Overview of Ad
The 2019 Pandora Holiday Collection advertisement is a video created by Pandora, a fine-jewellery manufacturer and retailer whose selling point is expressing individuality by offering bracelets with interchangeable charms (Do 2011). The ad promotes Pandora's products as Christmas gifts and emphasises that their jewellery is a simple, meaningful purchase for your loved one. The key elements in this video include visual imagery evident in the use of colour and clothing, as well as the narrative structure with an emotional appeal linked to happiness and Christmas. Within the CLAMP framework, this digital video advertisement broadcasted on YouTube and social media (see Appendix 1) utilises storytelling techniques to persuade the audience to purchase Pandora jewellery. The main characters are the caring father buying a gift from Pandora and his daughter as the flight attendant. The locations transition from the bustling Pandora shop to the father’s room, then the taxi to the airport and finally the airplane. The main action of the narrative occurs when the father gives his daughter the Pandora present on the aircraft. The key message demonstrates the power of unique gifts to make the women in your life feel special and loved by ‘[showing] her that you know her’. The plot follows the father’s journey to his daughter, beginning in a busy Pandora shop where he purchases a gift. At home, while packing, he receives a message from his daughter to enjoy Christmas without her. In the taxi to the airport, he awaits boarding anxiously. Then, he runs through the airport and finally boards the airplane, eagerly awaiting his daughter. When she notices him, her surprise turns to delight as he presents her with a Pandora charm engraved with ‘Spread your wings and fly’ on Christmas morning. The effect on the audience is emotional and persuasive that they too can make the women in their lives feel special by purchasing a meaningful Pandora charm.
Ad Goals and Objectives
The goal of this ad is to empower men, particularly fathers, to purchase Pandora jewellery as a way to ‘show her that you know her’. Its objective is to promote Pandora charms and jewellery as a simple yet meaningful holiday gift that is beautiful as well as significant to the gift receiver due to its personalisation and individuality. This is demonstrated by the simple buying process, busy shop floor and the delightful emotion of the daughter. The ad indicates that Pandora’s jewellery is easy to purchase and is gift wrapped while implying the brand’s popularity through bustling customers. Additionally, the characters have an emotional relationship within the context of Christmas which further influences the audience.
Target Audience
This ad specifically targets fathers as gift buyers for women in their families. Although women aged 25-49 are the typical target audience of Pandora, this ad targets men during the Christmas season as they purchase gifts for loved ones. 60% of women who own Pandora receive it as a gift, and half are bought by men (Lieber 2016). For this demographic, Pandora can seem easy to purchase due to its modular products and unique designs. Demographically, this ad targets fathers who are usually in their middle-aged years from 45-65 (Census 2011) with mid to high average income and with wives and older daughters. The target audience is inferred from the ad, as the father purchases the gift for his daughter. The key influences on father figures purchasing jewellery are reference groups such as their family, whose values are used as the basis for their judgements on buying a Pandora gift. Secondly, situational determinants, in this case the Christmas season, determine the type and size of the purchase.
Creative and Message Strategies
The message strategy centres on Pandora’s proposition that their charms are simple, meaningful gifts to ‘show her that you know her’. The execution techniques that demonstrate the message include the ‘slice of life’ technique. Pandora’s jewellery solves a problem in a real-life situation. Secondly, it uses dramatisation in the narrative, in which the product is the driver that brings the two characters together. Simultaneously, these execution techniques appeal to both the emotional and rational. The emotional appeal of the narrative influences feelings of affection, joy, and belonging and the informational appeal of this ad persuades the target audience that Pandora is a unique yet straightforward present that fulfils needs.
The creative strategy attracts the audience’s attention through its visual imagery and narrative structure. The imagery and set design of this advertisement evoke the spirit of gift-giving and a Christmas atmosphere by utilising Christmas decorations, the father wearing red and green sweaters and winter clothing. The use of warm pink and orange hues in the store and the sunshine through the plane windows encapsulates emotions of love, femininity and happiness (Singh and Srivastava 2011). The product’s meaningfulness is presented through the charm’s engraving ‘spread your wings and fly’ and is symbolic by resonating with the daughter’s career, and as her father chose the charm to signify this. The audio of the ad consists of a Christmas song playing over the noise from the scenes and utilises three lines of dialogue. The ad is designed for ‘sound-off’ viewing as it includes subtitles for consumers on social media. Finally, the narrative of the ad engages audiences through its partial telling of the story, following the father’s journey and emphasising the emotive relationship between the characters who cannot celebrate a traditional Christmas.
Effectiveness
The Pandora ad is effective as it balances the message and execution strategy, it adheres to Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, and it depends on a consistent brand message. Firstly, the balance between the message and execution technique strengthened the sales message and presented a persuasive and visually arresting story based on feelings and emotions which are better remembered than informational appeals alone by attracting attention and influencing positive feelings towards the brand. Through its creative strategy, Pandora highlighted the importance of Christmas as an event in addition to the product itself. This ad is effective as it resonates with the target market by creating a captivating storyline in the relationship between father and daughter and promoting values of love, selflessness and empathy. These values resonate beyond the brand to the target market, while also utilises consumer insight to highlight simplicity and individuality as the clinching benefit of Pandora.
The careful employment of Christmas elements and the lack of a mother figure in the storyline leads the audience to believe that Christmas is a special occasion celebrated together. This subtle detail introduces an emotional element to their touching relationship and adds emotional depth to the gift of Pandora jewellery. Secondly, the ad applies creative techniques to evoke an affective need for belonging by demonstrating how its products can fulfil the needs of love and belonging in Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. The gift facilitated a loving exchange between family, which additionally achieves the ad's objective of promoting a meaningful product and creating a special moment between father and daughter. Finally, Pandora creates a synergy between the brand and the ad’s clear message. The experience a Pandora purchase facilitates is unique and priceless, showcased in the touching final scene. This tender gift exchange inextricably links to Pandora's strong brand identity by effectively demonstrating a product personalised to their customer's needs and wants in a Christmas gift.
Reference list
Australian Bureau of Statistics 2016, 2016 Census QuickStats, Australian Bureau of Statistics Australia, Dataset, viewed 18 April 2020, < https://quickstats.censusdata.abs.gov.au/census_services/getproduct/census/2016/quickstat/036?opendocument>.
Do, K 2019, Watch and Jewellery Retailing in Australia, IBISWorld Industry Report G4253, viewed 18 April 2020, IBISWorld Database.
Lieber, C 2018, The Charmed Life, Racked, viewed 19 April 2020, <https://www.racked.com/2016/8/23/12525316/pandora-jewelry-charm-bracelets>.
Singh, N. & Srivastava, S.K., 2011. Impact of Colors on the Psychology of Marketing — A Comprehensive over View. Management and Labour Studies, 36(2), pp.199–209.
*written as an assignment for an advertising university course*
*not in affiliation with Pandora*
