Wednesday, 22 February 2017

Wednesday, 8 February 2017

Friday, 3 February 2017

Evaluation Task 2 (3/3): How effective is the Combination of your Main Product and Ancillary Texts?

 ewandernoth  07:59  No comments  Edit

How effective is my campaign?

I believe that our campaign is quite effective in conveying our ideal of the "star image". The star image which we decided to represent was: creativity, originality, talent, and their main USP (1920s/modern style); we used these few keywords to build a campaign which fit into the electro-swing genre. An example which we have carried out throughout our entire campaign is gold-embellishment.

The Gold Embellishment in the Background of the Set as well as the Instruments, which have a Golden Hue.

The Gold Embellishment here is the Entirety of the Album Cover.
The Golden Theme is Presented through Orange and Yellow Texts and Embellishments.
Doing this will help to a) convey the genre which is the general idea of the band, and b) give the audience an understanding of which media texts belong to one another, and which don't. We have considered the way in which this product would be distributed, and have come up with the idea that the brand image should adhere to the 1920's yet modern theme. This allows us to promote the brand image as old-fashioned, yet new. This allowed us to target a range of audiences and therefore didn't have to be too exact with what our target market is.

To be able to target an audience is vital for any market or campaign, as to attract this same audience is the most important. To target an audience is vital due to the fact that audiences need to be able to read conventions, and be able to benefit from all thre elements. In that way they will enjoy the product more, and benefit from it as well.

We looked at other bands such as the "Electric Swing Circus" and "Caravan Palace", which allowed me to see how they marketed their product to their audiences, and how it would be best for us to target ours. In the long run, I feel that our products can be lined up with those of other, real products. Due to the fact that our band is never openly presented to the audience, it may be difficult for the audience to decipher what kind of people they are, however if they enjoy the music this will make it easier for them to identify the kind of genre. Due to the golden embellishment which is used, it shows a clear sense of old-school, which then immediately attracts the audience which is interested in this kind of music. The music video was used as a visual aid to make the music even more intriguing and give the audience an idea of what kind of people the band would be like. This also fits in with our theme of creativity and originality.

Our campaign has always had an Unique Selling Point, namely taking something old and keeping the great elements, and then adding something new. This is quite an unrealistic concept however it speaks out to both older and younger audiences, giving elders as well as teenagers the ability to enjoy our campaign and music; therefore they may speak about it as well, which allows our band to benefit from word-of-mouth marketing (which is essentially for niche market bands such as ours). This will ensure the success of our band alongside the internet. 

Evaluation Task 2 (1/3): How effective is the Combination of your Main Product and Ancillary Texts?

 ewandernoth  05:29  No comments  Edit

Throughout the project, we have considered how our main product, which is a 3 minute promotional music video, and the ancillary texts, namely a digipak and website, work together to form a brand & star image, and unique selling point. Keith Negus argues that music videos are used as a promotional tool, and that the star image is used as a way to brand the product. Essentially, branding is used by the music industry to create a range of products which link, to "lure" in the target audience and subconciously steer them towards similar products. We also considered Philip Kotler's definition of marketing, which is "Human Activity is directed at satisfying needs and wants through the use of exchange processes". This means the marketing and selling of products and services to the audience allows them to buy into the brand image which we have created.

Marketing is the key to success of any campaign. It consists of the four P's:
- Product : What is being sold/branded.
- Place : Where and how the product is distributed.
- Price : How much the product will cost.
- Promotion : How it is advertised, and where it is publicised.

We wanted our products to work together as well as possible, and to create an overall theme for the band to work around. Because the genre our band revolves around is the "electro-swing" genre, and we wanted this to be a theme which is pulled throughout the entire campaign. We did this by incorporating the 1920's and modern theme all the way throughout. We believe that we have created a cohesive campaign where the three products work well together, and portray the band's star image, which we believe to be: Originality, Creativity, Talent, as well as their organic nature and the USP.

Thursday, 19 January 2017

Evaluation Task 1 (5/5): In What Ways Does your Media Product Use, Develop or Challenge Forms and Conventions of Real Media Products?

 ewandernoth  09:07  No comments  Edit

When looking at all three media products of our campagin, I feel that we have successfully used, developed and challenged media conventions that are typically used in other pre-existing media products. I feel that we have also used some of Negus' theories which allow us to focus on some of the most important factors of the music video.

We used, developed and challenged these conventions in order to make our products fit with what the audience expects from them, and have compared them to similar products in the same genre. I believe that we chose to challenge and subvert them in order to provide variety, and contrast from other media products to make ours stand out. We also chose to subvert to some of the conventions for our digipak and website so that our target audience would receive some variety and that it will fit in with our artist's star image, to make them original and organic.

I think that we have used, adhered to and subverted from a large range of conventions and we have been able to develop some of them to make them relevant to our star image. Our products become unique in this way and gives us the ability to create something that will stand out from the rest.

Evaluation Task 1 (4/5): In What Ways Does your Media Product Use, Develop or Challenge Forms and Conventions of Real Media Products?

 ewandernoth  08:32  1 comment  Edit
Evaluation Task 1 (1/5)
Evaluation Task 1 (2/5)
Evaluation Task 1 (3/5)
Evaluation Task 1 (5/5)


In comparison to our other two media products, namely the music video and the digipak, our website seems to be quite conventional. The way in which it is built up is very similar to many other websites on the market, and in order for it to be manageable for the audience to scout around it needs to be in order. This isn't as vital for the digipak or the music video. But the website is essentially the main marketing tool, not only for the albums and past music they have made, but also for tour dates, meet and greets, and just general information about the artists themselves - it is there to sell the entire campaign. Would our website be as unconventional as the other two products, our campaign may run into way larger issues than just being different to the norm.
When looking at the website of The Electric Swing Circus, there isn't a large differentiation in style. The basic and utmost important factors of the website is the fact that the title of the band is in the largest letters and falls into the eyesight of the audience, and that there are headers for the different pages which are part of the entire website which then help the audience to navigate around the page. We have used this on our page as well, which is conventional, as every website does this. However, something that is unconventional in the stylistic element of the website is the fact that we don't show the name of the website at the very top, but rather to the right hand side, which could potentially be negative to the entire layout as it may not be as obvious and the audience may have to look around first before realisting whether they are on the correct page or not. Something else which has caught my attention which may be unconventional is the fact that we don't have a logo to represent our band on the website. Alongside The Electric Swing Circus, Parov Stelar's entire
homepage almost consists of just the logo/header which is present on each facet of the website. It is something that makes the band recogniseable from afar and gives the audience the ability to recognise other media products created by that certain artist if just a factor of that logo/header is used. Next to this, each of the headers/websites have a specific font which is used and carried out throughout the entire campaign. The font which has been used on our website is simply one like Lulo Clean, which is different to the one which was used on our digipak. This is quite unconventional as it may make it difficult for the audience to recognise the digipak in stores if they have looked at the website in advance. Next to this, the unconventionality of not using the own logo and/or font means that the website looks rather cheap and doesn't give the band the opportunity to sell themselves properly. Therefore, audiences may be turned off the appeal of the artists and forget or disregard the music they make entirely. This is something that should probably be thought about in order to make the campaign more successful, as the website should be as conventional as possible to be successful. Also, this helps to represent our band as an organic one due to the fact that the representation of it will be expressed through the logo rather than the people who are in the band.


Something which is quite unconventional is the fact that at the top of our website, we do not showcase our music video but rather a media player with the album tracks in it and technically, the icon for the album (rather than a cut out of the music video???). Many other websites, such as that of C2C, showcase the music video at the top which allows the artist to directly market their music video, and therefore build hype among the audience for the album which they can then find the link to on the website. However, we do it the other way around which may make it more difficult for the audience to express an interest in the album, as they may just scroll through it and skip through the songs, whereas the music video may catch their immediate attention. The main reason as to why a media player is at the top of our website rather than a music video is because of the attention to detail and aesthetic, and the layout just looking better to begin with. Therefore we chose unconventionality and aesthetic over managability, stereotypes (and slightly convenience). A simple website is practical when it comes to representing an organic star image due to the fact that it is not overdone and doesn't reflect an unrealistic and synthetic appeal which promotes the star image to an extent where it becomes all about the artist rather than the music created, however I fear that our website has not gotten the additional flair that it may need.


Something else that is also completely unconventional for our website is that there is no social media interaction whatsoever. Many websites offer the audience the ability to interact with the band, or be updated on what is currently going on, on platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. This website by Caravan Palace illustrates it perfectly. They give the audience the ability to create an online community to interact with other people who are fans, or perhaps even get in touch with the band (if they are lucky!). However our website displays no option to do this whatsoever. It makes it very difficult for the audience to be updated on news and perhaps cause a loss in interest after a while.
Something else which is also quite conventional for some websites, especially those presenting their album rather than their music video at the top (which is quite unconventional), they present the possibility to purchase, stream or download the album. Other websites usually have this on other pages of the website and not the homepage, but as it seems the options are only "Home", "Album", "Tour Dates", "About", "Video", and "Representation", there isn't a possibility for us to properly market the rest of the albums they may have released and therefore make it more difficult to link the audience to other products our band may have created. This unconventionality can be very bad for the band as it makes it almost impossible for the band to sell any music and may therefore run out of success very quickly. Also, by not including this in a place where it can be found easily, it makes it more difficult to navigate through the website in general.
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