Our teacher sent us an MP3 link to an analysis of our SMP. With this feedback we are able to decode this information and translate it into what we have done well and what improvements need to be made in order to create a highly successful SMP for our indie rock star image.

(Usually this would be completed as a screencastify however, due to technical issues this was not possible)

Feedback from teacher

• Aesthetically pleasing
• Nearly nine posts
• Noticeable that there is no release of the album or MV
• More posts of the star himself once received images from him
• Good performance posts – important so that the fans know that they can see Lukash
• Charity post – excellent for promoting the stars ideologies and beliefs – encouraging personal identity
• Teasers – build tension and create engagement
• Live performance posts – show people that they can see him and make him present in their lives
• Promotion of a tour – important as it is where Lukash will make most of his money and sell merchandise
• Good radio interview post – cross media convergence
• Spotify included – call to action
• Trailer – fantastic
• Synergy missing with another company or brand – offering promotions?
• Lots of good stories / highlights
• Getting audience involved on polls
• Clever Sunday roast story that links to album once released
• Put album in
• MV release
• Good politics, charity, supporting values and beliefs

Targets for improvement

• We must add more posts, especially those regarding:
  • The release of the MV
  • Release of the album
  • Synergy which could possibly encourage promotions and offers
• Add in some performance clips on the stories for highlights?
• Make some GIFs or moving graphics to add to the feed to reinforce engagement and interest for our consumers

Below is a screenshot of our SMP for our artist. We have completed 8 posts so far and we are planning on developing this much further to develop his star image and engagement with his audience.

Click on image to redirect to Instagram:

We have included all the conventions of an indie rock Instagram page such as; short, simplistic sentences that inform the audience and allow them to engage with the audience, as well as a basic colour scheme such as black and white. We aimed to portray him as extraordinary in the ways he performs and promotes his work, yet ordinary – this ordinary aspect of Dyer’s theory enables him to connect with his fans and develops his and his audiences personal identity.

Click on image to view document:

Targets for improvement

• Create some form of merchandise to allow the audience to interact with our star more and promote his brand
• Integrate more of the conventions from our music video and digipak to bring each of them together as a package rather than individual components
• Make posts/highlights promoting physical copies of the album
• Promote more collaborations – either with other artists/bands or other brands eg.crocs – another form of integrated advertising – cross media convergence to further engage
• Try to link in more political issues to educate and inform the audience about relevant things that are happening in the world – this will also encourage more understanding of our stars values

We have thought of 4 ideas that we could use to engage with our audience and promote the release of our album. They consist of a campaign, a competition, an Instagram filter and a TikTok sound. They are listed with details below:

Campaign – inspired by Faithless’ campaign

• This campaign is designed to encourage the audience to post images of their Sunday roasts with the hashtag ‘#sundayroast’
• With the strong correlation with our album cover being a roast dinner, it will allow consumers to recognise the hashtag and associate it with Lukash’s album
• The benefits of hashtags are significant in creating a wider fanbase for our star such as; an increase in audience engagement, attract followers to a certain niche, strengthen brand/star image to help reach that target audience

Competition – inspired by Phoebe Bridgers campaign 

• This competition will utilise the booklet in the cover of the album
• Lukash will sign the inside of 12 of the booklets and the idea is that if someone purchases a signed album, they receive a prize – such as; a ticket for front row at a concert or a private concert
• A competition like this will encourage our target audience to buy the product and will create excitement and engagement with our star and consumers 

Instagram filter – inspired by Phoebe Bridgers campaign

• The idea of this campaign is to work with Spotify to create an Instagram filter to go alongside a song release
• As well as promoting our star and his genre, this is an example of cross media convergence – which attracts a mass audience in itself
• Lukash would repost these filters when a fan uses it, reminding the audience that the star does interact with his fans

TikTok sound – inspired by Clean Bandit’s campaign

• This form of cross media convergence is something that could easily promote our stars music very quickly as there is a wide audience that use TikTok sounds frequently – encouraging engagement with our star
• TikTok sounds are a very effective way to get music to a wider audience and due to the fact the sound will play over a personally created video, it means that the audience can adapt the sound to however they want to portray it – allowing it to be unique to not only the star but the consumers too

After completing research on campaigns, we have then created a timeline of what we think would be beneficial and effective to post on our SMP:

We have decided to plan for 9 Instagram posts for our SMP. We have started our posts with some lyrics from one of our artists songs. This will entice the audience and make them excited for when the song is eventually released. From then on we will continue to post things such as behind the scenes, tours, the album cover, interviews and of course the final release. However, along with that we are including a post regarding the charity that our artist is supporting – this will make him come across to the audience as different him from his extraordinary stardom and allow him to connect on a more intimate level with his fans. Another thing that we have chosen to include is a campaign and a competition. This is designed to draw the audience in and enable our star to engage with the audience more thoroughly, as well as have the audience get excited and interested in what our star is releasing – generating more attention towards his product and the music he produces. We may also have additional posts that we have not written as a part of our timeline (as this is just a guide), such as; advertisements for merchandise. This form of integrated advertising will promote the star to an extent where people will recognise him and his brand more frequently – widening his audience.

We have conducted a screencastify for the Arctic Monkeys social media page on Instagram. We have analysed how we believe the audience interacts and engages with them and their star image. It has references to the technical conventions, AIDA, Bulmer and Katz’s model, integrated advertising and Dyer’s paradox of the star theory. By doing this we are able to identify what a successful indie rock artists SMP looks like and how their conventions attract consumers.

Please click on the box in the top right to view screencastify.

 Below I have annotated a social media page (Facebook) for the band Oasis in regards to what makes platforms like these allow artists to connect and engage with their audience. It is important to understand the various technical conventions that make social media platform so effective. Aspects such as bios, captions and posts – as well as marketing campaigns – are created in order to promote the artists music, and make their target audience aware of their presence in the music industry.