Question 2: How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts.

In order to show a quickly show you an overview of all the media texts i have created this short Powtoon to show them all together and to introduce links between them. When we were creating the Encoded group we focused heavily on creating a continuous brand throughout all of our products. We wanted all of our products to be clearly distinguished and people needed to know they were Encoded just by looking at them. To achieve this we used lots of brand Establishment techniques such as, iconography, similar style photographs and a consitant style throughout.

Research.

This presentation shows some of the research we carried out when we first started the project. It is about cross media synergy. We know however this does not directly apply to our genre of music but it is a very good example of cross media synergy.

The look we aimed on all our products was a modern indie look. The look is also commonly used by rock band such a the Arctic monkeys. This is very true for the website. We took alot of our website inspiration from the Arctic Monkeys website.

The Arctic monkeys uses this black and white colour scheme to allow people to focus on the information provided, we liked this idea so used this inspiration for our won website.

We went through many different plans and themes before settling on this final designs. We thought that the black and white theme was the best that we found. We like the stylish look that it gave our band and also the emphasis it places on the images used.

Synergy.

We carried out research in the industry and how well established groups and artists make there marketing campaigns. We found:

• Good marketing campaigns use consistent imagery throughout all of there products.
• The font should be consistent throughout all products.
• The colour scheme should be very easily recognisable.

It is very important for an up and coming band to create a brand from the few products they have. The Music industry as very tough competition so in order to stand out from already well established artist you have to make sure that your marketing campaign becomes established and stands out from the crowd. We created this clear black/white/grey brand and. All of this really helps to boost sales by creating a clear brand identity and also makes a memorable product for the audience. The website also shows the video which is a very good way to advertise the video also it is below the line advertising.

This Gif outlines the black/white/grey theme throughout our products.

Another ancillary text we made were a our social media pages. The Encoded Group as a Twitter, Instagram, Photobucket, YouTube. All of these are places that fans and our audience. For these reason we feel that it is very important to us similar iconography throughput all of these things. We have used our iconic Black/White photo throughout all of these.

This is the Encoded Twitter page. The Profile picture is our favorite poster that we have and features alot in most of our Online Presence.

This is the Encoded Sound cloud. As the shown the Profile Picture also follows a clear Black and White theme. This Synergy can be seen across alot of our online presence.








All Social Media outlets are used for very different reasons. They have different strengths and weaknesses. The purpose of Social Media is for artists to reach the mass market and advertise things for the group.
Instagram: This platform allows you to easily share photos and information. We have uploaded many of our best photos from the various photo shoots we have been on. It also allows people to comment on the photos and give feedback on what they think.
Twitter: We mainly use this to advertise upcoming events and communicate with other artists and fans.
Sound cloud: Sound cloud is a very good platform that we use to upload new music to see how it is received. We use it to try out new sounds and songs.
We then implemented links into our other platform such as our website, Twitter and Instagram.

Style and Brand identity.

Whenever you see the band we carefully thought about costumes and always tried to dress to 'Indie conventions'. We had 'costumes' which were pre agreed upon by the band so we new what they would wear. Style is another good way to create meaningful synergy between the different products. Alot of people take alot of pride and interest in fashion so it is important to use this to your advantage. By focusing on costumes you create a very noticeable brand identity for the brand.

We wanted to look the same in the video, the website and on or social media.

Logo

We have not got a set logo but throughout all of our products we have used the Encoded name as a form of logo.

The performance was the key part of our music video. We new this so we spent time creating the large Encoded sign to subtly reinforce the Encoded brand.

 



This is a small section of the website. As shown the Encoded name/logo is prominent to reinforce the brand.

After we had done this in other products we wanted to continue the logo theme so we implemented it into our Digi pack. We made it bigger than the name of the song because as we are only just starting it is important to make a clear brand in the competitive music industry.

Colour scheme.

Throughout alot of the Encoded products there is a black and white or dark colour scheme. Because we have 2 male artists we wanted the look of the group to be masculine. To achieve this however we did not want to use the generic blue colour. This has been used before in alot of campaigns and when we were doing our research we all really like the black and white colour scheme. The music video is the most colourful media text that we have created. The song is upbeat so it would not work to have it in black and white. Because of this we used coloured light to illuminate a dark room so that we still have the black backdrop to fit with the Website and the Digi Pack.

Font

As shown above the font for the Website is very similar to the font we used on the sign. We modeled the sign on the font on the website as we focused heavily throughout the task on synergy. We feel that this bold white font signifies strength as it is very bold and in your face. This was what we wanted to achieve as we are a masculine group. As well as this we have a black and white theme throughout the entire campaign.


Iconography

When you are thinking about brand identity you need to choose one piece of iconography that will underlie all other things. For some artist this could be fashion sense or a unique hair cut. For example for the Arctic Monkey Alex Turners 50's hair style is prominent in alot of there marketing.
In Encoded we wanted to focus on something that we could easily use throughout all of the different stages of filming. For this reason we ended up deciding to use a Mis en Scene to create iconography. We focused on the Costumes. Sam Cook (The Guitarist) can be seen wearing the same red unbuttoned shirt in the Performance section of the video and in the outdoors sections. Also Sam Cook is rarely seen in the video without the Guitar. This guitar was a heavily featured prop throughout the entire video and is also a piece of iconography that underpins other key marketing features.