This project is my entry for the Big Bang Competition 2016 , consisting an advertising campaign for a new brand of IFO (Identified Flying Object)
The whole idea for this campaign revolved around young adults and adults acting and behaving like big kids most males do it and it is very relatable. When I was younger whilst visiting a comic shop in London me and my mum spent ages looking for my dad low and behold he was engrossed looking at the action figures. I wanted to reach out to the consumer and make a brand of frisbee that appeals to the younger generation but at the same time could appeal to older siblings and parents e.t.c. I heavily researched the IFO market and was inspired by the Nerf ‘Zombie Strike’ campaign is was bright vibrant and in general made the product look fun. More or less all of the advertising campaigns Nerf has , takes the form of a large battle and an exaggerated threat that is meant to look fun and appealing for there target audience. Instead of using there actors as simply models using the products , Nerf gives them another layer turning them into video game like characters using the desired product. This is something the younger generation could relate to and capture there imaginations. This was my starting point !
From the start I knew I wanted to make an exciting and bold advert but with my ideas I always think ‘Ridiculous first’ in other words I get all the themes and ideas out that I couldn't possibly make and then try to simplify them , but it really does work ! In my advert Mr HeroGlider saves a damsel in distress , but that wasn't my first idea , I wanted him grappling down a skyscraper like spiderman and protecting the innocent from the villains , but of course this wasn't going to happen. Once I had created the superhero that would appear across the whole campaign I could then work that into the advert. It didn't matter that going into a dream was cliche and saving a damsel in distress was what nearly every superhero film is about as all these factors drove the advert even further. When I thought about who would be in the advert it made more sense to cast a brother and sister as the act in the advert is something a young adult would potential dream about and envision.
For the actual products this was quite a tricky part , as essentially the ‘HeroGilders’ are just frisbees with different designs on but it was the psychology behind the product that I think would work. Theres always drive behind toys that have more than one theme and a ‘collect them all’ phrase attached to them , from the trading card games to Pokemon kids love collecting things and thats when I fell upon the idea to brand each frisbee as a superpower. Every frisbee bought would have a different power attached. Although its going off the main topic but every frisbee could contain a small comic book or even a small action figure , that gives the younger audience an incentive to buy each product , and for older or younger audiences the advert can still work the same way , with an older audience could thinking “yeah thats something I would do” and the younger audience could think “wow I wanna be that superhero and have them powers”.
As a whole what I like about this campaign is that it is very versatile and contains many selling points. The social media side to the campaign has the versitility to continue expanding but at the same time it maintains a simple theme , to simply get people involved with the product which is what a social media piece has to do. The possibility for a campaign like this is nearly endless more heroes could be created and even villains , creating more products with different themes and even turn adverts into small mini series animations.