Decoding Nokia's Advertising Campaign - Case Study Example

Decoding an Advertising Campaign www.6300phones.com. Introduction Requirements for a good advertisement include the fact that it must not only capture the attention of its audience but must also be capable of communicating its intended message to the target audience. For instance, under the gsmmobileshop.com, (2010) advertisement for Nokia N8, emphasise has been imposed on the product because one phone is advertised using three different advertising methods, this being the advertisement itself, a video and a commercial and yet they are passing the same message home. Nokia Company Nokia is a global telecommunication company with a large international market following. It is a multinational organisation from Finland and is the largest cell phone company with a 30% share in the global market. Its revenue annually is forty billion euros and has employers in more than one hundred and twenty countries, 6300mobile, (2012). The Nokia N8 series was first released on 30th September 2010 and is known to be the first device with Symbian 3 operating system, gsmmobileshop.com, (2010). It has a capacitive touchscreen and is the first Nokia phone with multi-touch. The advert Theme What Will You Do With It, Make it your own Discourse: The idea that you have many options at your disposal Signifier: The background music and the images that pop up in tandem to the words of the music Signified: The advertisement opens up with two open hands of two different colours, blue and maroonish, and the background music wording state that ‘I didn’t have anything to do, until I received a call’ Then both the hands make a stance like what the magicians do before performing a magical act and we see a Nokia phone with the screen saver having the image of two hands greeting each other, Then the blue hand ushers us into a world: and we see clouds with names like Symbian, OVI Store and 3 home screens. Here we also see the sun shining brightly in between the clouds. Images of different types begin moving round in circles, houses and buildings with satellite connections on the roofs, a gift box, a shopping bag marked OVI, the cinema hall, the time clock. Different features of the Nokia N8 are displayed on the screen and each time a different colour of phone is shown with the wordings. These wordings include Make It Your Own - Where we see a Nokia N8 phone with two hands greeting each other on the screen. Personalise Your Apps – this is where we see images of the shopping bag marked OVI, we see a maroon gift box, a cinema hall. Be social – where by different signs depicting Facebook, tweeter and other social media platforms are displayed, Take stunning 12 MP Pictures – Shows a Nokia N8 gold in colour but in the shape of a camera taking pictures Shoot your masterpiece in HD – where we see an image of a studio Shooting activities of a maroonish space craft, hovering round in a scenario that looks like the moon or open ground, Enjoy your music your way - whereby the singer says ‘close your eyes’ and we see the maroonish hand switching off the light, then the singer says ‘clear your heart’ and we see the different musical features that one may wish to listen to, Connect to your home theatre in HD – where see geographical features like the mountain side from national geographical programs and the singer says ‘cut the code, are we humans or are we dumpsters’, and seats that look like a theatre hall. Navigate for free forever – Here we see a machine-like cartoon character from the images of transformers walking towards the screen, but when the singer ‘am on my knees looking for answers’, the cartoon image changes direction and moves to the left. There is a sign written blue tooth as the image walks around. It’s not technology, it’s what you do with it come on the screen – It shows a social media page that is open on the screen. It finally asks the question ‘What Will You Do With It?’ thus pushing the viewer to make a decision since the phone is at your disposal. The advertisement generally uses the words from the singer in the background music to pass a message in a very interesting way. The two hands, blue and maroonish in colour, depict the image of electronics as they are made up of chip-like bubbles. Although the two hands on the screen of the phone both belong to a white race thus depicting the origin of the Nokia phone, they give the perception of two people getting connected. The visual displays also make a statement and make the advertisement interesting even as one learns the features of the Nokia N8 phone. The wordings that keep popping up further emphasise the message leaving no doubt on the person watching the advertisement of the benefits of purchasing the Nokia N8 phone, gsmmobileshop.com, (2010). The Nokia N8 Introduction Video The Video The Theme What Colour Are You The Discourse: The idea that there is a variety of colour preferences to choose from. The Signifier: Tags lines with words in them describing the different features and phone type displays of different colours and shapes. Instrumental music is played in the background. Signified: The word Personalise comes up with the image of the Nokia N8 phone shown at the centre, then tags from the left and right hand side hang down with wordings ‘Easily Customizable 3 home Screen’ and ‘Download 1000 of Apps with the OVI store’. Here the gsmmobileshop.com, 2010 video advertisement tries to put across the message that multiple home screens personalising has been made easy. The word socialise comes up and images of Facebook (f) sign, tweeter and @ signs comes up enabling the public to visualising accessing these items in the social media. A tag hangs down with the words ‘upload photo-plugs; add tweets and photos or more. The word Enjoy Music comes up with pictures of radio connections, CD and DVD, symbol of the guitar symbolizing and other instruments depicting classical music and a tag showing ‘up to 32 GB of music. Play wherever you are in games you want are words that come with cartoon animation figures depicting the kind of games you could play from your phone while passing time. Shoot great 12MP Photos show clear photos giving the viewer the impression that they would get spectacular images through the Nokia N8 phone. Tags drop down with the words ‘Carl Seizz Optic’ and ‘Xenon Flush’. The words, Create your own HD movies, a man and woman are seen dancing in the video and images of cameras hanging form on top on each side seen taking shots at them. A tag with the words ‘High definition filming crystal clear videos’ hangs down. The words OVI Maps come with a tag line ‘Fantastic-Free life turning navigation’ giving the impression that driving or walking you may never ever get lost. Tags written ‘HOMI Connection’ and Dolby digital plus. The Home Theatre tag line comes with words hanging from a tag written ‘High definition movies’ that give the impression that entertainment in the home arena will be sterning. Finally, the winding up words ‘What Colour Are You? Come up with seven different coloured Nokia N8 phones in different sizes and shapes. They come in Blue, Yellow/Gold, White, Grey, Orange and Pink giving the impression that people of different nations are of different colour schemes and textures and that Nokia N8 connects people of all walks of life from different countries. This advertisement gives the notion to members of the public that the Nokia N8 comes in a variety of shapes, sizes and colours and that one needs only pick their preference from the wide choices available. The words below the phone display, ‘What Colour Are You’ and the physical display of all the variety of phones in their different colour schemes suggests that people of different races, be they black, white, yellow/ gold, red, could use and benefit from the usage of the phone. The blue background behind where the phones are displayed is a cool, calm and decisive colour depicting stability and confidence. The brand name, Nokia and its brand tagline ‘Connecting with People’ give the impression that people from all walks of life are connected through Nokia N8, gsmmobileshop.com, (2010). Nokia N8 Commercial 1 The Commercial The Theme A Commercial Break The Discourse: The idea that people communicate about issues they face daily. The Signifier: A train ride or office coffee break session where people talk about one or two challenges they face in life. Signified: That people may readily boost your sales directly or indirectly through talking about your product depending on how well your product serves them. That pressures of life need not bog one down, solutions are just there within one’s reach. That communication solves problems. Nokia N8 has brought two people together. That young people could be more well informed than the older folks about technology. That the world of Met and internet takes time to be understood by the older generation. Where we find two gentlemen talking either during coffee break in an office set up or in a travel station such as in a tram/ train ride. And the older of the two gentlemen says that the smartphone he was given does not work well and the younger one praises his newly acquired Nokia N8. He goes out to describe the features of the phone which include access to personalised information, in the social media, music and games as well as well performing camera and home theatre applications, gsmmobileshop.com, 2010. Conclusion In conclusion, basically the three in one advertisements are aimed at emphasising a point and convey the message that the new Nokia N8 is efficient, effective and can be used by both the young and old. The Advert uses a variety of visual images, background of colour schemes of the variety of screens, and different colour schemes of the phone. It also uses music with words that match what is happening on the screen as well as tag-lines showing the features of the Nokia N8 phone to match the images on the screen, gsmmobileshop.com, 2010. The video uses physical visual features of the phones, visual display of the different colour schemes of the Nokia N8 phone as well as different sizes and designs of the phones. The blue colour background in which the different sizes and shapes of phones that is used is also the colour that is in their brand tag-name ‘Connecting People’, gsmmobileshop.com, (2010). The Commercial uses animation or cartoon. This is so used to probably appeal to the younger people. It is shorter than the first two advertisements and uses images of two people of the human race who have slightly different colour textures suggesting they come from different races or countries. The background of the commercial is either an office set-up with the two people on a coffee break chatting before they resume duty or in a train traveling on holiday or to the office. The two people are of different age groups and from the conversation, the younger man is more knowledgeable about the Nokia N8 feature than the older man. The commercial uses verbal conversation to describe the Nokia N8 features opposed to the first two which both used written lines. The colour schemes used are white, grey, maroonish, yellow/gold and orange. The fact that the train is not crowded depicts an image of status and ease. They both do not have bulky bags or briefcases further suggesting that Nokia N8 is all one needs to get along in life, gsmmobileshop.com, (2010). The combination of the three advertisements in one is an effort to appeal to different classes of people from the teenagers to young professionals and the older adults. The adverts highlight the message that the world is really a global village and that in today’s advertising one has to put into consideration the world and the people. Technology should not be ignored at any cost as well as the youth population who form a bulk in today’s market demand, hence the use of animation and symbols of social media in the advertisement, gsmmobileshop.com, 2010. References GSM Mobile Shop, 2010, Nokia N8 ad, advert, video and commercial, retrieved 22.09.2012 from http:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKFeZbp6Sq410 and www.gsmmobileshop.com advert, video and commercial about Nokia N8 ... Nokia Company Information, 2012, retrieved on 24.09.2012 from www.6300phones.com/nokia_who_what_where_when_and_whats_n... Read More