Individual adverts have different purposes. There is a formula for these purposes in advertising known as ‘DRIP’. These purposes are to:
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DIFFERENTIATE - Adverts that differentiate define the difference between one product and another. They tend to use superlative words like ‘Best, Biggest, Cheapest, Most wanted’ etc. the purpose of these sort of adverts is to make you choose their product over another when you about to buy something.
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REASSURE – Reassurance are also known as ‘Brand awareness’ adverts. They are not made to make the audience immediately go out and buy something; they just let them know that the product is there. For example, ‘Coca Cola’, the biggest individual brand of all time have no need to advertise to sell more products; they continue to advertise just to keep the consumer interested in the product so that they know the product is still available to buy and hasn’t gone away. It tends to be only large, successful brands like Kellogg’s, Coca Cola and Car brands that make adverts purposely to reassure.
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INFORM – Informative adverts educate the consumer about the product or service. They include vital information such as dates, times prices etc so that the consumer know as much about the product as possible. They know where to get it, how much it is and what it does before they’ve even seen the product.
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PERSUADE – the purpose of adverts that persuade is to make the listener immediately go out and buy the product. Persuasive adverts use words and phrases such as ‘unmissable, to die for, everyone else does, unforgettable, fantastic’ etc as a powerful way of motivating people to buy something. Popular examples of this are using sale closures as a call to action. They make people rush to the shops before the sale ends to buy a product. They want to be like ‘everyone else’ so therefore they do what the advert tells them to.
Although adverts clearly fall into these categories, sometimes they can fall into more than one and fulfil multi purposes.
There are many different styles of advertising. Adverts usually fall into the two categories of being ‘Simple’ or ‘Complex’. Most simple adverts only use dialogue which is people talking or acting, and a voiceover, somebody talking over the top of the advert about the product. Complex adverts are often sketches or have lots of things going on in them including sounds and dialogue. Often, complex adverts don’t say a lot about the product but they try to catch your attention with a good narrative or with the use of humour. Complex adverts can also use emotional persuasion. For example, they can make you feel sorry for somebody or something to make you go out and buy something or use a service. They can also be rational, making them sound knowledgeable and understanding to the situation. The listener then feels that they are friendly which encourages them even more to buy something.
Radio adverts
I listened to 3 adverts from
The first I listened to was a Natwest Advert, advertising student accounts. They used the idea of trying to be cool like students which was quite humorous and relevant to the target audience. It was quite a simple advert which uses just dialogue and a voiceover at the end. It was 30 seconds long, and the timing worked well because it keeps you listening, they don’t go really slow to try and drag it out and there wasn’t loads of information crammed in and spoken really quickly. I think this adverts purpose is to persuade because they give away free rail cards for every student that opens a new account with them. This would make students choose that bank over any other which also differentiates that bank from others. It relates to students because they try to talk like teenagers and be cool which gives teenagers the idea that they understand them therefore are more likely to go to that bank.
The second advert I listened to was trying to persuade listeners to donate money to Cancer Research. It started with sound effects like wedding bells, cheering and other happy sounds. These sonic triggers could help listeners to remember moments like that in their own lives there fore making its purpose to persuade because of the emotional dialogue which was used to make the listener feel sorry for the person who had cancer. It makes them feel like one day they could be in her shoes. It was quite a complex advert, using sounds effects and a narrative. There wasn’t really a voiceover, just a woman, telling her story. When she says ‘help someone like me’, that would motivate people to donate money because they have sympathy for cancer sufferers. This advert was aimed at middle aged people.
The third advert I listened to was advertising the Peugeot 307. It was in the style of a humorous dialogue and voiceover. It was also had a clear storyline which made it interesting and it was easily understood the first time I listened to it. This advert used a call to action because at the end it said “visit your local Peugeot dealer before September” because they had a special offer on which was going to expire. This makes the listener immediately act because they don’t want to miss out. The fact that the dentist was nasty to the patient who owned the 307 because of envy gives the impression that ‘everybody wants one’, which is a superlative phrase and also adds to the persuasive purpose as well as the call to action.
The fourth advert I listened to was one which I created myself, advertising Citrus Polos. It used the idea of having a parrot that ate a citrus polo to refresh her. There were fizzing and crackling sounds to give the idea of a party going on inside the parrots mouth. It was refreshed afterwards and squawked very loudly. This advert is quite complex in the way that you really have to listen to understand what is going on. It uses sound effects and humorous dialogue. And at the end of the advert there is a straight voiceover. I think it fills the purpose of reassuring the listener that the product is there because it doesn’t really give much information about the product and doesn’t use any very persuasive words. It just lets the listener know that citrus Polos are available. It could be to persuade in some ways because the sounds used make it sound refreshing, people might hear the sounds and want them.
