Not finished FMP Reseach

1. Research
ALICJA MORAWSKA

2. What this project is;
The concept is to create a brand for a rock music magazine focused on the North of England,
using social media to advertise the product as well as distribute it’s content, heavily relying on
photography. I’ve chosen this as it’s a subject that genuinely interests me and will allow me to
make a product that would benefit the target audience more than the main British music
magazines as it will focus on more niche community than the whole of the country. The
magazine will cover interviews, articles, gig reviews, tour dates and other relevant news from
artists and venues across the North. For the Instagram page I’m planning on making I want to
record an artists cover of a song, as it expands the content I’m making from print based to video
as well, whilst creating relevant content. Something I’m considering is taking the audio and
putting it onto a physical format that can be included as a free promotional item with the issue
of the magazine, as it’d allow me to take a similar part of last years project a step further.

3. Secondary Market
Research

4. Rock Sound

5. Rock Sound

6. Rock Sound – Social Media
Rock Sounds Instagram account is maybe one of the less professional examples I’m
looking at but where that comes from is that they’re not afraid to put relatable
and comedic content on their official page that they know their target audience
would enjoy, giving their followers another aspect of engagement that you might
not get with other magazines social media. This also works as there will be other
pages that upload memes based on the artists that the magazine features, but by
cornering that part of the social media market, a follower can get all the different
kinds of relevant content they might be seeking out on Instagram from one page,
rather than going somewhere else that’s competing for the views and likes on the
same style of content. As well as this content they do also include the kind of thing
that most would expect to find there, such as advertisements for this months
issue of the magazine, showing the cover and what the focus of the issue is as well
as teasing exclusive interviews. A consistent thing throughout the page is showing
off photography either from a live show or from the photoshoot an artist had
done for the issue. They will also cover any major news that has occurred within
the rock music industry that isn’t in their current issue but that they feel needs to
be addressed, such as a band returning to the scene, the death of an artist or any
important award show wins.

7. Rock Sound - Analytics
From the existing products that I'm looking at Rock Sound has the biggest Instagram following of
the three, which I believe is due to their target audiences age that makes them more likely to use
Instagram, as well as their choice to include brand relevant memes on their official page as it
something that a younger audience Is more likely to want to engage with.

8. Metal Hammer

9. Metal Hammer

10. Metal Hammer – Social Media
The metal hammer Instagram is much more concise in comparison to that of Rock
Sound, with a very well established upload style that makes it very clear to a follower
scrolling through their newsfeed what it is they’re looking at. The feed is mainly their
latest front cover, images taken from photoshoots, live performance videos taken by
their photographers at gigs and any important news about festivals or recent events
relevant to the bands and artists that they cover. Due to Metal Hammers audience
being typically much older and mature than that of Rock Sound, they’ve taken a much
more professional approach to what they post online, keeping an informative theme
throughout most of their posts and having a much darker colour scheme to give the
entire feed a certain aesthetic that is appropriate to the genre and that the audience
would respond to positively. In terms of what they have on their story highlights they
have some that are dedicated to bands that frequent their pages and are more likely to
be watched due to their high following, as well as ones that are there to promote
collaborations and deals with other companies to accommodate the business aspect.

11. Metal Hammer – Analytics
Out of the three magazines I'm looking at Metal Hammers Instagram following sits in the middle,
which when looking at each brands target audience age does make sense. With 191k followers
on their Instagram page to their 58k monthly readers is a pretty good ratio in terms of outreach
but still definitely falls towards the bottom end in relation to their competitors, especially with
an average of about 1,300 likes per post. I’m focusing on Instagram but the audiences average
age is really significant with Metal Hammers social media presence. It is a very well known
magazine in the rock community and it’s average reader age is reflected in where it’s followers
lie, as Instagram brings in 191k followers, Twitter with 549.8k and Facebook with 2 million
followers. With an average age of 34 it’s understandable how the majority of followers will be
coming from Facebook as it is typically used by an older audience for following brands. Another
aspect of their Instagram is the amount of relevant hashtags that they use on their posts, with
their newest issue posts having the most and posts that include a singular artist only containing
their hashtag, which then helps with outreach to users that are interested in similar things that
the magazine is covering.