Analyzing Modern Promotion and Exhibition

In this blog post, I will be looking at specific types of previously talked about promotion and exhibition, of which I will likely be using for my project. I will be looking at lots of real life examples, as well as what the pros and cons of them are, as well as parts of example projects I enjoy, and will take inspiration from, but also what I am not keen on from these examples.

Social Media Usage (Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Twitch and YouTube)- Social media is arguably the most important part of promotion in the modern era, considering it reaches the largest audience, being the global scale. Another major benefit is that promotion and exhibition on your own accounts is completely free. Having these accounts doesn't cost a penny. Types of promotion you can put on your social media accounts include posts, of which is an upload to your account, such as a picture, video or blog, explaining a product or service, for instance McDonalds releasing a video when they release a new food item to the menu. Instagram is the best for this type of advertisement, whereas Twitter is better for promotion such as engaging with fans. Twitter is a page that allows companies to connect with the audience, through showing that the company cares about the community through getting involved in community projects, as well as sharing funny thoughts and memes, of which is popular at this point in time. YouTube is for video exclusive posts, such as advertisements. YouTube gives the power to adverts to become viral, such as the Pepsi advert from 2017. I will be creating a twitch channel, with an extra 'about me' section, although you don't use twitch for promotion or exhibition, although some twitch streamers are sponsored, so they do include banners promoting the sponsored company, of which I will talk about later. I will no evaluate and analyze some social media accounts.

These are the typical adverts that you find on Instagram. There are often very colourful, to gain the attention of the audience, but are also quite simplistic. There are simple because they need to be eye-catching. People don't primarily use Instagram to look for adverts, so any adverts that they do see, people will scroll past, unless it is eye-catching, and interesting, as well as knowing what the advert is selling straight away. The advert has a link to the shop to purchase the product from, as well as the products Instagram page.

This is a twitter advert example. It is a post from an American fast food chain called Wendy's. On the post, it says that depending on the amount of retweets the post gets, the coupon the post gives you, will give you a better deal. This creates an audience to retweet the post, of which means the tweet reaches a wider audience. The main goal of social media is to share your posts as far as possible, and this post creates wide range sharing. The graphic is very simple and smooth, as well as very readable. The pictures of the burgers are attention grabbing, as well as the iconic Wendy's logo being present.

For YouTube adverts, they can either be forced adverts at the start of a video, or in the middle of a video, containing animated or real life videos like television adverts. These adverts are default adverts, and are not special to YouTube, however, there is another specific type of adverts that YouTube channels often use. This involves making a channel trailer. This is often a 1 minute video, that showcases the type of content your channel contains, including the best moments of your videos. The channel trailer I am analyzing is Will Smith's channel trailer. For his channel trailer, he has compiled the best moments of his videos and edited them into clips, and narrates over the top of them an inspirational message. The average channel trailer do similar effects, such as gaming highlights or comedic sketches. I think a channel trailer alone can make or break a potential viewer, and so they are very important, for instance. If a new viewer really enjoys a channel trailer, they will likely watch a couple of videos then and there, and if they enjoy them, they will likely subscribe to the channel.

For Twitch promotion and exhibition, the adverts are set up in the 'about me' section, where the streamer puts poster ads or panels that link to the product. For example, this is Shroud's about me section, that involved his sponsors, Logitech and Post mates. he has a link to both companies via panels. Twitch also has adverts like YouTube, so this is another way people advertise on these sites.

Web Banners- Web banners are virtual posters that are placed all over the internet. You can find them on social media platforms, on news websites, sports websites, and almost every website imaginable. If the website has a lot of traffic, there will likely be web banners placed around. Web banners are static or animated posters that contain pictures and words, as well as cool graphics to grab peoples attention. These adverts also contain a link to the products website if you click on the web banner. The web banners can also include video, although there is no audio so this is usually done for adverts such as cars and fashion. Web banners have to be colourful to stand out, as well as being simple so that people instantly know what the banner is about. Web banners are very successful mediums of advertisement, especially fashion brands, as by experience I know that I have visited a few websites due to web banners.

Sponsorship- This form of promotion and exhibition is usually for large scale, world-wide companies, as it can be rather expensive, if you want global exhibition. The most successful forms of sponsorship include brands sponsoring football teams, to display the company's logo on the chest of a shirt. In terms of sponsorship for content creators, I have previously gone over having twitch panels in the about me section for sponsors, but you can also have sponsors on merchandise, as well as shouting sponsors out in videos. On both Instagram and YouTube, you can commonly find videos labelled with #AD. This means that the video contains an advertisement often in the form of a sponsorship, such as a company paying a You Tuber to review their products, or a company paying an Instagram model to fashion some of their clothes. This again is a very powerful medium of promotion and exhibition, as the audience trust people more than brands, so if the audience can see some of their favorite influencers using a product, they will likely try out the product too.

Mobile Advertising- This isn't a specific type of advertisement, but it is a very popular strategy in the modern era, due to the fact almost everyone now owns a mobile phone. Mobile adverts can appear on apps, videos and web pages, all of which can be accessed on mobile devices. The types of adverts include web banners, video adverts, sponsorship and lots more forms of promotion and exhibition. The only thing that affects mobile advertising is the sizes of the adverts. Phone screens are vertical, compared to television and computer screens being horizontal. This means that the adverts themselves have to be altered to the mobile phone. This is why in the modern era, companies often have social media teams, to convert the videos to the different sizes, depending on where the media is being shown, for instance, Facebook and Instagram both use square videos, whereas YouTube uses rectangular videos.

Keyword Advertising- This type of advertising is relatively new, and can be used in conjunction with most forms of social media. This form of advertising includes embedding key words into the posts that the adverts can be shown on. For example, if a YouTube video is embedded with keywords such as 'food, cuisine or dining', the type of adverts that are shown on the video will likely be food adverts. This makes the adverts more likely to be shown to the correct target audiences. This is very important for promotion, as the wider audience that sees the adverts, the larger the conversion rate is of people who see the advert, and actually act upon it. The wider the target audience that in any way can relate to an advert, means the conversion rate will be higher. Everyone uses keywords in the modern era, for improved exposure on videos for search results, and so this goes hand in hand with advertisement key wording.

Blog Advertising- Like mobile advertising, blog advertisements are not any specific types of promotion or exhibition, it is just that blog posts are good places to have web banners and adverts on, due to the type of people that use them. Combined with keyword advertising, blog adverts can be tailored to the individuals that read the blog posts.

Business Card- Business cards are an ancient form of promotion and exhibition, but they, to this day, still have a meaning in terms of advertisements. If people physically see a business card, they can help but think about the company whenever a topic of similar features are discussed. Business cards also contain information about how to directly talk to the company, which is very useful in the modern era, as the person giving out the business cards shows the receiver that the company is human, of which might make the receiver of the business card trust the company more. I think there are a lot more better forms of advertisement, but business cards are easy to make, as well as still serving a purpose in 2021, as they make your business look very professional as well.

Merchandise (Sales Promotion)- Merchandise is a very modern form of advertisement and promotion. Social media stars can create merchandise to exhibit their brand and logo, to make it more recognizable. Merch is a great way to support businesses, as they provide an income, as well as giving the audience a good way to support the influencer or business, whilst receiving something for the support. Street wear and unique clothing is very important in this day of age as well, and so the more unique the merchandise can be, the more successful it will be. Merch exhibits logos, as well as showing people that they trust the brand and company, by showing off their logo and designs.

Billboards and Posters- The final form of promotion and exhibition I will be looking at is creating posters and billboards for my company. Posters are an easy way to create recognition for your brand and logo, as if put in the correct places, posters can reach a decent sized audience, such as posters on train stations, in magazines or town centers. Billboards are a bigger investment to posters, but can have amplified effects. Due to the sheers size of billboards, as well as often put in places where traffic is larger and more frequent, the billboard will be seen by more people, as well as seen at night time, with lights shining on it. This means that billboards can be more creative to catch peoples eyes. I will be making designs for both, as I think that they are good way to exhibit who the company are, as well as showing the world the logo. I think posters and billboards should include bright colours, as well as a clear logo and clear text that is easy to read from all distances. The media within the poster also has to make the advert obvious with what it is trying to sell of promote to the audience.