Kyuweon, Hassan and I were handed the role of making a pitch for New York University. The pitch, was delivered to the great CEO shark Mr.Micheal.
The audience for our advert was global teens aged 16-19 and the Parents of these teens. The purpose of our advert was to portray New York University in the best light possible, thus attracting lots of students to the university.
In order to best reflect over my pitch I will answer these questions :-
If you were to complete this presentation again, what would you do differently in terms of content and preparation?
1. What main appeals did you use in your pitch? Why did you decide they would be the most effective?
The main appeals, used in our pitch was the appeal to adventure, bandwagon appeal and humor appeal. We decided to use the adventure appeal, because we thought that a university is a place where people go to enjoy, while gathering information as well. A university serves to deliver more than education and is said to provide invaluable life experiences. Thus, would you want to go to a university where everything is based of bookish knowledge? I hope No, would be your answer! Thus, our group wants to portray NYU as the most exciting campus of all time. We wanted the learning at NYU to appear like a thrilling adventure, one which students would want to embark upon. Next, we used the bandwagon appeal, by deciding to cast Adam Sandler in our advert. Adam Sandler is an alumni of NYU and a very well known actor, so we knew we couldn't let this opportunity slip and decided to cast him. This decision was made for two major reasons. Firstly, Adam Sandler is very successful - a delicate mix of Ethos and Pathos. There is Ethos, because Adam Sandler is a credible walking, living example of how great NYU is and there is a bit of Pathos, because people will associate NYU with being a machine which spurns successful celebrities and if they don't go to NYU, they won't be successful. The Need for Attention is touched here, because the audience would all want to be the next Adam Sandler. The next reason, why Adam Sandler was chosen, is the humor appeal. Adam Sandler, is probably Hollywood's best known comedian, and he is associated with having a good laugh and a great time. Having him, give a tour around NYU in his jovial mood is ideal, because it portrays NYU as the "fun" place to be, whilst giving it a feel good touch.
What were some specific persuasive techniques you used (include examples) why did you believe these would be effective?
1. Humor - In the ad, we are keen on Adam Sandler narrating a few jokes and hopefully cracking a few laughs from the audience. Thus, the audience will associate the product (NYU), with fun and humorous, thus hopefully attracting them to the university.
2. Statistics - We have decided to Implement Statistics, to give the advert some aspects of Logos as well. NYU has some very attractive percentages such as after graduation employment, the average salary's for graduates, internships they offer and many more. Our team felt by using these stats, the audience would be impressed and it would provide a balance from the comedic nature of the ad, so that people don't take NYU to be a joke and understand it a serious university as well.
3. Rhetorical Questions - Our group decided to ask rhetorical questions in the advert, such as "Who doesn't want to be as cool as Adam Sandler? By asking rhetorical questions, not only is the audience engaged with the ad, they are also persuaded by the bias we are providing them.
4. Testimonial - Adam Sandler (NYU Alumni) will give a testimony in our advert about how great NYU is and since he is a credible source, we are heavily relying on this method of persuasion.
How did an awareness of audience and context influence your overall approach to this activity?
The awareness of audience and context influenced our overall approach to this activity significantly. Our audience was 16-19 year old's and Parents, thus the utilization of Statistics. Logos, had to be a key factor in our advert because sending a child to university is a huge investment for a parent, and for them to spend this money, there must be some rationality behind it, just like any other investment. Our context, was a global one thus we decided to use Adam Sandler because, he is not just an alumni of NYU, he is also very globally recognized and for a bandwagon appeal to take place, the audience must first know the celebrity himself and we felt with Adam, there is a very high chance of recognition on a global scale. Also, the modern context has led to us making a video because we felt it is the best way to reach out to the audience of today. A video can be shared on social media, T.V and several different media outlets, which is highly suitable for our target audience which is 16-19 year old and working parents, because they are constantly exposed to this type of media as compared to newspapers and radio ads which have now faded "out of fashion".
If you were to complete this presentation again, what would you do differently in terms of preparation?
If I was to complete this presentation again, I feel I would prepare more in terms of delivering the pitch itself. Our group had some very good points and appeals to bring to the table, however we ran fast our slides and didn't stop to explain each of them more. Especially, I feel our first two slides on the target audience and the script itself, should have been dwelled upon more. This might have been because, we had no clear idea of what our script for the advert was going to be thus, we couldn't articulate it clearly - certainly an area for improvement. Moreover, I felt we could have employed more persuasive techniques in the advert such as call to action, because this could make our advert better. Lastly, I felt that if we made chronological explanation of our advert this would be helpful. This was done by one of our competitors, where for each time frame (0-30 sec, 1 min to 1:30) they explained exactly what would be going on in the ad.
However, in conclusion this activity was enjoyed thoroughly by all group members! GO NYU!
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