College adverts

I believe that college advert 1 is aimed for 16-19 year olds. The reason I say this is because the beat in the background is quite fast and modern, and I believe they did this so that 16-19 year olds will be more attracted to the advert. The style and pace of the music makes it obvious that the advert wanted to aim at 16-19 year olds. However I believe the advert does not show a good understanding of the target audience because it is something I, as part of that target audience, am not attracted to
The second college advert, I think, is aimed for slightly older potential students. This advert is more professional and not as child-like as the other two. The style and the pace of the music both make the advert seem like it is aimed for older people, and for its target audience, I believe this does show a good understanding of its target audience.
I think the third advert is clear that they are trying to aim at students aged at 16-19 year olds. Everything about the style of the music and the pace of the music matches something a student may listen to at that age. Even the voice works well for the target audience they are aiming for. However, it is not something that I would be attracted to as a listener of the advert, I think it sounds too unprofessional.

Ideas for Pitch

I have thought of three possible ideas that can be used for our commission project - promote Penwith college. Two of the ideas will be used to promote the creative and media diploma course. These ideas are - magazine and posters. The magazine will be a good idea because it can reach a bigger audience if we were to disperse them around the community, rather than keep it close to the college. Like the magazines, the posters can also be dispersed around the community to attract a bigger audience. We can also ask a number of shops if they could sell the magazines for us, therefore they will be available throughout the day, and all the people who enter the shops will see them. We could also put the posters in the shops that make an agreement to sell or advertise our products, and again, this way people will see them throughout the day. Our third idea, although would probably not reach such a big audience, is one that I am most optimistic about - a promotional video. We have researched into this idea quite extensively, and believe that we want to do it in the style of a particular Nike advert. As for our two other ideas, we think we should make them in the style of Empire magazine, and movie posters. Empire magazine has a layout that is very attractive, but also informative. It's also a fun magazine to read. This will convey the message that Penwith college too, is fun and the information written in the magazine will inform the public what Penwith college is like. Movie posters also tend to be eye-catching and informative, but they are also persuasive, which is what gives this idea an edge. The persuasive text on the poster will persuade people to come to Penwith college, or at least research more into the college.

40 Items for Pitch

The client I will be working for is Martin Tucker, the director of Penwith college.
We have to try and promote the new build at the college by producing multimedia promotional materials.
The deadline we have been asked to work to is Easter.
The company I will be working for is itself Penwith college.
The college would like to convey the message that Penwith's number 1 priority is the students - they will be put 1st.
The unique selling point is the students and the setting.
There is no particular medium that the director would like us to work in, but he would rather us make materials that we believe will be attractive and informative to potential students.
We will estimate what the price of our marketing materials and present them to Martin. He will then decide whether the budget is reasonable.
The principle goal is to make life quality for the students at the college.
Normally, the design agency they would use, is either a local business, or themselves.
The college would like us to document the students
The health and safety requirements he wants us to follow, is mostly to be careful with the equipment we use for the project.

He wants to see creative and innovative ideas in the proposal

He wants us to target all possible age-groups, but make 16-19 year olds our first priority

The productions will be used in all marketing for Penwith College and also at parents evenings so the parents can see students' work

Photography will be used in my magazines and posters

Video is of course related to my promotional film

Audio work will come in to the promotional film as I would like audio to be played over the video.

Graphic Design is related to the magazine and poster ideas

The Nike advert and Empire magazines are targeting a wide age-group - anything from 16 - 50/60/70's. A wide age-range is something I hope my target audience will be something like too.

I have researched into all ideas - promotional video-Nike advert, magazines-Empire magazine, posters-movie posters.

I have not yet produced a budget. However I hope to develop my work internally, in which case, it will all be either free, or very cheap.

The gender that I am targeting is both male and female. The locations I wish to advertise to, are all local areas, and some areas further out.

Any lifestyle will be targeted - my priority for the magazine and poster, is to persuade all audiences to come to Penwith.

I expect my audiences to be interested in the products I produce, and consider coming to, or at least acknowledging, Penwith College.

We interviewed Emma Kelly to gain marketing advice and learn skills that are required from her.

I believe students come to Penwith College because it is local, therefore not a trek (unlike anyone who goes to Truro but lives here), the classroom sizes are smaller to, so you get more individual learning, and lastly, the new buildings that will be finished within the next couple of years, will attract a lot of the students that come to the college.

Penwith has been stereotyped as a 'baby-Truro', however our marketing products will hopefully change that, and we can bring more things into the light, that are just as good, if not better, than Truro's.

In terms of rebranding, we have thought of changing the name of the college, so it seems more independent from Truro, however it is unlikely this idea will follow through.

We could host more open days or open evenings so more people have the opportunity to try out Penwith College.

The current video for Penwith College looks very professional compared to ones from the past. In the past, videos for the college were more like documentaries whereas the current one is more of a tour around the whole campus. I was much more attracted to the current one than those from the past.

We have also analysed different prospectuses made for the college over the years, and I feel standards have definitely improved from those from ten years ago, however, there is one that I believe to be the best, and this is from 2007/08.

If I was to rebrand the Truro and Penwith colleges, I would do so by somehow bringing more to the light just how important the two of them are. I would want people up-country talking about them and even contemplating moving to Cornwall if it means going to one of the colleges, because I believe both have the potential to be not just the most talked about colleges in the South West, but also in places further up north. This could easily happen to, considering Truro managed to gain 5 stars, and I can't see Penwith far off that mark either with the college being rebuilt to make it look like the most modern college in the country yet.

Research into target audience

We interviewed Emma Kelly, to gain ideas about how we can go about our commission - promoting the new build at Penwith College. We focused more on the college prospectuses and talked about how we could improve them and how by doing this, we could entice more potential college students into coming to Penwith.

We also tried thinking of the different things that influenced us into coming to the college and by doing that we briefly talked about how we could bring these things more into the light. The many things we had thought of, had included the fact the Penwith is just simply a closer college for those who live in the area, and all of us agreed that we were pleased with the small class-room sizes - that way each student gets more individual attention and therefore, theoretically, learns more.

We also talked about how we could change the perception of Penwith College in the local community. This discussion came up because, most people in and around the area, have the impression that Penwith College is basically a replica of Truro College.

This led to the question of how we could re-brand the college, and although this idea probably wouldn't follow through, we thought changing the name of the college would be a good idea.

This linked to how we could promote the college using different events. We said along with open days and open evenings, that exhibitions and taster days would be a good thing to do.

Interview with Emma Kelly

The rest of the group and I started off our assignment by having an interview with Emma Kelly, who works in marketing. We all discussed how we could promote the new buildings at Penwith college using different parts of the multimedia. In today's lecture, we focused more on the previous prospectuses and what we thought we could improve on if we were to create one ourselves.

We also talked about what we could put in the marketing materials to make Penwith sound unique, different and better than other colleges.

Marketing Materials

I don't think this design looks that interesting from my point of view. I think that there is to much information and I would lose interest shortly after I began reading it. For material used to market the college, I think the information should be broken up a little with things such as inserts.













This design is a little like the last one. It doesn't really interest me and it needs to be broken up a bit so the information doesn't look as boring.












Although the document contains many different colours which is what I was criticizing some of the other designs for, I still think they are a bit irrelevant and I don't see how they can market Penwith College.













This booklet is from the year 1999/2000. The design is quite simplistic but is also bold and stands out well. The colours however, seem to be a little childish and overall I don't think the design looks anymore like college material than primary or secondary school material.












This design was made in 2004. It looks quite boring and again, quite simple. There are very few colours and this just adds to the boring theme that seems to last throughout.











This design is from this year and it seems it has stepped up from the earlier designs. It is much more attractive and eye-catching, but I think that a little too much is going on and it's gone from too simple to too complex.












I think that again, the design is a lot more attractive and eye-catching. However, like the last document, I feel that too much is going on and they should not make it so complex. One thing they've incorporated into the document however, that I think is good, are the students. The college is always trying to stress how student-focused they are and I think this design shows that.