The combination of the main product (music video) and ancillary texts (digipak and poster) effectively promote the new album through consistent tone and themes. The music video, digipak, and poster all emphasize themes of romance and depression that were shown to appeal to the target audience of teenagers and young adults. Specifically, the music video depicts a romantic relationship from beginning to end with struggles and flaws. The dark-toned digipak and faded poster visuals further communicate feelings of loss and depression. Across all products, extensive exposure of the band helps build their brand recognition to audiences.

1. HOW EFFECTIVE IS THE COMBINATION OF
YOUR MAIN PRODUCT AND ANCILLARY TEXTS?
Evaluation Question 2
By Victor Chi-Chung Chan

2. The music video is a part of the promotion of the new album.
Before the album is officially released, there are different types of
advertising to spread the information of the media products out
to the customers. Poster and the music video are two different
ways of promotion which attracts the audience to buy the
product. In my media products of main product (music video)
and ancillary texts (digipak and poster), they associate
together to advertise effectively.

3. TONEThere is a main tone which is expressed by both main product
and ancillary texts. The tone has to be coherent throughout
the whole promotional package because they all have the same
purpose, to catch the attention of the audience on the products.
In our media product, we strongly emphasise romance with a
depressing tone to our target audience.

4. According to our audience research in our planning phase, we
discovered what kinds of theme and subject matters our target
audience love the most. Our target audiences are mainly
teenagers and young adults, 17-19. They share similar
characteristics and ideologies. There is a main theme they are
interested in, love/relationship with a depressing tone. In our
media products, we strongly inserted this element and
transferred it to the audience.

5. In our music video, the background is set by a
love story which the main character suffers from
his loss of his loved one. We aimed to use this
narrative to touch our target audience’s
emotions. It is all about relationship, from how
it starts to how it ends. The narrative depicts the
struggle of the main male, it reflects the
obsessions on romance of young adults. But
only being romantic is not enough, we had to
spice it up with some depression because it is
what our target audience love. Therefore we can
see the most successful rock bands do not present
themselves as strong lovers. They are flawed and
confused of love instead. This part of the
marketing strategy is exactly the key which tightly
connects to our ancillary texts.
MUSIC VIDEO:

6. In the digipak, the album cover represents the
theme of the album, then the colour expresses
the tone. Because the visual impression is
important and it directly addresses the audience
the idea of the album. Therefore, the colour is
carefully used for the album. Since we had
observed the characteristic of feeling lost and
depressed is popular among the young adult
group, we emphasised it on the digipak’s visuals
- colour tone. The photographs we used for
digipak are covered by a dark layer. The whole
album does not seem to be bright or energetic, as
if the world is going to end or enter a dark age.
DIGIPAK & POSTER:

7. All the pages in the digipak are covered by a dark layer

8. Digipak & Poster:
It is even shown in the album title, we named the album as
‘The Lost’ is quite obvious because we want it to associate with
the whole image of the products. The details of the poster and
the album cover on the digipak are barely seen. For example the
photographs we chose, we can see it is fading out. So does the
album title, a part of the title is brushed out.

9. BAND IMAGEThe image of the band is very important because they are the
artists who create the products. We wanted to label the whole
band as a brand so they can be recognised by the audience. So
conventionally we increase the expose of the band as possible as
we can, in both main product and ancillary texts.

10. Digipak & Poster:In the music video, we often showed the footage of the band
performing the song. We used many close-ups for them in order
to let the audience recognise them. Especially for the vocalist,
since he is the leader of the band, we aimed to provide him the
longest screen time.

11. Digipak & Poster:
In the ancillary texts, it cooperates with the music video to
achieve this. We put their individual images of the members
inside the digipak. As if the product is marked as created by The
Killers. The customers can see the band members when they
open the digipak.

12. The purpose of making a music video is not only a
visualised version for the song or creating expose
time for the band. If we look at all the products we
made as a whole, they are all created to help
selling the album. Like other music albums,
before an album is released, there are also some
music videos of the songs from the album is
uploaded on Youtube or other social network sites.
Because a music video provides a strong impression
of the work to the audience/customers. We also
treated the music video the same, we aimed to
promote the album by the music video.
MUSIC VIDEO AS A PART OF PROMOTION

13. Digipak & Poster:
Therefore, the song is mentioned on the poster. The music video
as a part of promotional package, it is released before the album.
The music video is an introduction of the album, we expect that if
audience like the song/music video, they should buy this album.
This is the reason for mentioning the song, so it can connect the
album and the song.