Why do we use characters in advertising?
In advertising, getting the public to recognize your product and your brand is one of the biggest challenges you face. Brand Characters help make that difficult task much easier, products and brands can easily get lost with all the competition they face so they have to do something to stand out. Using characters can also help reshape brands/company images and positions in the chosen industry, the character has to be able to be effective in order to make this possible.“In such a crowded, competitive market a character can create pure brand salience. The character becomes a shortcut reference to the brand and can be more interesting than the brand itself” (Deane, 2010) Within my campaigns poster, my character designs shall advertise the subject Deforestation taking influence to promote the campaign in a unique way to a younger audience.
What makes a branding character effective?
Within every character, there are features that must be added to make the design effective. In my opinion, an effective character would have to be memorable to the audience, not too detailed or complicated, and developed for the appropriate target audience. It’s important that the design connects well with the audience, especially with my audience being much younger, it must create an emotional connection to generate an engagement.”Brand Personalities are distinctly human traits and qualities that a consumer perceives of a brand. They are consistent traits, evidenced throughout your entire brand; They’re clear from your visual marketing.” (Hausman,2020) By giving the characters traits, I can hopefully develop a bond with the audience in a way which they could relate to them.
- The characters must also be able to tell a story, most advertisements are driven by an actor’s actions along with a strong narrative.
Examples of advertising characters:
Digging deeper, I thought id look into different ways characters have evolved over time within advertising, showing why changes have been made and what’s so different.
Ronald Mcdonald is one of the most recognizable figures in the world, his image has connected billions throughout history, first appearing in 1963 played by Willard Scott. He is well known to be the primary mascot of the company Mcdonalds, many have taken the role over the years and he has appeared in animated specials. However, as time passed Mcdonald’s strayed away from Ronald and began to make a new marketing plan in 2016, this is because people’s opinions on clowns have aged terribly over the years, they have become more involved within the horror genre than anything else, leading the company to make a change to engage the customers again. “Seeing something so human that at the same time doesn’t really look like a human can make you uneasy and uncomfortable.”(Selemin, 2022)
This next example is of the character Tony the Tiger and how he’s changed over time. In 1958, Kellogg’s launched a marketing campaign called “Put a Tiger on Your Team”. This campaign reached out to children’s sports organizations and teams, using the illustrated characters to interact in live action to sell their products.
Tony’s design appearance has changed over the years, the art style and the body shape have been developed to build a stronger connection with their target audience. The original design was made to appear like a typically illustrated tiger, that walked on all fours with rounded edges, his design’s main purpose was to help promote cereal to a younger audience. Later on, as a few years passed, his purpose began to change with his appearance. He became more human-like in the way he appeared, standing on two legs and with his physic, Tony’s body was altered to promote the nation’s growing obsession with health and fitness. Engaging with kids to keep them healthy and active, while also selling the cereal. Within my own character designs, I would like to use characteristics as Tony did to connect with a younger audience so I can make them identify with each character created.
To conclude, after doing research into the evolution of characters in advertising I have developed an understanding of what makes a character effective and how I could apply them to my designs to help sell my campaign. In the next post, I will be discussing the purpose of the project on Deforestation and how nature is important.
Reference:
Developing Effective Commercial Characters for Ad Videos – MotionCue (Accessed, 17/10/2022)
The 7 Most Successful Characters in Advertising | Website Design Inspiration | Web Design Resources & Tips | Web Design Mash (Accessed, 18/10/2022)
Eyes in the Aisles: Why Is Cap’N Crunch Looking Down at My Child? by Aner Tal, Aviva Musicus, Brian Wansink :: SSRN (Accessed, 22/10/2022)
RARE First Ever RONALD MCDONALD MCDONALDS Commercial, https://youtu.be/-4JXzhRT5lY (Accessed, 29/10/22)
McDonald’s Happy Meal Commercials Compilation McLanche Feliz, https://youtu.be/QIuXv7Y8QA4 (Accessed, 29/10/22)
What is Brand Character? Advantages and Examples of building a Brand Character (marketing91.com) (Accessed, 2/11/2022)
The Right Brand Personality (hausmanmarketingletter.com) (Accessed, 8/11/2022)
The History and Psychology of Clowns Being Scary | Arts & Culture| Smithsonian Magazine (Accessed, 14/11/2022)
Why Your Brand Needs to Identify a Brand Character (adweek.com) (Accessed, 16,11/2022)
How to Identify a Brand Character for Your Company (hubspot.com) (Accessed, 16/11/2022)
Coulrophobia: Symptoms, Causes, and Treatment (webmd.com) (Accessed, 17/11/2022)
Grrrrreat Facts About Tony the Tiger! – The Fact Site (Accessed, 17/11/2022)
Tony-The-Tiger-Clipart-21.jpg (1000×1000) (theloopmarketing.com) (Accessed, 17/11/2022)
tony-appearance-1.webp (728×360) (thefactsite.com) (Accessed, 17/11/2022)