OUGD503 Collaborative Practice - Evaluation

OUGD503 - Studio Brief 2/Collaborative Practice 

Evaluation

The resolution to the brief is successful in redefining Gap as the ultimate denim destination for a new key demographic. Stepping away from Gaps previous advertising conventional allows this campaign to boldly target the 25-35-year-old demographic clearly through the new marketing style. The playful aesthetic is inspired by a study into the ‘golden age of youth’. This positions this target demographic within the youth marketing bracket using colloquial and playful illustrations to appeal to an unadulterated sense of fun.

The aesthetic of the campaign will resonate with the target audience; who, from Gaps consumer profile are ‘bold, diverse and boundary-less’. The Illustrations are specially developed to articulate diversity which positions the brand to send a statement of inclusion to its customers, this works especially well in appealing to the ‘individual’ and creating connotations that Gaps denim collection is tailored to fit their body. The Illustrations also remove negative issues often associated with the advertising industry such as sex, body image, culture and race, this aesthetic removes these problems in communicating this statement of inclusion that further appeal to the individual consumer in a playful engaging manner. The aesthetic is highly detailed with the colour palette defined by the colourful buildings situated around San Francisco, creating more abstract links to the bands heritage.

Restrictions of the brief such as Facebooks 20% text rule on advertising meant there was extensive problem solving and development through the education of the four major aspects of Gaps denim collection. Psychographic profiling identified the busy-on-the-go lifestyle of this demographic which founded the concept of using bold high impact statements to catch their eye supported by a campaign website to fully explain the benefits of Gap denim. This works well in creating a series of engaging high impact infographics that articulate each benefit of the denim collection creating continuity across the campaign. These infographics works well in a social media context to be seen at a glance when flicking through their feeds which can later be fully explained to them through the campaign website. This acts as a centralized focal point for the campaign bringing all the different stands into one succinct platform, the aesthetic is consistent with the rest of the campaign and the engaging user experience will further appeal to the audience both during and after interacting with the site.

Analysing previous retail campaigns, I identified they often utilise a range of different platforms to fully articulate their campaign. With this in mind we considered that practical applications of the campaign identifying retail continuity as a big impact factor, translating the campaign imagery into store will create a stronger product link with the campaign and will allow it to become more distinct, being adopted into the audiences daily lives, from seeing the in-store graphics and window displays which will gain more effective recall when interacting with the social media side of the concept and vice versa.

Working collaboratively had its difficulties to overcome such as working to two different work schedules being on two differently demanding degree programmes however I feel we have worked efficiently individually meeting set deadlines and finding time to come together to discuss ideas and development. I couldn’t have completed the brief without my creative partner as he developed the engaging illustrations that make up a large part of the success of the resolution interpreting my concept extremely to effective articulate the concept to this new demographic. We have both worked well bringing our individual specialisms to the brief that resulted in an engaging resolution that fits the brief and satisfied us both as creatives.