Research into already existing promotional packages

Lower Than AtlantisOn October 1st 2012 Lower Than Atlantis brought out their fourth album – Changing Tune. In order to promote their album their advertising not only created a poster, but have also done a lot of advertising through the internet using the bands website and social networking sites such as Facebook. In addition they have used the album cover image within their other advertisements in order to save money and time, this cross promotion will also use less resources therefore meaning that the promotional methods are more eco friendly.

One of the main forms of album promotion was through magazines and posters; they creates a tour poster style advert which was included in Kerrang! Magazine, by including their advert in a magazine that many rock listeners read they are focusing on their target audience. Additionally they used the tour advert as a poster; the poster specified that the tour was going to focus on songs from the album. It was put up near venues that the tour would be visiting; this targets people who would be able to access one the venues. After going to Reading Festival, where LTA performed, I discovered that the poster had been advertised in and around the festival site; through this they accessed fans of the band and also informed other rock music fans that the band was releasing a new album.

As well as creating a poster which advertised the album and a tour for the album, Lower Than Atlantis held other events which they used to promote the album; an example of this is shown in the image to the left which is a poster for an instore signing. Directly in the middle of the poster is the band’s name and within the text they show the album cover. In addition the text at the bottom of the page informs viewers that the album can be purchased at the signing. Through this they are advertising the signing and the album at the same time, which saves time and money.

In addition to creating a promotional package to advertise their new album, they also promoted the album on their website. When somebody first enters the site a box pops up informing them that the band have a new album, at the bottom of the box there are links to websites where the album is available. Once you enter the website the album cover us used across the top of each page as the header, this reminds people visiting the site that they should buy the album and tell other people about it. In addition the colours from the album cover are used throughout the bands page, this could possibly subconsciously remind people about the album. Their new music video is also promoted on their home page , which makes it easy and quick to find. If I had created an official music video for a real artist I would use their website to promote the album, tour and the music video, similarly to Lower Than Atlantis.

Before the album was released I saw this advert on Facebook, Twitter and Spotify. It shows an image of the album cover, the bands name and the album name, within the eye catching circle it informs viewers that the album is available for preorder. This will target teenagers through the social networks and music lovers through Spotify. If I was to promote a real artist I would use social networks and Spotify to aim the product at its target audience.

Fossil CollectiveFossil Collective have recently released a new EP called ‘On and On’. As they are a relativly new and unknown band they do not have much money to spend on advertising, therefore their main form of advertising is through their website. Although they cannot dedicate much money to promotion, they have created a poster showing their tour dates.

Their tour poster includes a picture of some people in a forest, they have highlighted the people by using a bright light in the main part of the picture at the bottom of the page, then the picture fades into black further up the page and the tour dates are written on this in contrasting and eye catching white. I feel that although their tour advert is appealing as it is based on nature and is clear and simple, I feel that they have missed out on some advertising by not relating this to their album by using the album cover colours, theme or images. The only mention of the album is that they have called it the “2013 album tour”, however as there is not relation to the album cover viewers will not be able to recognise the album and are not particularly encouraged to buy it. They have included a link to their website at the bottom of the poster; I am planning on including a website link on my 2 posters so that if the artist had a website people would be more likely to explore the site.

Their main form of promotion of their album is through the internet. They have pages on social networks such as Facebook and Twitter and using these they encourage people to visit their website. Their website and these social networks are the main way that they promote things such as albums, music videos, singles and merch. The first think that appears when somebody opens the website is a box which shows a link to a free download of their other EP, although this is not their new release it is a good marketing technique because if people enjoy the free download they are more likely to watch music videos and purchase new music and merch. On their website they have used the photo from their other EP as the background for their pages, . and then at the top of the home page is a large picture of the cover of ‘On and On’, on . this picture there is a short sentence explaining that the EP is available to buy on . iTunes. As this picture is bright and stands out from the background, this is the first . thing that people visiting the website will notice, therefore they are more likely to . remember to cover and recognise it if they are shopping or looking online.

You Me At SixThis is You Me At Six’s second album, Hold Me Down. At the time You Me At Six were not as famous as they are now, however they are likely to have had an element of their budget dedicated to marketing. In order to encourage lots of people to buy their music and also to sell out tour shows advertising is essential, therefore having somebody to focus on promotion was an affordable and effective idea because they can put in time to make posters and adverts for things such as the radio.

They created not only a tour poster with the album cover as the image, but they also made a poster specifically to promote their album. This poster shows the whole album including text, and underneath this they included a small amount of text to inform viewers as to when the album would be out and where it can be bought. They also included information about in what for the album can be purchased – download and cd. By keeping the information brief there is more chance that people will read it as it will be quick and easy to consume.

They used similar promotional methods for their latest album, Sinners Never Sleep, however in order to gain extra publicity they teamed up with well known theme park, Thorpe Park, in order to create a song for the parks new ride – The Swarm. The park created a TV advert for the ride and the bands song was included in this advert; in addition at the end of the advert the bands name was written so that people could find the song if they liked it. Also, during the queue for the ride itself the song is played, therefore it is likely to be remembered by park goers; in turn this means that people are more likely to buy the song or the album which it is on.