The task we were set for our A2 coursework was to create a promotional pack for a song of our choice - 'promotional pack' immediately told us that we needed to create the three products (music video, digi-pack and magazine advert) in such a way that informed of, promoted and carried one another. The best way to do this, we thought, would be to establish some sort of brand identity through the use of a recognisable symbol that represented the band/song when used in various contexts - that would become a vertical intertextual reference between each product. After extensive band, audience and genre research we established that an important feature of our promotional package was going to be the image of an LP record - from our research we learnt that vinyl and vinyl players carry connotations of both authenticity, and the quality of the music - as a band using vinyl records need not rely on new technologies for the their music to be successful, connoting the high quality of it. During the music video production process we embraced the idea and decided to cut in shots of the record player throughout the video, with it starting up at the beginning in time with the music, appearing throughout at moments of musical interlude, and at the end where it then stopped along with the music:
Digipack: Once we had completed the production of the music video, we approached the design of our four page digi-pak. We had already decided to use the image of a book for the front and back covers, due to intertextual references to other elements of the video that were important to the theme and lyrics of the song, and our interpretation. Therefore we opted to feature the image of the record seen playing in the video on the inside cover - our idea was to place it behind the CD holder, with the image being the same size as the CD so when it is removed, the image of the record takes its place exactly, giving the digi-pak and authentic appearance, appearing as though the product it hold is actually an LP record, not a modern CD. This definitely appeals to our target audience in relation to what they expect and enjoy from their genre and associated products, as they can feel they aren't just buying CD, but are being reminded of the original record it could have been recorded on. We took a photo of the exact record used in the video to use as the base image to edit around for this sleeve of the digi-pack, this was to ensure a continuous intertextual reference, guaranteeing that it would become recognisable and audiences would immediately know that the image represents this particular song and band.
Magazine Ad: We finally put our minds toward the magazine advert/poster advertising the release of the previously produced music video. After analysing other posters/adverts by the Shout Out Louds themselves we established several features they seem to consistently make use of, the important one in this circumstance is that they don't use photographic imagery of the band in their advertising campaigns. They frequently use cartoon imagery, or images recognisable from the work they are promoting, like a video or album. We took on this feature due to both this research, previous feedback on promotional products of other bands in the similar genre to ours and from the fact that our video is not focused on band image, but more on being visually interesting and 'different'. We therefore decided to use again the image of the record, taken originally from the music video, to be the central focus of the advert, clearly linking intertextually to the previous two products, ensuring the products could be immediately recognised and linked together by the audience.
Artwork: Throughout the promotional pack hand drawn artwork and imagery is featured. The element again originated in the music video where we made frequent use of DIY animation sequences to play over the top of the filmed action, to create more depth and visual success within the product. We then chose a particular animation section that we all thought was the most successful, which was the falling leaves. On our magazine advert identical hand drawn leaves appear to be 'floating' down the page, forming a direct link between the two that would be recognised by an audience, therefore succeeding in promoting each other which is exactly what we set out to achieve. The use of DIY hand drawn images and text is also used on the artwork of the LP record - we decided to create our own artwork for it to ensure it became an appropriate metonym for the promotional pack, clearly stating the name of the song and band. We created this by hand, with hand drawn pictures of both books and leaves (as seen in the video animation), again linking the products. For the front cover of the digi-pak we used the image of a book and we achieved the successful combination by hand writing the titles of song and band in the same, recognisable font as used on the record design.
I think the combination of our ancillary tasks and our main product are definitely successful in their intertextuality, links and reasons for design choices. We have produced three products which all successfully promote one another in featuring recognisable, memorable metonymic symbols that allow each to be easily associated with another. Each task within the promotional pack offers clear elements that direct to our target audience, and they each individually reflect our audience, genre and band research successfully and have been constructed with reason and evidence behind every decision.
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