Magazine Research

Now I have created my magazine advertisement, I need to decide where it would be placed in the media industry.

The Fly  (Magazine)

The Fly is a free music magazine published monthly in the United Kingdom. The magazine is published by the HMV owned MAMA Group.

This magazine features a wide variety of genres but focuses mainly on new material or new artists and bands. This is why I feel that my magazine advert would fit in well with this magazine.  Another advantage of the magazine is that in 2008, the magazine announced its circulation had increased while other publications reported a sharp decline in circulation. This shows how this magazine is becoming more popular, possibly because it's free.  This increase in audience reading and viewing the magazine means my artist's advertisement would be seen by a wide variety of people helping to sell my artist to both my target audience and other audiences.

Kerrang! (Magazine)

Kerrang! is a UK-based  magazine published by Bauer Media Group. It was first published in 1981 meaning it is an established magazine in the UK market. In the early 2000's it became the best-selling British music newspaper. This would mean that the largest possible audience would see my magazine advertisement. However, Kerrang! magazine focuses on the rock/metal genres of music. This would mean that my artist would not fit in with magazine and therefore, despite the magazine having the largest circulation, I would not place my magazine advertisement in this magazine.

NME (Magazine)

The new musical express, commonly abrieviated to NME is a British music magazine focusing on the rock and pop genres of music. It began as a music newspaper in 1952 and evolved to become a music magazine.  In the 1980's it was the most popular musicmagazine in the UK but since then the circulation has dropped dramatically to just over 23,000 in the second half of 2011. Despite the lower circulation, I feel like NME might be a good magazine to put my magazine advertisement in because of its long history and the fact it does focus on the indie genre.  However, in 2008 the magazine recieved a redesign, aimed atan older readership with aless poppy,more authoritative tone. Since this redesign, I no longer feel that this magazine would be the right place to advertise my artist due to my young target audience.

After conducting this research, I feel that the most suitable place to put my magazine advertisement is in The Fly magazine. If my promotional package were to be released officially, the record label would contact The Fly magazine to organise an issue in which my advertisement could be placed.

Photoshop and Final Magazine Advert

Photoshop and Final Magazine Advert

I used the programme Adobe Photoshop Elements 4.0 to create my magazine advertisement.

    On my design, I wanted a red frame around my advert to help it stand out against the page since it would only be 1/4th of an A4 page. I chose the colour red so my house style from my artwork on the front of my created digipak would continue into the advertisement. I felt that this red frame I used on my design was a little simple. I searched through all of my original images of my red ribbon to find a image that would work as a border for my advert. I found an image where the ribbon was straight but twirled. I then cut this out using the magic wand tool on Photoshop. I then used the blur tool to blend any rough edges.

    From this image, I used the lighting tools to make it brighter. I also adjusted the saturation to help the ribbon become a brighter red to match the bright red used on the text for my advert.

    My next step was to add my digipak front cover to the advert. A issue I discovered on my design of the digipak was that the name of the artist and name of the album were already displayed on the artwork and this text was not where I wanted it to be on the advert. I could have just repeated the text but this would make the advert look cluttered and unappealing to both my target audience and other potential audiences. To overcome this, I opened up my original front cover digipak file on Photoshop. I then removed the artist name, 'Tempany', and the album name 'Glue'. I then flattened the layers and exported the new artwork as an image so I could use it on my magazine advert.

    On my advert, I added tour dates for a UK tour. I already knew of some suitable venues on the south coast where my artist could perform. Further north, I had to use the search engine google to look up suitable venues which wern't too big or too small for my artist. I also had to make sure my artists genre was suitable for the venue.  I added these is a easy to read text as the text would be quite small on a magazine page. A hard to read text would have made the tour dates illegible making the advert and the tour look less attractive to audiences.

 

    I then had to add in the artist name and the album name. Since I had removed the text off the digipak artwork, this gave me more freedom of where I could place this text to make the advert most effective.  I used the same font which I used on my digipak; Tropicalli Script BTN Bamboo. I decided to use this to help maintain the house style of both the digipak and the magazine advert.

My final Magazine Advertisement can be seen below.

Magazine Advert Designs

Magazine Advertisement Designs

I have made mock up of potential magazine advertisements I could create to help promote my artists new album and digipak. I have decided to chose the layout where the artwork for the new album/single/digipak is the main image. I chose this layout because I am proud of my digipak artwork and I feel like it will appeal to both my target audience and other audiences. With my different designs, I am trying out different generic conventions I found as well as different size adverts.
My three different designs can be seen below.

     After studing my three designs, I have chosen to use my first design to base my magazine advertisement on. I chose this sign because of the simplicity. This design was 1/4 of a A4 page in size. This size of advert would be more realistic in terms of marketing since this is my artists debut album and they wouldn't have large A4 adverts immediatly because there would be a lack of audience for my artist meaning a lack of funding. I am going to create my magazine advert using the programme Adobe Photoshop Elements 4.0.

Magazine Deconstruction Analysis

Magazine Deconstruction Analysis.

After deconstructing three different formats for magazine adverts which promote new albums, I discovered each format has a advantage and disadvantage.

    The layout which has a image of the artwork from the digipak or dualbox helps to advertise the new album or new single. When the audience come to purchase the new album/single, whether it be online or a physical version from a shop, they will be able to recognise the artwork from the advert. This recognition will help encourage them to purchase the music.

    The layout which has the image of the band/artist can mean a more effective image for the advertisement. The publisher is not restricted to a certain image from the artwork from the album. Instead a completely new image and house style can be created for the advertisement to help sell the new album/single. However, you do loose the idea of recognition when the audience come to purchase the new album/single.

    The layout with both elements, a image of the artwork from the digipak/dualbox and a image of the band/artist has the benefits of both the layouts above. This does however create a very 'busy' advert meaning this layout would not work for smaller adverts and ones with extravagant busy images. 

    Another style of advert I found while searching for adverts to deconstruct was a tour/new album or single advertisement. This advertised that a band were releasing some new music while at the same time advertising for their tour where the audience could see this new music played live. This has the advantage that two things are being advertised at once therefore cutting down advertising and marketing costs.  

    A generic convention of magazine advertisements for new albums/singles that I have found is that they all display a house style. This is normally linked to the house style of the digipak. The exception to this is the advertisement with the format which uses a picture of the band/artist. With this format, a house style was still obvious but it was not linked to the new album artwork the advert was advertising.

    Another convention is that the band/artist name is always placed at the top of the advertisement. This is to help make it immediately obvious to the audience who this advertisement is for. The font style and colour of the titles of the band/artist varied considerably because of the different house styles. Generally though, the bands name stood out clearly and was in a bold font.

    In two of the advertisements I deconstructed, I found reviews for the new music being advertised. Only positive views were placed on the advert to help to attract other audiences that may not have heard of the band or wouldn't generally listen to that genre of music. These reviews were done by recognisable magazines and newspapers to help make the reviews seem more legitimate.

    The last advert I deconstructed which advertised the band "The Loaded Dice" included URL links to both their website and Myspace page. The use of the Internet and social networking sites is changing how the media industry works. The use of links to sites such as Facebook and Twitter on advertisements will become more common in the future.

Magazine Deconstruction 3

Magazine Deconstruction 3

 

This layout is the one with the format where both the artwork of a new album and a image of the band/artist are both on the advertisement. This means this style of advert has both the benefits of advertising the band and new music in one. It can also lead to the advert being cluttered and unappealing to view. I found some adverts which used this format which were like this. The advert I have chosen to deconstruct is for a new debut single by the band "The Loaded Dice".

 

 

Magazine Deconstruction 2

Magazine Deconstruction 2

 

This layout of CD magazine advertisement I have deconstructed is the format where there are images of the band to promote the new album. I have decided to construct the advert for the band "Mumford & Sons" for their debut album "Sigh No More". The album was released on the 2nd of October 2009. The album was a great success for the band winning several awards and helping them gain a large fan base from several countries across the world including America.

 

 

 

The bands cover artwork for their album "Sigh No More" can be seen to the right. There is little reference to this cover art in the magazine advertisement. This meant the advert could be made in any way to help advertise the band and album the best. However, one disadvantage of this is that when audience members try to find a physical copy of the album, they may not instantly recognise the artwork meaning they don't instantly have a connection with the album.  

 

 

 

 

 

Magazine Deconstruction 1

Magazine Deconstruction 1

 

The first layout of magazine advertisement I have deconstructed is the format which uses artwork from the dualbox/digipak. I have decided to deconstruct a advertisement from the Band "Grizzly Bears" which advertises their new album "Shields" which was released on September the 18th 2012. I found this advertisement in the free music magazine " The Fly" which can either be picked up in music stores such as HMV or be viewed online.

Magazine Advertisement Introduction

 Magazine Advertisement.

The second ancillary task for my coursework is to create a magazine advertisement for the release of artists album.

To do this I am going to begin by deconstructing different types of existing magazine advertisements. Advertisements for new Cd's often come in three different formats:

1. A image of the dualbox/digipak with text advertising a new album.
2. A image of the artist/band with text advertising a new album.
3. A mix of both a image of the artist/band and a image of the dualbox/digipak with text advertising a new album.

All of these layouts come in a variety of sizes from A4 to a quarter of a A4 page. I am going to deconstruct one of each type of layout to both establish the generic conventions of CD magazine advertisements and pick which layout would most assist in the advertisement of my artists new debut album. I will then design my magazine advertisement and create it. 

Limited Edition Digipak

Limited Edition Digipak

When designing my digipak, I wanted to have a cover over it so the audience could almost open it like a present. I have decided to make my idea of this cover. The digipak that comes with the cover will be a limited edition for members of my target audience to buy and treasure. For mass production, just the digipak would be produced.



My digipak cover will have to be in keeping with my digipak to keep to the generic convention of digipaks having a house style. My idea for my digipak is to have my digipak wrapped up in a coffee stained cover sealed with a piece of real ribbon. I like this idea because of the connotations of the old looking cover and then opening it out to reveal something new. This also links with my music video. I used sepia colouring in my video to reflect the past. The coffee stained cover will be similar to the sepia colours used in my music video providing a link which some members of my target audience will be able to identify giving them a sense of self pleasure. 

I first measured out my digipak on a piece of A3 card and created the folds to make sure the piece of card was big enough. My folding and measurments can be seen below

 

After folding and discovering the size was perfect, I began coffee staining another piece of A3 card. Both sides had to be stained meaning this had to be done over two days. I stained oine side on the 21/11/2012 and the other on the 22/11/2012. I then re-measured out the space my digipak would take up so I could create the folds.