BTEC Magazines Project Task 2

BTEC Media

Computer Games Magazines project – preparation for practical work

Task 2: Generate Ideas for Printed Material

In Groups of 4(ish)

[or on your own if you can’t handle group work/don’t like anyone]

1. Brainstorm ideas for the contents of your magazine. Record these ideas on paper: everything you do at this stage will be used for assessment

2. Use the internet to research existing computer games magazines: what do they have inside? How are they laid out? How many pages do they have? How much do they cost? How often do they come out?

3. Who is the audience for your magazine? How have you identified them? How is your magazine going to meet the needs of this audience?

4. How much is your magazine going to cost to produce? How are you going to fund these costs? [**try to find out how much it costs to produce an actual magazine. Then think about the advertising you would carry to fund this – what sort of adverts, and from whom, would you put in?]

5. What are the price, frequency and size of your magazine (in pages) going to be?

6. You should have front covers already designed: choose one of these to work with as your actual front cover. Work on individually designing a few (3+) pages from the magazine [Remember, this is a computer games magazine – while you don’t need the actual content yet, you will need to have an idea of what is going to go where…]

7. Research regulatory bodies covering magazines – what aren’t you allowed to put in?

BTEC Unit 7 - Writing The Proposal

Unit 7: Advertising Production
Writing the Proposal

The proposal is a document in which you set out your ideas to sell to your client. This is your opportunity to show that you understand the product you are selling and the target audience this advert is being aimed at.

You should make sure your proposal covers these issues:

1. What is the advertisement for? In the introduction to your proposal, make sure that you show that you understand the product you are advertising, and give a brief description of it.

2. What shape will the campaign take? Explain the thinking behind producing the TV advert, magazine advert and billboard. Why is this the right choice for your client? What is the slogan for your advert? Remember that in this early stage you are persuading them.

3. Who is your target audience? How have you identified them? How will you make sure that your campaign gets the right audience for your client’s product?

4. What is the current market for this product? Who are the major competitors for this?

5. The TV advert. Give an outline of what you are going to show in the advert? What is the audience going to see and hear, and how is the advert going to sell the product to the target audience. You will need to describe the proposed advert in detail, along with your choice of music and any text planned to be shown. At this stage you don’t need a detailed storyboard/script, but you will need to make it clear that you know exactly what you are doing – your client will want lots of details during the pitch.

6. The magazine advert. Give an outline of what you are going to show in the magazine advert, and how this is going to persuade your client’s audience to buy their product. What is the main image of the advert, and how is this important? What text (copy) is there going to be on the advert, and how is this linked as a campaign to the TV ad? What does it have in common? What colours etc. are you going to use? Why?

7. The billboard advert. Give an outline of what you are going to show in the billboard advert, and how this is going to persuade your client’s audience to buy their product. What is the main image of the advert, and how is this important? What text (copy) is there going to be on the advert, and how is this linked as a campaign to the TV and magazine ad? What does it have in common? How does your campaign slogan fit in here? Remember that the billboard ad will need to be striking – people may not have the opportunity to stop and linger as they see the advert, so it will need to grab their attention instantly.

8. Placement. Explain to your client in the proposal where you are going to place the advertisements and why you have selected these platforms.

9. How you are going to do it. Make it clear to your client that you have a clear idea of how you are going to make the advertisements. Try and make this a ‘real world’ scenario, so this seems as real as possible.

10. Budget. Give your client an estimated budget – they need to know how much this is going to cost them.

11. Timescale. How long do you expect the production process to take? When are you going to have an artefact ready for your client to evaluate?

The proposal needs to be a detailed document, and you need to demonstrate that your advertising agency knows what it is doing, and is able to handle this kind of work. It is a big deal, and it is important that you get it right.

BTEC Unit 7 Task 1 (Certificate and Diploma)

This is the first homework task (already set for MGA groups - LCA group watch this space...)

You are going to be able to access the higher levels by going into lots of detail - use as much technical advertising language and examples as you can.

Assessment Task 1

Consider the following 3 advertising scenarios and answer the questions (a) to (d) below.

1. A company has developed a hand held console that can be linked to two or more other consoles. It has been designed for high speed gaming and will be sold at low cost.

2. A low cost airline wants to develop their market in fun holidays designed to appeal to the young adult market. One of the key features of the holidays is late night partying in bars and clubs.

3. A toy company wants its talking robot to become the top toy this Christmas. The toy is priced at more than £200.


(a) Describe the target audience for each of the three products.
(b) Discuss the most effective form of advertising for each product
(c) Produce an initial outline of the advertising techniques you would use to advertise each of these products.
(d) Explain why you chose these techniques.

Assessment evidence

P: Describe the kind of advertisements and advertising techniques you would use

M: Discuss the kinds of advertisements and advertising techniques that you would use, using appropriate examples

D: Critically discuss the kinds of advertisements and advertising techniques you would use.