Our Music Video

Our Digipak Cover - back & front

Our Digipak Cover - back & front

Our Digipak Cover - inside

Our Digipak Cover - inside

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Tuesday 30 December 2014

2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

The purpose of the three products working together was to create a successful marketing campaign. The ultimate goal of a marketing campaign is to appeal to the target audience and successfully encourage them to purchase the music.
Initially we had to look at what it was that we wanted to promote in order to sell the product. Therefore, we had to really decide on the type of image we wanted to create with our band. This image displays some of the key factors we wanted to come across with our branding. (hover over words to enlarge)


We knew that in order to create a consistent branding and successfully promote and create interest in our product, we would have to make each media product work together.
A key part of successful marketing is creating synergistic branding across all products. We looked at the ways in which successful real media products do this.

This works effectively for Disclosure as it:
  • Creates a constant branding and memorable image for the band
  • Makes their album easily recognisable, making it easier and more likely for fans to purchase - key purpose of marketing
  • Gives the band their own stylised identity, for example with the face graphics
  • Gives the fan something to recognise them by and so feel a part of a 'fandom'
From looking at real media texts, we applied this to our product. Here are some of the ways that we created an effective combination of our products:

Colour Scheme
Disclosure use a brown/grey and white colour scheme. This makes them appear quite serious, wanting to appeal to real music fans rather than those interested in the 'star' that has been created. It also gives them a neutral gender appeal, not skewing their audience towards males or females. 

We chose the colour scheme of light pink, blue and white in order to appeal to the target audience. With the primary audience being 16-24 year old females, it was important to apply some femininity hence the use of the colour pink. However, due to our emphasis on breaking gender stereotype, as typical of the genre, we have included lots of blue across all of our products. In addition, the blue also broadens our appeal to our secondary audience of 16-24 year old males. We felt that these colours would connote our artist image appropriately; we wanted to create a fun and likeable look while still being able to be taken seriously. The following slideshow demonstrates our use of synergistic colour scheme.


Typography 
Disclosure have used the same font throughout their media products. This font again furthers their serious image, while giving them a sense of modesty due to its simplistic design. Therefore, this demonstrates how typography is important in the branding of an artist.
Wesbite
Album
We have used the same two fonts on both the album cover and the website. However, we didn't use this in the music video as it is unconventional of the dance genre to use text in the video. We searched for a font that would fit with our powder paint theme, as we felt this was a strong part of our branding. Therefore we chose an arty font which looks as if it is drawn by hand. This also brings out the authenticity of our band as it makes them seem more personal. We used this font across all platforms as well as on smaller items such as merchandising on the website. 


Iconography - Powder Paint

It is typical of artists to use an artistic look that goes across all platforms, being identifiable of the artist and individual to them. 

Disclosure's use of face graphics

Disclosure have used the face graphic throughout their products and their marketing campaign, for example on their promo shots as well. This exaggerates the band's sense of modesty and not wanting to be stars by hiding their faces.


As well as Disclosure, Wilkinson is a good example of this. Across all of his media texts he has used imagery of different coloured lights/lasers. With the title of his album being 'Lazers Not Included', this is incredibly fitting and works well to create a brand, thus selling the product effectively:
Powder Paint Fight at SGP festival 2014
The use of laser iconography in Wilkinson's imagery also connotes the genre as well as a emphasising the artist image of being very much about live music and performance in places such as clubs.

We used iconography in a similar way, not only to create synergy and cross platform convergence, but also due to the connotations of powder paint being related to festivals. Due to our audience being particularly interested in live music consumption at festivals such as Outlook and Secret Garden Party where powder paint fights are common, we felt that this would relate well to the audience, while also bringing them a sense of happiness and looking forward to festival season. 

This is how we used powder paint across our media texts:


In addition to this, we looked into artists of the genre and found that weird and cool effects are incredibly conventional of dance music. They represent the often pace changing and jumpy music that is of the genre. Therefore we included the blurring effect on both our album cover and music video, and felt that this was a subtle yet coherent link between the different artefacts.

However, in order to improve the effectiveness of using these effects, perhaps we could have used this more in the promo shots on our website, as in comparison they were incredibly cleanly edited. This would have increased cross-platform synergy and thus strengthened branding.

Another way in which we kept the identity strong throughout the three products was through by using symbolic and iconographic imagery. For example, we tried to keep with the festival theme throughout. We did this not only through the use of powder paint and the fight in the video which is stereotypical of festivals, but also through styling. In the balloon scenes we styled the band and the extras in festival style clothing; bright colours including tie dye and Aztec prints and patterns. 
On the website we have included a huge emphasis on festivals and even included a competition specifically dedicated to photographs of festivals, with tickets being the prize. This immerses the audience in the festival fanatic world, while giving them the opportunity to win something back and feel personally linked to the band.
cross-media convergence
I think this was particularly effective as it really brings out the emphasis on our band's current and youthful image, giving fans familiarity and a sense of fandom, therefore increasing their likelihood to purchase the music. The only place in which this was lacking was the album cover. In he-insight, perhaps it would've strengthened the synergy if we had styled the band in festival style clothing on the album artwork.

Due to the purpose of marketing being to sell the product, in our case being the music, we knew that we had to include lots of purchasing opportunities
The website was possibly the most important media text with regards to combining and converging all of our products. By having the ability to watch the music video on the website via Youtube, as well as listen to the music via Soundcloud, we have maximised the use of cross-media convergence.
This shows Disclosure's use of purchasing opportunities on their website:



Our band website has the presence of all our media texts and worked as a hub for selling the music. 
There was a heavy presence of the album cover throughout the website, with purchasing opportunities available on multiple pages taking the audience directly to the store. We also had alternative purchasing opportunities such as iTunes and Amazon available on the landing site in order to maximise possibilities.
This shows all of our opportunities to buy the album on our website:
We also used symbiosis on our website in order to link our band to well-known institutions. For example, the types of venues our band are playing at include Fabric; incredibly popular London club among young people. This would not only increase the credibility of the band, it would appeal to all of our audience, in particular the tertiary audience of 16-24 year old dance music fans and club-goers. This symbiosis has been used in order to further portray our artist identity in order to sell the product, the main purpose of a marketing campaign.
We used social media extensively in order to bring our products together and successfully promote the artist to the audience. By including social media on the artist website, the hub for the band, we are creating an instant link. With the proliferation in use of social media in contemporary society, we felt it was a hugely necessary part of the marketing campaign. It also allows us to become closer with the fans, strengthening the 'real' and 'authentic' artist we have tried to create according to Richard Dyer's star theory.
How we used social media:


Overall, I feel that the combination of our main product and ancillary texts created a very synergistic advertising campaign. This meant that the branding of our band was strong and coherent throughout all of our media products. Therefore, I feel that we would successfully sell our music to the audience.

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