How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

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

2. Synergy
• Synergy, meaning ‘cooperation’ and ‘working together’,
is the combined working together of two or more parts
of a system so that the combined effect is greater than
the sum of the efforts of the parts.
• I have tried to do this across both my main product and
my ancillary texts because when there are similar
features across both they become stronger and united
compared to when they stand alone, and also these
shared features become iconic and easily identified as
being associated with the product they are advertising.

3. Main Character
• The first and most important form of synergy that I have included across all of my products is
the main character, who stands out because of his unique make up compared to the rest of
society.
• The photo I used for my poster had the main character as the centre piece of the advert, and
he also featured in almost every single shot within the music video. This shows a direct link
between the video and the poster, as well as the digipak which featured him on every side in
different locations. This is important because it allows the audience to associate each piece
of media with each other and therefore clearly show the relationship between the album,
the poster and the music video.
• It could be argued that the make up and his overall look would become the face of Twenty
One Pilots and this album.

4. Locations
• There is a connection between each of the products in
terms of locations, as these have been kept the same
throughout the music video and repeated within the
magazine poster and the digipak.
• The main three locations within the music video were
inside and outside of the abandoned house, London and
the recording room for the performance.
• The magazine advert is centred around the recognisable
staircase within the abandoned house which features a
number of times within the music video. This is good
synergy because where it is an unusual setting but also
very eye catching, the audience will be able to create that
link between the music video and the advert and
instantly know that they are for the same product.
• The digipak uses a lot more of the locations, including the
train and outside in the streets of London. Not only does
this create more variety in images and iconography for
the digipak, it also directly refers to the music video as all
of these locations are used within the video. Again, this
allows the audience to connect the two products
together and see the relationship between them.

5. Fonts and Logos
• Another important part of synergy is having the font of the
album name and the logo of the band name consistent
throughout both ancillary texts. I thought this was be
effective because then they are easily recognisable as being
part of the same product.
• On both the digipak and the magazine advert, I included
the official logo of the band’s name, so that fans can
instantly identify with it, and as it is across both ancillaries
it uses synergy to make them stronger in promoting the
band and the album. Similarly, I used the same font on the
advert for the name and release date as on the digipak for
the name and the track list on the back. This also keeps
everything together and shows that they are all part of the
same media product.

6. Colour Scheme
• Keeping the same colour scheme throughout all of the products is important in order to keep a
theme and show that the products are all related, as having one in dark colours and another in
bright pastels will not show the connections between them.
• We decided whilst filming the music video that the main colours for the music video were black,
white and red. We tried to keep this consistent throughout the music video and editing, with the
black and white face paint and the black clothing, also some editing included red filters or
enhancing the reds within the shots. We did this as not only does it keep the shots very simple but
eye catching, red is a powerful colour and its connotations are something that we wanted included
within our message.
• I tried to keep these colours within my ancillaries as well to show the connection between all three
products. For my magazine advert, this worked really effectively as I focused on the red carpet on
the stairs and editing this to become sharper and clearer and really striking. This contrasted really
well against the black and white on the character in the centre, and as well as this also made him
stand out more as I darkened the rest of the shot and left the centre piece light.
• For the digipak, I decided to keep the black and white theme for the front cover and had the name
of the album in red text which made it not only stand out really well against the photo but also
keep with the red theme. I changed things up with the back cover and put a red filter over the
reflection photo of the front cover which again kept with the theme.
• Having this colour theme clearly shows the link between each product and allows the audience to
recognise the colours as a symbol of the album and the band so that they can relate each product
together.