Morgan Phillips
SUMMARY:
For Project 1, we learned effective strategies for strategizing and creatively envisioning ways our ads can succeed. Project 2, we learned how to turn this creative thinking into an ad while being guided by a creative brief and challenged to answer the target market's needs. This project combined all that we learned, causing us to experience what it would be like to work with our client and seek out the client or company's goal.
RESEARCH/IDEATION:
Diving deep into the exploration of Wusthof was a great way to gain insight into how the company works, learn about the craft it has perfected, and discover how it treats its employees. After gaining more knowledge about the company, I wanted to take my campaign towards a testimonial strategy. It was evident how much they cared about their employees and customers after watching videos on their socials. I later changed my mind as I started playing around with my mind map and realized it needed to focus more on the knife than testimonials from satisfied customers. It was the best option since creating a big idea was getting difficult. My ideas were required to hit the mark of what I needed to accomplish on the creative brief, therefore ditching my original strategy.
SKETCHES:
Initially, I struggled to discover the best way to answer the creative brief through the testimonial strategy. A classmate suggested that I try a comic book style of testimonials. Using them for my big idea would be troublesome since I would have to create a story with every ad. I then went through an idea with a postcard and many others. I wanted to show people using the knife and figure out a creative way they could review it. It wasn't working, so I thought of creative ways to use words like sliced and chopped that you've heard from different sayings.
After reviewing our rough sketches, my professor suggested I find creative ways to incorporate chef-related words. This would still target the target market of professional chefs since they are the only ones to know words such as dredging. Another thing that my professor suggested was to do a see-and-say. Usually, this would be a big no-no, but this helped the campaign visually.
ROUND ONE:
Creating a campaign means having a consistent flow in your layout of ads. Each ad needed the same look but was still unique in its own way. The first round is a little rough, but as a student, it's tough to wrap your brain around the idea that it's okay for ads to have the same layout over and over. I say this because, in critique, my professor helped me learn that the knife needs to be positioned on the cutting board but doesn't have to be in the same spot as the others, making them roughly the same size. Another thing I needed help with was the ad with the chicken. Looking back at my first round, it stands out like a sore thumb. My professor advised that I don't use a whole chicken since I didn't use an entire onion or apple in my other two ads. It's only shown with them cut in half or pieces. Lastly, my type needed to be different for my campaign; it didn't let my images stand out like they needed to; therefore, I tried a thinner type.
ROUND TWO:
My round two finally seemed more like a campaign. Significantly, the ad with the chicken finally appeared like it fit in with the other two. The type finally made the images stand out, but now the type itself was getting lost. I needed to keep the typeface but make it heavier. During critique, my professor suggested I make the food brighter to appear more appetizing. The only other thing I needed to do to improve my ads was to incorporate that signature red that Wusthof is famously known for. I didn't initially agree with this, but now, looking back, the red helps tie in that Wusthof flare. It makes the boring gray ad look like it came alive with a simple pop of color.
ROUND THREE:
I played around with the idea of uppercase and lowercase headlines, but we agreed that the headline needed punctuation as a group. With the images of the food, I completely ditched the old images and found brighter and higher resolution images that made the visual more successful than the last round. It was also crucial that I correct the type of chicken used; chefs only fry chicken that still has skin. Since my professor suggested, I incorporated a red line. I did only one version of what it would look like with two lines: one on top and one on bottom. As a class, we agreed that the red line in the middle was more successful since it draws your eyes to the image. I was inspired to do a different round that only dealt with red knives. To see if the more subtle red would be better. Ultimately, I was encouraged to combine the two. This helped make the image successful because the bright knife pops since the knife handle and cutting board itself are similar in shades of color.
ROUND FOUR:
It's just a couple of things shy of perfect. I corrected the headline's punctuation and combined the red knife with the red line. The other small change I made was to fix the number of chicken pieces on the cutting board. In the last round, I put five pieces of chicken on the board, not realizing it would be more appealing to one's eyes if there were the same amount of pieces on each cutting board. My small change helped solidify a more complete look for my campaign. The only critique from my professor was the incorrect size of the chicken wing I used.
ROUND FIVE:
My last round of work is my final ad campaign. My campaign showed us how to be different by taking the usually serious and fast-paced environment and establishing a playful side. We used humor to our advantage and incorporated what objects can be cut, chopped, and sliced with even just one of our knives. I wanted to demonstrate to our customer persona that just one Wusthof knife can outperform the different types of knives used for the job.
SOCIAL MEDIA:
The campaign works equally well since it encourages people to interact. The big idea is to leave the cutting boards blank to create a space where other people can use their creativity to make us laugh and have fun. The more interaction we get from people and celebrities, the more we bring our customers or other chefs to view our product. This is where call-outs are good when promoting a product or business. Tagging famous people gives us that chance to get seen, and if they get encouraged to do it, people will follow in the footsteps of any big name who they see do it first.
WHY THIS BIG IDEA WORKS FOR CAMPAIGN:
My big idea works because it connects with chefs on a level of understanding of the terminology used in the kitchen. The average person might not know the word dredging or realize its definition. My campaign draws the attention of chefs since they recognize the things they are so used to using in their everyday lives. Our fun and playful humor is what we wanted to achieve with our target audience. This way, for instance, our market forgets that this is a corporate company and instead sees us as people who want to connect with other people. Once we've got that connection, our message further signifies that we care about our customers and they can put their faith in us and our product. We want them to realize that our knife must be good if they see the same knife repeatedly doing different jobs they must do every day.
KNOWLEDGE GAINED:
Beginning this project took me a while to understand what a campaign should look like. I started with finding different versions of textured countertops to put in the background and different ways of using the cutting board, but eventually, the layouts needed to be identical. While creating an idea, it clicked for me that the headline was the star of the show. In a campaign or, generally, in any ad, the headline is the message you're trying to get people to understand and connect with. Yes, the image is just as crucial since your creativity goes toward making both as unique as possible to stand out from other advertisements. But often, an image is optional to get what you need to say across or vice versa. Instead, an image accomplishes what you need to speak to your audience. Learning about advertising has been so enjoyable since you know that as a creative, as long as you understand what your creative brief is asking and who your target audience is, you can take that and create the message you are trying to get them to understand. Whether you're only using an image or words, you always need to be using it to the benefit of connecting with your audience. We're just people connecting with other people.
