Magazine Advertisement

Research: Music Magazines

Below are some magazines that could possibly feature Alt-J in them, they are suited more to an alternative audience and include more independent bands. On the right is a collage of photos of music magazines in WHsmiths, this allows me to know which magazines are more popular due to their placement.

In order to narrow down a selection of magazines which I could advertise my artist in I researched into some Magazine media packs;

Q Magazine











Facts and Figures

Rolling Sone Magazine

Facts and Figures

Mojo Magazine

Facts and Figures

Art Rocker Magazine

Interview Magazine

The Fly Magazine

Shindig! Magazine

                                               

Kerrang! Magazine

Facts and Figures

Looking through all of these magazines and knowing who reads what I feel that Q would be the best magazine to chose as It is very popular and they showcase a lot of indie and british bands, and Alt-J fits in with this demographic. In order to be sure of this I went back and did some more research and took some screenshots of their media kit.

 Here are the details of Q's business and how much they charge, these prices seem rather high but given the stats of the magazine they would be worth it for the amount of promotion that the band would achieve.

These are some of the main reasons I chose Q to go with because they have some very impressive stats and they have been around for a long time, so from this I know that they are a trusted magazine with a large , long running fan base

 Here is the persuasive page for me, "Music sounds better with Q" is a tagline which automatically interested me, it says how there review section is the ultimate critical overview of music, so you know you would be getting the real deal, the photography used in this is eye catching also so you know that if your picture was used, it would look impressive.

 Here we have the brand extensions, showing us what else the company have to offer, the used of the Q iPad means that people can access the magazine on the go along with the Q radio, I also noticed how Blur and Noel Gallagher are being used on this page and so I know that the britpop/Indie sub genre of people will be reading this magazine and this is the same demographic that Alt-J aims at

 Social Media, showing me how popular the magazine is online as well, The fan base for alt-J are usually between ages 14-21+ and this is also the age in which people explore social networks so i know that this would increase the likelihood of them getting noticed too, The stats are impressive and i certainly think that Q would get the band noticed and would promote my advertisement well and effectively.

Q focuses a lot on British music and I feel that this would be good as Alt-J are a british band who aim at getting noticed quickly, and with the reputation that Q magazine has for working with bands like Blur, I think many people will read it and start listening to them, I know that the bands that Q shows have very large fan bases so it would be a quick way to get them noticed

Research: Analysing Music Magazine advertisements

 In todays lesson we had to analyse 9 different magazine advertisements and list the typical covet ions that would be found and write them down, this will help us remember what to include when we begin to design our own advertisements

1. Awna Teixarra - "Where darkness goes" the artist was made the key element in this advertisement, the name was larger than the other subtitles and it stood out. Tour dates were included which would help promote her well, websites for her and her record label were included.

2. My Darling Clementine - "How do you plead?" The title of the band is in bold writing at the top to show the significance and is in a contrasting colour to the rest of the advert, which also makes it stand out more, the red used for the tour dates and the reviews makes them stand out so they can be noticed, The album cover is centred to show importance and it takes up most of the space so we can see that it is the main element of the advert. The track listing, record label, tour dates, release date and website were included on this ad so it had all of the typical conventions you would expect for a magazine advertisement

3. Lau - "Race the loser" This was a very simple advert, the band uses a red dot on moms of their artwork and so they continued this through to advertise them, the title of the band is in bold writing and placed in the centre to show importance and the album name is situated underneath this as the second largest statement. The release date, ways to access it, the record label and the website are all included on this and they are all airily large and bold, this makes a good advert because all the writing is clear to read and it contains everything you would need to access the artist

4. Bellowhead - "Broadside" I feel this advert focuses mainly on the artist and has included all of the members, the title is at the top and framed which is used as their logo. The colours used are often associated with the artist and are used for their website and other adverts for them. Tour dates, Download information, release dates and the record label are all presented on this advertisement

5. Ron Sayer Jr. - "Better Side"This advert used the album cover (which is a picture of the artist) as the key element, which is good for proofing the artist, the advert itself is very bland, the artists name isn't that bold and only stand out because it is situated in the top right and is a colour opposite to the rest of the advert. The release date, website reviews and details on how to buy the album are all on he bottom of the advert and are all reasonably the same size, so nothing really stands out, the website is however, in the same colour as the artists name which shows its significance

6. James Clay - "Breaking the spell" This uses both the album cover and another picture of the artist with a guitar which gives a clue as to the genre of music he performs, the artists name is bold at the front and stands out against the background, the font is neat and clear but fairly small so we can guess the artist is not 'loud'. The website, reviews and ways to access it are all included in equal size and font

7. Terry Emm - "Petals fallen off the sun" This advert appears abstract and the background matches with the title (Petals/Flower) the colours all match and the artists name is smaller than the title, which takes centre stage in a bold yellow. The font is clean throughout, Reviews, the record label, the date released and the website are all included underneath the title

8. Larkin Poe. This advert had very little information on it, not even the name of the album was used, I would guess that the image used was the cover of the album and I can see that its the artists being used on the front which is a good way to promote them, a tour was announced ad the release date was on the advert, i feel that his was not a very effective advert because it didn't give enough information and so it wouldn't promote the band.

9. Blair Dunlop - "Blight & Blossom"This advert used a very eye-catching image of the artist which helped to express the genre of music that they could be advertising, the artists name is situated on the top left so it is the first thing you red, the album name is above it and this is in anther small script writing which makes it fairly difficult to read, The release date is on it along with the website for the artist an the record label, a QR code is included on the top right which tells us that the audience would be quite young as it is new technology

From analysing these magazine advertisements I have found out what works well and I know what the key convention are, I have learnt that an advert is better when their is enough information to promote the artist and target its audience, Having an image of the artist usually looks better and more professional however I will be unable to do this, of course. I want my advert to contain enough information but I don't want it to be too busy as i feel that having too much writing on something can deter someone away, I think that I will use an interesting abstract image for my advert, this is because the band appears quite abstract and experimental and so do their audience, I feel that the audience for Alt-J would be fairly young, ranging from 14 - Late twenties and so I could add a QR code and website addresses to help promote them, Adding tour dates would also be useful as their target audience is the age which people tend to go to concerts etc.



 This is an advert for Alt-J' and their tour, there is information about the tour, including dates and venues however i feel that their is too little information about the band, perhaps adding a website would be useful or a social networking account address
Below and to the left is an advert for an Alt-J DJ set, I feel that this is an effective advert because the image used is fairly abstract (and just so happens to fit with my sea theme) the text is visible and information is given, again i feel that more information could be given (Websites)
Below and to the right is a simplistic advert, the image is of the band, in a very abstract way, again linking to the style of their music, there is a tagline which explains who they are and where they started (Students) and there are symbols to promote their Facebook and twitter pages, I feel that this may have more information on it but i still feel that the image to the left is more appropriate for the band and is also easier to achieve

This is a picture of NME magazine with Alt-J on the cover, It too is fairly abstract and fits in with the style of the band, there appeaser to e some short quotes/reviews about the bad also. I feel that NME would be the best magazine to chose to advertise Alt-J because their target audience are the ages which would usually read NME and they also advertise and promote bands of a similar style.

I began to create my music magazine advertisement by using the same image i used for my digipak design, I used this image as it helped to advertise what the album looks like, it also matches the albums name 'An Awesome Wave'. I added reviews that I found from magazines that would advertise it, due to the size of it i feel that it would need to be either an A4 size or A5, it would be difficult to read on a small scale. I have maimed the triangle significant as it is the bands logo and is often used to represent them more than their name so I have tried to make a clear association between the two, I have included a logo for twitter and Facebook underneath the record labels website (As they do not have their own website) this will help to promote their fan base and also promotes other bands that would be on the same label as them, I added the release date of the album underneath the title, i think my advertisement clearly shows what the aim is and i feel that it promotes the band well. I made sure to use an emboss effect on the text to make it look 3D and stand out so that you were able to read it easier, I used this effect with all of the font, including the font on my digipak. I kept the advert monotone becauseI feel that it gives it more of an artistic feel and the band themselves appear fairly 'Arty' also, most adverts use a lot of colour to attract the viewer and with this advert next to lots of colour it will stand out more, The large triangle also helps it looks more intriguing.

I decided to change my digipak after receiving some audience feedback and so I am changing my advert to match the digipak

Audience Feedback

To achieve this advertisement I kept the text from the one I previously made and just changed the background to the image to the one that I am using as the front cover of my digipak so that they match, This will also link to my video as I will include things like a cloud time lapse

















After recreating my digipak again I felt it was necessary to recreate my advert so everything matched and so I used an image that I used on the digipak which is also in the music video, which looks similar to Alt-J's album cover for an awesome wave, I adjusted the colour and contrast so that it looks like it matched the digipak and the music video, below is my definite final advert.