Unit 7 - Flash Banners - Research

Dear Diary,

Since I have finally completed unit 5 & 6 it was time to move on to a different unit and project that I will be partaking in which is unit 7. In unit 7 I will be given the chance to produce my own flash banner, so in order for me to prepare for this task I had decided to do some research and find out what a flash banner is. I also took the time to research other flash banners and critically analyze three just to find out

- What features they have / use

- How does the audience engage with the banner?

What is a flash banner?

A flash banner is a animated website banner which is normally created by using the software Adobe flash technology. These banners have different qualities such as animation, sound and movements which allow the banner to be seen and more noticeable, most of the flash banners also relate and act based on what a person may doing or searching on the internet.

The first banner I had decided to analyze was a flash banner that was promoting the brand O2 that was present on their website months ago.

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The colors used in the flash banner are blue, the same color that the brand O2 traditionally uses especially in their logo. The Color that the brand O2 tends to use a lot, ranges from dark blue and light blue. So it is pretty evident that O2 wanted to ensure that the flash banner contained the same colors throughout - (the colors that the brand was promoting)

The flash banner

Analyzing the colors that has been used

Dark Blue, as a color is known to represent and symbolize many things, such as :

Power

Knowledge

Seriousness & Integrity

Light Blue, as a color is also known to represent and symbolize many things

The color is

Often associated with healing

Health

Softness & understanding

The color blue, despite the shades one color may have, is generally a color that is linked with stability and depth, its a color that is seen as to the mind and body very beneficial. The color is said to help decrease human metabolism and gives of a calming effect. Blue is also a color that is seen as quite manly and approved by males, perhaps O2 wanted to attract males the most to their services.

Most people use the color blue to promote their products and services that could be about cleanliness, airpots, liquids such as Vodka and air conditioners. - anything that has to do with something pure and clear. If a person wanted to show how precise a product is and show precision in a technology based business, it has been proven that using the color blue could help showcase that.

A screenshot I took of the O2 website

even on their website the colors that are most dominant is blue ↑

I guess that they wanted to show that they're a company that is reliable and secure.

As you can see from the flash banner, what this banner is trying to promote is not only the brand O2 but the types of services you can upgrade to and have, which would give you the opportunity to speak to your family and friends, despite the time zone and location they may be in.

The banner engages with the audience, as it is persuading them that with 100 extra free minutes you can call your family and friends, trying their best to appeal to people who may have family members and or friends who could be abroad and not in the same country they're. We can see this as along with the text in the flash banner, you can see pictures which shows clocks of different types of cities and the different types of time zones they have.

From the flash banner you can see that it is also trying to appeal to adults as the website O2 is generally a website which allows people to purchase phones, upgrade their phones, obtain a contract and many more services which normally is a process which most adults, people of a certain age have to either get for themselves or for their children.

The other features the banner has .....

Due to the banner being on the website months ago, I was unable to find out if their was a link which made it possible for customers to get this plan, however I do very much believe so that O2 would have provided a link to do so, without a doubt.

When it came to if the banner had any sound, I had difficulties finding that out too but in my opinion and past experience of being on the O2 website, in trying to find a contract deal with my phone, I've never found a flash banner on the website that had music on it, all i remember was hearing animated clicking sounds, which made sense as I feel like if their was music it would decrease what O2 wants for their website to be about, through color symbolization which is peace and being calm.

The 2nd flash banner I had decided to look at was :

This one which showed up when I was watching a music video. I wanted to find a flash banner that happened when I was watching something, a banner that appeared when I was browsing on a website, just to experiment and see if it was only there because it was linked to something I had looked at on the internet before. So i had decided to just click on any music video and a flash banner for the website Grammarly showed up, their even was an advert of the company Grammarly playing on my video, before giving me access to watch the music video.

The picture of the flash banner

This flash banner was trying its best to attract me even more by presenting itself on the side of the video and in a advertisement before the video that I was going to watch, giving me the option to if I wanted to, click on it after watching my music video. It also gave you the option to subscribe to their youtube channel and the option to visit their website which when clicked on, linked me to a page where I was given the choice if I wanted to, download this software on Safari for free. When I clicked on the videos it linked me individually to them as well.

Below is a screenshot I took of the page that I was linked to when I clicked on

Visit Advertiser's Site

The flash banner never had any music connected towards it and was a rather simple banner, which remained on the page and gave the people choice to click on what they wanted. The colors that were placed on the banner were mostly primary colors, but the color that the company mostly tends to use especially in their logo is the color green.

The color green is yet another color that symbolizes and represents many things

• Its a color that is seen as very soothing to the eye and the color itself is proven to improve vision (perhaps Grammarly used this to relate to what their software is about, which is to help people correct mistakes in essay's that they could not see)

• The color green is a color that is fully involved with nature. In many ways the color symbolizes and shows growth, freshness and even fertility...

Its also a color that represents safety, you could see this whenever you look at a traffic light, the color red indicates don't go, stop, whereas the color red allows people to travel, signaling that the area is safe enough for you to begin to start driving again. - Grammarly could have also used this to represent that their company is here to help you!

The banner is brief, normal, interactive and simple. The main purpose of the flash banner was to attract viewers to use their services which could allow them to install a software, onto their computer that could fix any error's that they could have made when writing an important essay.

The 3RD flash banner I had decided to look at was :

This banner which popped up onto the website eBay ↓

The flash banner's main purpose was to attract the viewers of people who are visiting and looking to browse on the website eBay. (most likely like any other flash banner, paid to do so, or are sponsored)

A more enlarged photo of the flash banner

The flash banner was from the company Experian and what they were trying to advertise was their services for and to people who wanted to find out their credit score. The flash banner was very interactive and allowed for you to click on the word ''open'' which then linked you to their website to begin the process.

A screen shot of where I was linked once clicking the word ''open''

The features that the flash banner had was very basic, it was interactive and made it easy to get the services you wanted from their company, but other than that their was not any sounds or noises, that would or could have attracted me even more towards it.

The color's used in the banner were very bright and consisted of primary colors.

The colors that the company Experian mostly use are quite dark colors, so the fact that their using bright colors could suggest many things

These bright colors could have been used instead :

perhaps to attract people and to be more noticeable, whilst being placed at the top of the website.

We see the color green which stated before when analyzing the other flash banner, is a color that symbolizes many things. Most importantly safety - this could have been used in the flash banner to show and represent that the company is secure and will take care of your details. Also using this color to attract people even more as it has proven that Green is a color pleasing to the human eye.

Another color that was seen in the flash banner was the color yellow and orange, along with their logo which is traditionally in dark colors such as purple and black.

Yellow & Orange as a color :

Yellow is a color that is mostly linked with happiness, energy, joy and intellect. The color yellow is said to bring a warming affect towards people because the color is so bright it tends to bring attention towards people - making it a beneficial color as it stands out.

Orange is a color that also has similar features to the color yellow. Its a color that stands out and a color that is linked with happiness as well. Orange is very noticeable and is very hard not to notice through the human eye. - Orange is a very good color to use especially if you want promote products.

From this research that I have done, I have learnt a lot of things that could be added to my own flash banner, which could be used to attract viewers and people to click and interact with it.

Such as :

Finding out that using specific colors could help draw an audience to a flash banner

Finding out and discovering ways to appeal to people on a flash banner through font.

The next step after this is to start to try and experiment with creating my own flash banner, before I make my final edit of one.