How to Make an Ad

Take a look at this information to help you create your ad. There are some tips on how to make an advert interesting, as well as a few safety notes you should read to ensure you, your film crew and actors are all safe.

If you are a teacher you can use this information to create a lesson to use in English, Media Studies or PHSE lessons.

What can you win?
All the prizes will be in the form of a cheque made payable to the person identified on the entry form. The first prize is £350, second prize is £250 and there are five £100 prizes too.

What do you have to do?
Very simply:

• Create an advert that promotes healthy eating and school meals to other students at your school or college. It should encourage them to have a healthy meal from the menu.
• It should be no more than 30 seconds long and you need to upload it onto the Internet, then provide the link so the judges can view it.
• Complete the entry form and submit it to us before the closing date.
• The winners will be announced on this website and also contacted by email.

Pointers to help you produce your advert
Here are some ideas that will help you. The first is to remember the acronym AIDA. AIDA stands for: Attention; Interest; Desire; and Action.

• Attention
  How will you gain the attention in the first few seconds of the advert? That is all the time you will have. We make very quick decisions about whether we want to watch something. If it looks or sounds interesting in the first 5 - 7 seconds then we will continue watching. If not then we will turn our attention away. Look at adverts that attract your attention. Perhaps they did something very different. Could you do something similar?
• Interest
  Once you have the person's attention you need to maintain their interest. Ensure they keep watching so they hear what you have to say. See how it has been done in the sample advert. You could highlight some key benefits such as why having a healthy lunch is important. For example; it is a great place to have lunch with friends; the food will give you more energy to enjoy the rest of the day; and a good lunch will help you perform well on the sports fields or be more attentive in class.
• Desire
  There is an old saying that we eat with our eyes. It is still true today. If the food looks great then we want to eat it and the reverse applies. Look at the food through your camera, where is the best position to film? Should it be a close up showing the great food or a longer one that highlights the happy, smiling students enjoying the food?
• Action
  Lastly you want the viewer to take action and have a tasty school lunch. So you could feature a special offer such as buying a whole pizza to share with friends, or a theme day featuring food from the Caribbean, or the details of when the dining room is open.

Beware
You need to be careful that you don't break any laws such as copyright. So don't use any commercial music downloaded from the Internet or copied from a CD. It is illegal. If you want to use music in your ad then perhaps you can enlist the help of a musical friend.

Extra online resources
There is an online video featuring Karen Fewell, Digital Marketing Consultant. She is frequently making online videos so have a look at what she has to say. You can also watch the example advert on the Get Filming page.

Make sure you look at all health and safety issues
You may decide to film in a kitchen. Kitchens can be dangerous places with hot food, possible slippery surfaces, and knives to name just a few. When you are filming please make sure you do so safely and take the following advice:

• Discuss what you want to film with your teacher and involve your school caterer. You must take their advice when it comes to health and safety.
• Ensure they are happy with what you want to do and if you are filming any food, check the best time to do this. You will have to work around the production and service of the food.
• Make sure that the Headteacher has signed a form to say that people filmed have given their permission to appear on the Internet and that no fee is payable.
• Be very careful with wires and make sure that cables can't cause any tripping problems.
• Don't get in the way of anyone especially when they are taking things in and out of cooking equipment e.g. ovens or carrying hot dishes.

The judging procedure
The adverts will be judged by a representative of the Local Authority Caterers Association and a television producer from Lancashire One TV.

Closing date
This is the 29th January 2010.

Any further questions?
If you have any more questions please contact nsmw@avfmarketing.co.uk.