ADVERTISING THEORIES
EXISTING MEDIA ADVERTISING CAMPAIGN:
Normal People
Aims and Objectives:
The aim for normal people advertising campaign was to raise awareness for the Normal People TV show on BBC 3 - this came after the popularity of Sally Rooney's book Normal People. This campaigns objective was to persuade the audience to watch the show after reading the book.
Target Audience:
The demographic for this campaign and the whole show was 16-34 year olds, both male and female. It targeted the geographic audience of the UK, as the show streamed on BBC 3 which is available to those in the UK as well as being set in the UK. These people will be a mix of those in school, university and jobs. It targeted people who read the book that became popular. This means that they were targeting a psychographic of people who have an interest in literature and keep up to date with social media. The show covers a lot of topics including domestic abuse, assault, and mental health. This suggests that the audience who are interested in this show have an interest in these topics, valuing education and awareness of them, with an open mind to learn about issues. They may have the behavioural characteristics of keeping up to date with social media, going to marches/protests on social issues etc.
Key Messages:
A huge audience gained a following of the book before it became a show. It's contains emotionally raw characters, situations and storylines which may audiences can relate to. The main relationship of the book and show is one that a lot of people will be able to relate to in some way, it feels real to what people have experienced themselves. This creates a common ground for audiences watching it. A community of the readers of the book was created which then translated to the TV show.
Approach:
Normal People used social media advertising to target their teen audience who had read the books. They used captions referring to elements in the book which fans of the book would understand. User conversations increased on this threads and platforms by fans, influencers and celebrities being excited for the show. This created excitement for the show and also made the fans feel as if they were part of a community. This provided below the line advertising, to fans of the book who would already be following these account and be interested in the show
As this community increased more content was also released about the characters and the show which fans would become interested in. This also helped to gain an audience from people who hadn't read the book.
They also released information on the BBC app promoting the show to people who were scrolling through the app.
A special clip was also released from Hulu on Youtube for Comic relief. This special edition shows the two main characters as they were older and grown up. Although this was made for charity, it also helped to promote the show to a mainstream audience as people then might have gone to watch the actual show.
Some print advertisements were also used such as this one talking about Ireland and Normal People bringing tourists into Ireland. These were limited though due to the show being released mid pandemic
Call to Action:
This campaign was to ultimately make people watch the TV show of Normal People. With the campaign being solely on social media, they also encouraged fans to share it round with each other, comment on the posts/threads. This was to create a community with viewers of the show to try to bring anyone in to watch the show as well as readers of the book. This also helped to promote the book for people who were new to the community.
Representation:
This campaign mainly works around presenting characters, themes and settings of the book to audiences but as snapshots from the show. They used elements of the show that they knew fans would bring attention to from popularity from the book and posted these with captions referring to them e.g Connels chain or Mariannes bangs. This could be argued as created prior stereotypes of these characters however these campaigns are targeted at people who have read the book who already know who the characters are, it was more visualising them in the shot.
Campaign Logistics:
The show came out in the heat of lockdown when everyone was at home and on social media and watching TV more than usual. They slowly released teasers on twitter which gained a lot of public attention after the success of the book. This shows that the model used was the pulsing model. They used the art up type of pulsing where they used heavy advertisements early on in the campaign to promote the show.
Choice of Media:
This campaign was released on social media. Teasers were put out on platforms like Twitter and Instagram. Trailers and special editions were also released on Youtube. This was effective in targeting its audience of 16-34 year olds as these people are active on social media. These being the main mediums of the campaign was also relevant of the time of the show being released in lockdown. Having physical poster or billboards would have been not as nearly effective as putting these teasers out on social media platforms where millions of teens and adults were on when stuck at home. These campaigns could be shared round and reached a wide audience easily and cheaply.
Relevant Legal and Ethical Issues:
A big consideration of campaign, much like the show, will have been working around the book. With such a big book fan base and being solely based of the book they will have had to had an agreement with Salley Rooney - the author - with everything. They had a big responsibility to make the readers of the book happy with the show, with the book being such a popular thing. As this campaign didn't contain any violence, or anything of an inappropriate nature, this social responsibility was one of the biggest things.
Regulatory Bodies:
They will have had to abide by Ofcom, ASA and the BBFC's rules and regulations around their content. For example even through the show is aimed at 16-34 year olds they will have still had to put out appropriate content because these campaigns can reach a wide audience who may not have restricted social media viewing. They will have had to follow BCAP's legal regulations through the campaign
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