Post Pitch Reflection

Today I was asked - along with Cassius and Dakota - to deliver a pitch asking for funds in order to distribute emergency shelters. 

The main appeals we decided to use were the need to nurture, the need to feel safe and the need to feel prominence. We decided to incorporate these appeals into our advertisement, as we wanted to make an emotional connection with potential donators and the people that are suffering. We decided that the best way to do this is to play on the maternal and paternal instincts of the people and try and communicate the feeling of being lost and having no home in order to touch on their need to feel safe and to understand how the people in conflict zones might feel. Finally, we also decided to include some aspect of prominence into the Ad in order to help people feel good about themselves and make them feel a connection between themselves and a celebrity such as Leonardo DiCaprio - as will be further explained. 

Of course using human appeals was not enough, so we also took it upon ourselves to include specific persuasive techniques. The first of which was the idea of having a celebrity be in the advertisement and personally talk about their experiences with refugees and their own donations. Leonardo DiCaprio was chosen as he is a very popular celebrity with a large fan base following and is also a UN Messenger of Peace. The introduction of a celebrity was also meant to serve the purpose of starting a bandwagon effect with many people talking about the Ad and donating and advocating for others to also donate. Next, we also wanted to use intensity and dysphemism as we wanted strong words that would hit home and communicate the message of the advertisement with the greatest impact. Another persuasive technique is the use of scientific backing. After using the above techniques, people will want to help the people in conflict zones in any way possible. However, they still might not be sold on the idea of the shelters being built by the company. In this case, a brief yet logical explanation of the product with scientific proof on how it functions and the extent of which this will help the people is the best way to go to ensure that we get as many people as we can donating money and raising awareness.

The audience and context also played a major role in the development of this Ad campaign. Since the Ad will be targeted towards the general public - within the age of possessing a credit card  - this impacted our decisions on the appeals we would use. For example, if this Ad was targeted towards the red cross or another charity or not - for - profit organization, they would have already been aware of the issues being faced by refugees and all they need is to be convinced of the logical reasons for buying this product. The Ad is also set in a global context, so the messages have to be mutually understood by a vast majority of people. so instead of translating the words and the speech in the Ad, we thought it would be more powerful to limit the words and speech, and instead have a video that shows the people the truth. This includes videos of destruction, crying children, distraught faces, destroyed families and so on. 

The images used in the pitch were simply to help convey the message of what we were attempting to communicate. The emotional image of the two children alone was to show the company exactly how effective an image can be in introducing the appeals of the need to nurture and the need to feel safe. It also shows them how emotion can deeply impact a person's decision-making process and the ease of persuasion. The next image was an image of Leonardo DiCaprio in formal attire speaking before the entire united nations placing him in a position of honor and showing him as a role model. This was to further communicate his importance in the Ad. Finally, the last image was the actual product itself with a visual representation of how the product works to show how we might portray its functionality in the Ad. 

Finally, when looking back at the way I felt during the pitch and after watching the video. It was very obvious that I was not prepared. My confidence was not bad, however, my biggest issue was remembering to include all the important information. I had forgotten to talk about most of the main points and lost my rhythm of speech. As for my stage presence, I believe that my movements were not too minimal or too excessive, I just need to know what to do with my hands. After watching the video I realized that I was crossing my arms, or playing with my button or my shirt. I feel as though my overall pitch did not communicate my ideas to a great enough extent and that I should work towards improving this.