OPTIMAL INNOVATIVENESS OF THE MULTIMODAL ADVERTISING OF THE UKRAINIAN BRAND MONOBANK: LINGUISTIC-STYLISTIC, LINGUISTIC-PRAGMATIC AND SEMIOTIC ASPECTS

Abstract

The discourse of the Ukrainian brand Monobank is based on the key secondary signifieds of “simplicity, convenience, and closeness to customers” vs. "creativity." The first group of concepts relies on positive politeness strategies, which are implemented through a range of linguistic-stylistic devices, including metaphor, metonymy, litotes, lexical play (in particular, paronymy), irony, intertextuality, and multimodal means. Such stimuli vary on a scale of innovativeness, from recognizable to optimally innovative, as confirmed by a sociolinguistic survey of 160 student informants who are Monobank users. In Monobank's audiovisual advertisements, positive politeness strategies with the underlying signifieds “simplicity, convenience, and closeness to customers” are ensured by several linguistic devices, such as code- switching to the client register, the use of occasionalisms with intensifying suffixes, slang terms, and the development of two- component sequences into three-component ones – with the addition of friendly recommendations. The signified "creativity" is based on a playful visual semiotic style, implementing a gamification strategy, as well as intertextuality and genre play – specifically, genre hybridity. In terms of optimal innovativeness, such stimuli occupy an intermediate position on the attractiveness scale, between purely innovative and optimally innovative stimuli. From the perspective of brand archetypes, the effectiveness of the brand’s advertising is diminished due to the use of a combination of archetypes – the Creator, Trickster, Child, and Everyman – which dilutes the brand’s target consumer identity. Additional factors contributing to the reduced effectiveness of the advertising include the inconsistency between Monobank’s logo, which appeals to the Ruler archetype, and the brand’s secondary signifiers, as well as the recognizability of intertextual borrowings from the advertisements of well- known international brands.

Keywords

• multimodal advertising
• linguostylistic devices
• secondary signifieds
• pragmatics
• optimal innovation