Ad+Design


 * UMC (UTM Music Club) - Online Ad Design**

__**Introduction**__ I am designing the online ad campaign for UMC (UTM Music Club), a UTM student club. UMC is the only music-related club at the UTM Campus and organizes events such as Open Mics, FREE Guitar Workshops, Weekly Jam sessions, etc. Since we are almost the end of our school year, UMC doesn't have any future events. But, for the purpose of this assignment, I am promoting a fictionalized event 'UTM Shower Idol'. Shower Idol is a vocal competition where participants get to upload a recording (video/audio) of them singing in the show on the UMC Facebook Fan Page, and generate the most amount of "Likes". The Top 3 most # of 'Likes' win prizes and the highest number of 'Likes' is crowned the 'UTM Shower Idol'. The purpose of the campaign is to generate buzz around the competition and generate more activity on the Fan page by users uploading content. Since putting up flyers is overdone and ineffective, I will be using online ads through Facebook, YouTube and Web Banner to garner attention

__**Online Campaign**__ My target audience for the competition is UTM students. Being a student myself, I can certainly attest to the fact that students spend majority of their time online on Facebook or YouTube. When it comes to UTM students, TUSBE.com is popular site to buy and sell used books throughout the semester by U of T students. It has consistently high traffic throughout the year, and would be one of the ideal spots to place an online ad for a UTM specific event.

To promote the competition and UMC Fan page, I created a Facebook Sponsored Ad giving a quick gist of the competition. The ad is placed beside a Facebook group that has a huge number of members that are all UTM students. With the title having the word "UTM", it would grab the attention of anyone surfing on that group. When a student clicks on the ad, they automatically 'Like' the UMC fan page, and are directed to "Events" Tab that has more details about the submitting entries to the competition and deadline.
 * Facebook**

//Facebook Sponsored Ad// //"Events" Tab @ UMC Fan Page//


 * YouTube**

Since students spend bulk of their time on YouTube, it would be unwise not to utilize it to publicize the competition. YouTube banners are meant to be placed together. A typical user usually closes the smaller ad at the bottom. Hence, the side banner appearing at the same time would be critical in getting the attention of the user. Clicking on either of the links would lead the user to the "Events" Tab at the UMC Fan page, providing details about the competition. YouTube Banners

Tusbe.com is a website used by U of T students, from all 3 campuses, to buy and sell books throughout the year. It has consistent periods of high traffic, and the visitors are predominantly U of T student. As a result, placing a web banner on this site would be effective, as the campaign targets U of T students.
 * TUSBE.com**

//Web Banner//

__**Design Decisions**__

During the conceptualization of the ad campaign, keeping it simple was critical. The ads are not overloaded with text or fancy graphics, and often the simplicity does a better job of delivering the key message. More importantly, the texts in the ad was short and inviting, luring the audience to click on the respective link that would direct them to the Fan page, which covered the details. To maintain a consistent look, the yellow background in combination with the maroon title text and black subtext was used in all the ads. The text in the message are similar with key words such as UMC (easy to search on Facebook), Shower Singer (grabs attention and relates to UTM Shower Idol), Win Prizes (incentive to upload content). The consistency across several platforms causes less confusion about the purpose of the ad among the viewers.

__**Challenges**__

Graphic design, not being one of my strengths, posed a challenge while designing the ad campaign. I lack the colour matching sense, and have a hard time understanding which colour scheme works the best based on the background. This reinforced the importance of working in a team, and probably why there is rarely a one man Marketing department. At the same time, I did realize that I have a sense for strategy i.e. analyzing the best spots to place the ads to reach the target audience.


 * Bibliography**

//**Image credit**// //Singing in the Shower//. Photograph. //Singing in the Social Media Shower//. Joey Strawn, 29 Nov. 2011. Web. 27 Feb. 2012. .