Chloe Orme
Pre- production portfolio
Interrogation of the Brief
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Brief Three:
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You work for (1)the marketing department of a small record company called Nutune Records, and are involved in the promotion of a new band/musical act for their forthcoming debut album and twelve date tour.
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As part of the promotion, the act needs to create an image that will allow them to appeal to an audience with an interest in an (2) established musical genre. Their (3)marketing materials should also contribute to constructing a recognisable ‘brand’ for the act.
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You are targeting a largely (4) youth-based market but are keen to promote the act in a way that will appeal to more than a (5/6)niche audience. The act already has a (7)Facebook and MySpace presence, which has generated some interest, and the record company now wishes to use (8)more mainstream marketing techniques to reach a bigger and more diverse audience.

1)What does the marketing department of a company do?
-The marketing department plays a large role to the sales department. The main role is to make the product look and feel attractive enough to purchase. For the band I’m working on. It develops the campaign to promote the product to both distributors and customers. In this brief, you work for a record label (nutunes). The job for the market department would be to advertise the band as awell its album and its tours. It would promote the band to websites that sell tickets for these things (such as ticketmaster.co.uk) and shops that would sell the albums such as HMV, and Amazon), and it would promote the band to the audience listening to the music to attempt to get them to buy their albums and tickets to see them perform live, so that the band and record label can make money. So overall, it deals with advertising and promoting the band/artist and its products.
2)What are the most established/popular musical genres?
-The popularity of music genres tends to change over time, but statistics show that a large variety of people are into ‘mainstream’ music which tends to consist of pop music and rap, you usually see artists such as one direction, Justin Bieber, Conor Maynard, Rhianna, who are connected with this sort of music. I personally would say they are the most popular genres at the moment. But there are many others which aren’t as popular but still known worldwide. An example of this is rock, there are many genres which come under ‘rock’, some are more known than others. One of which is ‘indie rock’ (e.g. Daughter, the Beatles, Coldplay) Instrumental rock (e.g. Pink Floyd, the rolling stones, Metallica) Progressive rock (e.g. genesis, yes and king crimson) and Punk Rock (e.g. Green Day).
3)What is a ‘marketing material’?
-You get all different types of material in each media platform. In e-media, it would be things such as advertising websites, and in broadcast, it would be a film/advert about a product. In print, examples of marketing materials would be posters, flyers, leaflets, and other similar products. Basically, a marketing material is produced by a marketing department and is something that advertises a product.
4)What genres are today’s youth most interested in?
-As I already mentioned, a large percentage of the youth today are interested in ‘mainstream’ genres, but a lot of other genres like rock and different genres within rock are still very popular.
5)What is a niche audience?
-‘Niche’ means that it is specified to a certain audience and is often used when talking about magazines. An example of a niche magazine would be new musical express (nme) which is aimed specifically at people who like ‘indie rock’ music or vogue which is aimed at people who like fashion. So a niche audience is an audience that is interested in a specific topic, for example, music, makeup, fashion. The audience I shall be aiming at (large percentage is teenagers) is people who are interested in the indie rock music genre.
6)How can you promote the act to more than a niche audience?
-A way to do this would be to show that the act was capable of diversity and being appealing to all sorts of different audiences by offering a variety of different genres in the music that they produce.
7)What information/products do acts tend to have on their Facebook/MySpace pages?
- To find this out, I’ve used the Daughter facebook page. This page withholds history of the band and information about each member, it also contains photos of the band at photo shoots, live shows and other events. There are also many links on the page which led you to other websites such as their YouTube channel where you can view the band’s music videos and other videos like interviews and live shows, the website that sells the band’s merchandise (T-Shirts, Posters, etc.), and websites where you can buy their albums. The facebook and myspace pages are there to advertise the band and its music and also other stuff such as their gigs and merchandise.
8)What advertising techniques would come under the criteria of ‘more mainstream’?
-It seems mainstream advertising techniques would be things such as creating a website for the act, putting adverts in magazines, also on websites and anything else seen as relevant to the act.

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Print:
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Create a ( 1)print based campaign promoting the album and the tour. You can choose from the following or create other print based promotional materials that you consider appropriate (totalling three pages or the equivalent):
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-A full page advert for the album to be run in the(2) music press.
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-A half page advert for the tour to be run in the (3)music press.
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-A flyer to be distributed at (4) related musical events promoting the album and the tour.
-A (5)prepared interview with the band/artist for inclusion within a specific publication presented using the publication’s house style and including original photographs for illustration.
-A press release to be sent to journalists and/or broadcasters to provide information on the acts and their products. You should consider how the press release will make the act newsworthy and encourage media interest in them. The press release should be accompanied by 2-3 promotional paragraphs.
-All tasks I am doing are in bold
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1) What is a print based campaign?
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-A print based campaign is an advertising campaign made up of things such as flyers, posters and adverts in things such as magazines and newspapers.
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2) What is the music press?
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-The music press is newspapers/magazines that specialise in music, such as the magazine I mentioned earlier, NME.
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3) What related musical events are the flyers distributed at?
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-They are often distributed at gigs where bands of similar genre are playing, because it is likely that the people there would be interested in them. They could also be distributed at related music festivals. In my case, that would be rock festivals like Leeds, download or even reading.
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4) What kind of questions could be asked in the prepared interview?
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-Suitable questions would be ones about the band’s intentions, things they are planning to do, like tour dates and albums they are working on a will be realising. Also things about their background, so, who inspires them, bands they like, bands or artists they’d like to play with, people they’d like to meet etc.
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5) What is a ‘house style’?
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-A ‘house style’ is the formability and tone of a text, it’s the way it speaks to the reader. Different magazines have different styles, and their chosen style is the ‘house style’ for that publication.
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Broadcasting:
Create a two or three minute (1)informative promotional video that will be added to the acts mypsace and facebook pages and be downloadable from the (2)official website. The video should provide (3)biographical information about the act and be focused on defining the genre and creating a (4)definable ‘brand’ for the act. The video should include information presented in a documentary/news report style. It should not be a music video for one song.

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1) What is an informative promotional video?

* A video with gives information on something which is being promoted such as a new album, song, gigs coming up etc. This is to leak new information about such things.

2) How does having a promotional video on the official website help attract people?

-It helps by allowing people easy access, if it’s on the official website they are more likely to have a look at what a band they are interested in have to say and offer.

3) What does biographical information include?

-Biographical information usually contains information about something or someone. For example for a person say an artist it would contain who they are when they were born when they started doing what they do, why etc. It would contain basic and personal information about them.

4) What types of definable genres are there?

-There are many types of genres in the music industry , such as hip hop and pop which is mainly aimed at youths/young teenagers as the popularity rate has increased massively in the last couple of years. There are also genres such as rock which are still popular just not as recognised.

Research
Research on album cover artwork I’m considering designing an album cover and putting it on my album advert, I thought it would be sensible to do a bit of research within the album covers of the ‘indie rock/rock’ genre.
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Colours:
-Yellow and blue, primary colours link with childhood. Which link into the title of the album ‘The wild youth’

Title of the band, white, plain and simple. Stands out on a black background. Gives an attractive effect. Draws attention to its self with its simplicity

Two young children in the back ground: quite simple, plain clothes, face paint, funny expressions. Represents childhood which again link back to the title of the album.
Although, the young boy looks rather sinister, and the way he’s holding the little girls neck maybe portraying another side of the album, a darker more in depth side on the artists an their music.

Name of the band and the album name. Nice and simple not too complicated.

The picture of edges lots of squares and other shapes connect to the album name of ‘angles’ as the cover is full of sharp edges and corners displayed at all different ‘angles’
Colours: yellow, pink, blue, black and white. Colours are nice and bright, eye catching.

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Name of the album cover suggests its about childhood, teenage years were things seem to be the hardest with all the changes you go through and the fact its called fluorescent adolescent indicates something stood out like the fluorescent colours.

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Artists name in white, plain and simple. Stands out against the black back ground. Writing style is bold.

By looking at these, I have noticed that album covers are normally fairly simple. The name of the band are normally very easy to make out, as they are often made very clear. The band name is usually written in a certain font that the band often uses this will be to make them noticeable and easily pulled out of the crowd from other bands. Like arctic monkeys often use big bold white writing in a very similar font which would help fans recognise them. There is often a person or a certain image on the front cover, or a picture of the band. The picture often gives an impression of what the album is like, such as in the daughter album cover there are children which then relates to the album name ‘wild youth’ which gives of the impression the song is about something exciting, maybe quite meaning full but still upbeat due to the part ‘wild’. If the picture is of the band, it uses facial expression, body language and clothing to give the audience an impression of what it will be like. There isn’t quite as much to an album cover as there is for an advert, because if someone is buying the album, the advertising has already been done, so it just tries to give an impression of what the album is like
Colours: Black, white and blue. Simple and plain.

Research on promo videos http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPq5kMVgxFs This is a promo/behind the scenes video for the strokes. It includes a promotion for one of their newest albums coming out at the time. Its also includes a small question and answer section. Asking them about their new album. Their favourite song within the album. It also goes into a little more detail and asking them about their lives as solo artists and how they feel back together. Gives us more information than we have ever known before. Its new and we get to see it first. Gives it a bit of a more personal feel you also get to know another side of the artists you like so much. And also if you are only just discovering the band it gives you a rough idea of what sort of band they are and whether you will be interested or not.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIX_5cI9y04

Again this is another promo/behind the scenes video, however this time its about The Shins. This video is slightly different in the fact you get to hear the shins play a bit of their music which gives you a bigger taste of what they are like. As the previous on about The strokes there is still and interviewing process but this one is whole lot more relaxed. It gives it a less formal feel. Some of the footage is also recorded by the shins themselves giving it a more personal feel to it. Again in the interviewing they seem to ask questions not only about the band but as solo artists too.
As seen promo videos can be very similar but also very diverse, They tend to stick to the same structure of asking rather personals questions about how they feel about their band or their solo career. They also ask questions about their albums or singles that the video is promoting. Popular questions are ones about their favourite songs or what the titles or lyrics mean. Trying to get more personal with the audience to send off a better vibe to the audience. To give them s real feel of what they are like and hopefully drawing people in to becoming fans of their music.
From looking at these adverts, I have noticed a few common techniques. The colours for the slightly heavier rock is usually darker and more gloomy and for the more indie rock slightly lighter with a bit more colour. The colours are often relevant to the colours on the album cover. They often have a band logo on, as it is a recognisable brand for the act, and people who know the logo and the band will see it and be interested to find out what it is. Obviously, they contain the band name and the album name, and they are normally written in a familiar font that is relevant to the album or the band’s logo. They tend to contain information on an upcoming tour, so it leaks a little more info than the fans may be expecting. They always contain information on if/when the album is out, and where you can buy/download it. They sometimes have album reviews on, and the ratings and comments are always very good, and they are there to convince the audience that it is a good album and make them want to buy it. On some posters, they give a couple of examples of songs that are on the album, so if people know and like the song, they see that it is on the album, and will maybe want to find out what else the band can do and for that reason, they’ll buy the album. If you look at one of these posters, it is very likely that it’ll contain details about the band’s and the record label’s website, because it advertises both parties.
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Research on a full page advert to be run in the music press
Gives us a little lists of some of the songs within the album.
The band here creates a rugged look by the clothes they wear and the way they style their hair, they have a mix between rugged and clean cut look. It kind of gives them a mysterious look about them.
Plain and simple yet still catches the eyes of the audience. Gets the message about the album across easily.
Big bold white writing which is often used by oasis for their singles and albums. Like a trade mark for fans.
The poster had a picture of the band its self which will probably draw attention from fans and others as they’re recognisable.
Colours; blue black and white. Quite dark colours but the white brightens it up to stop it from being too gloomy.
Name of band and album.
Informs us about the website and the managing team. Gives us ways of accessing them, giving us more of an insight of what they do and when.
Tells us about an award they won, this advertising makes the band look good, emphasising on achievements.
Tells you the name of the band, the album, and that it’s out now.

Reviews from different magazines etc making them and their music look very good. This will encourage you to want to know more about them, research them and maybe try out their music.
Background relevant to album artwork. It is designed to look like an old book, and a connotation of this could be that the album tells a story.