Evaluation 2How effective is the combination of

your main product and ancillary texts? Rhianna Griffin

Purpose of the Ancillary• An important part of this project was creating an image for the artist to represent her to her

audience in the hope she would appeal to her fan base. Using a digipak and magazine advert to help her promote her as well as the single ‘All about tonight’.

• By doing this successfully it will engage a large fan base that will potentially increase the popularity of the artist. In order for us to do this effectively we needed a particular style that the artist would maintain throughout the entirety of both promotional and production based products. We took influence from Pixie Lott herself as well as other current female pop artists; this gave us insight into branding in the music industry.

Magazine Advert

The Magazine Advert• When creating our first ancillary task, a magazine advert, we knew that this would be a crucial way

in promoting our music video to our target audience, it would allow the audience the first impression to the soon to be released video. Therefore, we needed to make sure the magazine advert included the key aspects that the music video did. We wanted it to look ‘modern’ ‘girly’ and ‘Glamorous’. So, to promote the single ‘All about tonight’ by Pixie Lott, we continued to use the ‘pop style’ which we had used throughout the music video, and also used this for the digipak too. This was a way to brand the artist and portray her as a care-free character, we did this so the audience could then associate particular themes, fonts, styles and colours with this artist.

• The layout of the magazine makes her look desirable and superior as she is in centre of the magazine advert. We decided to have her as the main focus of the advert as Pixie has a strong fan base who want to see what she looks like and her style/image especially. A sneak peak of her style and make up choice for the video would in turn ensure the audience are excited to see what she looks like in the video.

• From previous research, we knew majority of current female pop stars feature heavily in their magazine adverts, it would e wise for us to reflect other artists in the same genres work as we can see what works successfully for them with a similar target audience.

• We made the decision to have ratings from a newspaper on the advert, this is to re assure people the song is of quality and it is worthwhile to purchase. As the Daily Mail have rated it 5 star any one seeing the advert will believe this song is something worth listening to. People who would not normally listen to pop music may be inclined to do so if the reviews are praising. Furthermore this will also increase the amount of people wanting to view the video, if they wish to listen to the song with a visual representation as well.

Real life examples• One real life example is Jessie J’s magazine advert

for her debut album ‘Who you Are.’ • Her face is the main focus of the advert along with

her name at the centre, reflecting the importance of the artist as a selling point. This is similar to our magazine advert as we chose to have Pixie Lott as the biggest bit of text on the advert.

• However, we also chose to add some extra information on our advert, as it is for a single not an album it’s particularly important. We put an “Available on iTunes” watermark so anybody interested can easily find the song. By looking at examples of other magazine adverts we had this idea. As our advert is for a single we have the song title next under her name and a small screenshot of one of the album covers, this is to show what they are able to purchase if they wanted to buy a physical copy. Pixies fans would show further interest in this as she again is the focus of the album cover.

The Digipak • The digipak gives an indication as to what our music video is like. Each panel portrays aspects

of our artist; reflecting her personality. Voyeurism is a big aspect of our video and as such is presented in the digipak. For example the images inside the pak emphasise the importance of Pixie Lott’s image. The music video includes panning up Pixie’s outfit an example of voyeurism as the audience is made to be viewing her whole outfit in a certain way.

• It would likely be sold at the HMV as well as in supermarkets such as Sainsbury’s and Asda also online. In the music industry, pop is a very competitive genre, therefore the product would sell well within these stores. Having it sold online could be an issue as only an MP3 file may be available.

In this panel you can see a merge of pictures from the music video. Pixie appears to look glamorous with make up and her hair styled. This is a good way to promote the image Pixie is portraying in the video. This is typical of female pop artists using image to promote their music. Furthermore the shot on the right shows Lauren laughing therefore connoting she is having a good time. This entices an audience to watch the video and see what fun. she is having here.

In this Panel we can see a different make up look, her hair is slicked back with a more bold lip. This again portrays the variety of glamour and the nature of girls going out. This reflects other pop videos out there such as a video by Katy Perry for example will feature numerous different looks, this keeps the video interesting to the viewer. Also the glow of the lights in this shot reflects the theme of our video, going out at night and partying.

Here you can see one of the several costumes in our video and Pixie posing for the camera. The viewer is given a sneak peek of the video- one of the locations. This will build up anticipation for the video which is especially important to do for her fans as well who will be excited to see what the video is like.

In this panel the merging shot of a pair of heels and Lauren laughing reflects the themes of our video. This gives the audience an idea of what they should expect to see in the real thing.

Title page and back page

• The back page gives a chance to promote our music label ‘Cheetah productions’ There is a link to the website which may promote other cheetah artists. The parental advisory mark on the back and front cover is particularly important as a warning, the pop genre is not typically explicit due to the younger fan base but as long as parents trust Pixies innocent image this sign will just inform them if deciding to buy the song for their children.

Comparison• From analysing both ancillary tasks in terms of promotional skills and techniques, I believe

the digipak and magazine advert effectively promote our music video as a combination. • The digipak focuses on the content of the music video as in encapsulates images that are

used within the video. This gives a real distinctive idea to what the music video and the artist is like. Whereas the magazine advert mainly focuses on the promotional key aspects for the release of the music video and it includes crucial information about the single. Both methods work really well together, as the magazine advert doesn’t give too much of the music video away, this leave the audience interested to want to know more about the video (Especially young girls who are interested in Lott’s image and like to see pictures of her make up/ hair for inspiration)

• On the other hand the digipak offers more of an insight to the style of the video showing partying and glamour, it however doesn’t express the whole video which again leaves the audience wanting to see more. All three products, the music video, magazine advert and digipak include the same girly theme throughout which enable the audience to get a specific and individual take on the artists brand and image. This shows that throughout all three products, the distinct theme for the artist has been maintained throughout, thus creating a ‘young, care-free’ representation of the artist Pixie Lott.