Evaluation Question 2- How effective is your promotional package?

We had to ask a member of staff to read the questions to us but we wrote the questions ourselves. We were interviewed on the Culture Show to talk and promote the Perfect Fall.


Keith Negus said that the 'pop music video is used as a promotional tool.' We promoted the Perfect Fall by using visual images in order to market the band despite them being an organic artist. The star image is used to brand the product. Branding is then used by the music industry to create a range of products for audience across a range of genres and musical styles. This is used to create what Anderson calls the Long Tail. A band like ours is aimed at a niche audience, and being an organic band, we regard them as having a long career in the music industry. A way we promoted the music video was having it on our main screen on our website. Everyone that clicked on the website will have seen a link to the music video as it is on the 'Enter Site' tab.

Also, we were able to promote our band's digipak on our website and making it available to buy for the consumer. This is encouraging people to spend more money on the merchandise as we have also promoted the band's image and name by selling wristbands, bennies and jumpers. This is a marketing strategy in order to promote the band through word of mouth as when friends who have similar tastes see it they may want to watch the music video themselves. This helps us market the band as we have a lower budget than other established bands in the market.

Furthermore, in our music video when uploading it onto YouTube, in the video description we used it as a chance to promote the band by including links to the store in the website and also having links to buying the digipak. On the front cover of the digipak I used images of the band members in order to match the historically typical way for marketing a music video.

CD digipak covers are crucial artwork which markets the image of the artist before the music is purchased. Music Artist Websites are a common part of any marketing strategy, particularly in the online age.

The visual 'star image' according to Dyer, communicates important messages to the audience. Audiences often associate the look of an artist to a style of music or its genre. We promoted our band and represented them as being rebellious, teenage angst who have formed a subculture by diverting against the norms of mainstream society. We portrayed this by including close ups of the lead singer, Bennie, shout into the microphone and used close ups of Rodrigo screaming looking direct to camera; which helped engage the band with the audience.

Websites contain information which publicises and promotes the artists image and a range of information to an audience. Often, this is organised into what Boyd has termed co-option.The website includes a number of images of the band which we thought was essential for an up and coming band so the audience could identify the image of the band to their name. We also used a number of photos of the band in order to reiterate that they are in the Post Hardcore genre who are seen as Emo's who rebel against social norms. Therefore the pictures of the band were of them showing their anger whilst being aggressive which is also shown on the music video.

Our website was typical in the sense that we prioritised promoting our band and providing the latest news from the band. They fall into 3 main categories:

1. promotion of single or album released
2. promotion of a tour or live appearance
3. merchandising

My Digipak was carefully constructed so we could focus on communicating the message of rebelliousness and angry to the Emo/Goth genre. The brand image is one of anti authoritarian attitude selling them as a symbol of rebellion.

The brick is emblematic of fighting against the system. The wall in Pink Floyd album is a metaphor for going against the system. I therefore used the wall as my background on my website as it is symbolic of urban decay. The VALS in our audience are that of being a subculture diverting against mainstream norms who were under the category of rebellion. We also marketed the band on magazines that appeal to our audience getting articles in magazines such as Kerrang and Rock Sound.

We would be selling our music on ITunes, make it available on Spotify and by promoting our band on Kerrang we decided that we would give readers a code that they could enter in order to make it available for Kerrang Readers for free. This could help us build our fanbase and get our name heard in the post hardcore community.