Media Analysis-Newspaper

For a long time, the most commonly used media in advertising have been television, radio, newspapers and magazines. They are known as the four major media. In recent years, with the development of electronic technology, online advertising has suddenly emerged. , making the advertising media present a "Five King Kong" situation.

Newspaper advertising is advertising that uses newspapers as a publicity and communication medium, that is, advertisements published in various newspapers. Among modern advertising media, the number of newspaper advertisements always ranks first among all major media. my country's newspaper advertisements account for about one-third of the total advertising volume. All publicly distributed newspapers, such as daily newspapers, evening newspapers, weekly newspapers, monthly newspapers, business newspapers, academic journals, comprehensive newspapers, professional newspapers, domestic or international newspapers, can be used as advertising media.

Newspaper advertisements are usually classified according to page size. In our country, the types of page advertisements are:

(1) Newspaper advertisements. The page on the front page of a newspaper that is parallel to the masthead is called the newspaper eye. The advertisements published using this space are the newspaper eye advertisements.

(2) Full-page advertisements and cross-page advertisements. Full-page advertising refers to the use of one newspaper page to publish advertisements; cross-page advertising is an advertisement designed to occupy two pages of a newspaper.

(3) Center seam advertisement. After the horizontally arranged newspaper is unfolded, there is a gap running up and down between the two pages. The advertisements published on this page are center-seam advertisements.

(4) Masthead advertisement. Masthead advertisements are advertisements that appear in the form of mastheads scattered among various articles in non-advertising sections of newspapers.

(5) Interstitial advertising. A loose-leaf advertisement in a newspaper. It is not part of the official layout of the newspaper. It is usually printed in advance before the newspaper is printed. When the newspaper is printed and folded, it is sandwiched in and released with the newspaper.

In addition, according to its form of expression, it can also be divided into:

(1) Plain text advertisements. This is an advertisement that does not contain any pictures and only uses text to express the advertising content. At most, it is equipped with some bottom lines and floral lines.

(2) Black and white advertising. This is another name for classified ads and column ads.

(3) Red advertising. This is to color the title or content of the advertisement in red to make the advertisement more eye-catching and prominent, thereby producing a good visual effect.

(4) Advertisements with pictures and texts. In newspaper advertisements, advertisements that use both text and images to express the content of the advertisement are called graphic advertisements.

(5) Blank advertisement. Blank advertising refers to a type of advertising form that uses a large area of ??blank space as the background of the advertisement to emphasize and highlight the advertising theme through the contrast between reality and reality.

Generally speaking, newspapers have a relatively large distribution range and coverage, covering the entire urban and rural corners and the public from all walks of life. They are one of the most influential mass media. The advantages of newspaper advertising are:

(1) Easy to produce and low cost.

(2) Newspapers have large layouts and lengths, and can carry a large amount of information. They often have different levels and categories of readers, and have a high contact rate and reading rate, which is conducive to spreading among a wide range of readers. transmit various types of information within the scope.

(3) Readers have the initiative in reading time, place and speed.

(4) Newspaper publishing has a short printing cycle and rapid delivery, which allows advertising information to intervene in public life in a timely manner.

(5) Because newspapers have special newsiness, accuracy, and high credibility, they enhance the influence of newspaper advertisements and increase readers’ trust.

(6) Newspaper layout is flexible and can design ideal publicity layout according to users’ opinions and requirements, with pictures and texts to enhance the public’s impression.

In addition, many newspapers often publish announcements for governments or social groups, which invisibly improves the social status of newspapers and makes them more authoritative.

Regarding advertising, newspaper advertising also has insurmountable shortcomings, mainly manifested in:

(1) Short timeliness. This is because newspapers are published frequently and the timeliness of each newspaper is very short. Many readers discard it after reading it once. In addition, due to the timely succession, the newspaper of that day is history the next day, and there are not many opportunities for further advertising effects.

(2) Since most newspaper advertisements are printed in black and white, the image of the advertised product is poor in terms of advertising performance.

(3) In terms of editing, due to space restrictions, advertisements on the same page are often crowded, affecting readers' reading.

(4) Due to the fast pace of life in modern society, it is impossible to read newspapers in detail

(1) Title design. There is a popular saying in the advertising industry that if the title does not speak clearly, 80% of the advertising money is wasted. It can be seen how important the title is in advertising. The purpose of advertising title design is to attract readers' attention, attract readers' attention to the advertisement, and guide readers to read the entire advertising copy. The following skills should be mastered in title design:

① The title is the theme of the entire advertisement and should be placed where it can be noticed most quickly, such as the visual center of the page.

② The number of words in the title should not be too long, generally no more than 11 words. If the title has too many words to be deleted, a subtitle can be used to supplement the main title.

③ Pay attention to the selection and design of the title font, as well as the readability of the copy content, in order to design an exquisite title that has a graphic visual effect and a copy explanatory effect. Specifically, the font of the title should be large (the largest in the entire advertisement) and powerful, the font should not change too much or be too fancy, and a very eye-catching font should be used to emphasize the "benefits" that the product brings to consumers. .

(2) Text design. Pay attention to the following when designing the text:

① In terms of font, the text font should be significantly smaller than the title. The font should generally be Song font, block letters, imitation Song font or Ming font. Except for special circumstances, avoid using reverse white for the main text.

② In the visual process, the principle should be to put the title first (top) and the text last (bottom) to guide readers to deeply understand the content of the text after reading the title.

③ The length of each line of text should not exceed 7 cm. The distance between main text and words should be about 1/8 of the width of a single word, and the distance between lines should be 1/2 of the width of a single word. high.

④ Try to avoid long paragraphs of lengthy text. When the text contains a lot of content, it should be divided into several paragraphs, and subtitles or annotations should be used to serve as reminders and summaries; in addition, in the text, In terms of arrangement, uneven arrangement can be used to attract readers' attention.

(3) Illustration design. Illustrations occupy more space than the main text in most newspaper advertisements. They play an equally important role in promoting goods as the main text. In some newspaper advertisements, illustrations are even more important than the main text. When designing illustrations, pay attention to the following points:

① The illustrations should be able to connect the advertising content with consumers’ own reality. The illustrations themselves should make consumers like and be interested, and the pictures should be powerful enough. Prompt consumers to further want to know more details about the product, and induce consumers to turn their attention from illustrations to copywriting.

② Good illustrations should have an attractive function, that is, they should be concise and clear, making it easier for readers to grasp the key points and attract consumers' attention. Some foreign advertising illustrators cover up the text and title of the advertisement so that readers can only see the illustrations to see if they can understand the content of the advertisement. Good illustrations often have the power to produce results in three seconds.

③ Good illustrations should have an induction function, that is, they should be able to capture consumers’ psychological reactions and draw their attention to the copy.

(4) Color design. Compared with black and white advertisements, consumers pay more attention to color advertisements than black and white advertisements. Therefore, colors must be used correctly in advertisements to effectively increase the attention of advertisements. Pay attention to the following points in advertising color design:

① Among many colors, consumers pay more attention to warm colors (yellow, orange, red, etc.) than cool colors (blue, green) high.

② For products that require color, their appearance and texture can be better displayed through full-color advertising.

③ Colors represent different emotions and have different symbolic meanings. These symbolic meanings are a complex issue in people’s exchange of ideas. They vary depending on a person’s age, region, era, ethnicity, class, and economic status. , work ability, education level, customs and habits, religious beliefs, living environment, and gender differences.

④ Sometimes, using too much color will damage the communication effect. The quality of an advertisement does not depend on how many colors are used in the picture. The key lies in whether these colors are used appropriately.

(5) Layout design. The so-called layout is to visually arrange and organize the components of newspaper advertisements within a prescribed range (page), so that it becomes a composition technique with the greatest appeal effect. Sometimes, it is also referred to colloquially as layout, configuration, composition. The procedure is as follows:

Determine the proportion of each element based on the design concept → consider the actual layout and select the specific content for implementation → select the location of the theme (focus) → comprehensively coordinate and consider the appeal document (title , slogan, etc.) and the theme (focus, brand, product label), determine the appropriate position → determine the composition → specify the layout (font, size, arrangement, line spacing, etc.).

① Grasp the key points and keep the information concise. That is to say, when arranging, you can use touching emotions, novel shapes, bright colors, humorous exaggerations, etc., select the best viewing area, and pay attention to the simplicity and clarity of advertising information to catch people's attention in an instant.

② Improve the visual effect of the layout. Three points need to be noted: First, leave a blank space, that is, when designing the composition of a newspaper advertisement, you should pay attention to retaining an appropriate blank space so that the content of the advertisement can be highlighted in comparison. In addition, you can use fonts, font sizes, laces, lines, red sets, color blocks and other design and arrangement techniques that have strong stimulating effects to make the advertising screen eye-catching and attract the audience's attention. The second is to strengthen visual clarity, that is, carefully select the advertising images in the layout, and make reasonable and aesthetic arrangements for the fonts, fonts, sizes, layouts, and line spacing in the copywriting so that people can see clearly and feel Comfortable. The third is to emphasize the unity of vision. In terms of arrangement, various elements should be arranged closely around the theme of the advertisement. We should not only highlight the center, but also achieve clever combinations, and strive to achieve the aesthetic realm of "more complexity than unity".

③ Choose the best view to arrange ads. The best field of view refers to the most eye-catching directions on the screen within a limited distance. Psychological research shows that the visual appeal of the upper side of the picture is stronger than that of the lower side, and the visual appeal of the left side is stronger than that of the right side. Therefore, the upper left and upper middle parts of the screen are called the "best viewing areas" and are the best directions. Prominent information, titles, product names, etc. in newspaper advertisements are generally arranged in these directions.

④ Cleverly arranged to guide the flow of sight. When people read print advertisements, their vision has a natural flow habit, generally from left to right, and from top to bottom (as shown in Figure 1). The attention value of the process line flowing from the upper left to the lower right along the arc line gradually decreases. Each point on this flow line will be more obvious than any point outside the flow line. This flow line is called "visual flow". The visual flow is not fixed, it can be changed through clever arrangement by the designer. For example, parallel lines can make the line of sight flow left and right; vertical lines can make the line of sight flow up and down; oblique lines can make the line of sight flow unstable, so they are more eye-catching and are often used in print advertisements. In order to make the visual process simple and powerful, you can rely on clear guidance of sight. Such as people's orientation, gestures, movements, eyes, text arrangement trends, lines or color block trends, etc., make the visual communication elements clearly connected in order, focused and highlighted.

Figure 1 Newspaper layout visual flow chart

(6) Text layout design of newspaper advertisements. The text fonts of newspaper advertisements usually use printed fonts (Chinese characters in Song Dynasty and Heilongji, English ancient Roman and modern Roman fonts), art fonts (Chinese and English three-dimensional, pictographic, deformed, additional decorations, etc.), calligraphy (Chinese characters) regular script, seal script, running script, official script, Wei script, cursive script, etc., English cursive script and free cursive script, etc.). The font attributes generally have the following statements.

Chinese characters imitate the Song Dynasty and Heilongji, and English ancient Roman script: it means solemnity and solemnity;

Chinese running script, English italics: it means elegant and unrestrained;

Chinese official script , Xiaocao, English structural type: means beauty and delicacy;

Chinese character New Wei style: means roughness and boldness;

Chinese character Zhuan style, English perfect circle Roman style: means ancient clumsiness;< /p>

Specific handwriting styles in Chinese and English: expressing exclusive or special personality, or showing freedom and openness.

In actual application, it is necessary to pay attention to the fact that the selected font should match the personality of the product. For example, advertisements for women's cosmetics, skin care products and women's-specific products should express gentle and delicate femininity, and use slender and delicate fonts. Beautiful fonts; advertisements for men's products such as motorcycles and shaving equipment often use rough and bold fonts to express masculine temperament; advertisements for children's food and toys often use clumsy "child bodies" to express children's childishness and fun. and innocence... In addition, we must also pay attention to avoid signals that are too strong (large white characters on a red background, white characters on a black background) or too weak (large white characters on a yellow background, yellow characters on a white background), so that readers can find them pleasing to the eye and comfortable to read. . In terms of font layout, on the one hand, it must match the direction and sequence of the audience's sight, and follow the habit of first left before right for horizontal layout, and first right before left for vertical layout; on the other hand, no matter what font, font size, or font type is used, They should all be legible, and do not use words that are too cursive, too small, too fancy, or too esoteric. Make sure the font is easy to read and recognize.

The production process of newspaper advertisements can be listed in the following key links, as shown in Figure 4-2.

Figure 2 Newspaper advertisement production process

As can be seen from Figure 2, to produce a newspaper advertisement, you must first draw a sketch based on the advertising theme and advertising creativity. The content of the sketch should include advertising titles, advertising illustrations, corporate logos, product trademarks, advertising copy, corporate names and other design elements. Advertising creative sketching is the process of arranging composition and layout within a given plane. The next step is to draw a first draft, that is, make further additions and modifications based on the sketch, and then draw a first draft of the newspaper advertisement. Next, based on the content of the first draft, creative processing will be carried out on several components of the advertisement, such as text, photography or painting, and text preparation and illustration preparation (photography, text planting and painting) will be done. After preparation, you need to use a pencil to mark the exact size on the drawing according to the layout of the newspaper. Then, compare the design of the rough draft with the illustrations, and then create the title and copy. After the original draft is produced, it must be reviewed by the creative director or relevant personnel of the advertiser or advertising company before being finalized. Finally, the newspaper advertisement must be made into film and delivered to imposition printing.