Confused?

Just to refresh your memory and make sure that you're still on the same track ...

Dont get confused ...Comparing advertisements is not any different from analyzing them.

If you are able to interpret the advertisement, critique it, and compare it to another similar advertisement then you're one step ahead!

How to analyze advertisements is not something that can be learned through a book or by just reading this blog, you have to practice it, and "practice makes perfect"..

We are here as a guide to help you understand each step that goes into analyzing and then giving you examples to show you how to put together all the steps.

We also compare different advertisements that are based in the Gulf and others that are based mostly in the West because it is important for all of you to understand that the advertising strategy of a company changes according to the country they are marketing to. So this effects: the message, slogan, layout, text, and illustrations to make it more suitable for the countries culture.

This in hand does effect the way you have to analyze the advertisement, because you then learn how to see the advertisements from different points of views, which helps broaden your skills of deconstructing and helps you notice the smaller hidden details and intentions behind the advertisement.

Stay tuned for more! :)

Etisalat vs. Vodafone

Since we're still going along with the theme of comparing ads..

Lets look at these two ads for the iphone 3G

Again, same product but different companies...

Etisalat and Vodafone. One local company based here in the UAE, and another international company based in the UK.

You can see that both ads have a white background but they each use a different signature color that is associated with the brand. The Etisalat ad uses a touch of green color all around the border, and Vodafone uses a bit of red color on the bottom.  

Both ads have used the product's name as the title/heading which is the same since Apple have used this name internationally. But notice that they use different slogans...This is probably beacuse Apple have created several slogans for the iphone 3G and each company has chosen to use a different one.

The font is also similar because the companies are not allowed to change the font that the supplier (Apple) uses.

Etisalat placed its logo on the screen of the iphone, while Vodafone placed it at the bottom of the ad.

If you notice that Vodafone feature different screens that the iphone has in it to give the audience a sense of how the iphone looks and a preview of the applications and system, while Etisalat chose to show only one screen of Etisalat homepage in the iphone which is a way of pushing the customers to the Eitsalat service.

Another aspect to notice is that the iphone in the Etisalat ad has a picture of a desert. This sends a message to the customers that this iphone is adjusted to suit the UAE. Under the desert picture, you can see it says "Welcome to Etisalat", which symbolizes the launch of the iphone.

The Etisalat ad has strategically used two languages. They have chosen to keep the product name, slogan, and front page of the iphone solely in English and have only shown the launch announcment in Arabic. This acts as a dual purpose for the company, since it can be understood to customers of both languages they don't have to publish different kinds.

We really liked the green border around the Etisalat ad because it makes it more attractive and organized and the keeps the customers attention on the product. Whereas, in the Vodafone ad we found that the red bottom bar that contains the details of the offer attracts more of the customers attention away from the product picture.

Also, Vodafone included the promotion that comes with iphone at the bottom of the ad. This way customers know what to expect and can start their desicion-making process. However, Etisalat was only announcing to the public that iphone 3G is available. This leaves the consumers curious to find out about the different services and offers which leads them to directly contact the company or visit their webiste or service desks.

Both ads are informational/rational appeals which focuses on the consumer’s practical and functional need for the product.

Rewind: History of Print Advertising

Advertisements can be found in several forms and in several places, but one of the oldest and the most significant form is print advertising. Let us go back in time to see how it all started...

This advertising strategy started way back in 1468 during the days of William Caxton when he promoted a book that had his 1st printed advertisement.

After which in 1704, Joseph Campbell moved on to include ads in Boston Newsletter. This in fact was a great idea since people started becoming well informed regarding certain people and products.

In 1833 period, Benjamin Day got his 'New York Sun' book printed which was a combination of advertising vehicle and news.

After this, the 'Edward Book of Ladies Home Journal' created a magazine ad code during 1910. Since this period, print advertising started evolving with more attention seeking designs.

Print ads stand effective only if people view them. When people look through several publications, they get a tendency to receive new details and become more observant about the things that interest them.

This form of advertising aims to attract more and more people towards their services and products, as and when they read or scan publications. Such ads are commonly seen in magazines, newsletters and newspapers. This type of advertising requires lots of planning which is done often by a group of individuals.

When we glance through the history of print media advertising, we get these concepts:

• A group of individuals are required for creating ideas which further develops into a concept.

• Several others are involved in placing these concepts appropriately, since this factor earns them more cash.

Finally, print media advertising becomes a major part of earning revenue for any publication.

Different companies, Different execution

Here’s another pair of advertisements to compare and analyze

Two different companies

Two different parts of the world

Yet same product!! Take a look..

Hayat and Blue Waters are two companies that sell water, one is for Arab countries and the other is for the West.

You can notice in both advertisement that the brand is trying to sell a product. However, the ad that is targeting Arab countries uses a celebrity to advertise for the product. When you first see the ad you won’t understand what the ad really means, because the product is placed in the corner of the ad with the brand name under it. The celebrity took all the attention from the main message that the advertisers are trying to sell.

You can see that it is difficult for an individual to receive the intended message. The background  of the ad sends mixed messages for the audience, which makes it confusing and hard to understand. The layout and the design of the ad doesn’t support the product been advertised. It is hard to notice what is the goal or the purpose of the ad.

In the second ad, Blue Water send a direct message for the audience which is to advertise for their product and sell it. The way they placed the logo of the brand  and the picture of the water bottles grabs the audience attention because they are positioned in a place at the subject’s eye level.

Even the lighting and the design of the ad attracts the audience attention because the colors represents water and nature. It makes an individual thirsty when he or she first sees the ad. The motto “ join the blue crew” and the way the font is used matches the theme of the ad.

Both ad uses emotional appeals to relates the consumer’s social and psychological needs for purchasing the product. But not all the ad were successful in delivering the intended message to their target audience. I think the Arab based ad could have used more creativity and effort to push their product to be more noticable. I don't think that they always need a celebrity to promote a product, because thats when advertisers tend to make the mistake of focusing on the celebrity rather than the actual product.

Why print ads?

Why did we choose print ads??? If you're following us on twitter @printad101, you can tell how much we favor print ads.

Although marketers have gravitated towards more online advertising in the past couple of years, print advertising still remains as the most effective!! This is good news because now you can be sure that print is still going to be around for quite a while.

Lets look at the main benefits of print advertising...

1. Specific target audience: helps enhance sales figures and there is no wastage of resources as ads get to reach the target audience
2. Royal readerships: in the print media industry, readership is mostly longstanding and loyal.
3. Special ad positioning: advertisers can request special and positioning which will bring greater visibility to the brand. This is also commercially more effective as potential buyers would notice it
4. Credibility: Magazines create a large number of loyal readers who feel safe in its very credible environment, unlike online advertising
5. Long life span: compared to websites or national newspapers, magazines enjoy the longest life span
6. High Reach Prospective: magazines containing print advertisements get passed from family to friends to customers and so on
7. Glossy Ads: these are usually trend setting and eye catching and the best thing is that everybody loves to look again at glossy ads

...Still thirsty?

Other than passing on the basics of analyzing print advertisements, one of our main goals for this blog is to compare ads based in the Gulf with ads from other parts of the world.

You may notice that advertisers change their advertisement based on the region, but they do not change the product. Let us look into some examples ...

Pepsi uses different advertisements for its target audience

The colors  red, blue, and white symbolized Pepsi and represents the brand image. The layout, logo and of the ads are the same, yet the visual appearance or the model used is different depending on the region  that is been targeted.

Both ad targets football fans and players, however, the geographic location is different. One is targeted for Arab countries, and the other is targeted for West countries.

It seems that Pepsi paid more on the ad of David Bekham than it did for the ad in Arabic, because Bekham is an icon of football that is known globally, and the ad could also be used to target audience globally from all regions. However, the one in Arabic uses icons from Egypt football players that might be known only in the Arab region.

Pay attention to detail!!! Notice that the Arab based one has a group of football players, since most Arabs countries are known as collectivists. The Western based one focuses only on Beckham, even though you can see bodies in the background, they are not important..and this is to support individualism.

Another point to notice is the location of the logo.. First look at the Arab based one, the logo is placed behind the group of football players, but it is still noticable. Now look at the Western based one, which has the a large sized logo beside Beckham.

Also, the Arab based ad is a temporary ad because it can only be used during the African Football Cup 2006 in Egypt, which is the overall theme. The Western based ad doesnt follow a specific theme and it is not binded by a certain period of time.

Pepsi has different ads to be advertised for different segments, and these two ads are targeting football players and fans as mentioned previously. 

Pepsi doesn’t need to sell its product, so the purpose of the ad is to or what is called as an advertising appeal is to remind the audience about the brand and its image.



The same concept is applied for Coca Cola  as it did for Pepsi, yet different audience is been targeted.

Coca Cola used an Arab singer as a model, and in the other ad it used two Indian actors to represent it.

The Arab ad targets the Arab region, while the other ad targets Indians mostly. There is no specific demographic segmentation used for the ad, but the geographic location was segmented. For each area or region, the models changes based on the location so that the audience in that location will recognize the brand and relate to it.

The colors red, white and yellow represents the brand image

Pay attention to detail!! Notice that the Arab based ad uses the standard logo in a medium size, whereas the Indian based ad uses a different logo which is black and a smaller size and mentions a website.

Another difference is the background. The Arab based ad uses the Coca Cola colors, whereas the Indian based ad uses plain white.

Also, the actors in the Indian based ad are dressed casually and seen happy and smiling unlike in the Arab based ad where the singer is shown wearing an evening gown with a sparkling microphone and a serious face expression. 

The purpose of both ads is to remind the audience about the product as Pepsi was doing

Thirsty?

Instead of using one simple print advertisement to show you how to use the 4 steps to analyze….We decided that we should give a brief, overall analysis on the changes in one company’s print advertisements over the years.

The company we chose is Coca-cola!

Why did we chose Coca-cola? Not only because they’re known for their print advertisements, but more importantly because people remember them!!!

This link has all the Coca-cola ad pictures from oldest to latest http://www.dirjournal.com/internet-journal/the-visual-tour-into-coca-cola-print-advertising/

 The link shows the company’s print advertisement from the early 1890 all the way to 2002…

Looking through the ads, there are a few obvious things that you can notice:

• They used illustrated ads that look like vintage paintings from 1890 to 1929
• They upgraded in 1950 to still photos for their ads
• At the beginning they used slogans along with at least a 3 line description explaining the advertisement
• Most of the advertisements feature more than one person, which is a symbol of hospitality, friendship, sharing, companionship ..etc.
• The people in the ads are always smiling to show that their happiness comes from Coca-cola, which also connects friends
• The ads get simpler, more colorful, and less crowded with the years
• The time period that the ad is published in determines the slogan along with the theme (ex: during Christmas time)
• All the advertisements show even the slightest hint of red color, which is the company’s main color. Even though the logo is usually placed in the bottom corner or located somewhere on the actual ad, the advertiser did this to create a memorable brand image
• 1993 they associated their drink to a polar bear. You can tell that this wasn’t appealing since they were very quick to turn around the concept
• From 2002, they began linking the Coca-cola drink to colors, as a way to describe the Coke side of life
• During the 1990’s, Coca-cola used the same strategy that they started out with, and that was to use illustrations, but they updated it by using animations instead
• The advertisers want people to associate the drink with happiness, and feeling good..

From this we want you to learn that analyzing or deconstructing an advertisement doesnt always mean to uncover the hidden details or meanings. Analyzing is more than that..

The most important parts of an advertisement is to figure out the idea, target, and intention!