"Animoji Yourself" Ad & Shawn Mendes "Stitches"

Apple- “Animoji Yourself” Advert

This advert is playful throughout and doesn’t take itself too seriously. The choice of music that is played for the duration of the advert, “All night” by Big Boi, makes the advert feel fun and upbeat. This would attract the struggler audience as they enjoy colour and visual impacts whilst seeking escape. The song helps this as it is likely to stay with you throughout the rest of the day. The humour in the advert, shown through the silly faces and dancing, would capture the audience as this also helps to fulfil their need to escape. In addition to this audience, the mainstream audience would be captured by this advert, too. Mainstreamers respond well to big established brands and, since Apple is a well know brand all across the world, their adverts would grab their attention. They also look for products that have value for money. This is something that the advert promotes throughout as it shows all the different things you are able to do with this new feature. Furthermore, the third audience this would appeal to are the aspirers. This is because this group lives their life based on other’s opinions and perceptions of themselves. They would feel as though they would need to buy this product as Apple is a well-known brand and something that is used by a lot of people. Because of this, they would want to fulfil the need for prominence and affiliation so that they could fit in with those around them.

Overall, I think the advert’s target audience is one of youthful people, such as teenagers. This is because youthful people are known to use emojis a lot over text messages and all over social media. The advert aims to grab this audience through keeping the whole layout and composition fairly simple with a white background and colourful emojis. This makes the advert seem appealing as it seems exciting and new to the younger audience. As well as this, a youthful audience are more likely to want to fulfil the need for affiliation. This need is addressed through depicting text message conversations and by showing the three animojis in a row, connoting that the consumer’s social life is thriving because of the product. Moreover, the woman used in the advert to demonstrate the product is Alana Grezata who is a model and is well known on Instagram for being a stylist. This will appeal to the more youthful audience as they are likely to know who the model is as they would also use Instagram a lot, too. The use of an influential figure in the advert will appeal to the mainstream audience as they will want to buy the product if they are a fan of the person or aspire to be like them.

“Stitches” Music Video by Shawn Mendes

The video challenges the conventional pop music videos as it uses a different setting and lighting. Usually, the setting of a pop video would be on a beach or at a party. In contrast, the Stitches music video is set in an empty car park where there is dim lighting. This would particularly appeal to the explorer audience as it is completely different to our expectation of a pop video. This type of audience are the first to try new ideas and experiences so they would enjoy a different type of video to what we are normally shown.

Furthermore, the aspirer audience is also a part of the audience profile. This is because they respond to what other perceive of them. The video is well known to the more youthful audience, with more than one billion YouTube views, so an aspirer would not want to be left out. This also aims to fulfil the need for prominence as many people would be talking about it. Moreover, the mainstream audience would also enjoy this video as they respond well to big established brands. The artist featured in the video, Shawn Mendes, is well known . This would capture this audience’s attention as the person is popular and has an established brand. The video also uses an appeal of shock factors through showing the person being thrown around and getting hurt. This, again, challenges the stereotypical music video as we expect connotations of happiness and love.

By Hannah Billington