Media Project Blog 2 / Topic 1 / Advertising and Public Relations

Will It?

In this blog, I am describing, analyzing, interpreting, evaluating, and engaging an ad campaign by Forged Fitness as seen on a video on YouTube titled:

 "Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Will Change Your Life."

This video can be found at, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLMcQ0pZcl8

The owner of this video is Forged Fitness which is a Cross Fit gym and Martial Arts Studio combined as one business (www.forgedfitness.com). The ad or video was published on August 1st, 2016 and has 85, 646 views, 861 likes, 22 dislikes, and 153 comments and is 9 minutes and 48 seconds in length. The video features Joel Schlieman, the owner of Forged Fitness and a Royce Gracie purple belt and Cross Fit level 1 instructor, Bill Dowey, a Royce Gracie Jiujitsu Blackbelt & head GJJ (Gracie Jiujitsu) coach/Raleigh, Austin Snyder, a member of Forged Fitness and Gracie Jiujitsu, Jason Calbreth, the founder of Forged Fitness, a GJJ Blackbelt and head GJJ coach in Cary, John "Bagels" Telford, a Gracie Jiujitsu Brown Belt and head GJJ Kids coach, Nichole Scaraglino, a Forged Fitness and GJJ member, "Amber" (no last name provided), a Forged Fitness and GJJ member and the main subject Royce Gracie, a Master of Jiujitsu and the original first champion of the UFC or Ultimate Fighting Championship founded in 1993.

The video is separate but loosely connected to all the other videos on that particular channel. The background music is uplifting but not listed or identifiable. The dialogue is peaceful and well articulated. The product is a service of teaching and learning Gracie Jiujitsu, an art the Gracies learned from a Japanese teacher who once resided in Brazil. The art became the Gracies expression of Japanese Jiujitsu in Brazil and then it spread to the United States but became popular because of Royce Gracies matches in the popular UFC.  The video does not appear to be a part of a larger campaign but appears to be a campaign for instructors who operate in various parts of the country.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLMcQ0pZcl8

Analyze

The video uses many persuasive techniques which include plain-folks (ordinary people who provide video testimonials), famous-person testimonial (Royce Gracie), hidden-fear (as the many subjects allude to in their talks about overcoming fear and Royce's talks about learning to defend yourself, and of course the main "association principle" which is dominant throughout the video which talks about the character traits, family, and triumph that comes from overcoming challenges. Lastly, the band-wagon effect, although it does not seem to be present from direct intention, is present when watching all of the people in the video from various backgrounds.

Interpret

This video is very unique and I have not seen or found anything with the same approach in regards to Jiujitsu. It stresses family, values, challenge,the right reasons to study, overcoming obstacles, and challenging oneself. The target audience is mainly adults of all genders, races, cultures, and age groups from the young to the old, and of course all socioeconomic backgrounds. One of the most impressive things about Gracie Jiujitsu is that the art and practice is great for just about everyone except criminals. 

Evaluate

Strengths: There are so many strengths of the video which include the first and most notable- the beginning quote, "Forging a family where the weak are made strong, and the strong are made humble."  Next, the disposition of the characters or subjects in the video as well as their demeanor is focused, calm, and clear. All of the subjects in the video are providing what appears to be very genuine testimonials of what their training has done for them. The conclusion to the video is also powerful as Royce Gracie says, "Start Now." To me, the video is very memorable because it's a story of sorts of family, unity, triumph, and challenge. I think the video connected well to the target audience, mainly adults, as one can see in the comments in the video. 

Weaknesses: I was very hard pressed to find a weakness but with a little effort and knowledge about media, I would say that the length of the video should be shortened to less than three minutes to keep the audience engaged. 

Engage

As Royce Gracie is a well-known name because he is the first champion of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, his popularity and legitimacy is unquestioned. He uses a Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/Royce-Gracie-Jiu-Jitsu-Academy-204412319571461/ which has 5,644 likes and 5,562 followers. The page however does not appear to be very active and so I think it is working but not to full potential. According to Sherdog, a Global Authority on Mixed Martial Arts Forum, their are many negative reviews about Royce's seminars which can be seen at: forums.sherdog.com/threads/royce-gracie-seminar.2421273/ , however, most reviews (4.9 of 5) are very positive as can be seen on Royce's Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pg/roycegracieaom/reviews.

Yelp, www.yelp.com, have a rating of 4.5 of 5 on their review site as well.

Based on the video I would buy or purchase a product or service if I lived in the area for which they provide products and services and I would certainly recommend the school to anyone who wants a reputable and professional school.

Conclusion

From doing this assignment, I learned how to research more deeply on subjects of interest in regards to advertising and public relations. I was surprised when I took a deeper look that the main person in the video, Royce Gracie, was much less popular and socially accepted than the Gracie University (www.gracieuniversity.com) which is run by Royce's nephews Ryron & Rener Gracie.

This university is an "online learning platform" and although it is a subject of controversy by other Gracies and their relations who have brick and motor training facilities, the university has an enrollment of 162,276 students from 196 countries.