Social Media and Email Marketing
Social media and email marketing is imperative to a company as it allows the brand to target a wider demographic that otherwise could potentially have not heard about the event. Standard environmental advertisements may attract an older, less tech-savvy generation due to their prominence in the past years, however as many things have moved online it is smart for adverts to do the same as to target a new generation who have grown up with technology and are more likely to access it. Online marketing can also be successful through the use of internet personalities who can endorse/promote an event to their audience which may appear more genuine and believable to the public as it isn’t the brand themselves who are marketing it.
Attention spans having become considerably shorter in recent years due to the influx of content audiences are constantly receiving through social media platforms and how fast current trends in the media are changing and evolving. Because of this, long-form adverts that are being used to draw in completely new customers who aren’t accustomed with the brand are becoming less effective as many people would instantly skip them or have ad-blockers that would disable them from seeing the ads all together. Instead of this it has been proved by a study done by Magna that adverts that span 6 seconds are just as effective as longer advert equivalents across devices and age groups and still deliver effective communication in less time and at less cost.
Email marketing is also incredibly effective at enticing new customers and maintaining brand loyalty when done well. Due to the nature of email marketing you don’t have to purchase ad-space within the email making it very cost-efficient and gives the creator the ability to fill it with as much content as they see valid. You can also tailor the content specifically to your audience to ensure the highest possibility of retaining readership.
Static Instagram Adverts
For my social media advertisements I’ve stuck to Instagram as I know it’s a platform that generates a lot of traffic through their ads due to the short-form nature of them. They’re also unique in the sense that the regular ads that people can scroll through on their feeds are square which can make them look almost identical, format-wise, to regular posts on Instagram. This could create a sense of genuineness and authenticity, as if it’s just been posted by a regular individual. These type of ads are also successful due to how non-intrusive they are and how they give the user the ability to scroll past instantly if they’re not interested.
Instagram nearly always has a built in call-to-action button at the bottom of their ads which help users know where to look instantly to learn more or to buy something, rather than to look at the ad for multiple seconds in order to try and find it which by that point might have already made the potential customer uninterested. Within my colour scheme I have two main colours that I use for the text or the main focus of the advert and so I decided to use these for my first 2 static designs as it reinforces to people who are already aware of the Freedom Festival where the important places are to look. The same colours can also be found in the logo used for the top of the ad which I feel like rounds it off and makes the final design look more cohesive.
For my first design I wanted it to include more tone of voice by adding a caption in the bottom right to help solidify the point of what the Freedom Festival is all about. This way through the visual hierarchy the viewer will read the Freedom Festival title before looking down and observing the image to see what it could be about and then reading the text to try and entice them in. As the design didn’t have any solid iconography on it at the time I decided to include the arrow icon to reinforce brand awareness. The arrows themselves are neon sign orientated one on top of the other to indicate the concept of repetition and how the freedom festival’s core values will never change every year the event happens. I also included a little strap to the arrows to physically tie it into the title. I will also design physical arrow straps that can be purchased in real life to further solidify the emblem.
In my second design I’ve kept the advert looking a lot more simple with no type other than the logo in the corner. Instead I wanted to offer a different side to the festival which is what I wanted my re-branding of the freedom festival to show – day activities as well as night. This image depicts either a live music performance or a sort of community dance event, which may appeal more to teenagers and adults then young children which the first advert is aimed towards more. I have also included the brand pattern in front of the image to add more interest.
Animated Instagram Adverts
Short, animated Instagram adverts do well as they’re fast and fun to look at as opposed to long form ads that aren’t snappy enough to hold the viewers attention. They also pair well with the way Instagram works and how the motion graphic will automatically play as you’re scrolling through your feed or through stories.
For the my re-brand of the freedom festival I wanted to include the neon arrow signage into it as that is a main part of the visual language as well as words that I think encapsulate the festival. To begin with I created a quick mock-up to see which parts I liked and which I wanted to improve upon. I used the arrow to swipe in from the side as I think that looks visually appealing and works well to direct the viewers attention to whatever will be appearing next. However with my first animation the arrow is coming in from the wrong side which makes it appear more choppy and less natural looking. As neon signs are pictured on top of dingy brick walls I decided to do the same here as I thought it would lean into the aesthetic a bit more as well as link into the local hull appearance.
For my final rendition of this animation concept I changed to the background into a lighter theme which for the house style of the brand and make it look more recognisable in comparison to the website. I also changed the direction of the arrow so it looks as if the arrow is dragging the information down with it which I think looks more appealing as well as physically making more sense. The typography follows the same font as the first except the colouring aligns more appropriately with the colour palate. I also decided against following the animation on with words relating to the Freedom Festival as my final animation already does that and I wanted to make this design more snappy and digestible to an audience with a lower attention span. I also kept the flashing neon sign element in the text.
Here I took inspiration from a quick design I did using the “Freedom” with the associating words and made it into an animation that could mirror it. This time I changed it into the format of an Instagram story in order to fit all the letters on the screen without having to squash them down.
Email Marketing
Email advertising allows for a lot more space to be used in order to market the freedom festival as the amount of content shown wont be limited, therefore I made use of this and kept the separate elements spaced out from one another in order to keep the visual hierarchy in tact. I used little text as receivers of the email won’t be likely to want to read through it, rather to look at pictures and graphics that can get across what the festival is about. I also included bonuses within the email that follow the brands tone of voice in order to try and maintain viewership and for the recipient keep looking at the emails.
I kept the design within the visual language I have created for the re-brand and used the neon sign graphics as a drop shadow for images to mimic what it looks like on the website . I also designed 3 icons in the neon concept to further tie in the identity together.
Referances:
- Richard Whitman (2020) Study Finds Short-Form Ads Growing In Effectiveness. Available Online: https://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/358878/study-finds-short-form-ads-growing-in-effectivenes.html [Accessed 11/01/24]
- Mailchimp (2022) Email Marketing Benefits: 10 Ways It Can Grow Your Business. Available Online: https://mailchimp.com/resources/benefits-of-email-marketing/ [Accessed 11/01/24]