[DF] Evaluation (2)

• Our brief was to create a promotional campaign for an existing track which did not already have one. We did this through the main product of the music video, as well as the ancillary products – the print ad, digipak and tour poster.

• Throughout our print work we aimed to create a cohesive band image which would serve to not only promote the artist and track in question, but to also link all parts of the campaign through visual motifs so that they are all recognisable and are associated with each other. This creates a stronger and more persuasive image in the audience’s mind.

 



Group 1's digipak.


• Our print ad would most likely be found in magazines which cater to the genre of music Maritime play, such as NME or Q. This targeted advertising would ensure that our promotional material would not be wasted on those with no interest in the genre.

• We chose to design an A4 page advertisement. Although more expensive in magazines, it would stand out far more prominently and would really help to get the somewhat unknown band out there. We also felt that an A4 page fitted best with our design ideas as we planned to use images of the band standing up straight, which may not come across so well on a half or quarter page advertisement.

• Our use of visual motifs reinforce the band image across all ancillary products, making sure that the audience knows on first sight which music video and song the print ad, tour poster and digipak are related to.





Group 1's print ad. The coloured T-shirts are a recognisable visual motif.


• Some visual motifs we used included the font, which we kept the same for the band name across all products as well as for the text in the video, the image of the band members standing upright facing the camera (for interesting variation, the faces and actions changed, but the stance and T-shirts remained the same), which also creates a first-person mode of address, engaging more with the audience, and the background texture between the print ad and the tour poster. These all serve to associate the different parts of the campaign together, and to reinforce the band image in the consumer’s mind.

• The text anchors the image of the band, making it clear that they are Maritime, and are the same people from the video.

• Using Richard Dyer’s critical framework on the construct of the star image (Stars, 1998), we can see that his two paradoxes (an incoherent and enigmatic star image is created by the artist being simultaneously ordinary and extraordinary, and absent and present) are fulfilled in our print texts. The artist is present in all three by the inclusion of their photographs. However, they are made to be absent by the fact that their whole body is not visible, and on the digipak a cutout effect is used. Similarly, the artist is made to be ordinary by their ordinary expressions and T-shirts, however they are seen to be extraordinary in the digipak by the cutout effect.