My project is a social media advertisement for the surf school Barefoot Boardriders. The advert's purpose is to set the surf school apart from the others and showcase the lessons as a blissful experience for the whole family to enjoy. It follows a fun narrative built upon a vast knowledge and understanding of advertising and relevant media techniques. Watching the advert, you’ll follow a surfing school student as they embark upon a blissful adventure, with themes of 60s surfing and thrilling adventure. 

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To work towards a final advertisement which connects with the target audience and communicates the narrative concisely, I set up a list of aims and objectives, giving myself a clear pathway to achieving my envisioned result. My aims centered around grabbing the target audience's attention to clearly convey the brand identity of Barefoot Boardriders. Furthermore, I planned how I would obtain and maintain an audience's attention using advertising techniques and communicate the brand identity through the media techniques I would go on to research.

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I've prepared for creating this project by using qualitative research methods including content analysis of similar adverts and conducted a google form to gather audience feedback. Looking into other adverts I’ve found inspiration in the common uses of mise-en-scene to convey an exciting atmosphere and support the theme and atmosphere of my advert. I’ve investigated surf adverts from the 60s and surf school adverts from the modern day, learning what different types of acting, props, costumes, colours and more can contribute to creating an exaggerated, amusing and yet informative film. To thoroughly analyse this media, I had to develop a more in-depth perception of what techniques made other adverts effective by looking into the codes and conventions of surf school adverts and social media adverts in general. Once I knew what I was searching for, it was easier to take inspiration from the adverts that I’d analysed to support making my advert reach its purpose. 

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Visually, my project used a wide range of techniques to achieve the overall theme and message. I wanted to use mise-en-scene techniques to enhance the appeal of surf lessons to the audience. To do this, I considered the lighting, colours, graphic overlays, and character’s emotions. The advert is filmed in the sun to create a bright and happy mood; this mood is highly driven by the first shot of the main subject as they gaze into the sun, the camera slowly panning around them. High-key lighting is usually associated with positivity and can create an energetic mood with the way it adds vibrancy to a shot, so its use in my advert aids in accomplishing my aims. Colours are another useful aid in visual storytelling aesthetically and semiotically, influencing the audience' s perception of the mood and narrative. Throughout my project, I’ve included bright colours, mainly yellow, in the mise-en-scene of each shot in the form of props, locations, costumes, colour grading and graphics, most notably in the costume of the main character. As per my research I’ve found yellow typically represents happiness and excitement, yet again helping me achieve the exciting, joyful atmosphere I’m aiming for. On top of this, the inclusion of bright colours is a nod to the influence of new colour technology in the 60s. Graphically, the main concept of my advert is a visual representation of a message on a postcard sent from the main character to a friend. I’ve taken inspiration from 60s postcards to encapsulate the 60s essence all through my advert. The inspiration can mainly be found in my choice of fonts in the establishing shot at the beginning and the end screen. Using Adobe Illustrator, I adjusted the fonts and masked the text with a picture of a beach to emulate the postcards focal attribute. Additionally, the hyperbolic happiness and acting portrayed by the actors is conventional to both the 60s theme, since acting in the 60s utilised a pronounced, theatrical style, and the exciting atmosphere of the project, showing the extreme happiness of the surf school students to encourage the audience to seek that same joy themselves. 

 Auditorily, Beach Boys inspired, non-diegetic music is the primary source of creating the essence and excitement of the surfing experience. The song serves as a motif in this surf school advert, evoking the spirit of surfing culture and adding a sense of nostalgia. The upbeat track is one of the main assets that generates the joyful tone of the advert. Also, I have included a creative interpretation of foley to enhance the impact of certain scenes, feed into the dramatic style of 60s film and add an element of amusement to the atmosphere. Finally, I’ve included diegetic sound effects of waves crashing and birds crying to not only create a sense of excitement and adventure for the audience once again, but also a sense of escape and freedom, intending to invoke the audience’s desire for a getaway. 

These techniques combined effectively channel my theme and purpose, help further drive the narrative and hopefully persuade the target audience to book their surf lessons with Barefoot Boardriders for a fun adventure. 

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The audience reception to my advert was collected through an online survey. The audience was asked specific questions to give me an insight into the effectiveness of my techniques in producing an advert that aligns with my original aims. From assessing the audience's feedback, the advert has bestowed a positive opinion of the company and surf lessons on the audience. The audience commented on the fun and exciting theme created by the 60s inspired narrative, telling me I successfully reached my aims and objectives in this project. 

 

During this project's creation, there were many problems, but by implementing creative problem solving, I worked past them. Firstly, the originally planned schedule ended up not working out for some of the actors. Luckily this gave me a chance to focus on developing the shots I was able to film to be more intricate than I thought I’d be able to achieve. I also had the opportunity to gather test shots, review them on a computer and prepare to make any adjustments to the plan for filming again the next day. Unfortunately, one of my main narrative driving shots didn’t end up as I imagined, and I needed a last-minute replacement. By breaking down the problem, I realised I could generate some ideas to reinvent the narrative, making it work without the original shot. Finally, I concluded that changing the concept to be the visual reading of a postcard would be the most effective idea because it would solve the original issue while advancing my initial concept. 

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Evaluating the content of my creative media project has highlighted the focal aspects which measure my success in reaching my aims. Considering my intentions in each auditory and visual technique used and comparing it to the feedback from the audience, I am extremely happy with the extent I have reached my objectives. From my findings, the themes, narratives and attentive use of research have allowed me to create an advert that stands out against competitors. It uniquely positions Barefoot Boardriders in the market due to its entertainment factor and rather than being purely informational or a montage of footage, a compelling narrative is used to show the audience how the company values their customer's experience. This idea is backed up by the advert's reviews from the target audience. Each step taken has overall produced an advertisement that clearly translates the company’s ethos and purpose to an audience. Theories like reception theory and semiotics theory are to thank for being able to execute my visions and intentions clearly for an audience to correctly interpret. Although, from personally evaluating the advert and considering the outside reviews, there didn’t appear to be as much consideration into the ability of the instructors as I’d originally aimed to achieve. I think improving on this aim would have refined the company's messaging and given the target audience a bigger push to consider learning with Barefoot Boardriders. Luckily the aim of enticing the audience still stood strong. Overall, I have executed an advertisement which did well in its aims and objectives and accomplished the main purpose of creating an enticing, entertaining and informative advertisement for Barefoot Boardriders.