Task 2: How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

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

Richard’s Dyer theory of ‘star image’ can be applied to our product as we knew elements of our artist would be sold using her image. In order to create a recognisable ‘star’ we had to make a successful campaign using various streams of media. For example we created a video, digipak cover and website in order to get our artist noticed and popular within her target audience. The star image we created for EFFY was that she is a young, urban, attractive woman who appeals to mostly females aged between 17-25 which we thought would sell to that audience as many young women look up to other women in similar situations who have a ‘star quality’ about them.  

Within our video, we used various forms and conventions, traditionally used in many music videos in order to create a successful and interesting product. Using the VALS system we decided that we would target ‘experiencers’ as we felt they would buy into the image of rebellion and sexualisation which is  presented within our video. Throughout there are elements of female dominance along with attractive dancers and an appealing male lead. This helps to sell our video to our target audience and would hopefully commit to Effy and remain loyal fans of hers. As the song is very upbeat we would aim to promote our video heading towards the summer months as this would be the best time to advertise our artist due to the song having elements of pop and dance. Effy is very much a  festival type of singer thus would perform at festivals and this is linked with the videos points of bright colour and neon elements. Linking to start image, we had a running theme of neon across all areas and highlighted the importance of our star. This was demonstrated various ways within our video by using many closeups and highlighting the backup dancers and extras who were keen followers of the queen which was Effy.

In order to make EFFY noticeable and unique, we purposely incorporated neon colours throughout the website and digipak. The neon colours were inspired through one of our scenes of the music video, which we felt was one of the most successful concepts. From audience feedback, we found that the neon/UV scenes stood out the  most and was a main interest of our video. This made us go down the direction of using bright greens, pinks and purples throughout our campaign as they were popular and stand out. The website design is very simplistic and hip as we used black as a base colour and then used neon colours to brighten it up. We feel this is effective as it highlights characteristics of our artist with her bright personality and  music video. Like the album cover, the font on our website is thin and spaced out, and all in capitals, this was influenced by similar artists that use this as a technique to become more recognisable like Rihanna and Charlie XCX which we think works as it gives more substance to our artist. In order to make our artist more desirable and liked, we purposely created social media websites in which fans can get involved and keep up to date with her. This links with Dyer’s ‘the star must be simultaneously present and absent for the consumer.’ To keep the target audience engaged with her, we feel that her website is a great tool for them to become more active and is easy to follow meaning she is more accessible making it easier for her to become successful. This is shown in the page ‘Photos’ as its like a personalised photo blog which links to her social media which helps keep fans interested and increase her star image.

To a large extent, the digipak was very much about Effy alone as we felt this would be a more successful technique in selling her image. Due to her beauty and youthfulness, we liked the idea of selling her, rather than having a theme, contrasting to most artists. As Effy is a new artist, we felt the most importance aspect should be directed at her and that her looks would be the key selling point. This is shown clearly on our album as we have used various images of her to show her versatility and attractiveness. We also wanted to follow the structure of the neon colours, similar to the website and music video. We feel this gives her a brand image, which is essential in any marketing tool as it gives her a unique selling point. However, many artists contract the theory that looks is a key part to selling a product, for example artists such as DeadMouse and The Gorillaz never show their faces, highlighting their music importance rather than themselves. This is a path we choose not to follow as we felt, with our artist, looks were essential to target our audience. The album is available for download on iTunes and Spotify whilst is can also be accessed online on websites such as Youtube. This gives a greater scope for it to reach as many people as possible.