How effective is the combination of your media product and ancillary tasks?

When creating our three products our main aims were; to link them together well and to present an audience with a band identity, which they could use to familiarise with the band and recognise the band’s products. By recognising the band’s products this means it would be easier for audiences to go out and buy them, and they would also be able to associate the products, which are the digipak, advert and music video, together. I think that we linked the three products together successfully, as visually they all show the same themes.

CREATING THE IMAGE

When creating the band’s image, we needed to create one that would appeal to our target audience of indie and alternative audiences between the ages of 13 to 25. Based on my research of indie music videos, digipaks and adverts I realised that certain needs needed to bet met in order to draw this audience in. Firstly, colour and theme was important, as usually in indie adverts and digipaks there is a set colour code or motif that appears in both the advert and the digipak. We decided to use the same photograph of the boy on the beach in our advert and digipak meaning audiences could immediately associate the products together. We also used the motif of swallows on both the digipak and advert alongside the same font of the band’s name.

Secondly, the band was always shown, in the videos, digipaks and adverts. We used band performance in our video in order to meet this need, as well as showing images of the band on the inside of the digipak. However, our band were not shown on the front cover of the digipak or on the advert as we wanted to challenge this convention to show that our band, who are new and unsigned, are more mysterious and care more about their music than their image. However, by showing the band in the video we would not make audiences unsatisfied by not allowing them to identify with the band. Kings of Leon also have not often shown themselves on the front covers of their digipaks or in the adverts, and only show the album artwork, however, this still means the adverts and albums can be associated together easily, which was our main aim in making our digipak and advert look similar.

Also, indie products tend to have a handmade feel, which emphasises their artistic, individual and anti-mainstream beliefs that belong to the indie genre. This attracts our target audience as the band is then identified as artistic and thoughtful people who are relatable to by young audiences. We created this idea in our products, for example inside our digipak we had a scrapbook feel with the images of the band being jagged at the edges.

CREATING RECOGNISABLE PRODUCTS

After creating the band’s image we needed to link our three products together, we did this through the motifs and same photograph and font used in the digipak and advert. The font especially, links the products together in its own way as it stands out and is therefore instantly recognisable. It is also in a style that can be associated with a fairground, and in our video we had some shots of fairground rides, and so this subtly but effectively links the video to the digipak and advert.

We took the band’s name, ‘Pilots’ and from this were inspired to use the motif of the birds in flight. In our video there are some shots of flying birds, and the swallows are used on the advert and digipak. This means an audience can very easily associate all three products together just through the simple use of the motif of birds, making it more likely for them to recognise and purchase the products too.

We also used location to link the products together, we filmed in Brighton along the beach, for example where he stands holding the necklace in his hand, and this is also where we took the photographs for the advert and digipak. This means that the beach location shown in the video is easily linked to the ancillary products, again making it easier for audiences to identify the products together and also with the band.

I think that the combination of the video and the ancillary tasks has been very successful and we found that audiences easily linked them together in the ways we planned them to, meaning we had successfully created a band identity and carried it through all three products through the use of locations, font, motifs, colours and themes.

How did you use new media technologies?

MUSIC VIDEO

DIGIPAK

Typically, indie digipaks show images of the band either on the front cover, inside or both. An example is the Kooks' digipak for their album 'Inside In Inside Out' which features the band on the front cover, inside and back cover.

However, we did not want to feature our band on the front cover of our digipak as we wanted to give them a sense of mystery and also show that they are more about the music than their image. However, in order to meet audience expectations we featured the band on the inside of our digipak in a similar way to in the Kooks' digipak, as the images had a rough cut effect as found in a scrapbook, which continues the indie image as anti-mainstream and D.I.Y. Other bands have also not featured on the front cover of their digipaks, an example is Kings of Leon, who even on their early album covers did not show an image of themselves, and this is a similar effect we wanted for our digipak.

Most bands digipaks also include a track list on the back cover to show the variety of songs on their album, this is something we incorporated into our own digipak. As well as this, there is usually an ongoing theme running throughout the digipak, for example in The Kooks' digipak there is a theme of the colour scheme red,black and white. In our digipak we used an ongoing theme of the swallows, which are shown all the way through the digipak. This ongoing theme meets audience expectations as it allows them to identify further with the band and their image and recognise these themes in the advert also.

Our digipak showing the ongoing theme of swallows throughout, the track list on the back cover, images of the band on the inside and an image not containing the band on the front cover, similar to Kings of Leon.

MAGAZINE ADVERT

Adverts for indie albums are typically very identifiable with the album itself. For example, they often have the same ongoing theme running through, in terms of use of colour or image. This meets audience expectations as it means the audience can identify the advert with the album and then easily go out and buy the album as they will already know what it looks like. As well as meeting audience expectations it also helps to market the product and sell the artist for this same reason. Marketing the product is also helped by giving the release date of the album, which we did on our digipak, and also showing where audiences can buy the album, which we did by putting 'amazon.com' on the advert, and putting the band's website up also.

We used the ongoing theme that featured in the digipak in the advert also, by putting the same image that is on the front cover of the digipak as the image in the advert, also featuring the swallows and the same recognisable font. This helps the audience to identify the band and what their album will look like, as well as making them want to know more about the band as they are not yet featured on the advert. Although typically indie bands feature on their adverts, we broke this convention as we wanted to give audiences something new and exciting, and not reveal everything about the band until they have downloaded the video and bought the music. We believe this is a good way of marketing the product and selling the artist, because although we needed to meet audience expectations of the indie genre, indie is also about being anti-mainstream and so we used an anti-mainstream idea in the selling of our artist by not featuring them on the advert or front of digipak.