Assignment #7: Everybody's Olympics

Here comes AdHack Assignment # 7: Olympic logos for the people, by the people.

Marketing and graphic design experts everywhere race for the opportunity to design the Olympic logo when the event comes to their hometown. Along with this race usually comes heated debate among the local community over the chosen logos relevance and design.

Here in BC we've seen this first hand in preparation for the upcoming 2010 Winter Olympics along with heated political debates over the 2008 Beijing Summer Games.

And who could forget London's Lisa Simpson logo?

The Olympics have always brought people together in peace to respect universal moral principles. Right? That's what the official Olympic Games website says. But it's clear some people think otherwise.

We want you to design a realistic Olympic logo. It can be promotional. It can be satirical. It can have a motto or not. It can be pretty much whatever you like. (Click here for legal guidelines around Olympic logos.)

Below we have details on the Assignments winners prize and included our very own AdHack AdBrief Version 2.0 to outline the particulars of the assignment.

How to Enter

Create and submit your ad to AdHack and tag it with "Assignment #7."

That's it!

Deadline

Have your submission in by Tuesday, June 24, 5 pm PST.

Assignment #7 Ad Brief

1) GOALS

What are the desired outcome(s) from the ad. Create a list of them. Arrange the list in order of priority. Remember that the more goals, the more diluted each one. Great ads tend to be focused on one clear goal. Say it and do it.

• Return the Olympics to a celebration for the people
• Build awareness for the games or your controversy

2) AUDIENCE

Who does the ad to matter to? Focus only on the key attributes of the people you want to reach. (Only the attributes relevant to making the ad relevant to them.) This might be a mindset, a profession, an anxiety, a habit, a location, a trait.

• Citizens of the host venue's of the games
• Fans of the olympics / detractors of the Olympics
• Athletes participating in the Olympics

3) CONTEXT

How will the audience encounter the ad? How might that change from the first encounter to later encounters? What about other ads for the same product? Consider competitors' ads, the physical space, the timing of the ad and anything that influences perception and action.

• The ad will appear on a T-Shirt or other shwag, so it will have to have some lasting power
• Its message will have to be a message people are willing to personalize and wear

4) PROMISES

An ad has two promises: ad promise (form) and product promise (content):

a. Ad promise: what does your ad promise to deliver its audience? The audience should know how the ad will end (though not the ending) from the first impression.
b. Product promise: what does the product promise to its users? This should be the lasting impression of the audience. Could be blunt and explicit (no more leaks!) or soft and suggestive (you'll only become a real man with our product).

• a. Quick, fun, relevant message that riffs on the known Olympics brand for the hosts of the Olympics (Olympics promise: dramatic, live, unpredictable and spectacular events worth watching for the struggles, wins and losses)
• b. Great t-shirt / shwag you'll be proud to have and show off to friends, that maybe will start conversations with strangers, that will get knowing looks

5) PROOF

How does your ad deliver on your product promise. This could be a simple and person "here's what happened to me" or can be external and explicit out of 5 dentists. It can also be negative proof of the consequences of not using a product (deodorant, vitamins).

• The proof is someone created it and wants it made to show off!

6) CHARACTER

What tone does the ad strike? Is it an insider or outsider? Is it loud or quiet? Aggressive? Comfortable? Peaceful? Energetic? What feeling do you want to create in the audience encountering the ad? Make the character of the ad match the rest of the brief.

• Irreverent, fun, playful and willing to confront ideas / issues that the Olympics might not necessarily want to confront

7) REQUIREMENTS

What requirements must be adhered to? This can include technical (must be a certain duration / resolution / dimension / etc.), legal (cannot show people drinking the beer) and practical requirements (Hamburgler never speaks, he just says, "Rubble, rubble.").

• Must be a static image without too many colours or reliance on high-quality, high-resolution image quality and printing
• mage must be a minimum resolution of 150 DPI for production files, although web output files for contest may be web resolution- 72 DPI
• Must be an image that people can get quickly and without too much attention to the details
• Dimensions should fit on the output form T-shirt, bumper sticker, etc.
• image should degrade well, so that if some aspects are obscured by mud (bumper sticker), or worn away over time the effect isn't lost
• The IOC (International Olympics Committee) are very vigilant in protecting their trademarks, so be aware of what you can use and cannot use. Click here for legal guidelines around Olympic logos

8) EXTENSIONS

How does your ad extend to additional executions? How else could this ad appear? What other opportunities are available (events, packaging, other media, follow-on ads). How does the ad evolve? Sometimes these alternate scenarios become winning scenarios. If you can't win with reason, win with volume.

• Other shwag opportunities?

We'd like your feedback on this new AdBrief to. Is it too hard? Too complicated? Unclear? Does it make it easier to think strategically, execute and make good ads? Or does it just get in the way? Let us know!