The music and voice over used in the Royal Bank of Scotland adverts are used to attract people in the 16-21 year old age group. The music is a regular, medium-paced tune, which increases in pace towards the end, culminating in a rock concert style finish. The voice over, a male, aged between 20-25, which is slightly above the target age group, has a soft-tone to his voice and enters the advert about 10 seconds after the start. Although there are no sound effects or ambient sounds, the music and voice over are very important to this particular advert. The music is used to create an ordinary, relaxed feeling and also to associate the product with the age group. The voice over is used primarily to introduce the product and describe its benefits, but it is also somebody who the target audience may look up to. The Sandals advert uses a love song as its main sound backing, which softly fades in to introduce the product, but reaches a reasonably high volume and keeps in time with the movement of the pictures. About halfway through the advert, the music fades out slowly to allow the voice over, a female, aged between 30-40, which is the age of the target audience, to describe the benefits of booking early with Sandals and to give a contact number for the audience. Although the voice over in this particular advert does not have as much significance as in the Royal Bank of Scotland advert, because of the words and logos used to reinforced her commentary, the music plays a large role in establishing the right mood at the beginning of the advert. The voice over in the Sandals advert is part of the target audience, unlike the voice over in the Royal Bank of Scotland advert, who is somebody the target audience may look up to. The Royal Bank of Scotland advert uses little print or logos, except for some small print in the top right hand corner of some shots and a Royal Bank of Scotland logo in the finishing sequence of shots. The text and logos have little significance to the advert, since the voice over describes what is happening and the benefits of the product. The Sandals advert, however, uses medium-sized bold print, which is easy to read and is used to emphasise the voice over’s commentary. The finishing sequence portrays a large Sandals logo and telephone number to persuade the audience to contact the company.
The character and story line of the Royal Bank of Scotland advert mainly focuses on a young man and woman who are possibly engaged and also represent the age of the target audience. The advert mainly focuses on them and their interaction and portrays the “R-21” account as something that can be used not just as a bank account, but as a discount on concert tickets and CD’s. This story line is important because it uses something that many people of that age can identify with and associates the Royal Bank of Scotland with buying CD’s and concert tickets. It also implies that handling money at that age can be quite tricky, although this advert suggests that the R-21 account can make things easier and leave students with more social time. The Sandals advert uses a wide variety of characters, although all of the same ages – 30-40 years old. They are all shown on a Sandals resort, relaxed and having fun. The story line of the advert is focused on the setting and scenery of a Sandals resort and the activities that go on at a resort. The characters are not as important as the setting and colour of the advert, because there is not as much time in the advert given over to their movements. However, the characters do give a sense of normality to the advert, instead of it becoming over luxurious and focusing entirely on the scenery. The story line implies a luxury lifestyle, which can be found at a Sandals resort.
The Royal Bank of Scotland advert generally uses eye-level camera shots to bring the characters closer to the audience and reinforce the idea of an everyday life situation. The Royal Bank of Scotland advert also uses mid-distance shots and frequent rapid cutting which increases the pace of the advert. In the opening shots, the camera is deliberately out of focus, so as to represent a “waking up” sequence and to introduce the advert to the audience. The Sandals advert uses a wide variety of camera angles to portray its scenery and characters. It uses extra-long-shots and long shots to portray the scenery and medium shots for underwater and action scenes. When portraying the scenery, the camera generally pans from left to right to capture the whole view, while although the camera cuts between different shots frequently, the cuts are smooth and gradually faded in and out. The advert uses these camera angles and smooth cuts to show the scenery at it s best and draw full audience attention to the scenery. The pace and editing of the Royal Bank of Scotland advert is a medium paced style that uses editing to show the progression through the day. The significance of the pace and editing is that it represents the speed of modern day life and the sense of normality created by the editing. In the Sandals advert, the pace is much slower than the Royal Bank of Scotland advert. This is created by using smooth fading cuts between shots and the slow, relaxed pace of the camera movements. This slow pace in the advert, represents the slow pace at a Sandals resort, whilst the smooth editing creates a sense of luxury. However, in the action and underwater shots, the pace increases to show the contrast between the action and relaxation at a Sandals resort. The pace and editing is very important in both advertisements, as it helps to demonstrate the benefits and lifestyles the products are associated with.
The overall presentation of the “R-21” product is that the advert mainly focuses on the product and the lifestyle and benefits of owning an “R-21” account. The advert implies a normal young adult lifestyle, centred on the target age group of 16-21 years old. The audience realises what is being advertised after about 5 seconds into the advert, therefore they are able to easily associate the product with what is going on in the advert. The overall presentation of the Sandals advert is quite different to the Royal Bank of Scotland advert. It contains much more detail of the setting of the resorts and of the benefits of a Sandals holiday, than on the characters and features of the resort. The advert implies a luxury lifestyle that is centred on the 30-40 year old target age group. The audience realises what is being advertised about halfway through the advert, as the first half mainly concentrates on the setting and on capturing the audience’s interest, before it introduces the name of the product.
The Royal Bank of Scotland and Sandals adverts are very different in many ways and target very different age groups, making these two adverts difficult to compare. The Royal Bank of Scotland advert focuses on the portrayal of its characters and uses pale, pastel colours and bright lighting, whilst the Sandals advert focuses on its setting and the uses of rich, Caribbean colours and lighting effects. The Royal Bank of Scotland advert uses music and a voice over to good effect, whilst the significance of the voice over in the Sandals advert is less because of the words and logos on screen. The Royal Bank of Scotland advert also uses medium-paced cutting to impose a sense of normality, while the Sandals advert uses slower, smoother editing to create a luxurious feel. In my opinion, the most effective advert at selling the advertised product is the Sandals advert. This is because they have used bright; Caribbean colours to advertise their product in January, when the weather is likely to be dull and dark. These colours contrast with each other and together with the sense of luxury created by the camera speed, editing and voice over makes a very effective advert for that or indeed any time of year. The Royal Bank of Scotland advert, despite displaying the right image of the “R-21” account and using a story line that many in the target age group can relate to, is not as effective as the Sandals advert because it portrays the product as being “too normal” and tries to blend in with everyday life. The Sandals advert avoids becoming “too tacky” by limiting the amount of words and print on screen. It also uses stereotyped characters to decrease the “luxurious” effect presented on screen to present the product as an affordable and normal one.
In conclusion, it is evident that Britain as a society is very consumer based and prefers to spend money on well marketed products that may appear different to the competition in some way. Advertising on television is therefore a powerful means of communicating with an audience at any time of the year. From these adverts, we can learn that our society has high expectations of advertisements and expects to be entertained and not just given the basic facts. We can also learn that we are gullible and can be persuaded to buy things we don’t need, that we are also materialistic and a society of consumers and believe that family values matter. The Royal Bank of Scotland advert in particular suggests that young people have more disposable income than they did in the past. However, these adverts also teach us that people may feel pressurised to spend money and that there is an emphasis on the need or desire for goods.
