Follow Your HeART- 3rd Medium article
CRAYOLA: Advertising Campaign Proposal
3RD PART- IMPLEMENTATION
Introduction
We are the team FollowYourheART. A newborn company whose aim is to provide young, talented, but unknown artists with a safe online space, in which they will be free to exhibit their work and communicate their artistic ideas. This startup business, founded by Greek students Thaleia Papantoni and Marialena Stoubou Sideri, is part of a larger project conducted during our fourth semester and more specifically in the context of the course Introduction to Advertising and Media Relations. In the following pages we will shortly present our team’s journey those past few months, whilst giving some insight into the tasks we have completed. Our work has been divided in three separated articles. This article is dedicated to the team’s final and most challenging assignment, the creation of our client’s next campaign.
Before presenting the details of our campaign thoroughly, we will first introduce our client and talk in brief about some of his main characteristics. Being passionate for art ourselves, and having built our startup “Follow Your HeART”, we were thrilled when one of the largest manufacturers in the arts and crafts industry asked us to become the promoters of its products. Such a large project would be a life changing experience for the team and so we immediately started working to meet our client’s expectations.
Having conducted an in-depth research, we found useful information and then we proceeded to the Brand analysis and formation of the Creative Brief for our client, Crayola. Crayola is best known for its crayons and other products related to arts, such as colored pencils, markers, coloring books, chalk etc., while also selling kids toys in the recent years. Being a 120 years old company, it has achieved 99% name recognition in the U.S, and is being considered the most dependable brand by parents, offering non-toxic colors safe for all children ages. Its number one priority is children, since they are the ones that will be using the products, but also parents, schools and daycare centers, which will be the ones buying them.
Taking a look at the SWOT analysis ( Crayola LLC. SWOT Analysis by Tyler Baker (prezi.com) of Crayola, we found out that as a very successful brand, it does have many advantages. Except from combining high quality with low prices, Crayola manages to always serve the needs of the customers, thus gaining people’s trust and respect. This is also due to the fact that it maintains an active presence on different social platforms, building emotional connection with its clients and especially the parents. Moreover, it makes sure to constantly offer new products for sale, in order to ensure that all different groups of the society are represented and feel fulfilled (watch Crayola’s campaign Colors of the World: Crayola Colors of the World — The Shorty Awards ). We also need to mention here that Crayola is making great efforts in becoming an environmentally friendly brand, using mainly solar power, reforested wood and recycled plastic to produce its markers and pencils, encouraging the younger generations to respect and protect the environment (https://www.crayola.com/about-us/sustainability.aspx).
What about Crayola’s competitors? Despite having an international audience, Crayola cannot rest on its laurels, since there are two other big companies that are gaining recognition and fame. @RoseArt sells comparable items, focusing too on products for kids, while Blick appeals more to professionals and artists. Up until now, Crayola’s marketing and sales techniques have contributed in its success, but things are changing. Technology has become a very important aspect of our everyday lives and children are becoming familiarized with the newest technologies from a really young age, showing less interest in old-school toys. Crayola experiences its biggest sales during the “back to school” period and considering the fact that competition in the arts market is getting stronger, whereas parents are starting to spend less money on school supplies, we suggested to expand Crayola’s market audience towards adults and professionals.
Taking the above-mentioned into consideration we proposed to make a campaign which focuses on the ways Crayola can promote itself as a brand for all ages that offers a unique experience to both adults and professionals, without losing its penetration among kids. Our goal is that after launching this campaign, Crayola will no longer be seen as a brand that sales only kid-stuff, but as a brand that can fulfil the needs of adults as well. This means that our primary audience is a) adults aged 18–45 and secondary b) children 4–12 and professionals.
The message of the campaign is pretty clear and straight forward. “Anyone can draw” and Crayola stands with those who want to add some color to their lives.
In order to promote the campaign, we based our media exposure on two pillars:
a)Mainstream approach on both traditional (television) and new media (YouTube, Facebook, Instagram). These media are selected for their high coverage and penetration among all target audiences (both younger generations and adults). For this purpose, we have created a short but powerful commercial spot, that will be shared on social media and on TV as well. For the adult audience we will plan a massive campaign, whereas for the kids, we will transmit our spot using kids’ TV programs and kids’ YouTube platforms. On Facebook, apart from the video, screenshots of our spot will be uploaded as posts.
Follow Your heART (@followyourhe__art) • Φωτογραφίες και βίντεο στο Instagram
On our spot, we emphasized the vividness and dullness of a world where color is absent and tried to present Crayola as the brand that can make anyone’s life more pleasant and bright. The ad is basically trying to persuade the viewer to put color to his life, promising him a joyful journey, implying that Crayola is the only brand that can help him achieve that.
b)Creative approach. Except from the traditional advertising methods that are pretty basic, we decided to use an interactive approach. The product (Crayola markers, pencils, crayons) is going to be the medium that will help persuade people to step out of their comfort zone and start drawing. Interactivity will enhance audience’s engagement to the brand.
- OUTDOOR: In various places of different city locations, bus shelters will be hosts of white, large, blank canvas looking posters (see below image) on which people passing by will be invited to draw their own paintings. This outdoor interactive process will bring people closer to one another, while also pointing out the fact that we live in a pale world, which only WE can make colorful and bright again. The drawings will undoubtedly disrupt the monotony of large cities and trigger-off interesting reactions of the participants. We also believe that it would be fascinating if buses and other public transport vehicles had the message: “For everyone, a colorful life!” written in big bright letters.
-PRESS: The same pattern will be followed so as to promote the campaign through print newspapers and magazines. At the end of every newspaper or magazine, will be an empty white page with Crayola’s logo and slogan at the top. In this way, readers of drab, colorless newspapers will be impelled to draw and express themselves.
- SOCIAL MEDIA: For the campaign to meet greater success and become more popular, people will be encouraged to take a photo of their drawing (either on the bus shelters or on the newspapers) , to upload it on their social media accounts using the hashtag #drewitmyself and to tag us (@followyourhe__art) and Crayola (@crayola).
The three best drawings of the one’s uploaded, will be selected by a committee of artists and will be awarded. The 2nd and 3rd best will have the privilege to be provided with Crayola products for one whole year, whereas the first winner will have his drawing on the wall of a building of his city, painted by a famous street artist.
Proposing the above advertising campaign, we expect that Crayola will broaden its consumer base( towards adults and professionals) , will extend its products’ usage among adult consumers , will expand its sales seasonality and finally obtain sales increase. Thus, Crayola will gain market share and will retain its leading position in the total drawing market.
Note: a short version of the above article can be found as a Prezi presentation here Crayola’s new campaign by FollowYourHeART team by Marialena Stoubou on Prezi Next
WHERE TO FIND US
online site: Home | follow your heART (jimdosite.com)
facebook: FollowYourhe_ART — Αρχική σελίδα | Facebook
instagram: Follow Your heART (@followyourhe__art) • Φωτογραφίες και βίντεο στο Instagram
twitter: followyourheART (@fyourart) / Twitter
email: followyourheart221@gmail.com
