Advertising concept and rules etc.

Ditto as with tone of voice for weird formatting

Advertising Concept

Media

Media is how you choose to show your advert; this comes after you have your idea. It can be almost anyway, it can be traditional (posters and billboards), digital (on the internet or Facebook etc.) or it can be ambient (on bus stops or walls). It also includes things like television and radio but Lambeth will rarely if ever enter this realm so traditional, digital and ambient will be your staple diet.

Approach

Clarify your target market. This is the first thing you should do. You have to know their behaviour, their patterns, and their interests. If you want to appeal to people you must be able to think like they do. It should be easy; we have hundreds of case studies sitting in the building. Time spent watching what they do at times like lunch or as they arrive will be time well spent in the long run.

Know your objective; it will generally be to entice new students or to improve the college’s reputation. But if it is for a special occasion, say a college performance open to the public or an open day think what you are trying to show. Is it the students? Is it the building? Is it the feeling of Lambeth? It can be nearly anything but this must be clear when you start or you will get lost and produce beige adverts.

Remember that effectiveness is the keystone of good advertising. Don’t put an advert out to the public if it isn’t selling Lambeth College effectively. Test the advert and the ideas on students of the college. It’s the easiest way to get feedback.

Make our adverts fit with the tone of voice, it is vital. We are selling ourselves on being individual, creative and being a place of revelation. So why would we make adverts that are the same as every other college? Lambeth is unique so find ways of showing that, use surprising visuals or facts that nobody knew. Whatever you do never be mundane, this is what everyone is expecting from a college and it will not increase Lambeth’s standing.

Be clear about what you want to say when creating the advert and how you want to say it. This is the bones of an advert; if this isn’t clear then it will fall apart and be completely ineffective.

Never worry about looking stupid when coming up with the idea. It’s far better to look stupid when coming up with the idea with your colleauges than it is to look stupid putting out a bad idea to the public. What you think is stupid someone else may see a different way.

Try to make people smile. We are bombarded with images everyday so we become immune to their effect. Making people smiles is the first line for getting through this defence. Just the same as when meeting someone for the first time, a smile can go a long way. Or in this case, making them smile can go a long way.

Aim high with quality of the concept and execution, the British default is “meh, that’ll do” in this case it will not. We are selling the College and want it always to look at its best. An advert is like going to a party but for an idea. It’s not going to turn up in scruffy trainers and ripped trousers. Clichéd pictures of results students jumping up in the air with their grades are just not acceptable and are banned from now on.

Keep it simple. A good idea does not need to be dressed up. If you find yourself adding extra decoration that doesn’t need to be there then it is likely that the idea is not good enough.

Never say you are “the best”. Show your positive points by all means but be very careful about saying you are the best unless you can prove it (with something like a league table etc.) and even then it rarely makes for an interesting advert.

Concept

The concept is the soul of an advert. It is very much the gravity that everything else in the advert should be drawn towards. If everything on the advert is not linking up with the concept then you do not have an advert. You have a pretty poster.

The concept can be as simple saying why you believe somebody should come to Lambeth. But this is what every single college does and we want to be individual. Therefore it is better to think laterally rather than literally. Be specific, if you come to the conclusion that Lambeth can make your life easier by providing a good education then you have your concept. Lambeth makes life easier, it is then up to you how to execute this, you could simply write it (literal and very boring) or you could think up an interesting way to show it. Show the college as the things that make your life easier. Not slightly easier, like a washing machine. A lot easier like a pen or a pencil (lateral and already more interesting)

There are hundreds of concepts when it comes to a college so there is no reason to ever produce another advert again that shows students smiling whilst looking at a whiteboard. I went to college; nobody smiles that much looking at a whiteboard and students know this.