Magazine Advert

We created two magazine adverts which were similar but had a view differences.

 

By Rebecca Gatfield and Amy Thrush

Originally we created an advert which reflected to Noah and the Whale advert that I analysed which had tour dates on it. We found that on this it was very busy and that it may take away from the memorability of the advert.

For the second advert we looked at other adverts by indie-rock bands, one that we found reflected the image we were looking for was for the band Kasabian.

The simplicity of it is similar to the image that we wanted to portray. We therefore used this as a model for our second advert, which holds many of the same aspects such as:

•  The black and white image and font, which we had used originally but know from this image that we have tailored it to the right audience.
• The memorable image which has been used on both the album and advert, which would be instantly reconisable to the fans of the band. 
• The use of 'Debut Album', which we didn't have on the original poster. We have therefore gone from selling the band's concert onto selling the album and digipak. 

We however kept some of the original aspects, such as the ratings from well-know newspapers and magazines.

We got audience feedback from people aged between 15 and 19 and the majority preferred the second image as they found that the first advert was too messy and wouldn't catch their eyes. However, the second poster is more simple and more eye-catching from the moment they saw it.

Evaluation

From our research we found that most indie artists don’t use bright colours in their magazine adverts, and many indie-rock bands tend to use black and white to advertise themselves.  Much like our digipak we wanted to keep this theme as it would link back to the cover.

We wanted to use the same images on the poster that have been used on the digipak so the connection between the two can be made. Many posters that we looked as used the same image on the cover of their album on their magazine advert – so we therefore used the chalk drawn image of footsteps to connect to it. We wanted the footsteps image to give the band brand awareness especially since the band strays away from the conventions of ‘Star Image’ as far as using their own image are concerned - however this image could be used to define them. We also used the same fonts on the poster as we found that this was a huge aspect of the band’s identity and it needed to be an important aspect on the advert as well. Both reoccurring themes allow the band’s niche audience to be drawn into the advert in a way other people may not be. These images could go on further to be used for merchandise and band-posters. 

At the bottom of the advert we used one of the images from the digipak of the band facing away. As the image is in black and white this allowed us to blend the image into the image of the footsteps which makes it look more professional. We wanted to use this image as almost an invitation from the band to listen to their music and buy the debut album without them being the main aspect on the advert. 

We chose to have feedback and ratings from NME due to the fact that they publicise and give opinions on the top indie bands, therefore they would be perfect for our genre of music. We also chose Q magazine purely because they are one of the UK's top music magazines giving news about new and up and coming bands and also giving their opinions. Finally we chose to get feedback from The Daily Mail, to get a different opinion from a local newspaper, to get an opinion from elsewhere outside of the music business.

We chose to have ratings from big names as it is a way of publicising the band, instead of using the record label to do so. We wanted to make the record label as insignificant as possible so we left it off the advert completely. We chose NME to give a rating as it is known for giving its opinions, which was perfect for our genre of music. Originally we thought about using Kerrang! magazine to publicise the band – but we found that the genre may be a bit of a stretch and changed it to Q as this fits our genre more appropriately. We also chose the Daily Mail who are known to supply opinions on the music business and give a different opinion from the top-rated critics. 

By Rebecca Gatfield