Assessment 3 student guidance
A3 submission housekeeping
You are to include 4 ad concepts but a maximum of 1 ad concept from any one brief. You have been
given 5 briefs this term, so you should choose your 4 strongest from among these.
Your 100-word explanation is meant to be a written “pitch” (a proactive presentation of why your
crazy, novel, creative idea will solve the advertising problem). This means it should convince your
tutors why your ad will be persuasive and successful. It should not simply attempt to describe the
contents of your ad or to explain how any symbolism should be decoded. The best way to structure
these is to 1) explain the idea behind your ad that provides an unusual or surprising way of
presenting the product/brand to the audience and why this way of presenting it will have impact; 2)
explain what creative tools you are using to increase the impact and persuasiveness of your unusual
idea, how you are applying them, and why you feel they will make the idea more persuasive.
When organizing your submission, as always, please include your name, student ID number, class
and teacher name. Then, include your 100-word explanation before/above your ad. This way, we
have an introduction to your idea before evaluating how persuasive you have been able to make
that idea. Repeat this format for each of your 4 ads. Include all 4 ads in the same document – with
the 100-word explanation and image of your ad on each page if possible. This should result in a 5-
page document: 1 cover page and 1 page for each of the 4 ad concepts.
Creative guidance
Don’t forget that the whole purpose of creative advertising is to intrigue and involve our audience
enough that their imagination and puzzle-solving abilities are engaged enough, that they develop
their own beliefs about the product or brand that the ad is for (rather than us directly telling them
what to think, believe or do). However, the creative idea must be based on the message outlined in
the proposition within the creative brief.
I’ll refer quite a bit here to the idea of “intrigue”:
Intrigue definition: “to interest someone a lot, especially by being strange, unusual, or mysterious”.
Intriguing your audience is very useful because it helps to involve them in your ad.
Some final tips to guide you to better achieve this, that are also the basis of the A3 assessment
criteria are:
1. Have a defamiliarized idea: this is an unusual, intriguing way of thinking about the product and or
the way the consumer interacts or thinks about the product. This is useful because novelty and
intrigue break audience habitualisation and capture the attention and the imagination of the target
audience. For example, a usual way of thinking about a car is for transportation – but an unusual
way of thinking about a car is as an object to make others jealous or to feel free (by driving fast or
using it to escape the stressful and crowded city, etc).
2. Don’t use symbolism: while you may feel clever in being able to convert a thought into a visual
analogue – a symbolic interpretation of that thought - this cleverness typically overwhelms or
confuses target audience because it becomes hard work for them to decode what you mean by the
use of that symbolic object. It is better to incorporate a summary of that thought in your headline
than to convert it into a symbol.
3. Try to create a puzzle: making your headline contradict your image creates a puzzle and engages
the imagination of your audience in solving that puzzle. If your headline is essentially saying the
same thing your image is, tweak your headline to create this contradiction. Once you’ve created this
puzzle, you may need to also add a sub headline as a clue to help your audience solve the puzzle in a
way that leaves them thinking the idea you want them to. But of course, make sure your puzzle is
not too difficult to solve.
4. Use headlines that imply or suggest – don’t directly tell or say: be careful of headlines that
promise, claim or tell something directly, as our cynical audience will typically just not believe a
direct claim. Indirect headlines engage the audience’s imagination enough to make them believe the
craziest things are at least possible. “This will make you attractive”, “You should stay sober”, “This
will give you confidence” etc. are examples of direct claims that should be avoided.
5. Use headlines to imply or reveal an interesting story: interesting storytelling is an effective way
to intrigue audiences. Think creatively about the characters in your ad: is there a surprising or
unusual thing they are doing/have done, that connects to the product/brand, that might intrigue the
audience. Try to imply this in your headline.
6. Make sure your idea/your ad is “on-brief”: no matter how interesting or involving your ad might
be, if it does not convey the idea required in the brief, it is a wasted effort. It is not solving the client
problem. Go back to read the proposition in the brief and make sure the idea in your ad is saying this
message in a creative way.
Finally, I suggest you show each of your ads to friends/family who do not know what the brief asked
for. Ask them 2 questions, without introducing or describing the ad at all:
a) “What is this ad saying to you?”
b) “How does this ad make you feel”
The answers to these questions will provide you helpful feedback on whether your ad is on-brief and
has the tone/personality required in the brief.
I hope this has been helpful as you refine your ads!
James


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