2. Band Profile
Name: Palaeolenus
Age: (formed 1994)
Album: let your body in, let it tie you in comfort.
Previous releases: Angel's Egg (disambiguation), Constituency PS-75,
Surmounted by scorn.
Genre: Post-rock
Style: experimental rock, instrumental, experimental noise rock.
Contemporaries: Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Swans, Mogwai, Sigur
ros, Slint, HRSTA, Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra
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3. Objectives
What are the objectives for this project?
For this I want to create a large amount of publicity within the niche music community, getting fans excited for the re-birth of
Palaeolenus, a band that started in 1994 but stopped making music around 2004, they never officially broke up, but they stopped
making music, some members of the band went on to do their own projects, but fans are still hanging on to the bands old albums.
This albums will come as a surprise to the fans because there has been nothing released for a long time by them and fans are not
expecting anything, as they assume they have split up.
Who do you want to target?
Old fans, re-kindle their love for this band and generate new fans who are maybe interested in similar post-rock bands.
How many records do you want to sell?
20,000 – 50,000 records
What would make this a successful exercise?
By advertising on social networking sites, appear on radio interviews, have articles in magazines written about the band and on
music blogs like Pitchfork. Also advertising a world tour to hype up the album even more.
Keep your targets smart.
• Specific: Is there a clear aim
I think there is a clear objective, that the band want to be remembered and make a come back, and they are doing this by releasing a
new album and buildings lots of excitement for it.
• Measureable: How will you measure the effect?
Measuring the effect would be by counting how many ticket sales there are for the live shows and tours. Measuring the effect also by
comparing how many albums have been sold next to how many I expected and guessed would be sold. If the band sold less
than the expected minimum the marketing would have failed.
• Achievable: Is it something that you can do?
I feel like with all the past and previous music they have made, there is already a lot of hype behind the band, so all the advertising
needs to do is spark their excitement.
• Realistic: Is this something that would actually happen?
I feel like this is something that would happen because previously bands that are similar have done similar things, with reuniting after
7 years and making new music and touring.
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4. Audience
Who is the audience for this band?
I think that the audience range greatly from people in their 50s to people in their teens. Because of the internet I feel that
now the largest consumer of tickets, music and merchandise would mainly be from the younger side of the audience
because this is all sold on the internet. I feel more and more young people are discovering their music because of being able
to easily share it through different social media, like /mu/ and youtube.
What age are they?
18-30
What do they look like?
I think that the younger part of the audience would be divided by people who are bothered about what they look like, and
listen to the music to seem cool, and then other people who are not bothered about what they wear and what other people
think about them or their music taste. Typically have long hair, beards, girls with short hair, messy, purposely unkempt, dark
colour clothes, band t-shirts, over-sized clothing, baggy jeans & skinny jeans, DM boots, scruffy sneakers.
Who else do they like?
Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Swans, Mogwai, Sigur ros, Slint, HRSTA, Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial
Orchestra, My Bloody Valentine, Black Flag, Ride, Slow Dive and Sonic Youth.
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5. Media
What media will you use and why? Be specific about the platforms you will
use.
I think that the media I would use to promote this band would be very widespread, using lots of different platforms like
magazine, radio and internet blogs, but also by creating a social networking site page for the fans means that the band can
also be more interactive with the fans, so the band could have a twitter page to ask questions about tours. It is also a good
place to make official announcements as the word can spread fast without any need to invest money into advertising
What magazines might they get in to?
I think that they would appear in some more independent and less well known magazines, as they are not popular culture
and Q may be too mainstream. NME could be possible as the audience who like some bands who are featured in the
magazine may also like these type of bands.
What TV channels would they be on?
I think that they wouldn’t appear on TV as they are not mainstream enough for the majority audience to want to watch, so the
TV shows would not accept them on TV as there wouldn’t be enough viewers.
Which radio stations would play their music?
I think radio stations that have show specialised to more obscure music like Radio 6, Xfm and last.fm
Who would they give interviews to?
I think they would be interviewed by many different people, radio shows, by DJs who specialise in and enjoy this music. I
also think that independent music bloggers would interview this band, people who do their blog as a paid thing or just a
hobby they do in their spare time. These bloggers would be fans of the band and would be really enthusiastic, asking
questions that are more unusual, and it gives other fans more of a chance to be involved by sending their own questions to
the blogger and getting them to ask the collective fan questions as a part of the interview.
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6. Media
Which forms of social media would you use and how would you use social
media?
Because of the age group, I think that the best social media to market with would be to concentrate on twitter, facebook and
instagram. I would use facebook as a platform for all official announcements to be posted on here, because it is where the
older fans are more likely to be on this social networking site, but they don’t want to be annoyed with meaningless pieces of
personal information, where as the younger part of the target audience would be interested in this, so I would create a twitter
account for the band, for them to personally post things, with the odd official announcements. I think that younger fans really
appreciate twitter accounts which are run by the band, as it gives fans a chance to talk to the band through this medium and
they get to see the band’s opinions and thoughts throughout the days. It makes fans feel as if they are a lot closer to the
band as they know their personalities, and give them a chance to talk one to one with them about unimportant things without
any pressure. Instagram could also be a similar setting out to twitter, but using pictures, putting personal pictures of the band
members, pictures of their guitars and ones of them recording music, this is to excite fans and make them more enthusiastic.
Another site that the band could participate in is youtube, here the band could post music like singles and music videos, to
keep fans updated with all the material the band create, also getting popular youtubers to review to bands music.
I think that twitter is a great place to announce and hold a competition, because the news spreads so quickly, especially
when a hashtag is used, the hashtag allows people to connect through a few words, which is really convenient. Hashtags
can now be used through faceboook and instagram, so the hashtag will connect through all three social medias. These
hashtags will let fans find each other and discuss and be social about the band.
I am familiar with fans of these kind of bands not having this range of social media, as some are just on youtube, some just
on facebook, or just actively on twitter, and the fans being somewhat disappointed with this, so I want to change this and
make sure fans are not presented with a limited source of contact with the band member and other fans.
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7. Merchandise
What merchandise would you use to promote this band?
Merchandise to promote this band would not be excessive, but just enough so fans feel satisfied that there is enough. A
basic start would be to have different kinds of t-shirts, different colours of grey, black, white and blue. I think that there would
be different styles of t-shirt, like baggy and fitted. The graphics on the t-shirts would differ, some being album covers, some
being especially for the t-shirt and re-selling the latest tour shirts. The other pieces would be silk screen posters, specially
made, so this gives them personal value to the fan. I would also make box sets of the whole discography in vinyl, all albums,
single, picture disks and EPs with a poster. The box in itself would be designed to give it personal value to the fan.
Because of the age range and maturity of the fans, I think merchandise like keyrings and iphone cases are pointless, as the
fans are more mature that they would feel these kind of things are unnecessary.
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8. Manage the message
What is the message you want to communicate about this band?
The message the band want to come across is that they are not too old to create new and seminal albums that can define a
genre and break new genres. I want to get the message across to fans that this band are back and better than ever. I want
to keep some mystery whether they ever did break up because this keep discussion amongst fans.
What is the main selling point of the band and the album?
The main selling point is that the band are back after so many years of being silent and not giving any news on their
whereabouts or if any music was being produced over those past years. So the hype around this album and how amazing it
will be is my main selling point. Because of their past albums and how successful they were, there will already be a lot of
excitement around the mystery of the disappearance of the band. This mystery is the main selling point because people and
fans will be very curious about wanting to hear new music, so I will take advantage of that mystery.
The music is going to be a come back from the number of years the band has been away, so this album is highly anticipated.
The music is continuing with its trade-mark, post-rock sound, but now including more progressive drones, eastern influences
and shimmering orchestras. These put together with vocal samples is a game changing turn for the post-rock genre, pushing
the boundaries of noise and classical instruments, like violin melodies intertwined with continual noise, some samples and
some original. Intensity of the songs is a major factor with this album, 20 minute long songs which harbour their own songs
within each different part, the intensity brooding and growing with every second. This band are trying to blow every piece of
music they have previously made out of the water.
I think reviews are valuable and really give fans an insight into how good the album is going to be, not just using quotes from
critics, but publishing reviews on social media sites, encouraging fans to read the reviews before they have listened so I
could foreground positive feedback. Also these review gain respect for the musician if well written, because even if the
reviewer personally doesn’t like the music, they can still write about how they appreciate the talent and work that has gone
into this.
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9. Hyperbole
Every marketing and PR campaign uses hyperbole. Its role is to make
things seem better than they really are by using exaggeration and emotive
words or imagery.
I think that this is the kind of band that would rely on hype that has grown over the years and also on reviews and quotes
from them. These reviews being on websites that are established or random youtube vloggers. I think that using a lot of
hyperbole would cheapen the music and the band’s brand, the hyperbole would sound ingenuine and almost sarcastic and I
think fans would find this almost disrespectful to the music. Fans that are into this genre are usually very passionate about
music and feel very emotive towards it anyway, so I think hyperbole would make them think that they were being made fun
of. I would stick to using quotes from genuine music bloggers with good reputation that are popular with my target market
audience. But over-all I would let the music speak for itself.
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10. EventsWhat events would you put on as part of the promotion of this band and
album?
I think that this band would be very modest when it came to events but at the same time they would want to promote their
CD. It think that the event they would hold would be a tour, a whole country tour, this is to spread word of the new album and
to give the audience and fans a sneak preview of what it is going to sound like. For example they only tour America as an
event to promote the album, people at the gig then record the songs in low quality on their phones, they then post this to a
social network site, other fans from around the world are then aware of the music and become even more exited, so the
event is a success.
Would they play small secret gigs?
Because of the band not being mainstream I feel that this would be a possibility for them to do secret gigs, because they are
not well known in mainstream media. The problem with this is that if everyone at the gig is not a fan of this music, they will
ignore them or give them a bad review, which can be damaging to the bands reputation.
Would they appear for a signing in a flagship record store?
I think that they would appear for a signing in a record store, but not a flagship one, as these are most likely to not even
stock the bands CDs, so fans would not be likely to keep up to date with this kind of shop. I feel like they would appear in
independent record stores if any. Bands of a similar genre have not been known to do signings though.
Would they play on TV chat shows?
They would not appear on TV chat shows because of the band not being in the mainstream media, they probably wouldn’t
want to go on TV because the fans might see this as them cheapening the brand and also TV shows wouldn’t be willing to
put them on-air for such a small audience.
Would they go on a huge arena tour?
I think the length of their tours would be lone, but the only large arena type shows they could fill would be when the band are a part of a
festival, where the audience is large already. I think because of the type of music they make, it isn’t mainstream, so the have less fans
than other musicians that are a part of the mainstream scene. This band would not be able to fill large arenas, but still would be able to
fill up more modest venues.
What other events and happenings could you create to raise the public
profile of the band?
Other events that could happen for the band would be a AMA, which is a question time on social networking, where fans can
ask the band anything and they answer through this medium, this is similar to an interview, but being asked hundreds of fans
rather than a one-on-one experience with a journalist, where the fans haven’t really had any input. 10
11. Internal motivation
What is the motivation behind this project?
The motivation behind this project could be many different things for different people working on the
project, but overall the main motivation for everyone would be to make money, whether that is someone
who is being employed for them to get their pay-check, or for the manger to generate as much money as
possible through this project. Other motivations could be for the person to be proud of their outcome to the
project, adding work to a portfolio or enhancing your reputation through the quality of work you have made
on this project.
What is it an important project for you? Why is it an important project for
the band?
I think that is important to be successful in the project of reinstating the bands former glory and popularity.
The excitement around this anticipated album has to be high so that more people will know about it,
therefore there will be more sales. Excitement is created by all the different kind of marketing strategies,
knowing which is right and which will work for your target audience. This is important for the band so that
they will gain the popularity they once had, in order to be able to live off of their music. I also think that the
band would want their fans to not be taken advantage of, not being forced to listen to their music through
video ads, but through other mediums that are not so forceful like online posters and review
announcements, this kind of respect that a band and their fans have is one of the most important aspects
of the project.
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12. Motivation of media
Why would the media be interested in this project? Which parts of the
media or media products (be specific) would be interested in the project?
Because of the popularity of the band and the amount of attention it would get, the media would be interested because they
want to announce and be a part of the latest trends. This kind of news would only be suitable for certain kinds of music
media and magazines, for example like NME and pitchfork but not for more mainstream kinds of media. The media would
also be interested to work along side this project to include advertising or reviews to promote the band, this will encourage
fans of the band to read this magazine even if they have never read it before, generating more customers for the magazine.
Main parts of the media that would be interested would be the promotional part, this part of the media would want to
merchandise popular band albums and artwork into t-shirt and posters, put the band on the radio for interviews and plaster
them all over social media, to really manage the message and make the come-back official and obvious.
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13. Promotional Materials
Now you have the plans in place, choose some of the following items to
produce for your band:
• Album packaging
• T-shirt design
• Tour poster
• Web site mock up
• Social Media Mock up
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