Creating the Set

 

Myself and Sam created everything that will appear in the animation. We spent half a day on a wednesday and a full day on a Thursday. The process of painting was really time consuming and would have been better if we had longer, or had more people to paint. We used paper, acrylic paint and pastels.

This photo shows some of the backgrounds that we completed. As you can see there is a mixture, ranging from plain coloured backgrounds which will animate objects on and more detailed backgrounds that have everything that is needed in that particular scene. There are several flags as our character is travelling to each country it's very easy to show the audience where he is and we will also relate objects to give a representation of the country.

This photo shows some of the objects that we created. Some objects are relevant to him ageing throughout his life, for example GCSE results, 18th birthday cake, graduate hat and so on. Most of our objects are just to understand the scene easier such as books, different types of foods, cocktails, fishes, tree, etc. We also plan to make emotions with our objects, like a love heart for when the Bill and Amy fall in love, or tears when one of the characters is sad.

Unit 53: Marketing and Public Relations

Task 3

SWOT Analysis

Strengths

·         Good quality

·         Strong Brand (Walkers)

·         Appealing packaging

·         Strong USP – unusual shape

Weaknesses

·         The flavours give a strong smell whilst eating and after.

Opportunities

The marketing and advertising allowed the new packaging to be a success.

Threats

·         Other crisp companies that cater the same flavour. Space Raiders - Pickled Onion flavoured and Beef, Hula Hoops – Beef flavoured, Discos – Beef flavoured and Pickled Onion, Meanies – Pickled Onion flavoured.

Unit 53: Marketing and Public Relations

Task 1&2

Case Study

What is marketing?

Marketing is a process that focuses on the wants and needs of consumers, by doing this it enables products to be delivered that satisfy them.

There are several stages to the marketing strategy process. The first one being ‘Understand Customer’, to do this a clear picture of the target audience needs to be developed.  The next step is to ‘Analyze the Market’ which consists of basic market research to find data such as total available market, market growth, market trends, etc.  After this is ‘Analyze the Competition’, asking yourself what other choices the target customers have to solve their pain point, as well as researching the strengths and weaknesses. Step four is to ‘Research Distribution Channels’ by thinking about the best way to deliver the product or service to the target audience. The next one is ‘Defining Your Marketing Mix’, this is includes product, price, place and promotion. Followed by ‘Analyzing the Financials’, putting together a marketing budget and evaluate marketing ROI, customer acquisition costs and so on. The last stage is to ‘Review and Revise’, evaluating the effectiveness of the marketing strategy and extend as needed.

Monster munch is a baked corn snack available in the UK produced by walkers. Monster munch was launched in Britain in 1977 by Smiths, originally called ‘The Prime Monster’. In 1978 the decision was made to rename the snack ‘Monster Munch’. It was advertised as ‘the biggest snack pennies can by’. The four original monsters were advertised were; a Pink monster – Roast beef flavour, Blue monster – Smokey bacon, Yellow monster – Pickled onion and an Orange monster – Prawn cocktail. Throughout the years they’ve had limited editions available for a short period of time, ‘baked beans’ was made available in 2003 for comic relief, ‘vanilla ice cream’ was released in 2004 but received mainly a negative reaction, the type of monster munch was non-savoury and contained sugar instead of salt. In 2008 Monster Munch was re-launched, the crisps returned to their original larger size, featuring three of the original four monsters. Since the launch of the new retro packaging, roast beef monster munch outsells Walkers cheese and onion wherever they are sold together. All three monster munch flavours reside in the top 20 snacks within this sector. The retro designed packs have contributed to a 35% growth on the big eat version of this favourite snack, taking the brand to £47 million. 

Target Audience

The main target audience is students aged 18-24 for whom food is not a major priority; it has to fit around a life style of college and working part time, sport, drinking, clubbing, sleeping. Research showed it’s a number one snack for fun and hunger filled men aged 18-24. Research also shows that there is a preference for the old texture, flavour, crunchiness and the larger pieced corn snack. As well as appealing to the core target consumer, it’s also now broadened the audience to people who remember eating Monster Munch in the 70s, 80s and 90s.  The brand manager says:

‘It's great that a product like this can evoke so many memories for people and we think the re-launch will appeal to the big kid in us all!'

Advertisement

Monster munch had a series of 80s TV commercials. The advertising campaign that accompanied the launch of ‘Mega Monster Munch’ was linked to the original advertising series. It was to bring back memories of the children at that time.

The website http://www.megamonstermunch.com/main.html also promotes the brand. The links include: monster blog, celebrity fans, meet the monsters, play pap the monsters, bigger snacks like 1977 and posters, masks & more.

Monster munch also done a promo for their retro t-shirts. All you had to do was buy 3 packets of Mega Monster Munch in the UK and send the empty packets and a cheque for £5 to redeem the t-shirt. The promo was interesting to engage to the customers. Instead of having an on-pack gift, the customers had the choice whether they wanted the t-shirt or not. By asking costumers to collect and send in a certain number of empty packets also increase the sales.

The Nine Functions Of Marketing

In order for the marketing bridge to work correctly, providing customers with opportunities to purchase the products and services they need, the marketing process must accomplish nine important functions.

·         Product/service management: assisting in the design and development of products/services that will meet the needs of the costumers.

·         Marketing Information Management: managing and using market information to improve decision-making.

·         Financing: Budgeting for marketing activities, providing financial assistance to customers to assist them with purchasing the organisations products.

·         Purchasing: Planning and procedures necessary to obtain goods and services for the use in business or resale.

·         Pricing: Establishing the value of products and services to customers.

·         Distribution: Determining the best methods to be used, so the customers are able to locate, obtain and use the product.

·         Promotion: Communicating information to prospective customers through advertising and other promotional methods to encourage them to purchase the product.

·         Selling: Direct communication to the customers in order to assess needs and satisfy those needs with appropriate services.

·         Risk Management: Planning, controlling, preventing business losses.        

In 1977 Monster Munch was retailed for a price of 5-10 pence, which weighed at 26g. Now you can purchase a bag for around 50 pence for a smaller bag of 22g. Although the price of monster munch is above normal food price inflation the price increases are broadly in line with the price of maize.

This chart shows one line that’s based on the price of a standard packet of monster munch, and one that reflects both the price and the inflation hidden by the shrinkage of the package.  The hidden inflation results from a 15% reduction in the packet size. This makes an additional large different to monster munch inflation.

The four Utilities of Marketing

The marketing process must also add utility to the products consumers want. There are four types of utility: form, place, possession and time.

Form Utility

A product must be processed into a form that the customer wants or needs. Examples include: wheat processed into bread, trees are processed into lumber, and potatoes are processed into chips.

Place Utility

This is about transportation. How are they transported to the location to where consumers can buy them? Modern day transportation systems make this possible.

Possession Utility

This establishes legal ownership of a product. When you buy something you receive a receipt, this is proof of legal ownership and gives you the right to use the product. Computer software is an example where you have to provide a user license; the license gives you the right to use the product within certain guidelines.

Time Utility

This is described as being in the right place at the right time when a customer is ready to purchase a product. Creating and keeping the customers means having products available for when they want them. This often involves a storage facility. Carrying on from the first example, wheat is an example o a commodity that must be stored after it is harvested. It is stored until its ready to convert into food products such as bread or cereals.

Examples of Good PR

·         Victoria Beckham has been getting a lot of press (April 2012) after helping to design the limited edition Range Rover Evoque.

·         The supermarket Lidl, whose mayonnaise has been crowned top of the egg-based condiments in a taste test by consumer watchdog, received good PR.

·         Burger King offers a variety of healthy salads, they have launched a new advertising campaign with Salma Hayek ordering salads under three different personalities.

·         JK Rowling announced that she is working on a Harry Potter encyclopedia and will donate the royalties to charity.

·         Adele has been announced Britain’s richest musician under the age of 30, with a fortune of 20 million pounds.

Examples of Bad PR

·         Google’s android market has come under fire for allowing an app called ‘HoboHunt’ to be available for download. The app was rejected three times by Apple and cannot be found on the Iphone app store. It has been branded as ‘sick’ and ‘appalling’ on Twitter, but most people are using the app to take pictures of friends and family members and using it more of a joke.

·         The TV show, ‘The Voice’ has gained some bad press courtesy of rival show Britain’s Got Talent, who have accused the shows producers of ‘dirty tricks’ in the ratings war.

·         Tesco has cut plans to open new stores by more than a third; investors are concerned about Tesco’s profit warning.

·         KFC, following a poorly judged message that was sent out through its Facebook page. Following the tsunami scare in Thailand, KFC posted the following message, ‘Lets hurry home and follow the earthquake news. And don’t forget to order your favourite KFC menu.’

                                                                                  

Bibliography

http://www.easy-marketing-strategies.com/marketing-strategy-process.html

http://assets.ycnonline.com/briefs/0910_Monster_Munch.pdf

http://www.standoutuk.com/our-work/monster-munch-repackaging/

http://www.pepsico.co.uk/our-company/trade-information/trade-media-centre/trade-news/look-whos-back

Character Profile

My set task was to create the character profile. Although our characters are animation and will not be real people, i still had to give the character real life characteristics so the audience could relate to the personality of the character.

Name: Bill
Age: Various ages - From a baby until 30 Years old.
Nationality: British
Hometown: London
Siblings: Two Brothers
Height: 162cm
Weight: 9 Stone
Eye Colour: Blue
Hobbies: Football, Shopping, Reading, Cinema
Best Quality: Not giving up when wanting to achieve something.
Greatest Flaw: But can be lazy when wants to be!

Bill needs to be drawn in a lot of different positions. The first silhouette that we will see of him is when he is a baby, this will be shown as crawling. But even when he is crawling he needs to be drawn several times with the knee's and hands in different positions giving the illusion of crawling. As well as giving the illusion of walking as he grows up, other silhouettes of him standing still need to be shown, simple things such as looking down, looking up, looking the other way, etc. When he is in other countries doing activities such as sky diving and swimming, we need to have him in these positions as well. Making our main character is going to be quite time consuming as each different position needs to be very similar so it flows through fluently. Bill won't be wearing any clothes or anything, he will just be a blocked colour silhouette. But he will have eyes, this is to show emotion more clearly. So the audience will be able to see happy eyes when he's feeling happiness, sad eyes when he's feeling unhappy, etc. The other character is a female, she will appear throughout the story as well, she has the same concept of lots a blocked silhouette.

Understanding the Creative Media Sector (Task 1)

Each of the media industries are vital to the UK's economic success, as well as to the quality of our society and our lives.


Film Industry
The film industry refers to six different parts: development, production, facilities, distribution, exhibition and export. The companies existing today are approximately 43% production, 13% distribution and 44% are exhibition companies. Research shows that in 2006 the UK film industry contributed 4.3 billion to the UK economy. In 2007 the UK film production was 747 million, inward investment productions including Harry Potter and the Half Blood Price and Chronicles of Narnia.
The UK has the largest amount of digital screens in Europe, usually the cinematic release of a film builds its reputation, but over half the revenues of the industry come from DVD rental. Film theft is one of the major challenges for the industry, it was estimated to reduce the film market by 404 million.


The animation industry faces challenges and opportunities that affect its various sub-sectors in different ways. To stay secure in the international market for animation, the UK's animation business relys strongly on a highly skilled workforce that responds to the markets needs.


Interactive Industry
The interactive industry overlaps with other sectors. Its worth several billion pounds and employs around 34,300 people a year. Overall it represents around 7% of the total creative industries. The market for interactive media contributes to larger markets, taking into account those who buy from it and those who are supported by it. The biggest being online advertising. Having a strong definition of this sector is difficult as the pace of change is very rapid, as well as the different companies and individuals involved in interactive media.


Publishing Industry
The publishing industry is one of the biggest earners in the UK creative media industries, it generates a turnover of £10.1 billion. The sectors that come under this topic are:

• Books
• Journals
• Newspapers
• Magazines
• Directories
• and Other information services

 This chart shows the main areas of employment in this certain sector. The industry tends to consist of small companies, 88% of them having less than 10 employees. The main area of employment is London and the South East area. The main skill to have is to understand what the customers want, as well as communication skills and project managment skills. These job rolls are critical.


Radio Industry
There are three board categories: publicly-funded radio, commerical radio and the community or voluntary radio - such as students, hospital radio. The industry is growing steadily, and employs over 22,000 people. Employers range in size from the BBC and larger commerical radios, to community radio stations run mainly by volunteers. About a quater of the workforce is freelance or employed on contracts of less than a year. About half the workforce are female, the radio industry employs a relatively low proportion of people from minority ethic groups.


Television Industry
There are nine terrestrial broadcasters. They include the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Five, S4C, SMG, and UTV. They are also known as 'public service broadcasters'. There are also around 300 cable and satellite broadcasters, these sectors include Virgin media, Discovery, Disney, Viacom, and a number of niche broadcasters catering for the audiences interests. The largest part of the industry is comprised of around 800 independent production companies, they make the well-known programmes such as X Factor and Big Brother. These companies generate between £100-200m per year and employ thousands a year.
In 2008 the gross value added for radio and TV combined to a total of £3.2 billion.
Television is going through a rapid change, some of the challenges are:

• Faster predicted growth of broadband in the UK
• Tradional TV buisness models challenged by audience fragmentation and move to advertising on the internet
• Growth of the indie sector (independent production companies)

Final Idea

'The animation will show a scrapbook about someones life. Pages will flick past and signify moments of our male protagonist's life will play. The camera will zoom on a still image in the scrapbook, and then the image will animate. At the point when the scrapbook gets to the higher age of our target audience, the page will turn over and the next page will be empty. This is to represent the audience filling in this page for themselves, so they will add something significant to the scrapbook. 

The scrapbook will be filled with quotes. The animation will start with a quote that will be decided at a later date, and this quote will get the audience thinking at the beginning, and hopefully be inspired throughout the animation. The quote will be overlaying on the torso of a lady, it will then animate into a ball then into a sperm, and then go into the belly button of the woman. The screen will then go black, and an ultra scan will develop. The camera will then zoom out to show the picture in the scrapbook. The animation will tell the story of an ideal life of a man, and will mainly focus on the travelling in his early 20s. A question will be asked at the end to ask what they are going to do next.'

This is a synopsis of our final idea. Once this was decided each member of our group was given tasks to complete in order for our idea to go ahead. We have started to paint up some backgrounds, the backgrounds are supposed to create a mood that the audience will be able to recognise. Anything extra that will appear in each scene will be separate on card and placed on the backgrounds so we are able to move them around. For example a grey-ish background may represent feeling gloomy, sad or upset. If we wanted anything else on the background like rain, we would make each rain drop separate to animate them falling down. When our character is a baby we decided we'd have a yellow background, as it's a bright glowing colour, with other bright colours we will create children's playing blocks.

Preparation

Last week we completed the following: proposal, showreel and pitch board.


We finally came up with our idea set in stone. We based it around three quotes: 'The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.', 'A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.', 'Ones destination is never a place but a new way of seeing things.' The animation will show a scrapbook, pages will flick past and significant moments of our male protagonists life will play. The camera will zoom in on the images in the scrapbook and then the image will animate. The animation will begin with a woman lying on the floor with a bare stomach, ink will appear on the stomach and move around until it manipulates itself into the shape of a sperm cell, then makes its way to her belly button. The blackness will grow until the mise-en-scene is a blackout, then a polaroid of a baby scan photo will develop out of the darkness as the camera zooms out, which will finally be shown in a scrapbook.

The showreel was a short clip put together showing our inspirations and what we wanted our film to make the audience feel whilst watching it. One of the films mentioned was 'Up', a computer animated film. The plot is about Carl Fredrickson meeting a girl named Ellie. They dream of going to a lost land in South Africa, 70 years later Ellie dies, he remembers the promise he made to her. He is forced to go to a retirement home, but before they take him, him and his house fly away with 8 year old Russell who is trying to get an 'Assisting the elderly badge'. Together they embark on an adventure. The film makes you feel all different emotions such as love, sadness, happiness, inspirations, etc. We want to make our animation to give the feeling of being 'hungry for life' after being inspired. Up gives this feeling to the audience.

Tangled, another animation, also inspired us with our final idea. The plot of this film is magically long hair Rapunzel has spent her entire life in a tower, but now that a runaway thief has stumbled upon her, she is about to discover the world for the first time and who she really is. This is what we want our character to go through, to discover the world and find his personality through doing so.