Our journey in Ad & Pr Lab

App

It was assigned to us to bring the project -Adalert- to life, through the program ‘’Proto.io’’ that the professors showed us during classes. Using this tool, imagination became reality and the first images of the app (menu-selections) are already all set. The main purpose of it, is to be simple, elegant, smart and easy -to-manage during a crisis (when the user is driving and an emergency appears). The menu dishes up to the user 4 simple choices, to call, to ask for help (red button), to do some tests, such as measuring rates of heartbeat and also to view his/her previous medical tests that have been stored. It has been a pleasure to discover the amount of possibilities an app can give you and also unprecedented for students to create their own startup, accompanied by its app. It was a group project and indeed a challenging one and we found it really interesting to cooperate and to finally produce a result that satisfied us a lot and also evoked feelings of aspiration and anticipation to the members of our team!

INFOGRAPHICS

Another project was about infographics. Mr Kaperonis gave us some instructions about creating content (report and social media posts) on “Picktochart’’ tool. It was in our facility to choose the company that we will be working on. So, what would be better than the start-up AdAlert? As an agency, we began with the report and we wrote down a possible problem and its solution, some brief ideas of project deliverables and the rules of engagement. We also made a timeline, we examined the pricing estimation and strategy and we closed up with some clients’ testimonials. Then, we created two posters, one for Instagram and one for Facebook needs. The design is always in the palette of colours of AdAlert, accompanied by the logo of the company of course. As background images, we used the ones that are closer to the company’s product, such as safety, car, people and roads. And as for the texture, we followed the same logic: “Three reasons to choose our product”, two of which are samples of the suggested AdAlert’s campaign. It goes without saying that all of us enjoyed creating such content and being creative with a dose of imagination!

TV AD

As our brand refers to safety on the road, our advertisement clip would take place in a car. We had to decide out of three different ideas: the first one with a pregnant driver and her friends, the second one with an elderly person and his/her grandchild and the third one with a middle-aged man suffering from heart disease accompanied by his child or spouse. All drivers would have an acute rise/drop of heartbeat, due to either medical history or to something that occurred during their transportation. However, what the drivers in our advertisement scenarios had in common was the fact that they all belonged to a sensitive group and, thus, they needed extra protection and care in all aspects of their lives.

The alarm of AdAlert would ring and a message would appear instantly on the screen of the driver’s mobile or on the car’s digital screen, accompanied by some of the gadget’s default info. The driver would choose among calling his/her doctor, making an emergency call at a hospital, contacting the police or the fire department. Moreover, we would listen to the co-driver giving some extra piece of information about AdAlert. The driver would get a safe-road experience and reach the destination safe and sound.

Because of the time pressure and our small budget, we decided we would play in the video ourselves. Therefore, we chose the idea of the pregnant woman who required the least make up! The decision was proved to be right because, as we ourselves created the product and the app, we knew exactly how it works and which points we should emphasize. So, despite the absence of professional work, we think that we did a great job and the result was decent. And the most important, we had a wonderful time making the video and lots of fun. We hope that the rest of the class, our teachers and generally all people who saw the commercial also liked our video and think our product is good value.

Promo

How will our product get widely known? We have created a Gmail account for our company youTHUNDER (youthunder2019@gmail.com), in case someone wants to find us and ask us information about AdAlert. We have also created accounts in social media. We chose Facebook and Instagram because they are more often used, especially by young and influencing people. It is an effective yet costless way to convey our message. We are very happy because our accounts have a satisfying impact on people. We have received a lot of questions about AdAlert and its functions.

UX SHAZAM

Regarding our task to select an app or a site with errors, difficulties or inaccurate user guidance as well as to analyze these problems and find out how the app or the site could be improved, our team started a brainstorming. After many different suggestions, we end up to Shazam. We liked the idea of scrutinizing such a well-known and widely used application in order to find out points to be improved. It was much more challenging than trying to improve one of the many mediocre, carelessly made apps that have flooded the Internet. We found this task very innovative and interesting as we looked into the famous app in every angle trying to discover any important malfunctions that we had never noticed before. This was quite difficult, but we enjoyed the process of suggesting solutions. As a team we had many ideas, and everyone contributed to the task contriving ways on how Shazam can be upgraded.

Video Ad&Pr Lab

During this semester, one of the many tasks that we had to accomplish was to create a video about our lab, to express our feelings and what Ad and Pr Lab is for us. It was an opportunity for us to convey our thoughts and make a video that represents us. We were thinking of doing something really innovative, something that would impress both our teachers and our mates. Our first action was to take mini videos of the protagonists of Ad and Pr Lab, our teachers, since their role is extremely important for us and basically Ad & Pr Lab wouldn’t even exist without them, let alone being such a succesful Lab. Our next step was to take some shots of our way heading to our studio in Hill, from the beginning of Andrianou road until our arrival at our classroom, using a technique called time-lapse video (an effect available in iPhones). Furthermore, we added another video we recorded in Plaka, during night. Then, we edited our video with the app Kinemaster, which proved to be a very helpful tool. Our video finishes with a picture of the members of our team that appears οn a computer screen. After all, that video was a great chance for us to externalize our thoughts and to learn how to handle new tools for our work.

Sum-Up Feelings

This semester was extremely different from all the others. That happened because this year all students of Communication Media and Culture had to choose the direction they would like to follow, in order to built their future career. Our team chose the direction of Advertising and Public Relations and through this option, automatically, a new world full of experiences, a lot of work and chances opened to us. To begin with, the location was ideal, since studio Hill is located in one of the most beautiful and picturesque regions of our city, Plaka Athens, near Acropolis. This ideal location in combination with the fact that our lessons took place late at night, were two aspiring factors, since we felt so proffesional, even before we started our difficult sessions in Ad & Pr Lab. Additionally, our classroom is decent (some serious upgrade is needed, though, we love it anyway) with the equipment that is required for our lesson. Moreover, throughout the semester, we were lucky enough to have many special guests that shared with us some interesting insight about their work in the field of advertising and they also gave us some really important piece of advice. And of course, our teachers tested what we learned both from all the special guests and from them by constantly assigning many different pieces of work to us. Despite the expected ups and downs, due to anxiety and to all the difficulties that we faced, our Ad & Pr journey was a great experience that trained as to handle many interesting and demanding projects. The ending (for now) of our beloved night-sessions at Hill filled as with anticipation for all the new challeneges of the next semester and also with the feeling that we are readier than ever to face those challenges and meet the expectations of our teachers!

Δήμητρα Κιοϊλόγλου Amanda Linara Anastasia Liakou Ιριάνα Νίκα

Professors: Dr. Stavros Kaperonis Betty Tsakarestou Markos Aris Lina Bakalexi

Dr. Stavros Kaperonis Betty Tsakarestou Markos Aris Lina Bakalexi