Promotional material comes from things like videos.
I researched previous college videos to see how they promoted the courses and
the college itself. Virally the college sent out many videos to try and promote
the college in a positive way for others to consider joining. Viral marketing
actually works very well these days too because the internet is everywhere and
on everything. Computers are now a part of everyday life and it’s on the go
too. Mobile phones and handheld devices, 3G etc. etc., everyone has heard of
things like these, so it’s not hard to hear about something being promoted over
the internet. The videos the college promoted all contained interviews too with
teachers and students of the college so this adds to the promoting of the
college. The advantage of this is it doesn’t cost much to make unlike
advertising.
The disadvantage.
Advertising
is everywhere too. For advertising you need to follow a specific set of rules
to make it work. First, you need to advertise where an audience will see the
advertisement most like on billboards or on signs. Everyone is out and about at
some point during a day so it’s noticeable to get advertising there. Another is
through television and on the internet which is where I did most of my
research. An advertisement can go one of two ways as I’ve seen in my research.
One; the advertisement can do really well and get the attention of many people
and sell. Or two; the advertisement can completely flop and fail. Several
reasons are behind this though. Sometimes when someone promotes an
advertisement it can be seen as spam. This means the advertisement is trying
too hard to be noticed, rather than giving it time to be noticed by people. For
things like promoting a college or a course, you would promote the course in
that chosen subject area. For example, with creative media you would promote
the course around things media, like video, TV, internet and magazines. For a
college, you would choose something like a school to advertise it to, because
high school children would be leaving that year.
Viral
marketing is when you virally advertise or market something to an audience of
people. Viral means when something is spread like a virus over the World Wide
Web. For example if someone sends you an email to share the latest new clothing
line, that is viral marketing. The problem with viral marketing is it could be
seen as spam because it is usually seen as spam. The reason for this is because
the internet is full of unnecessary things that aren’t really important.
Platforms are things which the promotional material
will be on, like DVD’s, the WWW, and in a presentation.
A DVD for example is something which everyone knows
about, if not, it would seem technology has not hit them properly. With a DVD,
it’s a small tiny disc which fits into a DVD player (which only specifically
plays DVD’s and CD’s). The advantage of DVD’s is it’s a compact device and just
about everyone has a DVD player. It’s something which most people have in their
homes so it wouldn’t be hard to sell it through this method. The disadvantage
is if people don’t have it in their home. Some people of course do that not
have a DVD player in their home and that makes it less of a chance to sell it
to this market.
Another format is putting the video onto the World
Wide Web. The internet is something which is everywhere these days; you can’t
really escape it anywhere. So putting the promotional material on the internet
would be a good idea right? Well yes, sort of. The internet is full of ways to
upload and share things with anybody of your choice. For example, websites like
YouTube are ways to upload the video so people can watch what you have made. It’s
simple enough because people can see what you have made and comment on it too. The
problem with putting it on the internet is the same with people with DVD’s;
some people don’t have the internet. Not everyone has the internet. Also, not
many people use the internet just to watch videos; the internet is for a
knowledge purposes and most use it for this method.
When doing something like a Presentation it’s quite
a good choice because a presentation gets straight to the point. When pitching
the idea of promotional material its good because the people you are pitching
it to can ask you any questions they have straight away instead of waiting like
through DVD’s and the internet. The presentation means you can pitch the idea
and everyone has more trust because you are pitching it right in front of them.
The down side to doing a presentation is the fact it’s not something which is
using much multimedia. It’s all done with you presenting the idea, not the DVD
or internet, so it’s all in control by you.
Technology
With technology, it’s quite easy to promote digital promotional
material because it’s a simple and easy concept because of how far technology
has gone over the last 100 years.
Digital file formats are the things that we save our things
on, like videos and computer files. This means things like MP3 and MP4 for
music formats. These sorts of formats can be compressed onto things like CD’s
and DVD’s so that you can play them on devices. These formats can also be used
for streaming through the internet. They can become available these days with
things like iTunes and other stores like this because things like this are
everywhere. Digital formats are everywhere these days because of how far
technology has come.
Streaming
methods and media players
Streaming methods are everywhere like I’ve said. The
internet has taken over just about everything and it’s really quite amazing.
Websites like YouTube are the kind of sites that stream things like videos and
music all day long. This is the sort of thing which is perfect to upload our
college videos. Well, we did our research and we know there are already college
videos. It’s a very simple way of creating and showing the information that we
want to show to a wider audience. The video needs to be compressed though
because otherwise it wouldn’t buffer and play through a website like YouTube.
Compression
If a file is too big to do anything with it, it needs to be compressed.
Compressing the file is basically reducing the size of a file to save space and
time. This can be described with things like lossy and lossless compression.
When a lossy image is compressed and it’s reduced so it can be a webpage, the
image can’t be restored to its natural state. It says like that permanently.
Whereas a lossless image, can be compressed and restored back to its normal
state. That’s the difference.
Data transfer
rate
The data transfer rate is the rate that data transfers from
one place to another. The greater bandwidth of a given path, the higher the
data transfer rate. The higher the rate, the less time it takes for a larger
file to be transferred to another place. Say someone sends you a digital video
file and the client has a small bandwidth, the file with take some time to
download and the file will buffer. This means the file will take time to
download. So to stop this, the file will need to be compressed so it’s not that
big to download.
Digital right
management systems
The digital file will either be on a DVD or MOV. Platform
and will be copyrighted by the owners, which will be Cheadle and Marple Sixth
form college. This will contain all college copyright including the watermark.
It will not slander the college or contain any inappropriate material.
This is a shot of the
college on the field from the side. The shot was chosen because it captures
everything in one single frame; the college, car park, trees and bright sky.
All of these elements make the college look bold. The lighting was in fact very
gloomy that day and it look as though it was going to rain, but we managed the
get the sun in the top left hand corner. The focus as well turns to the college
which is central, with the background looking particularly brighter. The colour
balance and exposure too really highlight the college and make it look much
brighter too. Now the angle was a long shot but also medium because I had to
centre the college as I have said. 
One of the shots was like this of a friend who volunteered
to become interviewed to talk about the college. The lighting was poor as the
room’s lights were very dark, so we decided that we would edit that in the
computer when it came to editing. The angle was a medium shot, only showing the
top half of him to concentrate on him talking. But also in the background, I
wanted the audience to look at his work which he was working on. I chose this
work because it looked creative and a brilliant design. It shows off just some
of the work which is done at the college. The colour balance was very much
focusing on the white on the TV and the skin colour of Chris. In this frame it’s
still very gloomy but I will touch up on that when it’s time to edit. 
