KEY TERMS: brand, integrated advertising, promotion, audience, USP, mission statement, call to action, reject the text
Remember the brief?
“A promotion package for the release of an album, to include a music video (major task), together with a social media page for the band and a digipak for the album’s release (minor tasks).”
It is important to note from the beginning that you are not making a digipack and social media page to advertise your music video! You are launching a new album, which contains that song, but which also contains a number of other tracks.
So before you start planning the print and web elements of this promotional package. You need to be clear about the mission statement for the whole campaign. You must think more holistically about the album, the band (star image) and the brand and create an integrated advertising campaign…
Your Marketing Strategy & Mission Statement
- Complete a Google presentation using slides to address the questions below:
- Remember to lay it out well with bullet points – less is more sometimes.
- Include the question at the top of each slide.
Who is your Audience?
- Who they are (demographics)
- What other media they consume and participate in.
- Which other ‘communities’ do they belong to?
- What their values attitudes and beliefs (ideology / psychographics)? (see the sheet attached)
A Call to Action
- How do you want the audience to engage with your star / album?
- Think Blumler & Katz (Uses and Gratification – entertainment, information, personal identity and social interaction).
- How will they be persuaded to invest time and money in your star / album?
Who are the competition?
- Name three similar bands / artists.
- What are the trends in album designs of similar stars / bands?
- What do their websites look like?
Your USP (Unique Selling Point)
- Is your star already established or are trying to establish a new presence in the market?
- What is your star image & how are you trying to innovate / develop that image?
- Are you mixing up elements of different genres?
- Are you trying to re-brand your star?
- Are you emphasising the ordinary or extraordinary?
- Remember according to Dyer, ‘meta-narratives’ include both .
Your Mission Statement.
- In 50 words or fewer write an agreed mission statement that includes the central idea that will unify your brand.
- This will include ideas represented in your music video, but must also bring in a wider range of ideas that you will develop as you make a Moodboard.
TASK.
As a group, create a Google slide (example) that addresses the various aspects and complete brief notes in response to the questions.
Then, complete the mission statement in production groups and copy it into your blog.
This blog post is essential for when you come to complete Creative Critical Reflection and have to address the following question:
‘HOW do the elements of your production work together to create a sense of ‘branding’?’
TWO EXAMPLES:
One
“Sunnies puts the vibe into indie rock. Influenced by the best of Poland’s underground punk scene and the top tenners of UK Brit Pop, the Sunnies aim to go ‘where no man has gone before’. Combining a musical landscape of hard rock rifs, abrasive punk lyrics and indiistic themes, the band will satisfy the hardest of new wave critics. The new album, DON’T RAIN ON MY WELLIES, is destined for a Grammy – making it number 3 on their mantelpiece of success.”
Two
“Skye is this decade’s rising moon. Mixing indie folk and Appalachian A Capella, Skye’s haunting acoustic tones and her quirky and experimental performance style, combines the best of festival fantasy, giving her fans a visual and auditory kaleidoscope. The new album, SKYE HIGH, features the hit song, ‘SIGH NO MORE’ and will tease the socks off the best of British female artists including Kate Bush and Florence and the Machine.”