BUS265 - Final Reflection

I made less blog posts than I thought I would for this class. But, regardless, you'll still probably be seeing me again later in the year.

We're at the end of another class – BUS265 Advertising Design! So, what were my takeaways on it?

To summarize, the main project involved applying different marketing strategies to a fake drink called FZZZZZ!. I went into more detail about it in my Voice, Segmenting & Concepts blog post, but that's the general gist of it. More importantly, we practiced making CONCEPTS for advertising this drink on Canva.

Using my entries as examples, we practiced using voice:

(Again, go check out my Voice, Segmenting & Concepts blog post! It was one of my favorite exercises this class and I had a lot to say about it.)

We practiced two-part (or call and response) messaging:

We REVISED those two-part messages with feedback:

..And we practiced sequential storytelling (concepting a video ad):

I think practicing two-part messaging and sequential storytelling was a great example of the benefits of doing this in a group environment. I struggled a lot with multi-part messaging but had a much easier time giving suggestions to others on possible improvements. The same applied to me as well! I got some EXCELLENT feedback that made me much more confident in my revised submissions.

There's a lot of different knowledge to apply to a marketing scenario, but my broader takeaways tend toward a few key points:

• Less is more, both in dialogue and visuals.

• Being open to feedback is important for short-term project improvement and long-term skill improvement.

• It's valuable to work BACKWARDS from a finished ad to derive its core message + value statement. You can apply that knowledge and process to your own work!

• Your decisions in advertising should all serve some purpose, whether that be setting a tone or communicating your message.

A lot of marketing is more calculated and planned than you might notice. Keep that in mind when watching ads, and you'll start seeing it everywhere! It gets very granular.

This was a very broad look at what I learned, but I hope it was still an interesting peek into what I've been up to! Thanks for sticking with me!