Dunkin Commerical CCR

Creative Critical Reflection

1. How does your product use or challenge conventions AND how does it represent social groups or issues?

• My product/ commercial was on Dunkin Donuts. My group used and challenged conventions by including different people’s enjoyment and/or love for the brand and products it comes with. In most Dunkin Donuts commercials, the actors as well as the extras act very unnecessarily dramatic and over the top in the way they act as well as talk. However, in our Dunkin commercial, the actors were more realistic, down to earth, and more relatable than the brands existing commercials. The setting in most other Dunkin Donuts commercials is usually in a workplace. In these commercials the cast is usually adults or families. However, we made our commercial take place in school with actual teenagers. We wanted to make something different and unique to be able to see if it made any difference in sales or for people to want to go there. We wanted to stick out from the other Dunkin commercials as well as be able to connect with audience our own age. In the commercial we also didn’t insert the prices of the products. We wanted to see if this would attract more customers or if customer wouldn’t want to buy it since the price wasn’t show upfront. That part of the commercial was meant for research and used as an experiment. Next time Dunkin could attempt to advertise other products besides coffee to other types of audiences to attract new and more customers.

•   When we made the commercial, we wanted to make it for teenagers and others our age. Since we are all teens, we gathered our ideas and brainstormed on how to make the most appealing commercial and used things we would look for or find attracting on commercials ourselves. As teens we see how much coffee (and other products Dunkin Donuts offers) teens consume and we realized that most of Dunkin Donuts customers are most likely teens. It was time to make a commercial that stood out and called on teens to make them feel included. Making the commercial in a school setting with students made it stick out from Dunkin Donuts other commercials and reach a new audience that they don’t usually target or market for. It’s a way to spread and grow the brand as a whole. If this type of commercial is successful Dunkin could consider making even more commercials towards teenagers and other groups they haven’t targeted before. This could be a big step for Dunkin in their growth and evolution and perhaps make new products aimed at new social groups to expand popularity.

 2. How does your product engage with audiences AND how would it be distributed as a real media text?

• My groups brand (Dunkin Donuts) engages with their audience in different ways. The products presented in each commercial is directed and targeted towards different types of people with different lives. Before my group and I decided to make a Dunkin commercial towards teens we looked at Dunkin Donuts past commercials to see what had already been done. It was mostly the same thing made for the same social group/ audience. We wanted to step out if that line and make a new connection to a new group, teens and other kids our age. We made the commercial based on things we would want to see that would make us want to go and buy whatever they are offering. We are able to connect with this audience since we have the same mindset and work on the same level as them. We can make relations to things going on in a teens life that will make them feel connected to the brand and understood. They could feel like they fit in. By making different types of commercials and advertising different products from Dunkin Donuts we could reach different audiences all in one.
•  Dunkin Donut commercials could be distributed in many different places. For example, it can be shown at sport evets, on the television, before movies at the theater, on social media, the radio, etc. Since Dunkin is reaching out to different social groups and audiences, they have a large variety of outlets they can spread to. If Dunkin decides to make or distribute a commercial on the television, they are more likely to reach adults and families. However, if they were trying to reach anyone, they could put an ad on the radio. When in the car and an ad comes on the radio anyone has the potential to hear it. The driver or passengers who can be any age possible. If Dunkin decided to publish something on the internet or on social media audiences like teens or a bit older would be the primary target and audience, they would reach. Depending on what is in their commercial and was is being done in it should determine where they want it to be distributed and seen. However, they also have to consider what times they want the commercial to be on each platform for it to do well and to be as successful as possible. For example, if they want to air a commercial on the radio it would be the best to do so throughout early mornings. This is the time both adults and students are up and driving to their jobs and school. If they were to heat a Dunkin Donuts commercial about coffee or breakfast on their way they might get tempted and stop by.

3.  How did your production skills develop throughout this project?

• My production skills evolved and became much better due to this project. I got to see and learn the process and see what it took to do certain things. I learnt what would be difficult and what I found easy to do so that I know where to focus my time during the next upcoming projects and so that I can make a plan so that I give myself enough time on each step while keeping it within the time frame I was given. It was fairly easy to come up with the shots my group and I wanted to shoot. We spent extra time re-shooting the shots just in case we accidentally deleted one, ended up not liking it, or if it would end up not working with the time frame we had to stay within. We realized that the exporting process would take up a good amount of our time if we decided to use school computers, so we had to spend extra time figuring out what we were doing wrong and how to fix it. We ended up using our own laptop and will most likely do that for future projects to save time. The editing process was simple due to the fact that we used our own software that we already knew how to work and control. During this whole commercial project, I got to see and get the basic understanding of how the projects will be carried out and how they should be done. I realized that it wasn’t as easy as I had originally made it out to be in my head but it also wasn’t way too difficult.

 4. How did you integrate technologies – software, hardware and online – in this project?

• When we started this commercial, we decided to use our phones as cameras to record the shots because we knew how they worked and didn’t have to worry much about the footage being deleted or disappearing. We knew that if something was to happen, we would be at fault and have to deal with the time limit ourselves, but it was a chance we were willing to take. The recording process worked out very well but when we were going to dump the footage into the school laptops something went wrong and it wouldn’t let us, we still had all the footage on the phone we used so we decided to try editing on our own laptop as well. This ended up being a good decision because the footage/ our shots were already backed up on the computers iCloud so it was already dumped. We used iMovie which seemed to be a lot easier software to use than Pinnacle Studios. In the end it was a good decision to use our own equipment and technologies because the schools equipment was not working correctly and my group ended up finishing the commercial and turning it in early.