Planning Magazine Advert

Magazine adverts are vital in helping advertise a music album from an artist for numerous reasons. It's main purpose is to provide as a reminder for an upcoming album from the artist and to attract a large audience in order to make sales and also gain the artist more fans. They can attract the audience in a number of ways, by using colourful and bright images that stand out to the viewer, interesting surroundings or location or the artist themselves on the advert. It will need to feature the album name, release date, artist name, some form of imagery, a preview of what songs will feature on the album and also some reviews, which is used a marketing tool as more people will be tempted to buy an album if it has good views. Also they may be tempted if well known artists make guest appearances on the album, which is another method of promotion as if a big artist associates themselves with an album, then that may mean they believe in it and think it's good too, which is why they took part, which can further convince a potential customer that their money will be well spent if they buy the album, as it will be of good quality. Below is a screenshot of a mock magazine advert that I have created for my groups artist "John Spencer". It will be used to a advertise a debut album which is upcoming from my artist. It features all the key elements featured above, which is essential in order to make it successful. When creating this mock magazine advert, planning was very important, as I needed to set out how I would use effective marketing within my advert to make my advert appealing to an audience. Planning also helps us know what we have to include and what magazine adverts for albums typically contain, planning ensures we do not forget or miss out any possibly ideas or marketing tools we can add to our magazine adverts.

Looking at my mock advert, the typography used is a very important part, not only is it used to promote the album, but is also used to give vital information to the viewer. It is featured everywhere across the magazine advert. Some of the vital information it provides is the album name, artist name, release date, featured songs, record label name and also other featured artists. This is very helpful to the audience, as they want to know as much as they can about the album without listening to it, so they get a real insight into what it could be like without spending their money yet. The typography included mentions some specific songs that will be on the album. This is a method of marketing, as if someone viewing the advert sees not only a popular song, but a song they may like is included in this album, it may tempt them to purchase it knowing a good track features on it. Magazine adverts for albums will always technically feature a mention of the artists best song of the album being on there, as this is the main selling point and what will attract potential customers to the album the most, the actual sound and if it is a well known, good quality sound that they will be hearing, they will be tempted to buy the album, meaning the artist and label can make more sales and more money. There are reviews below the image from professionals which show the opinion they gave of the album. Their opinions are respected and they are considered good critics and are high up in the industry and have listened to more than enough albums to be a good judge of the quality of them, so good reviews from reputable sources will only further tempt people to buy the album if it is being raved about, especially by well known critics. On my mock magazine advert, we can see that four reviews have been included, which all rate the album five stars, the maximum amount of stars a critic can give. We can see also they are from well known sources, which are NME, AllMusic, Rolling Stone and The Daily Mail. As you can see looking at the advert, there is no much imagery himself, just an ordinary shot of the artist playing a guitar, which is common and conventional in the indie genre. This shows that the advert uses reviews to let it speak for it rather than colourful images or many images, examples of positive reviews from well known reputable sources will boost an albums popularity and also general opinion of it and if the reviews are powerful enough, then that could be possibly all the album needs to use to create sales.

Some conventions of the indie genre are present on my magazine advert. One being that the artist is seen holding a guitar. This is the main instrument of the indie genre, it is the main instrument fans associate with a song of this genre and also many indie artists are seen playing a guitar in their music video, Ed Sheeran being one for instance. Noticing that this is popular amongst indie artists, I decided to include it in my own advert as it would support genre conventions and possibly boost popularity. Another convention of the indie genre featured on my advert is of a natural rural background, as my artist is shown leant back on a tree playing his guitar. Indie music videos will very rarely ever tend to have an extravagant or luxurious location as the setting, many indie music videos have been filmed in rural atmosphere such as forests, campfires and lakes, Hoziers "take me to church" being an example. It also shows relatability, as showing that it is happening in an every day environment, viewers can relate as they likely visit or see these locations every day. 

The image I have used is of the artist playing his instrument backed up against a tree, wearing ordinary clothes. It shows the artist as just being no different than anyone else, with ordinary affordable clothing and just a passion for music, something he enjoys doing, which is shown on my advert as he is seen solo performing. This allows the audience to connect with my artist, as he comes across as a relatable character, another convention of the indie genre. He shows that not only he is a down to earth character with his costume and the ordinary location he is in, he has a passion for something he loves, which is relatable as many enjoy doing something they love and take care for it, and can respect my artist for pursuing his passion and also his dreams. The costume the artist wears will be all black, another thing my audience can relate to, as this connotes his sad emotions and people who are sad listening to his songs may find they have similar troubles and can connect with the artist, therefore gaining more fans and in turn, more sales.

As mentioned previously, the magazine adverts main marketting tool is making the reviews that it has received stand out. They feature powerful adjectives such as "stunning" and "breathtaking" which will stand out to the reader and make them believe that this is a good album if it has been talked about in such a good way, possibly tempting them to spend their money on it. Another instance of language I have also chosen to include in this advert is in the section where featured songs are mentioned. I refer to the songs as "smash" hits, to show their popularity and use this as a marketting tool, as if potential buyers see that well known songs are on the album, they will be tempted to buy it and also they may not have thought my artist created those songs, but they now know, which could further tempt them to purchase the album. I specifically used the word "smash" as it is an example of colloquial writing and an example of informal language. It relates with a young audience, and I purposely did this as our specific target audience is males and females 15-25, who have words like this more frequent in their vocabulary than older people. It may help push my music out further into a younger audience and therefore potentially increase sales, which benefits the label and the artist.

The layout of the advert is organised and easy to navigate. The album name, release date and artist name are all clearly labelled in large font at the top, as this is the most important information and what stands out to the reader. Then in their own space are the songs featured and on the other side, the record company w

ho produced the album. It is designed this way so that the contents aren't messy and sprawl across the page, instead, the viewer can read things easily and gather information they need in each section of the advert as I have made it easy to navigate. The reviews are placed specifically together to emphasise the amount of stars the album has been given and also stand out to the reader, to show them the good reviews of the album and that it is highly rated. It is positioned specifically in the middle as this is the main body of the advert, there is no point pushing something to the side which is being used for marketing purposes, something such as the record label name is not, which is why I positioned that on the side. Lastly, on the bottom I have stated what well known artists feature on the album. Although I have mentioned big names, it is more of a sneak peak, and I have not advertised this much, as I would rather people buy the album first to see which songs the famous artists feature on instead of give it away and tell them. This will create further sales, as potential customers will be eager to see what songs these big name artists feature on, which will tempt them to buy the album, hence increasing popularity of the album and sales overall, meaning profit for the artist and also the record label.

In conclusion, I am now more aware of the sort of pictures I need to take prior to creating my real magazine advert. I will need to wear the correct intended outfit and also go into the forest to take pictures, as looking at my mock magazine advert, this would be the best suited location to capture some shots. I also need to bring my guitar, as this is in my mock magazine advert and is also a vital convention and links in with artist potrayal. Prior to using photoshop, I now know I need to possibly edit out blocking sunlight and also other objects in the forest that may block the view of me, however, since not many colours or abstract effects are featured, it is unlikely that I will need to use photoshop too often when creating my real magazine advert.

As we can see, from my original plan the magazine advert has changed. The background is instead a brick wall rather than a tree and it has been laid out in a different way which makes it look more organised and not so crammed together. Conventions are followed using a guitar and a brick wall.