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

1. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary tasks?
The main product that I have produced is a music video for the song Maps by
Maroon 5. The ancillary task that I have produced to go alongside the video is a
Magazine Advert and Digipak, and if they follow the brand guidelines, they will
hopefully be a successful combination with the music video.
Through following the brand guidelines, I hoped to create an identity for the brand.
One way in which I did so was by creating a house style. This consisted of using the
same font on both products, having a consistent colour scheme and having some
kind of link between the images used on the two products. In terms of the
typography used, I chose ‘Century Gothic’ as I felt that it was a simple and clear
font, and additionally, when looking at other Maroon 5 products, they also use quite
a rounded font for the merchandise and advertisements produced. In the Digipak
and on the Magazine Advert, images of the lyric cards are featured as they tie in
quite nicely with the music video, but also the song ‘Maps’ as the lyrics are printed
on pieces of an ordinance survey map. Furthermore, to fit the pop/rock genre of
the music video, I felt that it was important to have quite a simple colour scheme to
make it fit the mature target audience, but also to make it aesthetically pleasing.
Not only does the Digipak help sell the artist’s CD, it also allows the audience to
connect with themas well through information provided and the music itself. Fans of
Maroon 5 will only have heard singles released into the Charts or Eps, therefore, the
design and content of the Digipak is important as it will attract themto want to listen
to more music. Not only will listening to this music allow them connect with the artist,
they may want to go further and put images and text with the lyrics of the song. The
two products go well together as both feature the lyric cards that I created.
The purpose of the Magazine Advert is to promote the album to its target audience
and any other potential listeners, and in this case, promote the other ancillary task –
the Digipak – that I had to produce for my coursework. The design of the magazine
advert is quite minimalistic; however, I feel that this can be quite striking as the most
important information stands out on the page without any unnecessary
overcrowding of images and colour. It is consistent with the Digipak and follows the
brand guidelines that were set out previously, following the simple maroon, black
and white colour scheme seen on the other products. Additionally, the reviews
featured below the picture are from acclaimed music magazines so will hopefully
come across in favour of the artist and the promotion of their album. The choice of
magazines were important as it would be silly to have a review from a magazine
genre that does not relate to pop rock music genre as the right audience will not be
targeted.
Not only does the music video sell and promote a song, but it allows the audience
to connect with the artist on another level. If the audience does enjoy the song then
they have the ability to listen to other songs, they can gain access to these through
purchasing the Digipak. The overall purpose of the video and the reason for the
audience wanting to listen to the video would most likely be for entertainment and
escapism.
The music video is the main piece of coursework out of the three necessary tasks to
complete, therefore I had to ensure that I followed the specification given, and kept
it consistent with the other two subsidiary tasks. One way in doing this was carrying

2. out audience research. This task led to me looking up the targeted demographic for
the genre of music and other artists that they like to listen to, as well as how the
genre of music has evolved to fit the audience that it is being targeted at. As stated
earlier, one of the main purposes of the video is to entertain its audience. I believe
that to do this, the video has to seem exciting through varying the use of camera
shots, movements, angles, use of props and the portrayal of the actor or artist.
Another way in which this could be done is through making the viewer feel as
though they are a part of the video. It could be argued that one way in which I
have done this is through the use of point of view and over the shoulder shots when
looking at the photos as the audience can empathise with the actor and the
frustration that she seems to be feeling which is portrayed through the frantic close
up shots of photos being ripped up and thrown down on the scrapbook.
Overall, I believe that the combination of the three products works well as there is
consistency through the referencing of ‘Maps’ and searching something which is the
narrative for the video. In addition to this, I think that the brand guidelines have
successfully been followed and provide a sense of identity for the brand.