The purpose for the short social media ads was the communicate the brands overall mission of transforming recycled materials into performative hiking equipment and clothing, the 15 second video duration meant that the videos had to share important information in a short time period but whilst still appearing as professional and trust worthy. The short form type of video is good use of promotion, mainly appearing on a range of social media platforms, with this in mind it then meant I had to capture the users attention early on to ensure they don’t scroll right past.
Both the target audience and the user personas were in mind when I was developing both of the video advertisements, with majority of the target audience being hikers who value both sustainability and overall equipment performance, this type of audience seemingly will respond better to the brands that are building the trust between the customer by showing the environmental work in which they do, as trust in the brand is one of the main factors the customer should feel towards a brand like mine. When planning the advertisements, I aimed to create something which has calm tones, simple visuals and relating messages as this would align well with both the user personas I made at an earlier point.
The design decisions of both of these advertisement were made with the constant thought out brand consistency and attention grabbing early on. For both the videos I used a still background colour to reduce the chances of the user focusing on the wrong elements of the advertisement as I want their attention to be on the message I’m sharing. The green hiking icons such as the backpacks, tents and clothing where featured to yet again reminding the user of our greener future mission, all of these elements fade in and out and have simple animations making them slightly move which makes the advertisement look more professional and engaging, avoiding the chances of the user clicking off due to boredom and poor advertisement. All the text featured had been kept minimal to sure the user has enough time to read everything they need to know within the set time frame.
Both of the videos include the same structure by using hook, clarity, impact and CTA. The hook catches the users attention through the bold text and strong visuals throughout, I’ve used quotes such as “invest in equipment made to last” and “gear that creates change”, these bold statements is what I believe the target audience wants to see, the brand confidence then strikes confidence in the customers. The clarity stage is all about explaining what the company does and what makes them different from all the competitors, In these advertisements I show clarity by highlighting the fact that all our gear is being made through the use recycled materials with the customer understanding this from the first frame of the video. The impact sections focuses on the positives regarding the user such as what do they gain out of buying from my company, in this case the user understands the brands mission and supporting the company therefore helps to create a positive environmental impact, whilst they still get great quality gear and clothing. The videos end with a clear call to action which directs the users to the next step of then purchasing some equipment, I used icons such as a shopping trolley and a mobile phone to indicate to the user that they are able to find us in store or online.
The brand personality communicated through both short videos is simple, calm and ethical, with the use of the green tones, simple text transitions and animations helping to create the sense of trust and confidence between the brand and the customer audience. In my opinion these style of videos help with displaying the brand as thoughtful and environmentally aware, avoiding coming across as aggressive or unphased. The consistency between both of the videos helps to reinforce the brand recognition and identity with users remembering the brand due to similar design pieces and styles.