Baby Ads Analysis

Advertising and its Role in Communication

Advertising is a form of contact in which suppliers interact with buyers of their products and services. They are designed to educate, reassure, and remind consumers about market goods and services. In today's world, advertisers use any available medium to spread their message, especially through social media. It is important for businesses to sell their labels in order to acquire or retain a sizable market share. Online, billboards, tv, flyers, radio, and the newspaper are some of the mediums used to attract customers. Advertisement target audiences are different, much as customers in a retail situation. For an advert to be appealing to a particular group, the advertisers have to invent creative ways to capture the attention of the specific audience and impress them as well. It should be presented in such a manner that with which the public would love to be associated. This paper gives some example of adverts and analyses their effectiveness in reaching out to the consumer.

The Importance of Creativity and Persuasiveness in Advertising

Certain aspects need to be considered in the efforts of attaining efficiency. They include memorability and persuasiveness. Top brands use messages that aim at capturing the attention of the audience and enlivening their morale. These campaigns are based on psychological insights to create credibility and awareness. A good advert should convince the customer that the product or service is the best one can get in the market. The art of achieving loyalty, trust, and goodwill from the consumers is essential in advertising.

An Effective Advert: Evian's "Baby and Me" Campaign

To begin with, the Evian Mineral Water Company has captured our attention with their recent advert that portrays the image of a child in the consumer's inner self. The 'Baby and me' campaign's message is to "unleash your inner baby." The message is clearly depicted in the ad. It commences with a young man walking down the street and comes across his reflection on a bus door glass. The image captures his attention, and he draws closer than before, but the bus drives off. He then confirms his doubts by looking at himself in a car mirror. He then proceeds to a store mirror and sees his image as a baby dressed in a similar fashion. He dances to see if the baby would be able to follow the moves. He looks around to confirm that he has not lost his mind. A girl passes by and catches a glimpse of the man's baby reflection. She is shocked to see a baby that resembles her staring back at her. The baby gal is also dressed like her. As the two dance and laugh at their baby reflections, other passers bye and an old woman walking her dog join in the dance.

This advertisement lies in the reinforcement category. It gives an emphasis on its different and outstanding aspect it has over its competitors, that of its water's purity. Its purpose in this context is to foster improved market dominance as well as attract new customers. The message portrayed by the advertisers is that their water can keep the consumers young at heart. It brings into focus the societal norm, where everyone wants to become young even as they age with time. In other words, it creatively puts across the fact that living young is as a result of one's psychological state and not necessarily the physical state. In the aspect of sociality, the babies and adults dance in groups. The dance is a social interaction tool which brings together strangers in a socially acceptable and admirable manner. They are from different races, but they unite in a common platform, brought together by the "Evian effect."

The Role of Humor and Music in Advertisements

Moreover, the commercial appeals to humor. Humor is essential in capturing and maintaining the attention. Advertisements with a sense of humor attract the audience to watch, laugh and remember it. The fun appeal enhances the moods of the consumers, and they associate the happy mood with the service or product.

Interestingly, the song playing in the advert is a1990s hit song "Here comes the hot stepper." The remixed song has a Jamaican reggae style that is appealing to the listeners and induces them to dance to the tune. This aspect is used efficiently, and it makes the audience follow up in the commercial as they get in line with it, thanks to the music. The advert is in the theme of Evian's slogan, "Evian, Live young."

Improving the Evian Ad and the Effectiveness of the eTrade Baby Campaign

The advert is off the hook regarding creativity. However, there are some modifications I would put in place, were I the marketing manager of the campaign. First and foremost, the name of the campaign "Baby & me" brings to mind two different personalities, probably a parent with an encounter with a baby. I would change its name to "Baby me." The child in this context is a verb. The idea is to portray the transformation that is depicted in the advert: the reflection of oneself at a tender age.

Besides, the direct association between the characters and the water being advertised is lacking. One would expect to see the characters drinking the water, which would then activate their baby mutation to show the nourishment associated with it. In would have the first character sipping the water from a bottle of Evian water, then pass through the bus glass and the store glass to see his reflection. The girl would then take the water from him and drink it, then show her transformation and the passers bye in the same order of events.

A few years ago, daring the Super Bowl XLII season, eTrade replaced its public image with that of a talking baby. The following day, it registered numerous new accounts than any other day of its history in existence. After a good number of promotions and NFL championships that followed, the "eTrade baby," has been labeled as one of the spectacular TV adverts. The advert features a baby in a crib, who talks in a man's voice and explains the advantages of investing with the E-Trade firm. The commercial starts with the baby talking to the dog beside his crib. The mother then comes and takes the baby's Ipad. The child makes about how he is unable to bank online then pulls out his smartphone. The aspect of technology is also a social dimension that links the advert and the consumers on a technological platform that is relational to the ongoing trends. The viewers could not resist the stock-buying baby. ETrade uses the child to illustrate how simple it is to make investments with it. In the real world, banking can be a very tedious process, but the child makes the light of it.

Although a baby is used, the target audience is the adults, who have an interest in investments. The baby talks in an appropriate manner the grownups can relate to. The child brings to surface the human element of the business world, which lures customers to associate with it. The iconic shift to the talking baby places them a notch higher above other online broking firms. ETrade uses this method of advertising for six years consecutively before changing to other ideas. The advert is a favorite among many viewers who even go ahead to share it on social media, a proof of its effectiveness to the point of spreading out across other media, propelled by the consumers themselves.

However, the minds behind it had no idea that it would turn out to be such a game changer. When the idea was conceived, the agency concerned was not sure whether it was an icebreaker or just a regular advert the consumers were used to seeing.

Despite the skyrocketed effect of the talking baby, the maintenance of increased business deals is essential. The advert turns more entertaining in the long run and loses its value. I would highly recommend a more adult focused advert to maintain the number of accounts with the firm. When the advert comes into being, it plays its role of showing customers that online investing is easy and even a baby would do so it. However, the advert overstays, and there is a need to make a replacement after a short while and rather than the six year period. If the same form of an advert is repeated for long, it becomes boring and necessitates innovation to appeal to the morale of the target group.

Conclusion

Advertisements are cultural intermediaries, which link the consumers and the advertisers. The advertisers use their platform to explain their products to the customers. Advertisements are dissertations that construct the world both culturally and socially. As portrayed in this paper, the choice of ads is crucial in convincing the consumers about the effectiveness of the product. An appealing ad captures and maintains the attention of the audience, and avoids ambiguity when passing the message across. For them to be effective they should have something that the public can relate to, such as current trends that people admire.