Magazine Advertisements

One of our ancillary tasks is to create a magazine advert for the Digipak, and my group has done some research into existing magazine adverts to discover the conventions and gain some inspiration for our own adverts.

These magazine adverts are for artists albums, singles and digipaks. The CDs artwork or a promotional photograph is almost always featured in the advert, and the design is thematically linked to the CDs design to build a strong advertising campaign which is recognisable to the public and target audience. High quality photographs are always used to give a professional look. Striking fonts which are influenced by the artists genre of music are also used. Record company and music store logos, websites and quotes from music reviews are also features we have observed. Information such as release dates and tour dates are also included.

Blacks, white and greys are bold and attention grabbing. The photos for Bloc Party and Eight Legs also add intrigue as they are not very 'normal' photographs.

We really liked how effective a black background is; it is eye-catching and intensifies the colours of the image placed over the top. It looks professional and stylish. The dark background black gives could be used in our own magazine advert to link with the urban genre of music and grimey, gritty and dark mise en scene we are employing throughout our 'brand'. The fonts are all quite simplistic, yet very effect; they have to be easy to read and catch the target audiences eye as they flick through a magazine.

The above adverts for indie based bands are linked well to the genre of music. Indie is mostly cheerful and uplifting, and the bright, pastel, summery colours add to the mood and atmosphere of the adverts.

These adverts are more complex than the more simplistic ones shown previously. We really liked the boldness of these adverts, and the jazzy colours and fonts.

Almost all of these advertisements feature the artist - this is to encourage audience recognition and promote the brand of the artist, overall increasing sales and profit.

So, magagazine advertisements are conventionally... BOLD and eye-catching Easy to understand Include a picture/photograph/painting linked to artist/brand Include relase date information Include logos from record stores/sites
(All adverts are screenshots from The Fly's online version of its magazine by my group)

Target Audience

Chase & Status, the DJs whose track we have chosen for our video, are from London and produce drum and bass, dubstep, grime and electronic music. This music scene is typically popular in urban environments, and fans of alternative music such as rock and punk are often also into drum and bass due to its extreme and controversial nature. We want to capture the energy Chase & Status create when performing live and make our video demand the audiences attention.

Plan B is also an urban artist who produces rap/hip hop music, but often features an acoustic guitar, attracting fans of rock and indie music. Plan B is influenced heavily by where he grew up - Forest Gate in east London. He has been surrounded by drugs, sex and violence and these themes come through in his honest and controversial lyrics. Similarly, we want to create a controversial video, as we want to shock and engage the audiences attention, and show them something different.

Our target audience is therefore going to be teen and young adult fans of urban, dance and rock music, who would be drawn to something unconventional and controversial. Our chosen track, and music similar to it, is often played in clubs and so our target audience will be quite young, perhaps 17-25. Female members of our target audience may be attracted to the artist, or our actor in the music video, which helps create an attachment to the artist and their music, and boost sales. Our target audience read publications such as music magazines, e-zines and newspapers, and so we need to look at these to find the conventions of music magazines.

Creating A Brand

For our 3 tasks we have to create a recognisable brand for the artist, to attract the target audience, and therefore help promote their music. This means there must be a coherent house style throughout the Music Video, Digipak Artwork, and Digipak Advertisement, through elements such as colour scheme, lighting, genre, clothing and font.

The featuring artist on our chosen track 'End Credits' is East London singer/rapper Plan B. His forthcoming album 'The Defamation of Strickland Banks' is currently receiving wide promotion, with posters, live television performances, and magazine articles helping create a buzz around him. One of the main promotional tools are music videos. Plan B's video for 'Stay Too Long' is currently being aired on music channels, while the single is receiving ample air time on radio stations.

His website features photographs and design features and his 'image' or style which can be seen throughout all the promotional tools. Below are some promotional photographs; they are all grainy, black and white film photographs, and suggest and old, soul singer appearance.

EDIT: 26th January - Plan B on NME site

The NME is a magazine which is likely to be read by our target audience, and so by publishing Plan B on their website, NME are publicising the artist further. The photograph included illustrates Plan B's new soul singer 'look' or image, which helps to promote the 'brand' of Plan B.

Plan B is also featured in this weeks NME magazine, and so I photographed a page from the interview to show the 'image' that is being promoted for Plan B.

Mood board

My group decided to construct a mood board to gather all our ideas together in one place. We used our location pictures, music video screen shots, lyrics and words such as REGRET and LONELINESS to enrich our mood board. This task will help us focus and organise our existing idead hopefully provide further inspiration.

Locations

Grace's garage - Greenhithe

Grace's garage has the potential to become a room or bedroom for our actor. We will decorate it accordingly; shabby furniture, messy floor, torn wallpaper/brick walls, basically a neglected environment, to reflect his life and mental state.

Leake Street - Lambeth SE1 - behind Waterloo Station

Matt Brown has hosted two amazing photographs taken on a Holga camera on his Flickr account, of Leake Street, a tunnel in London which features some incredible graffiti. The lighting in this tunnel, and the art on the walls, would provide some interesting shots for our video. The atmosphere in a tunnel, and what being in a tunnel symbolises (feeling trapped, alone, oppressed, helpless) is perfect for the video we want to create.

Hackney Road - Hackney E2

This East London location is perfect as it's rough and urban, adding to the image we want to portray. The railway bridge and alleyways also add to the environment we want to create. Some interesting night shots could be created here, as shown by the photograph.

Battersea Power Station - Battersea SW8

Battersea power station is an old abandoned building and a less obvious choice for a London landmark. The ruined insides would provide a perfect grimey environment, although we may not be able to film inside the actual building. The facade would still provide some aesthetically unqiue shots for our video.

Richmond Park - Richmond SW15

Richmond Park is the largest open space in London, and has some wildlife such as deer and birds which would create interesting footage for our video. A herd of deer running or a flock of birds flying would be dramatic and reflect the subjects confused and disorientated state of mind.

Dartford Town Centre

We've decided to use a kebab shop closer to home for this part of the filming, and using Google Maps, found a suitable location.

Asking permission.

We have to ask Mercury Records, who released our chosen song End Credits by Chase & Status ft. Plan B, for permission to use it in our project.

If we do not recieve an answer, we can still use the track. However, obviously if Mercury refuse to grant us permission, we will have to find another track.

We couldn't find Mercury Record's email address, so we'll post the letter instead.