if all of the companies are pushing for instant/immediate advertisements that just yell at you until you are sick of hearing about it.

"Bring the Typewriter Back"

In order to bring the typewriter back into the homes of the not so tech friendly older generation of people, we need to tap into the nostalgic memories they had while using a typewriter and how the seemingly simple and distraction free device that once helped them achieve their goals along time ago can still get the job done. For us to achieve this turnaround, we have decided to use print ads, a television commercial as well as a radio broadcast.

Print: 

For our print advertisement we would have a man at his desk focused and diligently typing away with his typewriter and he has accumulated a huge stack of pages full of writing next to him while his wife is distracted and struggling to get any of her writing done while sitting on the couch on her laptop. Below is a rough illustration I put together of what the ad might look like.

Commercial:

The television commercial will follow a now successful older author that has a severe case of writers block and in his struggle, he decides to go  back to his old office from which he wrote his first successful book and finds his typewriter under a desk. He pulls it out and dusts it off, then puts a piece of paper inside then suddenly finds the inspiration he was looking for and it fades out with the noise of the typewriter.

Radio:

The radio ad will have a narrator talking about how the typewriter is so simple and distraction free, a blank canvas of sorts while the sound of the typewriter keys are in the background. In addition, we could have a 50's jingle such as an Elvis Presley song at the end to bring a sense of nostalgia to the older audience.

Print Ads

       Here are some notable print adverts I have come across. First is the STIHL print campaign from Australia, which is a garden power tool company that has set its focus on getting people away from their digital media and back into the outdoors. STIHL tools allow you to reclaim this nostalgic place that we have all seemingly left for the tweeting on social networks. The company has really targeted the joke to those of the younger demographic because more likely than not elderly viewers might not get the ad while flipping through a magazine. 

Second, is from the London Olympics when New Zealand matched its best-ever haul of metals and the proud sponsor Weet-Bix ran this full page cleverly worded press ad to remind the world that the athletes achieved their victories with the help of their breakfast. This print ad has great use of texture and the headline does stand out.

Lastly is an ad by Sony France, which has issued an advert that compares the handheld console, PlayStation Vita to a woman with 4 breasts. 
The advert shows the woman with 4 breasts alongside the slogan “Touch both sides. Twice the sensations” in French. It is of course alluding to the Vita’s front touchscreen panel and rear touch panel and is a somewhat desperate attempt by Sony to tackle the lower than expected sales of the Vita some believe. With respect to the art director involved in this particular print ad, I think that they could have gone with a more subtle description of the "sensation" we get from touching the screens.  However, the advert ran in several magazines and was posted online by several other sites. Those who were unimpressed with the advert took to social networks and Twitter to criticize it, one user said that it was a “disgusting marketing campaign” whereas another said that Sony had “time-slipped into the 1970's”! Whether or not this was an attempt by Sony to stir up controversy in the inter-webs is unknown but I think that Sony has done a great job with this print ad and having owned this particular product, I am glad to see it get the attention it deserves. A touch panel on the back is a really unique feature in my opinion.