Introduction


My name is Gabriel Meytanis (candidate number 8560). I completed Brief 1:Music Industry, working in Group 2 with Georgina Harper-Dennett (8720) and Phoebe Hung (8017). Our group photo can be seen on the right of the page. To access my portfolio evidence, please click on the labels to the right named A2 Research and Planning, A2 Construction and A2 Evaluation.


GiGi - Sit Still, Look Pretty (Group 2 Music Video)

Digipak

Digipak
The inside and outside panels of our Digipak
Please click the image above to access our website

Monday 5 September 2016

Evaluation Q2: How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

Our aim was to create three products (the main product - music video, as well as the ancillary texts - the digipak and website) which worked effectively and synergistically with each other. Using Richard Dyer's Star Theory, we were able to deliberately construct an identity for GiGi to maximise her appeal to our various audience groups, which we then conveyed through a synergistic, cross-platform promotional marketing campaign which would not only keep a consistent, but also a recognisable brand image and identity for GiGi, our artist.

We recognised that the three products had to not only work together in synergy, but also promote the artist through means unique to that product. For instance, whilst the music video promotes the artist, their genre & - in our case - the message or ideas which they represent, the ancillary products can promote the artist stylistically, for instance through deliberate selections of promotional images, colours and font styles.


-Marketing Case Studies:

-Dua Lipa:
Dua Lipa is an upcoming British female solo artist whose work spans the indie pop & synthpop genres. In 2015, she was signed by Warner Bros. Records, having recorded covers of songs since the age of 14. I felt that it would be extremely useful and relevant to analyse her marketing campaign in particular, as there are parallels to our own aritst:
-Similarly to GiGi, she is a British female soloist
-She is releasing an eponymous debut album amongst her other promotional material:
-She is also a pop/synthpop singer
-She has a similar target audience age range to our primary TA group (15-24 years old)


-Demi Lovato:
I also felt it would be relevant to research the marketing campaign of an artist who we felt was similar to GiGi. As a result, I analysed Demi Lovato's marketing campaign for her 2013 self-titled studio album 'Demi', as well as the release of 4 singles from the album. I also aimed to examine her particular combination of media products:



-Our own marketing campaign for GiGi:

This overall marketing campaign - the combination of the three media products - must work together in synergy to be considered a successful, conventional campaign. This idea of synergy can encompass not only branding and visuals, but also the artist's identity. This can be seen in the two examples of Dua Lipa & Demi Lovato which I have analysed above. Its overarching aim is to appeal to our various target audience demographics and ultimately convince them to spend time and money buying into these products.

Each individual product is designed to promote different aspects of GiGi's marketing campaign, and in different ways. The music video - through its song & lyrics, narrative and other visuals - is designed to promote a single, the digipak promotes the album which the single typically belongs to, and the website serves as an interconnected, synergistic and symbiotic hub for the marketing campaign; incorporating social media links, promotional material for the other products, as well as a range of interactive features to promote our artist.

I have analysed our synergistic marketing campaign in the Emaze presentation below:
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-Connectivity
Below, I have created a Padlet exploring our use of connectivity:
(Please use the scrollbars to navigate through my notes)
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-Marketing Mix:
Having researched marketing theory, we discovered that successful campaigns reach and appeal to the target audience through a number of interconnected promotional strategies to eventually encourage them to part with their cash having been made aware of the artist and their product in a number or ways. As a result, we also applied the "4 Ps of marketing" to our campaign:


-Product:
-Customers have ultimately been convinced and want to but the album.
-Our products all offer gratification of the audience's diversion needs.
-The music offers entertainment gratification, whilst GiGi herself gratifies social inclusion gratifications, she and her music offer the audience a sense of shared identity.

-Price:
-Some items on the online store have been reduced to encourage sales.
-A deluxe album at £7.99 an £30.00 concert tickets offer appealing affordability compared with existing artists in the pop genre.
-Avid fans would be far less concerned over prices.

-Place
-The music video's positioning on YouTube ensures it is able to hit a worldwide audience.
-The proliferation of content on Web 2.0 means that the album is available for purchase quickly & easily via the website. This positioning online allows the younger age demographic to be appealed to far easier than if it were in-store.
-The website itself acts as a marketing hub, allowing the audience to consume plenty of interactive & promotional  opportunities

-Promotion:
-The target audience has been reached via a combination of traditional & modern, technological methods (e.g traditional=digipak; modern=cross-media converged, symbiotic website)
-The website's news page promotes GiGi & her beliefs (e.g Battersea visit; 10% of ticket sales donated).
-It also features a signing event at HMV Westfield. Live events such as these have also been used in conjunction with the website, social media platforms, video & digipak.



-Constructing GiGi's identity:

-Dyer's 'Star' Theory:
One of the theories which we aimed to take advantage of was Richard Dyer's 'Star' Theory. He stated that pop stars (different from "performers" in that they possess an identity) are simply constructions which - though they may be based in the real - are ultimately not authentic, and are manufactured by institutions with the purpose of generating income.

Please access the slideshow below to see my breakdown of the theory, and how we applied it:
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-Star Identity:
I also constructed a Word Cloud to highlight what I feel GiGi represents through our construction of her Star Identity: (You are able to scroll over to highlight the words).

I have deliberately chosen to focus on two words in particular. 'Feminist' and 'Independent' are the two elements of the Word Cloud which I have made the most prominent, as I feel they are the most relevant to our marketing campaign. In deliberately constructing her as an openly-feminist artist, GiGi possessed a Unique Selling Point which could help her appeal to our primary audience group of progressively-minded 15-24 year olds in particular, and could also be a tool to stand out from other similar artists in the industry and indeed specifically in the market of female soloists.

Meanwhile, an aspect that is perhaps more conventional - though just as important - is the independence and strength of our artist GiGi. The construction of GiGi's Star Identity as a role model and figure of strength and independence is another appealing factor - particularly to our younger, secondary audience group of 8-15 year old girls.


-In Conclusion:

On the whole, I feel that we have created a very successful combination of products in our marketing campaign for our artist, GiGi. The main product of the video, alongside the ancillary texts (website and digipak) have worked effectively & synergistically to convince our target audience groups to buy into our artist and her products. I also believe that we were able to utilise the strengths of each particular product well in order to do so.

In my opinion, we also used Richard Dyer's Star Theory to great effect in deliberately constructing the various aspects of our artist and her persona, and have since used this well when marketing GiGi to successfully appeal to our primary and alternative target audience groups.

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