Self-Assessment.By Clare OMara

I work for the company, Connexcast, and I was assigned a new task, which was to create a social messaging campaign advertisement that must be 25-30 seconds in length. In this document I will be self assess myself to evaluate the effectiveness of the advert in which I created.

I personally believe that the beginning of the advert is strong; this is because the advertisement begins with the main character, (played by myself, Clare OMara) seen entering the location as well as the audience clearly see the characters costume, this is a successful beginning because the audience will begin to understand the storyline and meaning behind the advertisement. As well as chose of location and costume will appeal to my target audience of males and females aged 13-18 years of age; this is because the main character seen in the advertisement appears to be in the target audience age range, as well as the choice of location and costume is efficient because the audience will be able to relate to the choice of settings and clothing, as the audience will live in similar setting as well as wear similar choice of clothing.

When I filmed myself I decided to create a range of test shots, (I would arrange the camera and tripod and then decided what I wish the camera to capture). After I was comfortable and happy with the outcome of the test shots, I then began to film my advertisement. I found the test shots very important as it gave me a clear idea of how each shot will appear when completed, (I created test shots for each different shot type of angle in order to create a successful advertisement). Also my advertisement contains a wide range of different camera shots and angels, this is so the audience will gain interest while watching the advert; this is because the audience will find the advertisement more appealing and interesting if the audience can see the characters emotions, costume as well as the location setting at different points in the advert. Therefore this shows including use of different shot types of angles helps creates a successful and professional advertisement, as the audience will be able to understand the storyline more clearly, though the use of including a range of different shot and angels types.

In my advertisement I have incorporated use of the technique, emotional response. This technique is included in my advert as it is providing a solution to a problem, (which in this case is a solution to cyber bullying issues). Also the audience may feel compassion for the main character, (played by myself, Clare O'Mara), this is because the character expresses negative emotions, which the makes the audience feel sympathy and compassion for the character, whom is a victim of cyber bullying. Also the use of persuasive techniques has been included in this advert, which in this case is reward power, this is included because the message of the advert promises the audience a positive benefit, (such as you can resolve cyber bullying in a positive and sensible manner, leading to pleasant and rewarding results).

The chosen style of my completed advertisement is dramatic; this is so the audience fully understands that cyber bullying is a serious and fragile issue, which must be communicated in a sensible and appropriate manner. The overall conventions that my advertisements includes is use of a character/actor, company's logo being displayed clearly, music being played in the background and a message being communicated to the audience, (which in this case is how cyber bullying effects a person as well as how to resolve issues, if the audience may be a victim on cyber bullying). Therefore this shows by including a range of different conventions within an advertisement is important, this is because by including a range of different conventions creates a successful and professional social messaging campaign advertisement.

The purpose of my advertisement I believe relates to the given brief for this project; this is because my completed advertisement communicates that serious cyber bullying in a dramatic but yet communicating the message in a positive method, in order for the audience to understand that cyber bullying can resolved without the audience feeling depressed about the issue. Also I have clearly communicated the adverts message, (which in this case is how cyber bullying effects people but how the issue can be resolved in a sensible manner). This then shows that I have communicated the advertisements message though the use of actors, displaying emotions and chose of props; then making the audience understand that cyber bullying is a serious subject that can dramatically effect a person/people lives.

As well as the effectiveness of the content being included in the advertisement was successful; due to the fact I included use of props that my target audience, (males and females aged 13-18 years of age), will be able to relate to; due to the fact the prop used in campaigns advertisement is a mobile phone, which in the advertisement is used to accuses a popular and well known social networking site, (which in this case is, Facebook messenger). This then shows that the use of the prop of a mobile phone will lead to the audience connecting and relating the advertisement, which is created though the use of chose of props, such as a mobile phone. Furthermore the technical qualities of this campaigns advertisement has worked well, however due to large amount of footage being included in the advert, lead me to speeding up the original length of the footage, this was so I was able to included all the footage I recorded as well as making the storyline and message of the advertisement clear to understand by my audience. Therefore this shows the technical quality of this advertisement is fair; however maybe appear confusing to watch as the audience may not clearly see the actor, costume, prop and location setting being displayed successful, in conclusion this advertisements technical quality can be improved by decreasing the speed of the footage, in order for the audience to clearly understand what is being included/displayed within the advertisement, (such as costume, actor, location setting and props).

Furthermore I have appeal to my target audience, (males and females aged 13-18) though the use of actors, costume, location setting and use of props; this is because I have included use of an female actor aged 17, this will be appropriate for my target audience, due to the fact it relates to my selected age group, (which in this case is 13-18 years of age), and by including an female actress aged 17, which make it easier for audience to relate to the storyline and message behind the advertisement. As well as I have appealed to my target audience though the use of costume, as the actor seen in the advertisement is wearing youthful clothes, which may appeal to my target audience watching, also the use of props being incorporated will appeal to my target audience, due to the fact I have included use of a mobile phone, this type of prop will then allow my audience to successfully relate to the storyline more efficiently; this is because my target audience, of male and females aged 13-18 years of aged are stereotyped to own a mobile phone, but as well as use their mobile phone for social networking sites, (for example people may use social networking sites to communicate to members of their social group), which I have included in my advertisement, this is because in my campaign advertisement the main character is seen using a mobile phone to open messages on the social networking site, Facebook messenger. Therefore by including use of a mobile phone in my advertisement is then allowing my target audience to relate to the storyline and the message being communicated to the audience successfully.

Moreover my choice of location settings, (an average home living environment), will appeal to my target audience of males and females aged 13-18 years of aged, due to the fact my audience will be appeal to relate to the location choice as the setting seen in the advertisement is a average home, that many people aged 13-18 years of age will be able to relate to. However I could target my audience of males and females aged 13-18 years more efficiently by including a wider range of actors, this is so I could appeal to more the male side of the audience, as well as by including more actors will lead to an increase of interest from the audience watching; this is because by including more actors, (each actor is individual and has their own unique personality type, which can be displayed though the use of costume), will then make it easier for my target audience to relate to the characters, storyline and message being communicated. In conclusion I could target my audience of males and female aged 13-18 more successful by including a wider range of actors in order to appeal to the audience more professionally.

I would compare my advertisement to another social messaging campaign called, The Cyber Bullying Virus. This is because both, my advertisement and the cyber bullying virus both shared the similarities of including a main character whom is a victim of cyber bullying, at least one character who is cyber bullying the main character as well as the cyber bullying virus video included use of actors aged 13-18 years of age, which is the same age group as my target audience, (the target audience for my social messaging campaign is males and females aged 13-18 years of age). Overall of the cyber bullying virus advertisement was successful as it included use of a range of characters, which will make it easier for the audience to relate to the characters, as there are such a variety of different individuals. However I thought that this advert make become confusing for the audience; this is because the storyline at first was unclear, and in order to fully understand the storyline the audience may need to watch the advertisement more then once in order to clearly understand the storyline and meaning behind the social messaging campaign advertisement. Therefore I believe that the social messaging campaign advertisement called, The Cyber Bullying Virus can be improved by making the storyline of the advert easier to understand by making the video shorter in length, then making the advertisement less complex.

I decided to change the music, which I originally planned to use, (originally music which I planned to use is included in my animatic). This is because the music I originally decided to use did not successful relate/suit my advertisement, so I decided to change my music, in order to create a more calm and relaxed atmosphere. For my animatic idea I decided to use the music, (taken from, 'Sound cloud)' called, 'Sander van Doorn & Yves V- Direct Dizko (Original Mix)'. However even known this song is powerful and creates an positive atmosphere it made my advertisement appeared less serious and dramatic, so I then use Sound cloud to search for a song that would fit and benefit my advertisement in a moreappropriate and successful manner, I then discovered a song on Sound cloud called, 'Change The Way You Kiss Me ft Example', which I believed created a more appealing and calm atmosphere for the audience watching. Therefore I decided to change the music, (playing in the background of my advertisement) in order for the storyline and meaning behind the advertisement become more serious, (which in this case is to help stop cyber bullying). Animatic music, Sander van Doorn & Yves V- Direct Dizko (Original Mix)'.

The music I have decided to use is from the source called, Sound cloud by using this source I was able to download music without any copyright issues. I then decided to use the song called, Change The Way You Kiss me ft. Example this song included just the beat of the music. The reason why I decided to select this choice of song as the music will not attract the audience from the videos footage, making it easier for the audience to understand the advertisement. As well as I decided to incorporate this song choice as it is positive, which will then reflect on the advertisement, making the advertisement appear more appealing and professional for the audience watching. The drawing near to the end of the advertisement the music begins to end as the audience sees information of helpful contact details appear on the screen. The contact details appear at the same time a tone appears similar to a social networking-messaging alert, this is so the audience will be able to relate the messaging alert as the audience will most likely use social networking sites for messaging fellow family and their social groups. Therefore by including use of a messaging alert will make the advertisement appear more professional as the audience will be able to relate to the advertisement more successful though the use of music and sound choices.

Furthermore I believe the character included in my advertisement appears naturalistic and realistic; this is because the character seen throughout, (played by myself, Clare OMara) express realistic and relatable emotions, (such as facial and body language). This then makes it easier for my target audience to relate to the characters emotions, due to the fact the audience can clearly see the character express emotions of how cyber bullying can affect a person.

Gathering information from the focus and my own personal opinion, I believe the advertisement can be improved by slowing down the pace of the whole advertisement; this is because the audience may find my completed advertisement, difficult to fully understand. This is because I increased the speed of my footage in order to include a wide range of footage and so the storyline/meaning behind the advert will become easier to understand for the audience watching. Therefore this shows I could improve my social messaging campaign advertisement by slowing down the pace of the advert, in order for my audience to understand the storyline of advert more efficiently.

I also received feedback from my client, this feedback consisted a range of areas where my first draft of my advertisement required improvement, one of the points my client made was changed my original font type to a more youthful and positive font style/type. I then decided to search for a font style that would appear youthful and appealing to my target audience of male and female aged 13-18 years of age.

I then discovered the website, www.dafont.com which was a website designed to give users a range of different font styles to download free of charge. I then found a font style, which appeared youthful, and positive. This font was called, Mickeys school, once I download the font type I changed the original font type on my advertisement to my new downloaded font. I then decided to change the colour of the font style to green; this colour choice was incorporated to symbolise peace, then meaning that my advertisement is to help others in a peaceful and calm manner. Therefore this shows by receiving feedback from my client help me develop and improve my campaign advertisement in a more successful and efficient manner; this is because I was able to change certain areas of my advertisement that may be unsuccessful and required improvement.

In addition I filmed a focus group asking a range of questions, after members of my focus group watched my completed advertisement. (The members of my focus group was aged 13-18 years of age; relating to my chosen target audience for my social messaging campaign advertisement). When I asked my focus group the first question of, What is the purpose of the advertisement? I discovered that one of members of my focus answered, It is to communicate cyber bullying to an audience that its wrong and that it should be stopped. This shows female teenagers, 13-18 years of age, understood the purpose behind the campaigns advertisement. This shows I discovered by asking this question that my both my focus group and target audience, understood the purpose behind the advertisement. The second I asked my focus group was, What do you think the target audience for this advertisement is? One of the members of my focus group answered, You can experience it at any age, so younger then teenagers, so anyone. But mainly teenagers. This then shows that my advertisement can appeal to any target audience age, as they believe the advertisement message reaches all ages, but mainly teenagers; this is because cyber bullying is known to effect mainly teenagers, (males and females aged 13-18).

Furthermore I asked my focus group the third question which was, How has the company targeted this audience, one member of the focus group said, The actor in it, is really young, and she wears youthful clothing. This shows I have successful targeted my audience of males and females, 13-18 years of age, due to the fact I have appeal to this age group though the use of including an actor whom is in my target audience age range of 13-18, I have also targeted my audience successful though the use of costume; this is because one of members of my focus group believed the actor included wears youthful clothing; this is reflected onto my advertisement, due to the fact it then makes my campaigns advertisement appear more up to date, as the costume included in the advertisement is youthful. I then asked my focus group the next question, Do you think the campaigns advertisement is vibrant and youthful? And why? one of my members of my focus group answered by saying, The adverts not horrific, you dont really see any graphic stuff, you just see people speaking. This then shows that my advertisement is vibrant and youthful, as there is no negativity being included in the advert, which then makes the advertisement appear more positive and shows the campaigns advertisement is communicating a positive message instead of a depressing and negative meaning to the audience.

After received feedback from client-Final advertisements font.Before received feedback from client- First draft advertisements font.

I then asked the fifth question to my focus group which was, Do you think the advertisement is communicating a positive message? And why?, one of the members from my focus answered by saying, I think it is communicating a positive message, because the person resolves it in a calm way, and then dont lash out on everyone. This then shows that both my focus group and my target audience believes my advert is communicating a positive message; this is because my focus group state the actor deals and resolves with the situation, (being cyber bullied online) sensible, as well as communicating to the audience what to do if they may be in similar situation. The next questioned I asked was, Could you clearly see the companys tagline of, Stay connected. Stay safe being displayed in the advertisement successful?, one of my members group members stated, The tagline was very clear, towards the end of the video because it was bold and in green, which symbolices peace. In result this shows I have successfully displayed the companys tagline of, Stay connected. Stay safe efficiently, due to the fact the target audience clearly saw the tagline, as well as understand the symbolic meaning behind the choice of colour being included in the text. For my last question I asked my focus group, Do you think the use of incorporating use of helpful, one of the members of my focus group answered by saying, I think it was helpful because the users can find useful details, if they could use, if they were ever in that situation. Therefore this shows members of my target audience are fully aware that it is helpful for an campaigns advertisement to incorporate use of contract details, in order they feel they need help with any cyber bullying issues the audience may suffer or know others whom suffer from cyber bullying while on the Internet.

My social messaging campaign advertisement then ends with the companys logo, (Connexcast), appearing at the end. This is so the audience is aware that this advertisement is official and created by the company, Connexcast. Inclusion by including the companys logo at the end of the advertisement will then allow the audience being able to research into the organisation, if they wish to find out more information about the company or issues, help and information on cyber bullying.