Tegan West

COMPONENT 3 BRIEF COMPLETED:

A promotion package for the release of an album, to include:

• a music video (major task)

• a social media page (minor task)

• a digipak (minor task)

• How do the elements of your production work together to create a sense of ‘branding’?
• How did your research inform your products and the way they use or challenge conventions?
• How do your products represent social groups or issues?
• How do your products engage with the audience?

Branding refers to the coherency and distinctiveness of our products’ design. All of the elements of my production work need to work together to create this sense of branding, in order to convey our preferred reading to our target audience. Hall’s reception theory states that it is important to keep our target audience’s demographics and psychographics in mind when encoding any media text so that they can decode it successfully. For example, in order to successfully portray our stars absent and extraordinary image (according to Dyer) as moody and ambivalent we didn’t show her smiling throughout the digipak or music video. We did however, show her in a different light in the social media page in order to convey her present and ordinary side of her star image to the target audience. However the audience could potentially get an oppositional reading of the text and reject it if the repertoire of elements, according to Lacey, isn’t encoded successfully.

In order to fulfil our mission statement and convey our star, Astrid May, as a “powerful lyricist with a quirky and edgy performance style” we used consistency between design and key messages and themes throughout our products. For example, we used design to create a sense of branding between our products using the neon colours. This is evident in the performance section of our music video, with our star outlined in neon colours, whilst also present on the digipak with hints of neon throughout and finally in our social media page with both the profile and cover images being bright and eye-catching too. This helps to encode our star as young, fresh and fun which is conventional of the electropop genre. There are also consistent messages throughout our products. For example, we have a key theme surrounding mental health, evident in the music video and our social media page. In our music video there are key themes of entrapment and the narrative of the video focuses on anxiety and being trapped in your own mind. On our social media page, there is also a link to a mental health charity to support our star’s message and empathetic understanding of the subject. Overall, this leads to the success of our star’s branding, as a down-to-earth and humble artist. 

In order to generate inspiration and ideas of the conventions of a music video we researched music videos typical of the elctropop genre. We learnt that they were typically proportioned with a 50/50 performance to narrative split.  They also used conventional mise-en-scene (MES) of the genre eg. edgy clothing and makeup and an abnormal narrative, making the star appear quirky, unique and youthful. In particular we watched Billie Eilish’s videos and decided to use some of the generic conventions of MES from these videos is order to convey our star as dark, mysterious and edgy. For example, we used the moodiness and edginess from Billie Eilish’s video in our narrative and acting of our star as shown by our use of the Underground Hospital for our location of the narrative proportion of the video, which set the tone for a moody and dark video. Lacey would identify these generic components of an electropop music video as the repertoire of elements which refers to those conventional ingredients that our target audience would be expecting.

Whilst carrying out our production work we decided to both challenge and develop these conventions. We adopted the 50/50 performance to narrative split, conventional of the genre. We also adopted the use of neon colours and fun aspects of the electropop genre in the performance section of our video. This provides the audience with the view that our star and her music is youthful, different and fun. Altman would argue that these elements such as colour, act as the blueprint for a successful music video that is conventional of the electropop genre. We challenged some of the conventional elements of an electropop music video by not conveying the more youthful side of our star as prominently as in some of the examples we watched. We hinted at this using the neon colours in some of the performance shots but we decided to establish the darker narrative more strongly to convey the important, key messages.

Representing our star’s image as edgy, mysterious and youthful, was essential in the success of our products. Dyer’s paradox of the star explains how it is key that the star is presented as both extraordinary and ordinary whilst present yet absent. For example in our  music video, our star appears as talented and untouchable, yet in our social media we aimed to present her as down-to-earth, relatable and bringing a fresh perspective.

We also tried to reflect Dyer’s ideas in our digipak. We photographed our model in the well-lit studio with an ambivalent facial expression, distant body language and the costume of a conventional electropop star, with her metallic jacket for example. Through this repertoire of elements, she is presented as absent and extraordinary. This connotes that she is moody, unique and unreachable. However, the fun hints of colours throughout the digipak are symbolic of our star’s fun and outgoing side and someone who’s not afraid to challenge the norm. This reflects the present and ordinary aspects of her star image. Barthes would argue that this representation of using the semic codes of having our star looking so disinterested may not be decoded as our preferred reading. Instead, the use of these codes may infer that she isn’t fun, not relatable, or not down-to-earth enough to her young fans.

Audience engagement is the most important part of any marketing campaign as without their engagement the launching of the product won’t be successful.  The social media page is key to our marketing and audience engagement.

I was keen to implement the Uses and Gratification theory in order to maximise audience engagement with my social media page. Blumler and Katz argue that there are four elements leading to successful audience engagement, which include; information, entertainment, social interaction and personal identity. For example, my star’s fans would be entertained by our use of the teaser’s and anticipation of the music video release. We released a GIF and a small clip from our music video, conventional of the electropop genre. This should engage our target audience and keep them in suspense. Our social media page also engages our fans through information. This is evident through posts that detail what time Astrid’s livestream concert is, where to buy her new merchandise from with a link and the news that her debut album is out and where to find it.