Entering the Design Phase

I'm now confident enough with my idea to push forward with it in terms of design. My main aim, as stated in previous blog entries, is to avoid as many links to football as I possibly can, which means placing elements of Umbro advertising as well as the product being advertised into my campaign. My initial idea was to produce a photography based outcome, showcasing the "A-Frame" shoe in various off-pitch situations, i.e a businessman walking down the street with his briefcase, looking swanky in his suit, but wearing the A-Frames, all in an attempt to show how the shoes are worn off the pitch. After consultation with my tutors, I've decided to set this idea on the back burner & use it as a potential back up in case my new idea doesn't work. My idea now, is to focus on youth culture (clubbing etc) & how appearance means everything. You are often turned away from a club for what you are wearing, so to promote the A-Frames in a positive & fashionable way will encourage people to wear these shoes wherever & whenever. Witty taglines & slogans are also needed, which could be done typographically & the idea of "slagging off" other brands in favour of Umbro is sticking out to me. Lines such as "Three stripes & you're out" & "Don't do it", aimed at brands Adidas & Nike tie into the witty banter shared between brands, and the people that follow them. You are often labeled for the brands you choose to wear, which is something these brands tend to play on & could work well as a design if executed properly.

Mixing it up 2!

Although this advertisement is somewhat of a contradiction to what I aim to do for my own ad campaign, I thought the use of imagery, and the contradiction that the imagery itself conveys was rather effective. Once again created by design agency Aldea Santiago, this particular ad (and the series that follows it, have a look at them here: HERE) shows groups of people playing football, but on or in other sporting venues such as an empty swimming pool, tennis court & basketball court, which I think is really effective as it shows how football appeals to everyone. Although as I said, I wanted to avoid any direct football links, I think this ad campaign is one of the most clever & effective I have seen so far.

Mixing it up...

Once again, while browsing the net, I came across another ad for Umbro, which perfectly sums up the approach I want to take with my own design. Again, I want to avoid as many links as I can to football in my campaign so that the shoes I am advertising can appeal to a number of audiences. This particular ad was created by the agency, Aldea Santiago & was released in 2006. At first glance, the ad looks nothing like what you would commonly expect from a sports brand & I think it is advertisements such as these that are the most successful. The product placement in this ad is almost subliminal. Extremely subtle, which is what I think makes this advert a good one. The use of imagery in this particular ad really sets it aside from Umbro's usual approach in my opinion, which is exactly what I aim to do in my ad campaign.

Out of the Ordinary

Now I need to enter the design phase of the project, it's probably best I start to look more in depth at existing ad campaigns for inspiration. Since I want my poster ads to appeal to a wider audience than just football fans, it would be nice to come up with a concept that breaks the mold & walks away from the football fan stereotype that Umbro has built itself up to appeal to. Browsing the interweb, I found this rather interesting ad by Umbro. While I'm not entirely sure of the message this poster is trying to put across, I quite like the idea. It's almost as though Umbro have taken their advertising out of it's comfort zone, placing a football player somewhere other than a pitch. This is the kind of approach I want to take with my ad campaign, taking an otherwise football-targeted brand & doing something completely different with it. This includes utilizing different components than a footballer, football kit & football pitch & replacing it with something different & perhaps unassociated with football, with the only link to football in the ad being the shoe being advertised.