Online+Ad+Critique

**__ Online Ad Critique __** ** Victoria’s Secret’s ‘Very Sexy’ Ad Campaign ** Advertisement 1 (See Appendix) selected for analysis is an online commercial released by Victoria’s Secret to promote the additions to their ‘Very Sexy’ line for Spring 2012. This particular advertisement was released on platforms such as, YouTube, where it can either be retrieved through the will of the audience or the advertisement is played before a YouTube viewer can view their video. Victoria’s Secret did not limit its advertisement of this particular campaign to a video, the marketing team emailed an online advertisement or newsletter, sent to emails, which not only promotes their new products but further allows the audience to click on buttons within the advertisement that direct them to the Victoria’s Secret website. These links further allow the consumer to gain further knowledge of these new products and continue to make purchases online. (Ad online at: []) media type="youtube" key="F0aF_4ARM0M" height="315" width="560" The first advertisement was retrieved from YouTube, where Victoria’s Secret had decided to advertise the additions to the ‘Very Sexy’ line. The video presented below is in a form in which the audience can search the video of the spring 2012 campaign themselves; however, this video is often played before several other videos, often without the option of skipping it. The platform advertisement 2 (See Appendix) was retrieved from an email advertisement from the marketing team of Victoria’s Secret on Hotmail on March 14th 2012. An individual only receives these email advertisements once they sign up for the newsletter either online or in store. The target audience for both of these particular ads consists of firstly, women ages 21 and older. This fact can be directly extracted from Victoria’s Secret target audience being: women who are 21 and older, have fair incomes to spend, are entering into intimate relationships, are concerned about their appearance, etc. Victoria’s Secret targets young teens to the age of 18 using its ‘Pink’ line of stores and the ages of 18-21 using its LaScenza stores. The prices of this particular ‘Very Sexy’ line targets women with mid-high incomes as the prices of its products range higher than that of its competitors such as, La Vein En Rose. Men in relationship with women within this age group of 21 and older are also used as target markets as advertisements with slender models are used to display the product so the men get attracted to the overall appearance of the company. Once these men have developed a relationship between the idea of ‘sexiness’ and Victoria’s Secret, the women automatically begin to push themselves towards the brand. The marketing team of Victoria’s Secret used the technique of associating the additions to its ‘Very Sexy’ line with the current web 2.0 trends and decided to advertise the additions to its ‘Very Sexy’ line using a channel such as, YouTube, because of the heavy trends towards the use of social media websites. With the large amount of viewers of ages 21 and up on the website for different reasons, the company could target its audience in an efficient manner. Furthermore, by paying YouTube to advertise their video, the company can have its advertisement appear before other popular videos are played. This way even if the viewer did not have this in mind they still watch it and the existence of Victoria’s Secret stays within their minds. This video often does not provide the option of forwarding or skipping the commercial. This way the viewer must watch or at least let the video play if they wish to continue on to their video. Victoria’s Secret further uses email messages to send out advertisements similar to advertisement 2 (See Appendix) to promote their new product. This particular ad for their ‘Very Sexy’ campaign promotes their new products by showing the exceptional features which, as the company claims, will make the women feel ‘sexier’. Secondly, this email advertisement is not a simple poster advertisement; it is an interactive multimedia document. The document provides links which the audience can click in order to visit their website and check the rest of the collection, the prices of the products, and if they like it even purchase it online. Both of these advertisements and their platforms used can be seen as also using subliminal advertising in a way. The video commercial often sits on the right hand side in the promotional box of the video that is currently being watched, allowing for the viewer’s mind to capture the thumbnail image and the title of the video for later reference. The same thing happens with the email advertisement 2: even if the viewer does not wish to view the ad by simply viewing that it is in one’s inbox or even deleting it, the audience has a glance at the subject bar and who it’s from. Often, this is more than enough for the viewer’s mind to later make the connection or if a topic such as, sexiness or undergarments, comes up then remember ‘Victoria’s Secret’. Thus, the markets of Victoria’s Secret ‘Very Sexy’ campaign were prepared even if their advertisements were never viewed by the audience.
 * ‘Very Sexy’ **
 * Advertisement Retrieval **
 * Target Audience **
 * Design Approach and Techniques **

The goal of this line for the company is to increase the profits from one of its most profit making line, the ‘Very Sexy’, by adding new products to it. The purpose of advertisement 1 and advertisement 2 (See Appendix) were both to create ‘brand awareness’ in order to promote the additions to their ‘Very Sexy’ line. The purpose of this line for the company’s consumer is to bring about a feel of uniqueness and superiority of appearance amongst women. In order to do this, female models with slender figures are used which do not resemble the average everyday women. By using such models to display the products the advertisers are trying to build a relationship between the women purchasing the products with the feel of superior beauty.
 * Intention and Goals **

Both of the advertisements were effective the new additions to the ‘Very Sexy’ line in several different ways. One way was rather than simply placing the video advertisement on YouTube, they paid for it to be a sponsored ad and be played before several videos watched on YouTube. Another way in which the advertisements were successful and effective was because advertisement 2 did not limit the audience to only viewing the product but further allowed the audience to purchase the product through links on the ad. Overall, both of these advertisements were effective because the marketing team of Victoria’s Secret did not limit its advertisements to only promoting the products in a direct manner, but also took into consideration any ‘ifs’ or ‘buts’, such as, the audience doesn’t look up the video at all because they do not know that it exists.
 * Effectiveness of Advertisements **

Beyond the Rack

Beyond the Rack is a private shopping club that provides designer brand apparel and accessories for women and men at prices up to 80% off retail. Their ad campaign is designed in a simple manner, as there isn’t much information given on it. Their online platform doesn’t include video or interactive ads campaign. The ad campaign is done in traditional manner online. The ads take the individual back to the website where they can become a member.

The issue with this company and advertisements is that even though this private online shopping allows members to buy brand-name products at huge discounts, the catch is sales of individual products are short usually 48 hours. The ads and marketing are consistent; however they don’t mention that the sales are for short amount of time, which is deceiving. ­­ No matter where one sees the ad for beyond the rack, the ad emphases that designer clothes are for up to 80%. However in figure 1 (See Appendix), the facebook ad, the company has changed the approach recently as earlier almost all ads didn’t mention that there is a time limit on the deals. It clearly state that the dresses are for that day only. They sell designer merchandise to their members through using limited-time events technique. This is an issue as it not mentioned in their ad campaign. The events the company offers start at specific time and are usually up to 48 hours long. Members are unable to get the merchandise after the event is over, which is different from other online shopping businesses, as you can get inventory back on the original price, if there is stock left. Email marketing is used to inform the members of each upcoming event. They have a limit on the amount of time an item can stay in member’s shopping bag, for equality purposes. All these are not included in the ad campaign only condense amount of information is on them. Also even though this company offers their services to men, the ad campaign doesn’t have men products.
 * Critique: **

Their target audience mainly are female ages 15- mid 30’s. However, products are available for older audiences as well. They are trying to market cheap deals on brand products that they offer. They provide people with high end branded clothes with sales up to 80% and different brands are on sale on selected days and time.
 * Target Audience **
 * What they are trying to advance: **

I saw the ad for this business last year in 2011 on Facebook and signed up for it.
 * When I saw this ad: **

First technique they use is the daily sale on selected items which draws the costumer attention and gives them incentive to keep visiting the website. Also a costumer don’t know when is sale of their interest is happening unless they signup on the website. Once signed up the audience get daily emails about deals that are happening. Now they have their ads over Facebook, YouTube side column, Hotmail and Blogs. Lastly they keep their ads simple, but slick.
 * The techniques they use: **

Yes I believe their techniques work very well and are effective in drawing the attention of the target audience. The ads that they use are kept simple and are eye catching. Also they clearly state “Brand products for up to 80%” which is a strong way of drawing attention to their ad and online shopping business. The product may only be 5% off but in a person mind they don’t think about it when they are signing up. Their ad encodes “up to 80% off” part and a person doesn’t think that the product they want may obly be 10% off. I was drawn towards this ad because of the cute of the cute dresses that are placed on these ads. Another reason I think their ads are effective is because I have noticed that they change the dresses according to the season and the famous trends that are going on. For example they would change the ad in winter by placing trench coat looking dresses or wool dresses, but in spring they will have bright spring colours. These dresses also follow the current trend. Their ads are so effective because they do the research on current trends and they know how to attract the target audience.
 * If the techniques work: **


 * __ Appendix: __**

Work Cited. ** [] [] [] [] []