Research

The first thing we need to do in the assessment is to compare two different video based adverts and two print based adverts related to the product we've chosen. Due to Justin's advisement, I've picked to do a bicycle, specifically the brand that I own which is Giant as I cycle everyday on it. Because of this I've chosen four adverts, two print and two motion, to analyse and compare.

The two print adverts I shall compare are:

An old French bicycle poster from the company "Terrot & Cie Dijon"

And another old bicycle poster, this time in English. The company in question here is "Triumph Cycles"

Meanwhile the two video adverts I shall compare are:

This 30 second Giant bike advertisement advertising the giant bike range in general
Link

This 40 second Giant bike commercial with seemingly similar goals to advertise the bike range
Link

So, I shall start with the print ads and then move onto the video ads, going over each individually before comparing the pairs.

Starting with the above French advert, I immediately notice the high use of typography at the top and the bottom along with small amounts used in the scenery. It's clear that there's a red and white theme that the type is keeping to, but interestingly there's fluidity to the font type and size with more important parts being larger, more solid and bolder while less important parts are slimmer, more calligraphic and smaller. 

Also despite the subject being very prominent, I'm rather drawn to how expansive the background is, displaying an extreme long shot depicting a mountain, a small village, some forests and the mountain trail that the subject and other cyclists appear to be on all in the same shot. This natural imploring of several different locations seems to compliment typical ideas of a bike, and are used to emphasize freedom and the ability to go anywhere and I believe is a use of pathos in this case, invoking these feelings in the audience.

The subject is a rather well dressed woman, and while I'm not well versed in the clothing style of the time, it would seem to indicate that it's for a more wealthy audience. Despite the woman's presence a lot of the bike is still visible, albeit drawn, and displays a lot of the bike's features such as the gears, wheels and frame, the front wheel being especially eye-catching with how it's in the forefront.

Finally, as a couple of notes to this, it had a rather small colour banner at the bottom which seems to be there for the purpose of making the typography pop out more and section the information attached to it from the background. Also, the entire poster is not a straight rectangle, instead being stylistically shaped likely to draw attention to it and make it more interesting. Overall, it looks very professional.

Now for the above English advert. This one also appears to be an older, more vintage poster going by the use of art rather than live images, the art style, and the layout of the poster. This time the typography is a lot more sparse but still rather bold and hard. This gives a lot more of an open feel to the poster. Also the top text is made to disappear slightly behind the subject, giving some depth to the whole thing. 

Again the thing is shot with an extreme long shot, although less of the background is shown, and there's not as many different locations shown this time therefore more emphasis is put on space than diversity.

The subject this time is shot with a low angle, having even more focus on the tire than the first poster. The lady seems more average with more emphasis put on the well drawn bike than her. To note, the lady's face is more visible, showing off her enjoyment of the product, which I would also say is pathos advertising.

Now, comparing them, there are some clear differences and similarities. The similarities are the shot types used, the apparent time period of the poster, the way the product is portrayed, their use of pathos, the use of scenery and the use of bold typefaces to show importance of certain words. The differences include the shape of the poster, the apparent wealth of the human subject, the amount of type, the use of banners and sections and the variate of sections in the shot. 

In the similarities I think the shot types, the way the product is portrayed, the use of scenery and the use of bold text are all common conventions of bicycle adverts as they all help emphasize key aspects of bikes such as power, freedom and quality. Both the time period and the specific use of pathos in these advertisements seem to be more happenstance than directly related to bike ads, but the use of pathos ties in nicely to the freedom and leisure aspects of the vehicle and is very easy to play into and get good effects.

As for the differences, I'll go through them one by one. I believe the shape of the poster is simply a stylistic choice, although the appeal and fancy of the first poster's shape could possibly draw in more wealthy and well-educated people as it connotes quality. This ties nicely into how the first woman looks more well dressed and affluent than the second, and again draws a different, more wealthy audience. The next major difference is the difference in the amount of typography on each. The first has a rather high amount of text that entails all sorts of details, possibly pointing towards more of a bike enthusiast audience rather than an average audience. On the other hand the second one has far less text, being more simplistic and open, not letting itself subtract from the main focus of the bike. Also, a minor point is that the first uses a band of red at the bottom to section off text from the rest of the image whereas the second doesn't do this. This could be to help the text stand out better or simply because the standard background isn't a good colour for the text to show up on. Finally, there is a large difference in the amount of scenes and locations in their respective extreme long shots. The first shows many more places of interest in the background than the second, giving more of an impression of freedom in the bike and how it's used.

The parts I definitely wish to include is a variety of locations, shots that clearly show the bike, a minimalistic approach to text, colour sections for text to stand on, the use of pathos to help sell and a bolder typeface.

Now, moving on, I'll compare the two video adverts I picked out. There was a large amount of said adverts I went through before narrowing it down to these two. For the most part the others were either advertising something else using a bike to make it unique, or they were far too long to do a full analysis on. Thus I picked the two mentioned before as they where close to the 30 second requirement of the assignment and is actually advertising bikes.

The first one I shall look at is the 30 second ad. The first few seconds are mainly close ups of different parts of the bikes and the location the bikes are made, causing the audience to focus on the way the bike is put together and how authentic it is. Afterwards it moves into views of the bike itself cycling, displaying how well it works and getting the audience to focus on the product with its use of medium to long shots along with pan and dolly shots to keep it in shot and keep it clear. The variety and the transition speed of these shots also help to make the bike feel faster and have better performance. The inclusion of what appear to be chest mounted handheld cameras recording the bike in action really helps add a sense of authenticity and realism for the audience. The final shot before the animated company reveal at the end is a bird's eye extreme long shot showing a cycle path surrounded by tree covered hills, playing into the themes of freedom mentioned earlier.

Now, sound-wise it starts off very quiet, creating tension by only using the sounds of what seems to be paint that's being sprayed and clangs of metal until the voice over comes in. As well as creating tension and anticipation it draws attention to the visuals and helps reinforce them. Those sounds along with sounds of the bike as it comes into play seem to swell into backing music intended to hype and add anticipation and excitement to the scenes they accompany while still synchronising with the Foley and other sounds throughout. The dialogue serves to highten and improve the visuals with what is said, emphasizing how the bikes are hand made to improve the experience the riders have. 

Overall I think this plays both into Ethos and Pathos marketing as it's playing on the feelings of the audience and how they want to ride bikes that make them feel as good as the advert says while also making the company seem more trustworthy and reliable by emphasizing how they hand make all the bikes and therefore have great quality control among other things.

Next I shall look into the 40 second ad. The video starts with big close ups of different parts and aspects of a stationary Giant bike, these shots continuing to be interspersed through the rest of the advert, soon being accompanied by wider shots of the bike being ridden through streets, being used and ridden through dryer off-road areas, and simple shots of the whole bike on it's own. Despite being ridden the focus is always kept on the bike particularly because the amount of different close ups of the bike outweigh the amount of scenes with someone was riding the bike even though they have about the same amount of screen time. This intense focus on the bike and it's components gives the audience the sense that the bike is well made and has good performance and links largely to logos advertising as it's visually showing the audience what the bike is made of and therefore how well it'd work. Accompanying these visuals are singular words appearing on screen that resonate with the concepts of a bike discussed before and use pathos to make the viewer want that bike as they want those qualities in a bike. The text fits the theme of the advert and bike advertising in general by using bold font and simpler words. Also stylistically the transparency of the font aside from the outline helps not to take away from the images they display over. It ends simply with the word Giant in the same font, linking it to the semantic field of the rest of the words while ingraining the company into the audience's head so they remember it.

As for sound, there is nothing aside from the slow heavy beat of the music, the choice of which seems to fit with the style of the bikes being practical and useful. As it's the only thing heard it draws attention to itself and gets stuck in the audience's head better, especially with its simple beat.

All in all I feel that this advert uses Logos and Pathos equally to good effect, being very simple and clear in its message yet rather open to interpretation, therefore sticking in the audience's mind easily. It feels monotonous and has a good impact through that as it very clearly differs and strays from stereotypical bike adverts yet still has a lot of the features of one.

Now, to compare them I'd say there are definitely some parallels but also differences. As for what's similar I believe they both share the use of close ups, moving shots, quick transitions, and a use of pathos. On the other hand the differences are the types of music, the use of sound, the use of typography, and the opposing use of Ethos and Logos.

Going more in depth into the similarities, the use of close ups in both is used to accentuate the functionality and authenticity of the bikes and make the viewers believe the bikes themselves are of good quality. The moving shots that are used featuring the bike are to emphasize the usability san the function of the product and accentuate it's speed and general movement. The speed at which each scene transitions to the next is also to show speed as it helps the whole advert move quicker. It also allows more content to be put into it. The use of pathos to entice the audience with how well the bike works and how good it feels to use it is exceptional and comes across strongly in both.

As for the differences, the types of music being different gives a different atmosphere to each. The first builds anticipation with its build up and then hypes the listener to want to buy this kind of bike. Meanwhile the more monotonic feeling of the second gives the impression of the bike being able to handle regular use and hard tasks, generally giving the idea of endurance over speed. In terms of sound beyond music, the first actually uses it, giving context to the situations, enhance the feel of the bikes movement, add to the feelings felt by the viewer with dialogue, and more. Meanwhile the second doesn't, which makes the audience focus much more on the minimalistic music used, which in turn also draws attention to the bike and the visuals, giving focus on the product more than the concepts surrounding it, although that's substituted with the text. Speaking of text, the first doesn't use it until the logo at the end which in a way means no attention is taken away from the rest of the visuals. In the second text is used to reinforce the ideas and concepts presented by the visuals and are made simple and bold to easily invoke feelings in the audience. Finally, the first uses noticeably uses Ethos while the second uses Logos. Both of these I feel isn't as prominent as the Pathos in both, but it's still there. The Ethos in the first is meant to make the audience trust the manufacturer as they're willing to show you some of the processes in making the bikes, leading them to believe they have nothing to hide. Meanwhile the second subtly uses Logos in a similar way the first uses Ethos. It shows you in close up detail different physical parts of the bike and while there is no written or verbal explanation of them it still makes the viewer believe these parts are of high standard and quality.

Out of all of this, I feel they've strengthened my want to use pathos in all of my advertising, have extended the ideology of the typography to video advert and not just the still, has made me interested in using fast paced editing and transitions along with moving shots, and made me interested in using less sound and more music. 

Now, after all that, we are also asked to look into the demographic of our product and what kind of person we're likely trying to sell this to. To do this we've split it into several sections that we'll look into individually.

Age:
Ok, so to start we need an age for this person who happens to rides a bike. This can be pretty easy to work out.

To start, my first place to look was of course the web. After a few dead ends I managed to find the website of a Cycling based News/Magazine company known as 'Cycling Weekly' that cover and offer a variety of different topics, products, services, and a subscription, all of which cover both digital and physical mediums. One of their fitness news posts titled 'Average cyclist is 43, male, 12 stone, and 5'10": how do you measure up?' surveys and reports the average cyclist and insights the reader to compare themselves to the figures. Now this is an absolutely perfect start for me as it not only covers the age of the average cyclist but also the gender which I shall cover later.

What I find interesting is that the highest density of people, over 50%, is between the ages of 36 and 50, which might sound like a lot, but is actually rather narrow. Up that to just over 70% and you sill only have between 31 and 55. While bikes are universally used we're only looking for a specific age which luckily this gives as 43.

But this isn't where we stop. To confirm this I'd like at least one other source, possibly two if I can find them. The next website I went to ended up being an american business magazine company known as 'Forbes' who did an article on different types of cyclists in 'Who's Out There On The Roads? The 4 Types Of Cyclists' which goes into the different types of cyclists and how they use the roads and and bicycles. In the article they also go into passing detail of different ages, genders, and income of cyclists. The information on genders and income I'll save for later for use in those respective sections, and I'll focus on the section where they go over the age.

Interestingly this study pins the age as younger. Now this might be due to a difference in year, location of study, or simply luck, but it does give us a second reference point. Before I start making any assumptions or estimations, I would personally like a third source, but it proved rather difficult to find one that was more general than specifically to do with racing or similar events or groups.

So in the end, taking the average between the two sources we have an age of 40.15, but for the sake of round numbers, I'll say 40.

Gender:
Gender also should be relatively simple to find especially since we already have two sources that give us a starting point.

Starting with the 'Average cyclist is 43, male, 12 stone, and 5'10": how do you measure up?' survey, we get the following information.

To say that I'm surprised by this would be a horrible lie, but what I do find to be a tad jarring is how sheer the difference is, with how only a tenth of cyclists being girls. Despite my lack of confidence in finding a different outcome I shall continue onto the next source I have lined up, which is of course 'Who's Out There On The Roads? The 4 Types Of Cyclists' which gives us this information.

This seems far more likely, with 4 in every 10 as opposed to 1. Of course with the other source being so much lower it'll bring down the average considerably.

Running the numbers, we get an average of 75% to 25% of men to women. This round cut of a quarter to three quarters feels like it makes sense, and still firmly puts men as the target.


Income:
After a long time searching I was unable to turn out with any other usable and relevant data in regards to this section aside from the one we've already found at 'Who's Out There On The Roads? The 4 Types Of Cyclists' which tells us this.

This rather high income pinned on cyclists suprised me considerably as I expected it to be more akined to a 'poor man's car' than that. Although in a way it makes sense as the racing and serious off-road aspects are exceedingly competitive and even rather elitist at times. Despite this I'm still rather suprised.

For the math I'll assume the other three quarters earn average income as nothing else on the topic is stated, which in the UK is £27,600. Also for this I converted $100,000 into £78,690 (which isn't as high as I thought it would be before, but that doesn't matter).

After running the numbers once again we get the grand average sitting at £40,372.50 which again shall be rounded to £40k for simplicity's sake.

So finally we have the basic demographic of a 40 year old male earnings £40k a year. This is both suprising and oddly predictable in my opinion depending on how you look at it. Of course my background as a student altered my unspoken hypothesis but now I have a clear answer.