One must be aware of what kind of a communication will hit a target because not everything can be sold to everyone. Certain people like certain things and so it is not only important to know who one’s target is but also how to get to them in the proper way.
The workshop for Robi presents Ad Maker Bangladesh 2015 colored by Elite Paints, the biggest advertising competition in the country took place on the 30th of May, 2015 with 372 teams from universities all over Bangladesh attending it.
‘It started off with Farooq Shams’, the Dxecutive director of planning of Bilop Leo Burnelle, interactive session with the audience. He started by explaining what an ad agency was. Comparing the three main departments of an ad agency to the human body; the creative department being the heart, the servicing department being the hands and feet that would physically go and get the work done and the planning department being the brain, deciding and debating on what and how to do, he explained how vast and diverse an advertising agency really is, what they focus on and how they work. In terms of how to market and advertise a product he mentioned that one must always remember that everyone’s opinion counts. He said that a campaign created for advertising a product must be unique but most importantly, must get to the target audience and attract them. His focus and key point throughout the entire session was the target audience, everything about and surrounding them. To advertise, a communication is designed and it must be designed in such a way that it hits the target audience. One must be aware of what kind of a communication will hit a target because not everything can be sold to everyone. Certain people like certain things and so it is not only important to know who one’s target is but also how to get to them in the proper way. He concluded his speech with yet again, putting emphasis on the target audience. One must know who the target audience is, their thoughts and the best way to reach them.
Ashfaq Uzzaman Bipul, Director of Half Step Down then introduced us to the smallest details of making a TVC (Television commercial). According to him, regardless of what the work is, the first and foremost job is to observe. He mentioned that to make a TVC for the product of a client, one must be aware of what they want, what they like and who their target audience is. The best way to do all of the above is to observe. What he put most emphasis on was doing something new and fresh. He believes that there must be freshness in every thing we do. If a script is handed to ten people, all of them would work on it in ten different ways. The only one that would be the best would be the one that would have something fresh about it. He talked about a few of the TVCs he worked on and said that there were things in those that were common and had been done before. But he didn’t want to change them, he wanted to take a different approach to them. That approach is believed to be what made his TVCs different. One more thing he talked about was to always work on new things. Because only by doing many different things will we know what we like and what we’re good at. We shouldn’t do what or how our idols did something. Our work must be better or worse than theirs. Why? Because, if it’s better, that’s great but if it’s worse, we’ll learn and get better. The rest of his speech was focused on the physical aspect of making a TVC. Making a storyboard, budgeting, film editing, graphics, working on production, etc. were given a brief idea of. The end to his speech came with him emphasizing on what he talked about from the very start, we must do something new, we must do something fresh and we must do something with a new and different approach.
The last speech of the workshop was given by the Chief Executive Officer of Interspeed, Muntasir Alam. The focus of his speech was how products are marketed. ATL (above the line) and BTL (below the line) advertising techniques were talked about with focus on BTL. About ATL, in short, it could be said that it’s talking to consumers through TV. But the idea of BTL is broader. In short, through BTL, we don’t just talk to consumer, the communication takes place in such a way that the brand speaks for itself through feedbacks of the consumers. BTL gives the idea that we can touch our consumers in various ways and feel what they want and like through it. There was a mention of three things a product must give its consumers. It must empower us, change us and add value. When the advertising or marketing of a product is done, there are three things that must exist. Educating consumers, giving an option for trial and giving reason and availability to re-purchase it. Besides talking about having a target audience through demographic surveys and such and reaching them, he talked about budgeting and its importance. After the establishment of a plan comes budgeting after which comes the ways of getting to the audience. The marketing done to attract the target market must be creative and attractive. First, we must know who our target audience is. Then we must find out where they will be found. Then, in various locations of the target audience’s presence various booths and such, according to the location and group of people, can be created with fun and unique activities and such to attract them. The speech was concluded with an idea of ROI (return on investment) calculation where it was said that the facts of increase of the awareness of the product, whether it’s being referred to and if the number of the consumers is increasing had to be aware of and improved.
The reason behind the success of this workshop is simply the diversion in the speakers. All three speakers were from different fields and so had the ability to educate all those who were present in a pretty wide range. From the basics to the advanced, everything was covered in a matter of just a few hours and in ways that were anything but boring. And so, Robi presents Ad Maker Bangladesh 2015 colored by Elite Paints has finally begun, promising to be bigger and better.
