Digipak and magazine advert analysis

1. B Y P H O E B E N O E L
How does my Digipak and
magazine advert use, develop or
challenge forms and conventions
of real media products?

2. Here is my Magazine advert and Digipak:

3. My Magazine advert
Before creating my magazine advert I did lots of research into existing products in order to gain an understanding of the typical
conventions of this type of media text. I analysed two magazine adverts and found the typical conventions were:
The advert should include:
 Name of the artist/band (usually positioned at the top of middle of the page).
 Name of the album (also usually positioned at the top of middle of the page).
 A main image, that relates to the digipak or is of the artist.
 What ‘Hit singles’ the album includes.
 Record company logo.
 Star rating.
 Release date.
 Continuity between this and the digipak.
My magazine advert includes all of these features apart from the star rating as I felt that it didn’t need this, as all the
information on my advert is positioned at the bottom on the page in the text box, which was filled by the main information the
advert needed to include. For this reason I didn’t include it as I would have had to make the textbox bigger and then I would
lose some of the main image, I would have also had to make my font smaller of the other information that is already included
for example the release date. This I didn’t think was suitable as the release date is more important and therefore I kept the font
big in order for it to stand out. Also not every music magazine includes a star rating and therefore I felt it wasn’t needed.
I conformed to conventions of a magazine by including all the necessary information an advert needs and applying a similar
layout of existing products to my magazine, for example positioning the album name in the middle of the advert. In my
audience feedback, my target audience said that my poster included all the information they would want on a magazine advert
and that it looked authentic, this demonstrates how by conforming to conventions of existing products I was able to create a
product that looked realistic and included all the features it needed.

4. Analysis of my Magazine advert and how it
conforms to conventions
The main image: I chose this image to be the
main image for my magazine advert as I felt it
was a representation of my music video. This
image shows the main character of my video
holding a knife behind his back. This image
captures the essence of my music video as the
narrative is about this male who murders the
girl who comes to stay at his hotel. This
connection between the main image and my
music video creates continuity between my
products, which is conventional as I found
with research particularly into the band
Bastille’s magazine adverts as they use screen
grabs of their music video as the main image
for their advert. I also used this image as my
front cover of my digipak.
This is done as continuity allows the product to
be more recognisable, as if the same image is
used then it has more chance of being
recognised and therefore, someone who wants
to buy the album has more chance of noticing
it in a record store, and thus more chance of
consumption of the album. This demonstrates
the advert as being effective as the main
purpose is to get the target audience to
consume the album.
Continuity is also a conventional feature of
a magazine advert, demonstrating how I
used conventions of existing products in
order to create an authentic product.
I was also conventional through the positioning of my information, for example I placed the
album name and band name in the centre of the page. This is done as this is were the audience
will look first on the page and the name of the album and band is arguably the most important
information as this is how fans will identify the poster with the artist. This positioning of the
name of the album and band is used on many magazine adverts as it is also used to draw the
audience in to read the poster as fans see the artists name and then want to read what it says.
I also positioned the release date at the bottom of
the page as the audience will read the bottom of
the page last, and therefore ,this date will be one
of the last things they read. This is important as
the release date is one of the most important
features of the magazine as the advert is used to
promote the release of an album and therefore to
be effective the release date must be remembered,
so the target audience can buy it.
I included other conventional features of a
advert, to my own product for example, adding
‘The number 1 uk album’ and ‘Featuring the Hit
singles No angels & Get back’. Through research I
recognised that these type of pull lines are
encouraging for the audience when persuading
them to buy the album, for example by saying it
is the number one album, the audience can
recognise that trusted individuals who have
knowledge in the music world, have said that this
is a very good album and thus encouraging them
to buy it. Also by informing the audience that this
album includes ‘Hit singles’ they know that this
album will feature the popular songs that they
like and again encouraging them to buy it.

5. Analysis continued…
Colour scheme: For the colour scheme I
decided to go with dark colours in order
to reflect the conventions of my genre
as the ‘indie pop’ genre songs usually
are centred around darker and more
sad issues, for example heartbreak and
therefore, for indie pop songs their
promotion packages usually use darker
colours to reflect the songs of which
they represent. For this reason I used
mostly black backgrounds and white
writing, which due to the contrasting
colours allows the writing to stand out.
I also used the colour orange for certain
aspects of my magazine advert, such as
the 1 and the featured songs, ‘No angels
& Get back’. I felt it was important for
these to stand out, for the reasons I
previously mentioned, on their
encouragement to the audience to buy
the album. I chose the colour orange in
order to conform to my genre as both
males and females listen to indie pop
and therefore I needed a gender neutral
colour in order to appeal to both, so I
chose orange, as this also stood out
really well due to the colour scheme
being vey dark.
Before choosing my own font I researched into fonts
of existing products, in order to make sure I could
conform to my genre in terms of the font chosen. I
noticed that many fonts used by bands relate to their
genre of music. For example the font used by the
band kings of Leon could be described as different and
unique as it is not a basic and simple, thus reflecting
the indie pop genre of music.
I also included the record label logo, the bands website and the available at iTunes plug.
These are also all conventional aspects of a magazine advert as it allows the artist to reach
out to their audience through the medium of a magazine advert. For example the audience
can use the bands website to get updates meaning the artist has another means of reaching
their target audience. I also chose the iTunes logo as through my audience research I found
that most of my target audience buy their music through ITunes and therefore they will
recognise the logo easily and the familiarity will encourage them to look for the album or get
a preview of the album on iTunes, increasing chance of consumption of the album.
I took inspiration from this when
creating my font and after narrowing
them down to three, I chose this one
shown. I felt that this font reflected my
genre as it is very unique and not basic
although it is still clear to read, which is
important. This font looks quite scruffy
and not neat, this reflects my genre of
music as indie could be described as
‘unconventional’ in the way that the
music tries to push boundaries and be
an alternative to pop music. So for this
reason my chosen font conforms to
conventions of the genre as through its
scruffy but unique look, it reflects my
genre ‘indie pop’.

6. My Digipak
Before creating my digipak, like with my magazine advert I decided to look into the conventions of existing products, as again for this
product I wanted it to be conventional, in order for it to look again authentic and appeal to my target audience as much as possible.
I found that the conventions of a Digipak are:
Name of the album.
Name of the artist.
Front cover image.
Back cover image.
Inside panel images.
Track list.
Record label logo.
Copyright information.
To makes sure my digipak was conventional I included all of these features listed, to make sure my digipak included all the information it
needed for the audience.
I again felt it was necessary to conform to conventions within my digipak as I wanted it to appeal to my target audience as much as
possible, and existing products have experience in this and their products are made to attract the target audience. For this reason I felt my
digipak would be more effective within the promotional package if I followed conventions of successful existing products.
My main inspiration for my digipak was the media/promotional packages of the band ‘Bastille’, not only for the reason that they sang the
song of my music video, but also because they mainly do strictly narrative videos and therefore my products could relate to this. Bastille
uses screen grabs of their videos to use for their promotional media texts, and this was something I wanted to do in order to create
continuity between all of my products, which is again another conventional feature.

7. Analysis of my Digipak and how it conforms to
conventions
For the inside panels I thought very
careful about which pictures I was
going to use. For my digipak I wanted
to reflect my music video narrative
using the chosen images, so for this
reason I picked the image of Yem
looking out of the window and a shot of
just the window. Both these images
reflect an aspect of my narrative, for
example, the image of Yem looking out
the window is symbolic as it could be
suggested that as she has come to the
hotel she is now trapped (as she never
leaves because she gets murdered). The
other image of the window also reflects
a similar idea of particularly in relation
to the Psycho intertextuality as anyone
who visits bates motel gets murdered,
this is the same thing here, therefore as
this is a shot from inside of the window
it represents that there is no escape
once you come to the hotel,
foreshadowing what happens to Yem in
the narrative.
This is conventional as through
research into existing products I found
that bands like ‘Bastille’ use screen
shots of their music videos on their
promotional media texts such as their
adverts. So for this reason my music
video is conventional as it uses images
that relate to the artists media
products, making it relevant and
establishing continuity.
For the front cover image I used the same image as the main image on my magazine
advert. This creates continuity between all three products, which is a conventional
technique used in existing products. An example of this is shown below as you can see
the same main image is used for both the magazine advert and digipak main image.
For the font I again wanted to be conventional as it was
important that my digipak is clear and appeals to my target
audience. I used the same font for the band name which is
conventional as band names are always presented in the same
way, as this furthers visual identification of the name to the band.
I also used the same font for the album name as this is also used
in my existing products as the album font , which also becomes a
form of identification of the album and therefore can be easily
recognised within record stores.
With the colour scheme I wanted to
use basic colours. I also didn’t want
to edit my pictures too much as I
wanted it to be easily noticeable
that these images were taken from
the music video, to allow the flow of
continuity between all of my media
products. For the font I decided
black writing was best as the track
list is one of the main features of
the digipak and therefore must be
clear to read.

8. Analysis continued...
For the Back cover image I felt that
this image was the most effective as it
is again a screen grab from my music
video, but also because this is the last
shot my audience see of the video. This
creates the effect that as this shot
represented the end of my music
video, I felt this shot would therefore
be the most suitable to represent the
end/back of my digipak. This allows
this one image to represent the same
message through two of my media
products. I also used this image as not
only did it allow me to establish
continuity between my products but it
also provided a clear background to
apply the track list on top, as the other
images I chose where too dark and
therefore the writing wouldn’t stand
out as clearly.
I chose the images on the CD’s as I
wanted a symbolic image to represent the
essence of my video. For this reason I
chose the rose, as it was used a motif
within my video and was shown at both
the start and end of my music video. This
symbol due to the colour red, represents
danger and also as it is a flower, delicacy.
This connects to my narrative as my
female character is portrayed as delicate
and as she is murdered, this demonstrates
the danger within the connotation.
I also chose the image of the shower
switch to be the image of my second CD
for similar reasons. The main intertextual
reference within my music video is shown
with the shower scene, connecting to the
famous shower scene in the film ‘Psycho’.
This image represents this scene as it
shows the female character turning on the
shower, and for anyone who has seen the
video, this image therefore reminds them
of what happens next. This is
conventional as symbols are commonly
used as the image for the CD in existing
products. For example Katy Perry's
Digipak uses a symbolisation of sweets,
which connects to her music video in
which she was in a ‘candy land’,
representing the continuity between
products, just as I did with my Digipak
images.
My Digipak includes all the
conventional features that I
established through research, for
example the barcode and record
label logo on the back cover. I also
even created my own copyright
information, using my band and my
chosen record company. This shows
how I conformed to existing
products as I felt it was necessary to
make sure I included all of the
information to make it effective
towards my target audience.
After research into Digipaks I found that there was
information that needed to be included on the ‘spine’, for
example the album name, the artists name and the record
company logo. This is done so if the digipak is stored on a
side, the name of the band and album can still be seen and
recognised. I also included this information on the spine of
my digipak, as you can see. I also used the same front for
the name of album and artist, as this is also important for
identification. This demonstrates how I used my
understandings of conventions to
cover all bases in terms of identification
of my album in order to increase
consumption and appeal to my target
audience.