Professional Practice

Evaluation

Looking back over this project there is definitely a positive sense that comes from the overall outcome. We knew that this brief was going to be a challenging one, however, I do not think, as a group, that we predicted the true extent of the challenge. Our first attempts at brain storming and idea generation were quite slow, this seemed to be due to a combination of still trying to grasp the full extent of the brief and a lack of real/relevant knowledge on the subject matter.

Knowing that this brief required a concept that connected with the wider audience I originally thought that one of the most effective was to grasp the attention of this market was to use the world of technology. So I put forward the idea of an ‘App’, that could be used by both Square Mile workers and the general public. It would be an online area where people could get involved to find out what is at the Square Mile (not simply finance), communicate with those within it and also air their own thoughts and opinions to its changes. After this outline of an idea was put to Rich and James we were able to develop and grow this concept. We ran through a range of elements to expand and use within the app. We designed a ‘game’ type feature that would be the front of the app. Within this game, we felt that elements such as a rewards scheme for users (who possibly complete certain tasks etc) could be used. We also ran through ideas such as a discount scheme/voucher system to try and encourage business to the area. The downfall of this app idea is the ‘go-to’ element that surrounds it. For an app to be successful it requires the market to hear about it, search for the app, download it and then finally use it and over time use it to its full potential. This is most certainly a long process and one that, with a target market that does not want to hear anymore about finance and those that live it, would be difficult to gain an audience to do this.

After this first attempt failed in some what, I realised that some facts had to be faced and one of these facts was that I personally had not researched enough into the London Financial District and the elements that surround it. I set about to rectify this and with the growing knowledge came a little bit more inspiration. While researching I came across the piece of information that really paved the way for the further idea generation. ‘One person in every one hundred and fifty-five works in the Square Mile’. After double and triple checking that this fact was accurate, there was now something to stem from. We knew that in order to get the attention of the target audience we would need to give them something to relate themselves with the Square Mile. Finding a way in which to get this information across to the audience needed a clear concept that would appeal.

During my research of advertising campaigns and other campaigns to attract a large scale audience I found that some of the most successful campaigns are those with a hint of mystery or an element of not revealing all. I came across an advertising series that was published by a hair dye company. The images showed a man or woman and the idea was to guess whether the imaged person had dyed hair or not. From this I realised that a similar kind of theory could be used to capture our targeted audience. Using the tag lines “Does she or doesn’t she?” or “Does he or doesn’t he?”. These both referring to the question ‘does he/she work in the Square Mile. With this idea in mind there needed to be an image to apply the question to. In order to grasp as much of the potential audience as possible we needed to have four baseline images; mature woman, younger woman, mature man and younger man. With these, the cross section of the people, in theory, should be covered and related to by at least one image. In my quick mock ups I added some key words which, the idea behind them was, would make the audience relate to images easier if there was some character traits that they could relate with. However, feedback showed that the idea would be too wordy as an advertising image. Looking back, I would have to agree with this, I also feel that adding extra wording may have had the opposite effect to what I was intending, if the audience took the wording literally.

The idea behind these posters/ ad campaigns was to intrigue the audience into looking further. We had accepted the fact that feeling towards the financial district is not positive, therefore, this idea is to get the audience interested without actually divulging what they are interested in first off. The simple image, plus the “Does he/she or doesn’t he/she” and a web address “1in155.com”. The website would be one of the main information sources with an information video placed on it.

After looking at the quick poster mock ups and with further discussion James was able to take over the poster design and development. The outcome was an excellent quality, even with his first mocks. The one issue we had with the posters was the copyright of the stock images. James originally found some images that worked perfectly with our concept, however, these were not free stock. We decided that as a group we would search for other free stock images that would work just as well. After a long search for all of us, we could not find images that we thought even closely match how good these photos looked. James made the decision to pay for the stock and use our first choice images. He also designed information boards which gave details and examples of where and how our poster design would be used, and how they fitted with the concept. These boards were excellently laid out, very clean and very crisp. In general, the only negative point that surrounded the poster was the cost of the images apart from that I would have to say that we was all delighted with the outcome.

Once these images and website layout had been finalised Rich was able to create the information video. He knew the ideas that we wanted to put across to an audience and he also knew the vast audience that we was trying to cater for. The Video turned out exactly as I had visualised it, the quality was extremely high and I believe that it included everything that we wanted. The only thing missing from the original video was sound, which we agreed should be a voice over. The wording for the voice over needed to be informative but not too in-depth, it in short, needed to be ‘to the point’. I gave some key sentences and phrases to Rich and he added some extra detail to these and recorded his own voice. The video and the voice works very well together and the finished article is definitely something that we can, and are all, proud of.

Drawing people to something that, currently has such a negative feeling surrounding it, and try to get them to engage with this was something that after our first attempt we felt would be almost impossible. However, looking now at our final product and outcome I think we have achieved a great deal and have been quite successful in doing so.