Diploma in Media & Communication

Lecture 4
DPHU1002 Promotional Campaigns &
PR & texts
Advertising
Lecturer
Amy Miller
Email: A.Miller@unswcollege.edu.au​
 Acknowledgement of Country

I would like to acknowledge the Bedegal people who are the Traditional
Custodians of the land on which UNSW sits. I would also like to pay my
respects to the Elders both past, present and emerging, and extend that
respect to other Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders who are present
here today.
 Review of Week 3 Lecture
• Promotion, Culture & Ideology- PR and Adv and their place within:
society, culture and the economy. How they arise from and contribute to
wider discourses and the social and cultural values we attach to them. ​

• Why We Desire Stuff - How PR and advertising persuade and communicate

across industries, within organisations, in times of crisis, and to produce
commercial, social, and political outcomes.​

• Criticism of Promotional Cultures​

• Nike: A Case Study in Promotional Culture

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What do you think so far?
“…markets, democracy and media are naturally good
developments in human history; promotional
occupations have been essential to their advancement;
therefore promotion is an essential and positive part of
contemporary society.” (Davis, 2013 p. 20)
OR

“ Promotion has blinded and tainted individuals,

encouraged inequality and prejudice, and corrupted
institutions and social relations.” (p. 27)
Assessment 2 review Assessment 1 starts in
week 4 – In-Class QUIZ.
1. Assessment 2 is due at the start of week 7 – Monday (based on lecture
1,2 content)

2. Submit via the link on Moodle \

3. Have you selected the right PR or Advertising campaign? Check the list of
campaigns in the Assessment folder

4. Read your readings! Weeks 1 to 4 – 4 readings in total – you must

reference them in your report.

5. Research your campaign – ADD communication examples - locate articles,

examples of content, add images, video etc to demonstrate PR & Advertising
content
*Remember to reference any sources and write in your own words unless you are
adding quotes (then in-text reference)
PR campaign example IMPORTANT - YOU NEED TO
RESEARCH YOUR CAMPAIGN for
EXAMPLES OF COMMUNICATION!
Heinz limited edition clothing line -' Heinz vintage Drip'

What did they do?

What communication did they develop?

I sourced this from Famous Campaigns HERE

What else was I able to research and find around the communication of this campaign?

INSTAGRAM WEBSITE ARTICLES, NEWS STORY LINKS ETC

Also sourced Facebook content, blogger and influencer posts on the campaign and more
 Advertising campaign example
Ivory Coat's 'For pets as healthy as you'
What did they do?

Adnews HERE

What else was I able to research and find around the communication of this campaign?

Ivory Coat also launched a magazine! PRINT ADV EXAMPLES

This is a google/online
search for the campaign
Integrated campaign example
Will be a campaign that has advertising elements plus PR elements. Refer to the advertising content created
and any PR elements.

e.g. Unilever's 'Life Buoy' campaign (from week 2 lecture) - a campaign to increase the representation
of girls in the school curriculum in Pakistan

Tvc example

What did they do? Q: WHAT IS THE SOCIAL

ISSUE/CHALLENGE THIS BRAND IS
TRYING TO SUPPORT?

Example Comic
book distributed Print ad/billboard
in schools to example of the product
educate girls this brand
about learning - is ADVERTISING
PR
 What NOT to analyse
• Only one piece of communication about a product. You must look
at the 'campaign' - all the components that were communicated

This is just a single product

advertisement – not a full
campaign.

This is only a single

promotion/offer
Where are we this week?
1. Welcome & Introducing Public Relations and Advertising 1 THEORY
2.
3.
Introducing Public Relations and Advertising 2
Promotional Cultures
AND
4. PR and Advertising Campaigns & Texts CONTEXT
5. Elements (I): Briefing and Researching
6. Client Brief & Analysing Publics PUBLIC RELATIONS
7. A2: DUE
8. Elements (II): Stories, key messages & Objectives & ADVERTISING
9. Elements (III): Strategy & Tactics, Evaluation IN PRACTICE
10. Elements (IV): Media Forms & Media Content

11. Professional Practice (I): How to Pitch

12. Professional Practice (II): Views from the Industry (Guests) (A3 Due) INDUSTRY
Week 4 –Promotional
Texts & Campaigns
1.Promotional Texts​
2.Encoding & Decoding ​
3.Ad Campaigns – the What, Why, and How​
4.Public Relations Campaigns​
5.Elements of Promotional Campaigns

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 Promotional Text

• Text - may include imagery, words,

sounds or other signifying elements
that produce a meaningful message”
(Wharton 2015)
• Advertising = texts (written files,
messages)
• Media texts include TV, radio, internet
etc
• Texts have a series of patterns,
shapes and narrative:
This Australia post advertisement –
• Words what meaning it is trying to
communicate? How does it do it?
• Images
• Events
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 Promotional Text
 Things “in themselves” rarely, if ever, have any one, single,
fixed and unchanging meaning.’ (Hall 1997)

 ‘It is by our use of things, and what we say, think and feel
about them – how we represent them – that we give them a
meaning.’ (ibid, 1997)

 ‘Meaning is a dialogue – always only partially understood,

always an unequal exchange.’ (ibid)
TED – 20 words that once had a diifere
nt meaning

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Analysing texts

 A communicative
process.

 Can analyse many

modes of mediated
communication.

The Conversation

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Promotional Text Stuart Hall's – encoding
and decoding

Producing
and
developing

Transmission
of the
message

How the
message is
understood

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 Promotional Text – Encoding (the making of texts) Who
creates the message/text?

PUBLIC WHAT?
ADVERTISING WHAT?
TV Ads
RELATIONS Media Release for stories
Account Print ads – Account directors Research-to obtain data
for stories
planners magazines/Newspape Strategists Social media content
Strategists rs
Radio Ads
Researchers Newsletters
Researchers Billboards Writers Website copy
Collaborations
Copywriters Bus Shelter as Media advisors Events
Art directors Bus ads
Banner ads
Digital Creatives Launches
Designers Native Advertising Community Influencer engagement
*Sponsored posts /
Photographers Cinema Ads Engagement boosted content
Media buyers *Sponsored
posts / boosted
Specialists
content (Financial/Internal)
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 Denotative versus Connotative
As communicators we need to be aware of the communication we
are producing and the meaning that is taken away by our publics.
There is Denotative meaning and Connotative meaning.

Denotative – is a man and a Denotative: Child holding

Denotative: Australian Flag
woman as mother's hand
Connotative: let's discuss
Connotative: The gender areas Connotative: let's discuss
for restrooms for male and
female 18
Encoding – producing the
message

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Promotional Text – Encoding (the making of texts)

Message
Language
Signs
Symbols
Narratives
Culture
Context
Reference
Delivery

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Promotional Text – Encoding (the making of texts)

Celebrity
Olympics
Gold
Stylised hair,
symbolism
Speed,
movement
Female
activities

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Creating a Message
Example from week 2

• A NEW GYM CHAIN CALLED ‘PHYSICOLOGY’ TARGETING

GRADUATES, WHICH PUTS THE EMPHASIS ON THE SOCIAL SIDE
OF WORKING OUT

• A NEW TRADIE APP WHICH LISTS TRADESPEOPLE TO HIRE

FROM PLUMBERS TO ELECTRICINAS – CALLED ‘HIRE ME’

• A NEW NATIONAL TABLOID NEWSPAPER TARGETING 16 – 20

YEAR OLDS

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Example creations from workshops! Will do in
week 5

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Canva – Design week 5 workshop
https://www.canva.com/

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Today

Promotional Text – Tools of Analysis​

- Content Analysis – Quantitative (where & when)​

- Discourse Analysis – interchange of ideas​
- Textual Analysis – Qualitative (its meaning)

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 Promotional Text – Content Analysis
Content analysis
considers the
frequency with which
an advertising text or
public relations
message appears in
media:
1. Statistical
2. Surface
3. Distribution

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Promotional Text – Discourse Analysis
Michel Foucault

For Foucault, discourse - has to do

with practices and configurations of
power often rooted in organizations
that both control and are structured by
distinct disciplinary knowledges’ (Frow
2005, p. 93)

When we analyse promotional texts,

we can look for the ways they
represent, reinforce or resist
powerful discourses
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Promotional Text – Discourse Analysis

What is the discourse in

this ad?

What is it trying to say to

women?

Overall does it do a good

job of resisting or
reinforcing powerful
discourses?

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Promotional Text – Discourse Analysis

What is the definition of

being a man in this ad?

Do you think this is

different to how men were
defined a few decades
ago?

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Promotional Text – Textual Analysis
Formal | Semiotic | Contextual

This professional campaign

titled 'Heaven and Hell' was
published in China in June,
2011. It was created for the
brand: Samsonite, by ad
agency: JWT.

What can we analyse here to determine its meaning? Formal analysis

involves – form, shape, colour, composition, lines, light versus shade,
perspective-2D versus 3D, movement, rhythm?

What is happening in this print advertisement?

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Promotional Text – Textual Analysis
Formal | Semiotic | Contextual

Heinz advertising Iconography - the interpretation of

drawing on artist Andy
Warhol style
symbols and signs – today this is
the study of semiotics

Contextual – a relationship with

other ttexts and platforms

Pear soap
advertising using a
'Lily'
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Decoding (the
reception of texts)

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 Promotional Text – Effects

Like the hypodermic needle

theory of media effects, studies
of promotional effects were often
much too narrow.

• Unambiguous
• Unidirectional
• Passive recipient

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 Promotional Text – Effects

Audiences for
promotion are
active – not
passive in taking
on promotional
messages, but
discerning and
aware.

Understanding an
audience involves
making choices
about how you’ll
categorise them.

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 Promotional Text – Decoding

 Preferred (or dominant) meaning: the audience accepts the

encoders intended meaning

 Negotiated meaning: the audience accepts the intended

meaning in its widest, global sense but will adapt it to local
context

 Oppositional meaning: the preferred meaning is rejected by

the audience, who recognize and refuse the ideological content

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What are you understanding from
these advertising examples?

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Advertising Campaigns:
The What, Why and How

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Advertising Situations – why do we
need a campaign?
Problem, Challenge,
Opportunity:
• New products
• New markets
• New competitors
• Sliding / stagnant
• Changing trends
…and again, just to name a few!

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What?
Not just a single advertisement or PR
action, but a series of texts organised
around a central message, theme or
aesthetic. Every print add was centred
around the bottle and changing line of
'Absolut.........'

• Intertextual
• Sustained
• Cohesive
• Flexible
• Multi-channel

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Why?
Messaging works by accumulation
– or layering – not just by simple
repetition.

• Driven by insight
• Say the same thing, differently
• Build on success
• Branding happens over time
• Strategic
• Track impact

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How else did they
communicate?
PR and advertising have different
approaches to campaigns, but they are
made up of the same elements:

Events
• Briefing
• Research
• Planning
• Strategy
• Insight Collaborations
• Message
• Evaluation
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Class Reflection

What message is this ad

trying to communicate?

- Language?

- Symbols?

- Narrative?

- Culture or Context?

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When Advertising goes wrong

Advertising example in a train

station
• What do you think is the
issue?

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When Advertising goes wrong

Advertising example print

advertising
• What do you think is the
issue?

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PR Campaigns

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PR Situations – why we need a PR
campaign
Problem, Challenge,
Opportunity:
• Bad press
• Crisis
• Falling reputation
• Change
• New publics, stakeholders,
identities
…just to name a few!
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PR Campaigns
“Campaigns are designed to help
their organisations cope with the
world; they are proactive,
planned and have a purpose.
They therefore have an impact
and contribute to meeting
organisational objectives – they
are not just activities for the sake
of it.”

Gregory, A (2017)
PR Campaigns
PR campaigns will aim to do one, or more of the following:

- Persuade – get someone, or a group to do something they would

otherwise would not

- Inform – give information about new policy, service, regulation, crisis,

requirement or institution

- Normalise – certain attitudes, values and behaviours e.g. not smoking

- Inspire – motivate individuals to do something new, or stop doing

something.

- Engage – people around an issue, debate or activity.

When PR Goes
Wrong for a
brand

Can you find/think of

a PR disaster for a
brand?

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When PR Goes
Wrong for a
celebrity

What celebrity do
you know that has
been caught up in a
PR disaster for
their profile?

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Next Week (5) - Campaign Elements; Client Briefing
(for A3) & Research

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