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- All Subjects: NFL
- Creators: Montoya, Detra
- Creators: Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law
- Member of: Barrett, The Honors College Thesis/Creative Project Collection
My thesis aims to uncover the ultimate strategy behind short form visual stories, otherwise known as the digital advertisment. In this thesis, I analyze traditional storytelling, visual storytelling, and short-form visual storytelling in order to uncover the best practices advertisers should use when crafting a digital advertisement.
Storytelling “reveals elements and images of a story while also catalyzing the imagination of the listener” (National Storytelling Network, 2017). This tradition has two purposes for society: a neurological structure, and a social mechanism (for historic preservation, human interaction, and a vehicle for connecting with others) (Gottshcall, 2012; Scott, 2012; Paul, 2012; Woodside, 2008).
Visual Storytelling is “using photography, illustration, video, (usually with a musical enhancement) to guide” the human brain along a plotline, and has an unlimited timeframe (Ron, 2017). There are seven key elements to effective visual storytelling: A listener/audience, an element of realism coupled with escapism, a focus on the dread of life, an element of the unknown, emotion, simplicity, and a three-part plot structure (Andrews, 2010; ProQuest, 2012; Zak, 2014; Stanton, 2014; Reagan, 2016; Jarvis, 2014; Petrick, 2014)
In the words of Sholmi Ron, from a marketing perspective, “Visual [short hand] Storytelling is a marketing strategy that communicates powerful ideas through a compelling story arc, with your customer at the heart of the story, and delivered through interactive and immersive visual media – in order to create profitable customer engagements" (Ron, 2017). This advertising strategy has four best practices: non-obvious logo placement, a comedic emotion, multiple emotional arcs, and a relevant message (Golan, 2017; Teixeira, 2015; Graves, 2017, Teixeira, 2017). These are important to understand because, in 2017, online consumers can be described as skeptical, conscious of content, individualistic, and drawn to authenticity (Teixeira, 2014).
To supplement my findings, I conducted primary research by analyzing the 2017 Super Bowl videos against a criteria created using the best practices previously identified (in Part 1 and Part 2). Through the data collection of the 66 videos, I uncovered the most popular plotline is "fall than rise," the most popular emotions are humor, inspiration, and empathy and people tend to have a preference towards videos that are more realistic and simplistic in nature.
In the end, I recommend that advertisers identify an authentic yet relevant message, while employing a comedic, inspirational, or empathic tone, and that they place their ads exclusively for their target market. Additionally, producers should use a fall then rise plotline (with multiple mini plot peaks and valleys), a "logo-pulsing" strategy, and a minimal amount of characters and settings to keep the audience's focus on the ad’s message.
In the early years of the National Football League, scouting and roster development resembled the wild west. Drafts were held in hotel ballrooms the day after the last game of regular season college football was played. There was no combine, limited scouting, and no salary cap. Over time, these aspects have changed dramatically, in part due to key figures from Pete Rozelle to Gil Brandt to Bill Belichick. The development and learning from this time period have laid the foundational infrastructure that modern roster construction is based upon. In this modern day, managing a team and putting together a roster involves numerous people, intense scouting, layers of technology, and, critically, the management of the salary cap. Since it was first put into place in 1994, managing the cap has become an essential element of building and sustaining a successful team. The New England Patriots’ mastery of the cap is a large part of what enabled their dynastic run over the past twenty years. While their model has undoubtedly proven to be successful, an opposing model has become increasingly popular and yielded results of its own. Both models center around different distributions of the salary cap, starting with the portion paid to the starting quarterback. The Patriots dynasty was, in part, made possible due to their use of both models over the course of their dominance. Drafting, organizational culture, and coaching are all among the numerous critical factors in determining a team’s success and it becomes difficult to pinpoint the true source of success for any given team. Ultimately, however, effective management of the cap proves to be a force multiplier; it does not guarantee that a team will be successful, but it helps teams that handle the other variables well sustain their success.
In this study, I sought to determine which NFL Combine metrics are predictive of future NFL success among the quarterback, running back, and wide receiver positions, with the hope of providing meaningful information that can be utilized by NFL executives when making decisions about draft selections. I gathered samples spanning across the years 2010-2015 of all three of the aforementioned position groups. Among these samples, I used certain criteria which split them up within their position groups. The two groups of players were identified as: those who had successful careers and those who had unsuccessful careers. Given this information, I performed t-tests and ANOVA between successful and unsuccessful groups with the goal of identifying which combine metrics are predictive of future NFL success, and which are not. For quarterbacks, the 40-yard dash, broad jump, three-cone, and 10-yard shuttle all appear to be predictive of success. Notably, quarterback height does not appear to be predictive, despite the popular belief that a quarterback should be tall if they are to succeed. For running backs, player weight, 40-yard dash, and three-cone all appear to be predictive of success, with the broad jump and 10-yard shuttle seemingly predicting success as well, albeit to a lesser degree of strength. For wide receivers, all metrics do not appear to be predictive of success, with the exception of the 40-yard dash, which only appears to be slightly predictive. While there are likely many other factors that contribute to a player’s success than tests administered at the NFL combine, NFL general managers can look to these results when making draft selections.
to not only move a current franchise to London, but rather to create a brand new NFL franchise in London. Therefore, the objective of this proposal is to give a detailed amount of evidence to support the development of a new NFL franchise in London and provide the proposal for a possible franchise in the London market. The following describes instances of NFL franchises relocating and the effect of the decision.
The USA Today Ad Meter has been used for decades to rank Super Bowl ads and can show us what works well. All ads that run during the Super Bowl are rated by thousands of viewers and then ranked based on average ratings. The Ad Meter is the most used tool to look at these ads and discern what viewers enjoyed seeing. Entertaining ads do very well on the Ad Meter while informational and simple ads often sink. The Ad Meter does a good job telling advertisers what worked but it does not tell us why it worked or what people want to see.
These entertaining ads do well on the ad meter because, according to the following research study, people prefer entertainment in Super Bowl advertising, whether the product is relevant or not. People are willing to watch a Super Bowl ad that is longer than a normal ad would be because they expect entertainment and the length allows for a story to develop. People also have a strong preference for humorous Super Bowl ads but the emotional/meaningful ads that make it into the top 5 are almost the exception to the rule because the results of the research performed here show very little preference for these ads. While the Super Bowl still seems to be a beneficial way to advertise, the price is a big barrier to entry. Luckily, digital culture gives smaller businesses the power to capture viewers in other ways. The study’s findings suggest that many younger participants often just watch Super Bowl ads on YouTube after the game. Younger people are also watching the Super Bowl less and becoming numb to scrolling through ads on social media. It is important, now more than ever, for advertisers to have attention grabbing tactics for a generation with such short attention spans. Advertisers need to follow the trends to keep up with social media, but it will be worth it.