Unreal reality, or everything about the characters of commercials. Advertising characters Advertising hero brand revitalization crane

For increase communication effectiveness advertising message actual definition characteristic features appearance and behavior of the advertising communicator. From the point of view of creating an advertising message as a product, communicators are people and characters who directly present a statement about the benefits of TM.

Heroes contribute to the expansion of the circle of brand adherents, positively influence the attitude towards the product. The personal qualities of the character are always transferred to the image of the advertised brand. But these benefits do not come automatically. To obtain them, it is necessary, based on the communicative goals of TM, to correctly select the leader.

situations when to invite a lead advertising message:

When one or more of the communication effects require "amplification";

For High Engagement Choice products, if the target audience is known to suffer from "information overload" (especially for brands targeted at incompetent target audiences).

Attitude towards the advertised product is primarily formed through the perception of the communicator (advertising character, presenter). Psychologists note that the perception by one individual of another always tends to form a certain generalized image, a simplified stereotype. In advertising communication, the process of generalizing images is even more pronounced, since the communicative act takes place in conditions of time pressure and a very narrow focus of information presentation. Thus, understanding the system of categories through which advertising characters are evaluated is extremely important for understanding the levers of advertising effectiveness management.

Heroes advertisements can appear: In "celebrity. The main rule of such advertising is that the evidence of "stars" in favor of TM is more effective if, in addition to listing benefits, "soft" counterarguments are presented. Thus, a star, talking about the benefits, may casually mention that the brand is most effective only in certain situations, suitable for solving some problems and not suitable for others.

- "stars" have a great ability to draw attention to the benefits of TM;

The target audience (or most of it) identifies with a famous person;

Celebrities are not experts in most product categories. For example, Michael Jordan may be an expert in sports shoes, and Larisa Dolina in the problem of weight loss, but for advertising technical goods they don't fit;

Famous people quickly lose perceived credibility to consumers when they reappear in advertising;

Their participation serves as an alternative to inviting a celebrity, but is much cheaper;

fantasy characters;

Typical representatives target audience- convinced consumers;

The greatest difficulty in developing advertising with the participation of an expert (or a convinced consumer, or a fantastic character) is the laboriousness of creating an adequate image, the reliability of which will be obvious. The "authenticity theory" developed by psychologists fully reflects one of the problems of advertising with the participation of characters: the audience only believes in the assurances of the hero when they cannot find the slightest sign of pretense. Especially having to destroy such a common “sign of a lie” as the material interest of the presenter, subjectively assessed by the consumer, therefore, the plot construction of advertising should distract the target audience from the formation of arguments. Here, the tools to increase the emotionality of appeals and the surprise of statements come to the aid of the advertiser. At the same time, it is especially important to preserve the naturalness of the character’s reactions for all their obvious absurdity (children play with cartoon characters in the Nesquik “Redhead AP” commercial; Nuts bar comes to visit an animated stomach and brain; evil dirt penetrates everywhere, and everyone is in a hurry to fight it new detachments of "Baby Sort", etc.).

So, in conditions of lack of information and time, people tend to attribute to advertising characters the causes of behavior or some General characteristics. Attribution can be carried out at the subjective level by establishing associative links with episodes of past experience. A stereotype as a certain stable image, which is used as a well-known "abbreviation" in the field of advertising communications, functions as a generalized collective image of the brand itself. Advertising characters are perceived by consumers as the "face of the brand". Therefore, the problem of choosing the leading advertising messages must be approached very carefully.

J. R. Rossiter and L. Percy offer a tactical leader selection model (Table 3.1), based on establishing a correspondence between the characteristics of the leader and the goals of communication.

Table 3.1. Leading Choice Model

Host characteristics Goals of communication
Fame TM Awareness
Competence Information attitude to TM (for both low and high involvement)
Objectivity (reputation of an honest person) Information attitude based on high involvement
physical attractiveness Transformational attitude based on low involvement
Similarity to a typical representative of the target audience Transformative attitude based on high involvement
Authority (personal or due to position), high status Purchase Intention

The authors of the model recommend that the advertiser first test the pitch without the participation of the presenter (i.e. only voice-over is used) If it is necessary to emphasize the effects of communication, then it is necessary to check options with the participation of an unfamous hero If he fails to cope with the communication tasks, only then should celebrities be considered .

Advertising character -- this is an original object drawn in a certain style (animal, person, tube, etc.), which the consumer associates with the product or service of the company and is used to create a positive perception promotions. The ad character can be static or animated.

Everyone knows that advertising characters help to better remember the brand, to distinguish it from the background of numerous competitors. Let's just remember the success of Tony the Tiger with his cereal or Kwikki the Rabbit with cocoa, chocolates and a number of other products under the Nesquik brand. Successful characters only help the brand. This has been known for a long time.

That being said, characters are, of course, most often encountered when it comes to products for children. But not only. Bibendum, one of the most famous advertising characters of all time, was developed for Michelin tires. For about 100 years, Bibendum has been appearing wherever Michelin ads are mentioned. And it clearly gives the company some advantage.

Who is the main competitor of Michelin in the market, and at the same time tries to advertise through the same channels? Usually these are Bridgestone, Good Year and Nokian. But the advertising of all these companies is nowhere near as visible as in the case of Michelin. They are too similar to each other, and simple inscriptions with the image of tires can hardly interest anyone during a car race or visiting a gas station. What can not be said about Bibendum, which always attracts attention. In this regard, the advantage of Michelin is undeniable.

In general, it is believed that, ideally, a corporate hero should evoke some association with the product. It is possible that this is true to some extent. For example, Bibendum itself consists of tires. And in his early advertising campaign he swallowed nails as if he were drinking beer. Thus, the company showed that its tires are not afraid of various obstacles on the roads. Including nails.

The hare in the Duracell battery advertisement is constantly competing with his colleagues. Alas, they don't stand a chance. When they are already disconnected, our hero just goes on a date with his girlfriend. In this case, through entertaining videos with the participation of a funny character, we are shown clear advantage Duracell batteries - they just last longer.

But the tiger cub Tony is hardly as clearly associated with his product. He is a complete stand-alone character who made the product famous. And now without it it is simply impossible to imagine Kellog corn flakes. He became the key to their success.

The symbol of McDonald's is the clown Ronald McDonald. He was born in 1963, when the owner of one of the McDonald's franchises began to promote his restaurant with the help of a multi-colored clown who visited children in schools, kindergartens, hospitals, handing out leaflets on the street. The clown became so popular that he soon worked not only for one local restaurant, but for the entire McDonald's chain. Today, Ronald McDonald is the symbol of the brand.

Characters have another important quality - they simply entertain people. Many of them look funny, thereby inspiring our confidence. A successful character is able to distinguish a brand from competitors. Statistics show that people remember brands that have a character rather than a regular logo much better. In such cases, the degree of memorability increases by about 15%. Agree that this is not so little.

The Coca-Cola Company went even further in terms of creating characters - it began to use Santa Claus himself in its advertising. Many even said that it was in this company that this old man was invented! Or at worst they gave him modern look- red and white clothes. All this is not true. Santa has existed long before Coca-Cola. And even used in advertising for other drinks. It just so happened that it was in advertising Coca Cola Santa Claus received the most successful image, and this campaign exists to this day (and it began in the 30s of the last century).

What about M&M characters? You probably all know them. Yellow and red candies that melt not in the hands, but in the mouth. They have become so popular that M&M advertising without them seems simply unthinkable. Many people are waiting for a new commercial with this couple. After all, it to some extent resembles a real cartoon, i.e. he just entertains the audience. And this is a fact. Such popularity of the characters has led to them being released as simple toys. And this is a source of additional income.

We see that the characters that are part of the brand are present in many industries. It is not only products for children, where they are de facto very popular. Bibendum clearly played an important role in the popularization of Michelin tires. And this is not a children's product. But are brands possible in which the character will be ordinary person? Quite. Suffice it to recall the legendary cowboy Marlboro. Prior to its introduction, Marlboro cigarettes were considered feminine. Cowboy had to radically change the positioning of the product. He succeeded. And this advertising campaign not only continues to some extent to this day, but has become one of the most successful in history. Marlboro cigarettes enjoy well-deserved popularity all over the world today. It is unlikely that this would have been possible if the Marlboro cowboy had not appeared at one time ...

Serious organizations also do not shy away from their characters. So, such a character at the bank Merrill Lynch has long been a bull. Of course, this is more the exception than the rule. Most banks and companies of a similar level are too strict. Characters are the preserve of FMCG brands, simple consumer products like tires. Such marketing is aimed at the masses.

Some prominent advertisers and PR people of the 20th century foreshadowed a bright future for video advertising. They had no idea what technologies would soon be used in commercials. Digital animation, 3D effect - this was not even discussed, because half a century ago commercials were just a collection of changing frames. However, in those days, marketers knew a technique that was already widely used to promote a brand - the creation of commercial characters.

Where did you come from, advertising character?

The history of the creation of advertising characters begins at the beginning of the twentieth century. Poor artists who somehow had to earn a living began to take orders from private firms. First, an image was thought out that could attract the attention of buyers, then it was transferred to paper, then to all product packaging, advertising booklets and commercials.

Once upon a time, American artist Haddon Sundblom was working on a character for Coca-Cola. He had a difficult task: to come up with an image that would attract buyers of a cold drink in the winter. Sundblom painted Saint Nicholas, who became known as Santa Claus. The funny old man immediately fell in love with everyone without exception. Riding in a team with a bottle of drink in his hands, in his white and red suit, he fit perfectly into form style brand. It is considered that It is with this image, created in 1931, that the history of the advertising character begins.

The Ideal Advertising Character: A Recipe for Creation

It is possible to determine what the future advertising hero should be like only after getting acquainted with the manufacturer, its products and the target audience. However, marketers have managed to develop general criteria that an advertising character must meet:

  • attachment to a brand or product at the level of associations;
  • the presence of character is a clearly traceable line of behavior;
  • alignment with the psychological or functional benefits of the product;
  • positive, the image should not cause negative emotions;
  • displaying the interests and preferences of the target audience, national traditions;
  • originality, uniqueness.

Cute, funny or courageous and courageous - the heroes of advertisements are full of images and characters. They are created not at all in order to sell a product, but in order to sell emotions. Funny video from the company Molokia about two cute cows is unlikely to go unnoticed by a demanding viewer.

This commercial is about love between sourdough and milk VIVO. The purpose of the video is simple - to show the consumer that as a result of mixing branded sourdough and milk, yogurt will appear. Therefore, it is advisable to buy two products at once.

The commercial allows you to create an animated character - "revive" the image, therefore, today video advertising is at the peak of popularity. The main advantage of the video is dynamism, the ability to show the hero in motion, demonstrating his actions and character.

Video advertising allows the brand to influence the feelings and psychological attitudes of the consumer, because each image, each character has its own habits and habits. The animated advertising hero is most of all endowed with human qualities, in comparison with the images that are used, for example, on posters or advertising booklets.

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Of all the elements of the advertising message, it is the character that makes the virtual world of advertising look like reality, revives it. In an advertising appeal, in which goods without characters appear, the chances of attracting attention, of interest to the consumer are small, "a person or an animal always first of all attracts the attention of the addressee - the living is interested in the living." In an advertising message, the consumer is more interested in a person than a product: "People are interested in other people and their fates. People are interested in moving pictures: whether they are commercials or films where the fate of other people is decided ..."

An advertising character (corporate character, corporate character) is a graphic image representing a person, animal, fantasy creature or an animated inanimate object that is associated with the company's product.

Due to the fact that the buyer does not identify himself with the trademark, but with actor advertising, the successful and timely introduction of a particular character into the message can make a product or service more attractive in the eyes of the consumer. R. Batra, J. Myers, D. Aaker distinguish three positive moments associated with participation in the advertisement of the character. Firstly, the characters expand the circle of consumers (viewers, listeners) of advertising. Secondly, characters can cause a positive change in attitude towards the company and its products. Thirdly, the personal qualities of the character can be associated with the image of the brand. character advertising image

The appeal on behalf of the character is presented in advertising quite intensively, "it is a person, as a communication partner, who can act as an authoritative witness, a bearer of individual consumption experience, a well-wisher, a competent expert, an authoritarian leader or a picky appraiser." But it should be noted that the advertising character in relation to the consumer acts not only as a communication partner, but also as an object of identification. " Right choice the hero (character) of the advertising message is very important, because it allows, under a successful set of circumstances (sufficient number of repetitions and adequacy of choice), to transfer personal qualities hero on the brand itself, and through it on the advertised product. The consumer gets used to the hero of the advertising message more than to the abstract image of the brand.

As is known, proposals about goods and services constitute the "primary discourse" of advertising, and constructs about society, relationships in it, i.e. existing social, gender or gender-role stereotypes - its "secondary discourse" In the primary discourse, we can talk, for example, about how cleanly this or that powder washes, how well new kitchen appliances work, and so on. And the secondary discourse informs about who does (should) wash with powder, who cooks (should cook) food, who makes (should make) computer decisions, and who needs to be sexually attractive in order to succeed in life. Therefore, this gives us the right to assert that the secondary discourse of advertising is formed precisely due to the presence of characters in it.

4. Brand character (brand face)

7. Subject of action

Narrower definitions are also noted: the hero of an advertising message, the hero of an advertising video, the hero of an advertising film, the hero of an advertising plot.

A corporate character (advertising character, corporate character) is a graphic image representing a person, animal, fantastic creature or animated inanimate object that is associated with the company's product. . The success or failure of the video, and indeed the entire advertising campaign, largely depends on the characters of the advertisement. Characters become a living symbol of the product, so they must be attractive, credible and, above all, be relevant.

Relevance in this case means nothing more, nothing less than the relevance of the character's image in today, its correlation with the psychophysical data of the audience for which it is designed. The advertiser must imagine the inner world of the person he is addressing: the viewer and his inner world, his attitude towards people, his motives for behavior, what he wants, the goal in life. Advertising creates a special image of the product, impression, myth about it. This myth is especially well perceived if it is concentrated in a clear and concise symbol, in our case - a character that allows you to feel its essence. He must have the ability to clearly convey to the audience the ideas laid down by the advertiser.

According to researchers, a person needs myths. It is hardly possible to subject all characters that have ever been invented to any gradation, because everything material can become a character. But the main and beloved character for all ages is, of course, the man himself. Unlike other heroes who draw some kind of advertising abstractions, a person is the only one who can create at least the illusion of the authenticity of what is happening, say: "guys, what you see is part of your life." A particularly popular genre of advertising that emphasizes this phrase is Testimony.

The best source of evidence is a satisfied customer. There is nothing complicated in creating a hero, as it may seem. But, experts have a habit of complicating things. They figured out how to choose such a character from the mass of any, with whom advertising would be most effective. Conventionally, this choice is called "living silhouette". It is created on the basis of statistical data on the potential audience of consumers, i.e. This is a character depicting the most likely consumer of a product or service. The advertiser supplies him with imaginary data: name, house, past, family.

As a rule, along with the "live silhouette" in the video, another character participates, a kind of promoter, who offers this most likely consumer to try some product. But the main task of the "living silhouette" is to give the real addressee of the advertising message. As if he himself is from the consumer camp, but is on the other side of the screen. And as a result of getting acquainted with the product, He tries to convey his conviction in its excellent qualities to his own kind, sitting in front of the TV. It is considered that the best advertisement is created when there is an opportunity to talk directly from the screen with a specific person. "Living silhouette" just provides such an opportunity. This principle of advertising is used by creators in the case of advertising propaganda for daily consumption goods: household chemicals, personal hygiene items, etc.

The Pampers baby diaper company created a whole series of commercials using a moving silhouette. The essence of the idea lies in the fact that, having offered young mothers in the first video to try to put their babies in these diapers and convincing them of excellent results, company representatives in the following videos return to the same families and see how much better babies feel after using Pampers ". The winning position for advertisers in this case is that in the second video, not the promoters, but the satisfied mothers themselves talk about the merits of the product, which significantly increases the audience's confidence in the video.

When an advertiser wants to present a user rather than a product, lifestyle advertising is used. The genre is called "Lifestyle". The wording is somewhat confusing: both genres represent the user. However, in a situation of attraction, advertisers proceeded from the understanding that a person’s whole life was lined up in this way only because he consumed this particular product, in the case of performing the “lifestyle” technique, personal qualities determined the choice of a trademark. Suppose ads for beer and soft drinks target active young people and show those who buy a certain drink, rather than talk about its beneficial properties. In this genre, of course, fashion plays an important role. Fashion for clothes, profession, manner of relaxing - everything that is called a lifestyle. If activity in everything is now popular, then none of the advertisers will dare to say: "our drink is drunk by lazy losers," since none of the consumers will dare to call themselves as such.

For example, a certain kind of lifestyle, or rather, a style of life behavior, is an advertisement for Klinskoye beer. A young man is going to a party in front of a mirror, while thinking about how he will meet girls. Then, appearing at the party, his friends say: "We are for communication! We are for" Klinskoye! Special attention is given to the appearance of the characters, because the features of the dominant standard of physical beauty are certainly associated with a certain model of life behavior, a certain formula for success.

For example, advertising perfume Emotion from Laura Biagotti. The main character is young beautiful woman who dances, runs through the forest, hugs a man. The video is accompanied by the text: "Laura Biagotti asks: why get involved when you can love? Why move when you can dance? Why walk when you can fly? The new fragrance Emotion by Laura Biagotti." The perfumes and lifestyles of people with above-average incomes are advertised. The lifestyle genre is characterized by some exclusivity, selectivity of the audience, in some ways even elitism at the same time as universality and ordinariness.

This confrontation is wonderfully demonstrated by the commercial for the Sprite drink. The voice-over reads:

What do beautiful, ... very beautiful people drink? (Young, beautiful, confident people move across the screen)

The same as everyone else. (An awkward person appears with a bottle of Sprite in his hands)

Image is nothing, thirst is everything. "Sprite"! Don't let yourself dry out!

The original chosenness on the principle of beauty is sharply refuted at the end by the statement "image is nothing." In principle, the video even turns out to be a refutation of the very essence of the genre, it is rather an anti-way of life, because the main idea the video sounds like "whatever you are, whatever you do, you are thirsty and therefore choose Sprite.

For example, a commercial for the Schweppes drink. Warm summer evening. The viewer sees a couple running to the ship. Later we find out that they left the "boring party", finally stayed together, and all this thanks to "Schwepps". There are often no direct calls to use the advertised product, the audience is not promised to be assigned to any group, the suggestion of the idea conceived by the advertiser occurs in a different way.

Advertising of the medicine "Vitrum osteomag" solves such a problem as the care of children about their parents. In the room, a young woman wipes dishes with a towel. Her elderly mother comes in. The mug falls from the hands of the daughter, the mother picks up the pieces. The video sequence is accompanied by the following text: "Once your mother gave you life, give her the joy of a full life." Later, viewers are shown mother and daughter looking at a photo album together. "Take care of those who took care of you" reads at the end of the video.

Psychologists say that one of the vital important factors for man is communication. In the process of communication, impressions are formed, tastes and habits are developed. People communicate with advertising. In genre scenes, a person is presented with an example of a certain behavior that makes life easier or more pleasant. The behavior of each person almost always acts as a stimulus for the behavior of other people - this is the basis of the work of the character in the genre scene. As already noted, everything material can become a character. But experts noted that a woman gives the greatest attractiveness to advertising. A man will pay attention to her by nature. A woman, on the other hand, cannot resist the temptation to compare her with herself, evaluate, adopt or condemn something.

A lot of videos are also created with the participation of animals: a chimpanzee drinks tea, a cat takes out canned food with its paw. Pets are often seen as part of the family, and adults treat them with the same tenderness as children. Advertising tries to reinforce this association in order to family budget the item of expenses for pets increased in percentage. All characters, including animals, must have expressiveness. There should be an understatement in their appearance and behavior that encourages the viewer to imagine.

For viewers, the video should be extremely understandable, attractive. A good technique in this case is the introduction of a permanent character. It can be a "revived" trademark, a cartoon character, a certain advertising symbol of the company. He is the protagonist of the video, he "lives" in it, making it interesting for the viewer. The statements coming from such a character are perceived by the audience more easily, more quickly taken on faith. For example, in advertising children's cosmetics "Morozko" cartoon Santa Claus is used. Fairy-tale heroes there are advertisements for Delmi margarine, Sam Samych dumplings, Alpen Gold chocolate, Beseda tea, Nesquik cocoa, Ryzhiy Ap dairy products, My Sunshine children's cosmetics, etc.

It may seem logical that commercials with cartoon characters should be aimed at children, but in practice this is not always the case. "Diligent crumbs" Sort "advertise, probably, the most boring thing that you can put on yourself - washing powder. Pink fluffy bunny-drummer - Energizer batteries. Psychologically, the creators' calculation is quite accurate. From the gray monotony of products of the so-called daily consumption, unfortunate adults will surely choose one that they will simply like, because in their minds a wonderful toy-character is associated with it, as part of a long-gone childhood.

However, over-enthusiasm of advertising producers with computer animation can lead to unpleasant consequences for the advertiser. An example of the same Energizer batteries. Thanks to the batteries, the wonderful hare-drummer could drum for a long, long time, and in this version he moved from one video to another. But, finally, the advertisers decided to bring the hero of the occasion onto the stage, to add a battery, created again, in a cartoon form, as the second hero. But it is difficult to create a special aesthetics based on a battery, and as a result, the hero turned out to be repulsive, especially since this battery throws a beloved bunny out of the frame. Carried away by animation, the authors have caused themselves hardly reparable harm - they destroyed a favorable image with their own hands, replacing it with a much more unsuccessful one.

1) Metaphor - a corporate character should reflect the features of a product or brand or be its symbolic embodiment.

2) "Conformity" or "similarity" with functional or psychological benefits that trademark promises to the consumer (an advertising character must carry the idea of ​​a unique trade offer How is a product or brand different from others?

3) A corporate character should emotionally color the attitude towards a product or brand, make it a personality and character.

4) Individuality and uniqueness (with the exception of the task of "joining" the image of another brand, for example, hares Dyurasel and Energizer).

6) Psychological identification. In this case, the advertiser strives for the viewer to voluntarily or involuntarily imagine himself in the place of a popular character and "feel" how he enjoys the purchased product.

Based on the above material, it is possible to distinguish the types of advertising characters:

2. Fictional characters

7. Negative characters and anti-heroes in advertising

12. Characters - heroes and superheroes

13. Children characters - children's characters in advertising

15. Symbolic characters little men

16. People as branded characters

19. Animated animated logos

21. Political characters

22. Sports characters and mascots

All types of characters will be considered in more detail in the practical part of this course work.

In advertising, a method is often used when the carrier of the idea of ​​the video is not a specific character, saying or doing something, but the whole picture as a whole. At the same time, the well-chosen symbolism carries the informative essence of advertising. For example, in commercial for a concrete products company, the image was of storm waves crashing against a lighthouse. The voice-over read: "I hope it's concrete." The character as such is absent here, and at the same time we can call the sea, and the lighthouse, and even the concrete pedestal on which the latter stands, a character. The possibility of using this method emphasizes that advertising has taken over some of the features inherent in artistic creativity. In it, too, all the available material is endowed with a certain mental content. The sea in this example is the element of violation, something negative, anger; concrete, on the contrary, symbolizes stamina (spirit, body), courage.

Summing up, we can conclude that for a long time in the circles of psychologists and historians it has been said that a person who once lived in harmony with the things around him and lost this connection is now trying to restore it. Thus, advertising got the opportunity to become more effective, using the subconscious reactions of a person who is trying to compensate for the lost symbolism with his correlation with the thing. This is manifested in the commercials by introducing the characters of the things / goods themselves. Things advertise themselves by exactly matching real world and human needs, embodying qualities that are important for a person. If the character is conceived and implemented correctly, it means that he has an increased margin of safety in advance, a kind of immunity, which often nullifies the opposition of competitors. To do this, they say, you need to attract only charming characters. They, as they say, forgive everything.

 

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