SEMIOTICS OF CEREALS??!!

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IMAGES: MILO-https://worldvectorlogo.com/logo/milo-1 COCO POPS- google.co.uk

BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY Today there is a massive amount of cereal options the family can choose from. Many of these range as a product addressed towards Children as consumers but the Parents as. Buyers. I will be analysing the Category Cereals with the Product Category being Chocolate based Cereals. Associating two different brands as to how they advertise such products to children/parents with different semiotic tactics. The brands chosen are Kellogg’s Coco pops, a global brand (American) with a negative representation and Nestle Milo, a global band (Australian) with a positive representation.

IMAGES: MILO- https://m.news24.com/MoveMag/Sponsored-Content/win-with-move-milo-20180821 COCO POPS-lightfarmbrasil.com

THE ADVERTISEMENTS Both Advertisements feature a similar creative approach with the cereal being manipulated to ‘come out’ of its packaging and coinciding with the milk product. However, the creative meaning behind both adverts, portray different meanings… Kellogg’s Coco pop’s implores a ‘creative, imaginative energy’ whereas Nestle’s Milo depicts an ‘active energy’. Both advertisements target children and in another sense their parents, as they will be the ones buying and investing in the product and brand at the end of the day. Milo aims to target and also promote the ideology of active, nutritious energy. Whereas Coco Pops aims to target and promote the ideology of creative, fun driven energy.

 

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORKS Seobek contends that Semiotics is a theory that observes signs and how signs work .  In Regards to Barthe’s theory of the signifier and signified, connotation and myth… The Milo advert signifier’s a green background, the. Milk and cereal being swept up and finally the product itself surrounded by a gold halo. This. Signifies through the green and the product, the brands distinctive colour ‘green’ but with the gold halo around the product itself in contrast to the green depicts the Australian heritage of the brand itself. The product also features a young boy kicking what we think would be a soccer ball, the myth by doing this it not only makes the product distinctly features its audience of ‘young, active kids’ but through the connotation of how the milk and cereal creative works, makes the cereal out to be the explosive kick featured.  Whereas the Coco pops advert signifier’s a yellow background, a crane made out of coco pops reaching towards a milk bottle, and the product itself. This signifies the brands colourings and also mascot through the product shot and also the backdrop to further reiterate the branding. The crane holding the milk, is Kellogg’s fun connotation to show the myth of the fun, creative side the brand/ product tries to target their audience of children with.

 

IDEALOGY FROM THE ADVERTISEMENT Through the semiotic analysis above both Nestle MILO and Kellogg’s Coco Pops deplore the cereal product category, both with chocolate-based products targeted at an audience of children however with two different messages. MILO explores the idea of ‘active energy’, it’s a brand that is well known and loved in Australia dating back to 1934 as a. gap in the market for malnourished children, a cure and positive outlook pushed towards Kids to be active and healthy, a cereal and brand a mother can recommend ,‘I love that is Milo, a well-respected brand. Not only tasty but has some nutrition as well’ and cross-culturally this image of nutrition of low sugars and sodium without comprising taste is seen globally. Coco Pops promotes the idea of ‘creative energy’, however it derives from the brand Kellogg’s which in the past has fallen from claims of failing to meet advertising clothes considering it’s a product filled with high sugar and can’t be promoted on relevant ‘children tv time’. The Cereal itself from a marketing point of view has gone through challenges of creative from many different mascots over the years (Tusk the elephant, Oga the caveman’ to many different slogans also.Also from a nutritional value point of view, Kellogg’s coco pops in the US and Hong Kong have 38.7g of sugar within 100g… whereas in comparison cross culturally in Belgium, Italy, Kuwait, Qatar, Spain with 8g of sugar per 100g. However, although the brand appears to be in a lot of trouble, the overall contention of the cereal being a fun, imagination driven breakfast cereal has remained the same of ‘childhood dreams’.

 

 

CONCLUSION To conclude the Roland Barthe’s theory of semiotics reveals meaning behind the simplistic advertising imagery used in Milo cereal versus Coco pops cereal. Through two similar approaches, it’s funny that two chocolate-based cereals can advertise two complete different meanings towards the same audience. Targeting two very different groups of kids the. Sporty/active versus the imaginative/creative. This. Ideology further cements the brand and products core purpose and also in a more subtle consensus gives a hint at the brands positioning to what the parents see and either recommend or demote towards. Therefore through all of this analysis I prefer the brand narrative belonging to Nestle Milo, as it’s ultimatum encourages a healthier brand image and momentum for their target audience of children to lead more active and positive minded lifestyles

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IMAGE- http://www.dailymirror.lk/other/Milo-wins-Most-Outstanding-Junior-Sports-Promoter-of-the-Year-/117-129618

References

Anderson, K., 2018. The Coco Pops Monkey Is Redeemed | Lexology. [online] Lexology.com. Available at: <https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=8a8327c6-ed6d-4cf2-bae5-699bffbb3fd3> [Accessed 23 March 2020].

Canning, S., 2017. Kellogs Found Guilty Of Running Coco Pops Ads In Childrens Shows. [online] mumbrella. Available at: <https://mumbrella.com.au/kelloggs-challenges-oztam-data-after-coco-pops-ads-alleged-to-have-run-in-kids-shows-442000> [Accessed 20 March 2020].

En.wikipedia.org. 2020. Cocoa Krispies. [online] Available at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cocoa_Krispies> [Accessed 28 March 2020].

Kelloggs.com.au. 2020. Kellogg’s® Coco Pops®. [online] Available at: <https://www.kelloggs.com.au/en_AU/products/coco-pops-product.html> [Accessed 28 March 2020].

Milo.com.au. 2020. Cereals | MILO Australia. [online] Available at: <https://milo.com.au/products/cereals> [Accessed 27 March 2020].

Milo.com.au. 2020. HISTORY OF MILO | MILO Australia. [online] Available at: <https://milo.com.au/all-about-milo/history> [Accessed 27 March 2020].

Mouths of Mums. 2020. Kellogg’s Coco Pops Ratings – Mouths Of Mums. [online] Available at: <https://mouthsofmums.com.au/rate-it/baking-desserts-spreads-breakfast/breakfast-cereal/kelloggs-coco-pops-2/> [Accessed 27 March 2020].

Mouths of Mums. 2020. Nestle Milo Cereal Ratings – Mouths Of Mums. [online] Available at: <https://mouthsofmums.com.au/rate-it/baking-desserts-spreads-breakfast/breakfast-cereal/nestle-milo-cereal/> [Accessed 27 March 2020].

Phillipson, L. and Jones, S., 2008. I Eat Milo To Make Me Run Faster: How The Use Of Sport In Food Marketing May Influence The Food Beliefs Of Young Australians. [ebook] University of Wollongong, pp.1-7. Available at: <https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/aabf/6fbd4ea4ca5a7022c85184b922bf3bf7c83b.pdf> [Accessed 17 March 2020].

Schneider, J., 2010. The Coco Pops Ad Kellogg’s Should Be Ashamed Of | Jackie Schneider. [online] the Guardian. Available at: <https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/apr/07/kelloggs-coco-pops-schoolchildren> [Accessed 26 March 2020].

Selby, G., 2016. Global Breakfast Cereal Survey Reveals Major Differences Depending On Country. [online] .foodingredientsfirst.com/. Available at: <https://www.foodingredientsfirst.com/news/Global-Breakfast-Cereal-Survey-Reveals-Major-Differences-Depending-on-Country.html> [Accessed 24 March 2020].

Dahlén, M., Lange, F., & Smith, T. (2010). Building Brand Equity. In Marketing Communications: A Brand Narrative Approach. Chichester, UK: Wiley,  (Links to an external site.)pp.194-206

Danesi, M. (2013). Semiotizing a product into a brand (Links to an external site.). Social Semiotics, 23(4), 464-476.

HARR, E. (2018) Personal Branding Strategy: A Roadmap for Professionals, Experts and Executives. Available at https://hingemarketing.com/blog/story/personal-branding-strategy-a-roadmap-for-professionals-experts-and-executives (Links to an external site.) (Accessed: 2 January 2019)

Keller, K. (2013). Managing Brands Over Geographic Boundaries and Market Segments (Links to an external site.). In Strategic brand management : Building, measuring, and managing brand equity (4e ed.). Boston: Pearson, pp.509-539.

 

 

Are we just Users?

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Millennials are portrayed as being the ‘experts’ at using Social Media and have a thorough understanding of digital marketing aspects.  However need to comprehend the terminology of ‘facts first, opinions last’. Just because one is young doesn’t gratify them as a specialist in the field of social media marketing. Millennials may enjoy using social media but you can’t assume you’re an expert because you’re young, we are all just learning. That doesn’t mean we can’t take opportunities and work our way up from there but we have to remain humble about it and accept the fact that we are all still learning how to use Social Media, as Social Media itself is continuously growing, changing and developing before us. We can’t become an expert in a non-traditional form of advertising media as such. We will constantly be learning throughout it.

My dad loves to glorify his generation infront of me. Saying that they were the ‘doers’, they created the web, they created facebook etc. they had the ideas and the logic and understand the method they worked hard to grasp. Whereas my generation of millennials is given the title ‘users’, we are extremely good at using social media as its all we know and yes we may find it easier to use than the ‘doers’. But as ‘users’ do we truly understand and know how to create content or are we just all following a trend and due to privilege believe we are the experts?

The creative behind the creative

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What makes a creative memorable, on brief and personable?

Consistency

Coherence

Continuity

Complementary

Communication Channels

Channeling a specific Target Audience

these are the strategical C behind the creative, within the campaign.

A campaign won’t be effective if it’s just a pretty image on the page, it needs to fulfil the briefs requirements and appeal to the clients directions not your own personal interest.

A creative brief should look like this:

COMM2659 CAMPAIGN STRATEGY – CREATIVE BRIEF: CAMPAIGN 2 (2018)                   

TEAM NAME: The Team DATE: 17/9/2018
Student names:

Nakita Podreka, Gemma Rio, Jared Blode, Will Mantesso, Xanthe Doran

 CLIENT: Australian Red Cross Blood Service – PLASMA

                                                                                                                                  

1A. CATEGORY INSIGHTS: What is the big picture?
While the Red Cross Blood Service is the only charity in which people can donate blood in Australia, there are many successful charities competing for the attention of empathetic Australians. 

In 2017, the Australian Red Cross ranked 19 out of 40 in an AMR Australia report about charity reputation. This was a 4 rank drop compared to 2016 with the RSPCA taking its former place, and the charity is one below the Ronald McDonald House Charities Australia. In first place was the Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia and in second place was the St John Ambulance service. Just below Australian Red Cross sits the Leukaemia Foundation of Australia and in last place was Greenpeace Australia Pacific. 

The Australian Red Cross’s positioning compared to its competitors is that it is life giving and focuses on life after illness. This contrasts to the two top competitors in the category, which both present themselves as aged and reliable, having been present as an Australian service for a long time. It also contrasts to competitors ranked more closely such as the RSPCA and Ronald McDonald House Charities Australia, charities which use an abundance of emotive imagery such as sick children and animals and tiles personal stories. 

In 2016, it was reported that money in donations to Australian Charities is increasing, but the number of donors are decreasing (Giving Australia, 2016). Along with this, it was reported that most donors (60.5%) are likely to do so spontaneously as opposed to planned donation. However, those making planned donations were known to give significantly more.  
1B. BRAND INSIGHTS: What is the problem/opportunity for your Clients brand/product?
Plasma donations are used in eighteen life giving ways for patients in need. The Australian Red Cross does not have enough plasma donors or people donating plasma frequently enough. The brand needs to gain plasma donors and increase donation frequency.
2. COMMUNICATION OBJECTIVES: What do we want to specifically achieve? 
– Gain 18,000 new plasma donors over 12 months

– Increase donation frequency from 4 to 6 times per year
3A. TARGET AUDIENCE (TA): Who are we talking to? Current users, competitor users, new users?
Our Target Audience is Males aged between 20-29 that are new or existing plasma donors. The ideal candidate for a plasma donation is someone who is brave and selfless enough to give up 2 hours of his time in order to complete a donation. This man also needs to be able to frequently donate plasma 6 times per year, not just donate once for the sake of self righteousness. A member of the target audience is someone who is socially aware about the needs of others and has the capacity to be empathetic, but has barriers holding them back from making a donation. 

For example, Lachie is a member of the target audience. He is 21 years old, plays footy on the weekend with his local friends from high school and works as a plumber during the week. He likes to go out on a Saturday night for drinks with his friends or to watch sporting matches. Lachie still lives at home while he is saving up for a house and finds it hard to find time during the week to spend time with his girlfriend while he works long days. Lachie is active on social media (particularly Snapchat and Instagram) and loves posting funny videos of his mates having a laugh together. 
3B. CURRENT PERCEPTIONS: What do the target audience think/feel/do about our brand NOW?
Currently, some of the target audience acknowledge that they would be an eligible donor, but have barriers holding them back form donation such as a fear of needles or they do not feel as if they have enough time to donate plasma. Therefore, they do not donate to the Australian Red Cross.

Alternately, some of the target audience are already occasionally donating plasma a couple of times a year, and therefore feel happy with themselves for sacrificing their time and effort. These donors stick to their current routines and do not increase donations. 
3C. DESIRED RESPONSE: What do we want the target audience (TA) to think/feel/do?
The target audience will think that they should be donating plasma as it would be a brave and important thing to do.This will make them feel good about themselves, and turn them to action as they will begin donating plasma. 

The other identified target audience will recognise that there is more demand for plasma donating than what is being currently donated. They will feel bad for not giving enough, and in turn increase their plasma donating to 6 times per year. 
4A. STRATEGY FOUNDATION: What is the single-minded proposition (SMP)?
Donating plasma is a brave and important life-giving contribution to the wellbeing of others. 
4B. SUPPORT: What are the supporting facts and reasons that underpin the SMP?
On the Australian Red Cross’ website, it is easy to learn about how donating plasma can help others. It is listed that there are eighteen ways in which plasma can be medically utilised, such as for burn and nerve disease treatment. 

The process of donating plasma is more lengthy than donating blood, as an appointment can last up to 1.5 hours with 45 minutes of blood extraction. This means that donors must be courageous and not afraid of needles or blood extraction. 
5. BRAND PERSONALITY: What tone of voice should we adopt? 
For our brand we want to take on an encouraging and impassioned tone that will inspire our target audience to contribute to our cause. We want consumers to feel empowered by our tone and enthusiastic towards our message. 
6. MANDATORIES: What are the branding properties?
The Australian Red Cross Blood Service logo according to specifications. 
7A. MEDIA: Which media are likely to be involved?
Digital media (e.g a powerful video to be shared on social media in order to gain earned media) but avoiding Instagram – Social media apps such as Snapchat could be used for it is a popular app with the target audience – It could be used to create an interactive experience that educates the TA on what plasma is and its use in saving lives

Outdoor media (e.g signage on the Australian Red Cross donation centre, advertisements on bus shelters, potential ambient advertising) – Outdoor media in the form of signage and possibly animation or video will reinforce the message of the campaign through being more engaging with the target audience 

Traditional media that will reach large audiences (e.g posters and magazine ads)
7B. BUDGET: What is the budget?
The $1.5 Million budget will be strategically allocated over 3 mediums to maximise the effectiveness of the campaign.

Digital Media – $1 Million

Outdoor Media – $300,000 

Traditional Media – $200,000 
8. TIMING: What is the deadline?
Strategy sign off: 11 September 2018

Execution concept sign off: 17 September 2018

Approved FA submission: 7 October 2018

Production: 10 October – 1 November 2018

On air: 6 November 2018

Campaign end: Beginning of February 2019

Having a thought out strategy that drives the creative is the element of success every campaign is derived from.

HOW TO MAKE AN APP A SUCCESS

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Mobile phones are one of the most common forms of technology used by individuals all over the world as it features three needed moments for the user; its a personal device, a catalyst for a two way interaction and relieves the notion of being constantly connected.

Mobile in itself has taken off and is happening much faster than our internal predictions as quoted in 2011 by Eric Schmidt. As Apples very first iphone took only 2 years to formulate 50 million users, therefore a smartphone was clearly extremely desired and needed compared to the original mobile phones which took an extensive 12 years to gain a following of 50 million users.

Common features of successful apps include, solving a problem, easy to use, updates frequently, built for native platform, make a business, kind to phone battery and free download.

Mobile searches are more local and on the go, producing an immediate need for searching in the now and needing to know the answer now.

Which makes sense as to why the app Pokemon Go reached 50 million users in only 19 days, compared to Facebook reaching 50 million in 4 years.

In another class of mine, Advertising Industry Practice, we have been looking at how to strategise and brief back an app to an agency with a Campaign Pitch. The app my creative team has been looking at is Arevo.

Arevo functions like Uber but caters to so much more, it also shows times and routes for all public transport options, cycling, running… while also catering to your need to see how long to get to your destination via all these alternate routes you could take and even how many calories can be burned per route.

This is an app that I believe can become very successful as it caters to all the different thoughts and stresses we share in trying to get to a certain place on time yet is easy to use, free to download, solves problems and location sensitive.

Does Social Media Selling DO Better??!!!

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This week we’ve been looking at the theories behind Digital Business Models which in definition terms is a set of planned activities designed to result in a profit in a marketplace (Laudon and Traver 2007). Therefore when thinking about Business the key factor is CUSTOMER VALUE and Digital Businesses like every other business focus on this same value, the only difference is this value needs to be translated onto a different interface.

With this in mind the Digital Business Model, THE MERCHANT MODEL, particularly stood out to me. This model is a combination of retail store and online component.

I do freelance social media consulting for companies that are interested in learning how to improve and further accelerate their online presence and online consumers. The biggest question I get asked is ‘How can I target my Social Media consumers to come into my store?’….Yes this is an important question but I ask them have you also tried using Social Media as your store too?  WOAH MIND BLOWN I KNOW !!!!!

So the vintage store I consulted ‘A perfect Match’ located on Johnston street, Fitzroy needed an example and I gave the business ‘THE DROBE’….

The Drobe has a physical store, online store and also Instagram account. However predominantly the business makes majority of their sales via Instagram. This occurs through their high following and simple post uploads that is ‘trendy’ on social media. The post features a girl who’s headless through cropping techniques wearing the sale item in an interesting pose with a simple background and clean editing tools.  The caption reveals the name of clothing item and initial bidding price. From here a bidding war begins through a chain of comments with a time limit of how long one can be bidding for. The final bidder receives a comment to invite them to private DM the account to go into details of purchasing etc.

Meaning . Social Media today isn’t the collaborative, pretty picture . posting creative it initially established itself to be. It’s now a place businesses can thrive and connect to their customers at ‘in time’ rates and directly sell to them through the simplicity of an image.

BUT IS SOCIAL MEDIA ALWAYS SOCIAL???!!!

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Social Media is understood as a Web 2.0 buzzword indicating that the idea of the platform is Collaborative. The Media shouldn’t persevere a passive experience therefore encourage consumers not to just consume but to engage in commentary, to share, to create and produce your own collaborative material also.

Yet why does Social Media posses the option to hide comments, likes etc. if the whole experience should be regarded as SOCIAL!!!???

Instagram has recently released an update that hides the amount of likes a post can receive. Therefore in a business sense consumers can no longer understand the popularity of a brand yet brands owning these accounts can still see the likes they receive and attention but their followers no longer have this common understanding. Shifting the idea of ‘likes’ as a more personal and organic process as consumers now take interest in liking the pictures purely on liking them not based on whats popular in their explore or feed, the experience is natural and more real. However for some brands this idea of Instagram tackling the ‘Insecurity of Social Media’ problem can have an affect on some businesses relying on popularity likes and influencers that are well known names simply for their names such as ‘Kylie Jenner’ etc.  Yet the idea furthermore is seen as confusing as users can still see accounts followings yet not their likes? Will this one day change also?

However although I’ve introduced this thought as a negative impact it will be rewarding for the smaller, underground more niche business accounts on social media. They don’t have to follow a stereotype and reciprocate posts that are regarded popular to gain likes and followers. Brands small which administer this can now have the niche market the always aimed toward grow bigger in number as ‘coolness’ and ‘popularity’ is hidden from the public. So will this take a big hit on accounts with large following, large amount of likes that ‘attempt’ to stay on ‘trend’? Or will they finally embrace and find their voice and grow organically to resume their ‘want and need’ on Social Media?

 

HERE WE GO

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So on Thursday last week we were pushed into our groups to kickstart the creative process for our final studio presentation. I was first with my set/props/costume/beauty group the first creative decision we had to make was which desk. However I couldn’t stay for majority of the group discussion as I was also part of another group which is the marketing team. We discussed our social media strategy which was each of us advertising on a particular social media platform such as Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook  and Twitter. I am also on finding the audience duty. We then discussed if we are going to do posters etc. which still needs to be clarified and then also had ideas of asking rusu and other rmit student groups to give our production social media accounts a shout out. I was also on the weekly update so i had to go around filming other classmates within their groups and just analysing everything that was happening within the class that i could discuss in the weekly update.

Nakita xx

THE NEW PROJECT IS UNDERWAY

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So the studio last week was the initial start up of our final projects. Our project Blood Donation made it into the top stories which will be covered in the segment, the other ones that made it was Special Religious Education and War on Porn. We also discussed possibly included MS paint also. We were also given our production roles, I am part of the Marketing team aswell as the set, props, makeup, hair, costume team. The class consisted of a discussion of back and forth discussion of possibilities and excitement towards this final project. We were also visited by a guest speaker Matt Parkinson who has worked on the Chase, Full Frontal and Comedy Central. Is was interesting to see how he started off as a wannabe actor from Perth to a comedy news writer in Melbourne. He taught us three different ways in going about writing a comedy news script and told us that it takes time and determination to make it into the media world, particularly comedy.

Nakita xx

THE NEW PROJECT

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The studio class was set up very differently this week compared to other weeks. We spent the full four hours in the discussion studio space in building 9. The first two hours consisted of presenting our briefs to our lecturers and the rest of the class. Our presentation did very well, each of us explaining different areas of our project, some important facts, bits of the scripts, creative opportunities and why this topic is important and good for a comedy news segment. The lecturers were very impressed by our work and so were the students as when the polls started our idea was one of the highly popular ideas, meaning ours could be used for the final project. We then spent the rest of the session discussing the reading and Leo also told us that we need to vote which role we wanted in the final project. This week made me really excited for whats to come in the last few weeks of this studio.

Nakita xx

IT HAPPENED

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So we finally completed our Group B studio production. The studio began by instantly putting into action our segment production. The first 20 minutes were spent setting up our set, camera placement and angles, setting up our audience, setting up lighting, uploading autocue, setting up graphics and finalising our production roles. We then began practising the segment, finalising blocking cues as well as vision switching cues, audio cues, EVS cues and graphics cues. We then finally were given the order to film the production (we also only had only one shot to get this right which made us all a bit nervy). As my role of director I was in charge of making sure that everyone was cued correctly and that visually it was aesthetically pleasing. I believe I did a good job at cueing the vision switcher, the shots worked really well through adjusting between each camera at certain points created a sense of drama and interest to the viewer. However there was one aspect I wish I could of gone back to change. As we were filming the ending of our segment our EVS operator had made a mistake queuing the audio to early, although to give him credit he was just someone in our course who had to do the job and learn the job on the day. When I gave him warning to play the audio, he played it when I gave the warning, meaning it came on to early. However apart from this small slip up, it can easily be overlooked and the segment can appear to follow the guidelines of the task by having a creative yet informative script, well decided set and other creative,  aesthetic features, and roles were carried out to a high standard etc.

Nakita xx