The Power Plant is a 19-year-old shoegaze/post-rock band promoting their new album "Possibly Adopt Them". The objectives are to sell 10,000 copies through a marketing campaign targeting young adults. Events will include album signings and charity performances. Motivation comes from believing the band's popularity could reach a larger, untapped market. Media interest stems from the band pursuing more success than usual.

1. Marketing and PR Presentation

2. Band Profile
Name: The Power Plant
Age: 19
Album: Possibly Adopt Them
Previous releases: When The Dam Fell (1997); Judgement of Others (2004);
This World Is Collapsing (2007); Kokoro [EP] (2010) Storm Rover (2012)
Genre: Shoegaze; Post-Rock
Style: Slow and melodic with an emphasis on atmosphere. Most of their songs
lack lyrics. Songs that contain lyrics have themes of loneliness, loss and personal
grief. The Power Plant consider themselves underground though they are well
known and popular. They do not perform live often but often appear at concerts to
promote new albums.
Contemporaries: Slowdive; Explosions In The Sky; Les Discrets
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3. Objectives
What I want to achieve during this project is promote the band’s new album to the
general public and achieve around 10,000 retail and digital sales of their record. I
believe that this number is suitable because usual sales of the band’s albums
reach around 8,000 at peak in the first few weeks, and I believe that with a strong
marketing campaign that number can be pushed up by 2,000. There are a lot of
people that still listen to and enjoy The Power Plant and with a strong push into
big, well covered concerts the band can be introduced to a lot of new people who
can form the basis of a new core audience, as well as appealing to the aging die-
hard fans with legacy material such as covers of their older songs. Therefore, it is
not unrealistic to expect 10,000 sales if the band already reaches 8,000 with each
new release. I am aiming to primarily target young adults with this band who are
often drawn to alternative, emotional bands similar to The Power Plant. In addition
to this, the older fans (In their mid to late twenties) will be targeted. In terms of
timeframes we will be looking to achieve at least 6,000 record sales in the first four
weeks of release, supported by heavy marketing on social media and in music
communities and a tour to promote the release. By the end of February we hope to
have achieved our goal of 10,000 total album sales.
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4. Audience
Our core audience for The Power Plant in the 2010s is primarily young
adults, with an age range of 15-20. Our audience marketing is focused on
a market of young adults who are quieter than the rest and are not really
fans of the more popular music aimed at their demographic, such as hip-
hop, R&B and pop music. Our audience consider themselves more laid
back and chilled out and enjoy quieter and artistic hobbies such as
drawing, writing and composing music. The dress code of the intended
market is a little different than the common norm of teenagers in 2015, and
while they dress similarly to them, fans of The Power Plant dress more
modestly and aim not to stand out too much, lacking popular accessories
such as piercings and excessive jewellery. Tattoos however are quite
common. Fans of the band tend to have an interest in softer and more
emotional genres such as post-rock, blues, progressive/atmospheric rock
and sometimes even ambient. The audience has quite a large artistic
talent and imaginative approach to our music, as artwork and fan-fiction of
the band’s lyrical content (which can be combined to form a larger story) is
popular in fan circles on the internet.
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5. Media
With The Power Plant’s marketing campaign for their new album I will be
looking to use a lot of music-based outlets in order to get the best possible
coverage. I believe that while The Power Plant does not really hold the
mass-market appeal to appear on prime time television I believe that an
appearance on a dedicated music channel such as MTV or 4Music would
be sufficient and appeal to those who wish to discover something new.
The popularity of these channels with young adults and teenagers will also
help to reach out to my intended audience. In terms of print-based media I
would like to again aim towards more interest based music publications
that focus mainly on rock, which is the band’s genre, such as Q, Kerrang!
and Rolling Stone. Although I do not think that The Power Plant will
warrant any front page articles, a new album release that is being heavily
promoted will receive a sizable article or interview with the editorial staff in
one of these magazines. Similarly on the radio, while The Power Plant
may get some of their headline songs from the new album played on one
of the big radio stations such as Radio 1 or Capital FM, I believe that most
playings of their songs will be relegated to smaller scale and genre-based
stations. 5

6. Media
To advertise and promote The Power Plant’s new album and whereabouts I will
make use of several different social media platforms to put across news,
advertisements, and event information. The biggest outlet would be Facebook,
thanks to its simplicity, a billion plus users and the fact that it is used extensively by
teenagers and young adults, who are my target audience. An officially managed
and owned Facebook page would give Facebook users one true page to find all of
the latest information and dates for upcoming events and gigs, instead of having
the possibility of being misled by fan pages who have false information. A verified
account will have all the correct information and be a trusted source for fans and
will be a great outlet to directly interact with the fanbase, by answering comments
and posting pictures and videos of the band. Because of it’s younger user base
and artistic style that is similar to ours, we will also use Instagram as a social
media outlet that would be mainly related to posting band pictures and imagery,
often with a more personal side by showing members of the band in daily life and
when not on tour. In addition to this, a verified band Twitter account would be
useful in reaching a much more general audience thanks to the variety of people
who use the service. Using Twitter would allow to post information that can be
circled quickly and efficiently around the fanbase with the use of hashtags.
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7. Merchandise
What merchandise would you use to promote this band?
The primary merchandise I would like to produce for the band would
revolve around clothing, the staple merchandise for bands, as it is an easy
way to get recognition for the act and also allow fans to express their love
for us in a non-blatant and passive manner. Such items would likely
include T shirts, hoodies, beanie hats, messenger bags and a limited
edition model of the power station, the band’s namesake and spoken of in
the band lyrics, available in a batch of thirty to bring out the biggest fans of
The Power Plant. In terms of other merchandise I would also offer sales of
band posters and banners, which is more likely to be successful as my
target audience, young adults, are bigger users of posters which they put
up in their bedrooms as opposed to mature adults. For collectors in the
fandom we will also offer hard-pressed 12” vinyl records of our albums,
which are more collectable than CDs and appeal to older and more long-
term fans of the band. All of this would be able through a dedicated
internet store that would be linked via our social media accounts, such as
Facebook and Twitter.
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8. Manage the message
What is the message you want to communicate about this band?
With The Power Plant’s new 2015 release, I want to include a very specific
message that will help people remember the former glory days from
decades ago and create a unique selling point for the older demographic.
With the newest release, the band’s former lead guitarist and vocalist has
returned to the band following a departure in 2004, after the release of the
second and critically acclaimed studio album Judgement of Others. While
also attracting older fans who will be excited to see an old member return
to the front of the band, this move will hopefully create a selling point
among our younger fans because of a fact that the band now has a new
addition to the lineup, making them eager to hear and see something new.
To support this occasion, my advertising will be revolving around the lead
guitarist’s return, featuring him prominently in promotional material and
advertising and also using lots of quotes from magazines and critics to
support the return, with an example being ‘The Power Plant’s driving force
is back.’ and also ‘With Possibly Adopt Them, The Power Plant re-adopted
band legend Stephen Smith for their most emotional release yet.’
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9. Hyperbole
In The Power Plant’s marketing campaign, hyperbole will be mainly used
to generate hype for the new release and excite fans for the eventual
album drop. In particular, many of the taglines that will accompany posters
and internet adverts will label the release as ‘a heart-wrenchingly beautiful
landscape of echoes and harmonies’ or ‘a huge, emotionally charged
picture painted with quivering, guilt-ridden lyrics.’ The hyperbole used in
the campaign will be focused mainly on the band’s emotional and dark,
tragic lyrics that will be used to invoke personal feelings within the fans by
using themes found in the lyrics that they can relate to, such as personal
loss or grieving. The language used for the campaign is aimed to be quite
poetic and form a narrative, which links in to the band’s signature lyrical
style and overarching canon that spans their studio releases and
philosophy. Words such as spiritual, astonishing, revolutionary and
breathtaking are examples of emotive language and can often generate a
sense of excitement within the reader if they are used to describe an
upcoming product.
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10. Events
What events would you put on as part of the promotion of this band and album?
In terms of events to promote The Power Plant, I would like to go for a variety of
different events which would result in increased publicity, recognition and hype for
the band and its upcoming album. Firstly, I believe that the band would benefit
greatly from having a signing session at a music/record shop, such as WHSmith or
HMV, where they can autograph CDs of the new album for fans when they first go
on sale. This also gives fans a chance to meet with the band members and interact
with them, as well as the band getting a lot of photo and video opportunities for
increased publicity. In addition to this, while the band lacks the mainstream appeal
to appear in a flagship music event such as Glastonbury or the Pitchfork Music
Festival, they may possibly perform at a smaller scale event that while wont’ draw
in as many attendees as the two previously mentioned events, but will be more
focused on bigger fans of the band and thus help them get more exposure. Finally,
while not directly related to music, The Power Plant will attend a charity event that
supports adoption and other child-caring agencies, as a deliberate tie-in to their
new album name, Possibly Adopt Them. This kind of event will paint the band
members in a good light of being caring, charitable individuals.
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11. Internal motivation
What is the motivation behind this project?
Our internal motivation behind this marketing campaign is the fact that we
personally believe that thanks to The Power Plant’s success and
popularity among younger listeners, there is a large and untapped market
that could quite possibly result in a lot of revenue and publicity for both the
band and our record company. By ensuring that the band’s new release is
marketed and hyped to the right people, we believe that we can easily
bring the band from a niche audience into a much more mainstream
appeal, which will result in increased sales and opportunities for expansion
in the musical world. The band’s personal motivation behind the marketing
campaign is their desire to market themselves towards a much wider
audience and in turn share their creations with millions of new fans.
Despite having 19 years of musical experience under their belt and a line
of successful releases, the band feels as if they can do better than their
current small audience. Their personal motivation is that there is a
massive new audience out there that can only be reached with a
successful and extensive marketing campaign.
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12. Motivation of media
Why would the media be interested in this project?
We believe that the media may take an interest in our marketing campaign
because of the fact that a band that many people know but not a lot listen to, are
making a much bigger push to ensure success with their new 2015 release. This is
particularly down to the fact that we are pushing for at least 10,000 sales of the
album, which is about 2,000 more than what The Power Plant’s records usually
sell. And while many releases do break even, the media may take interest in the
fact that this will be the first time the band is actively pursuing financial success
with this new record. In terms of media products that may take an interest in our
marketing campaign, we believe that music magazines and genre-specific radio
stations will cover this report much more prominently than others. However, thanks
to our more mainstream target this time around, we are hoping for coverage from
more well-known and nationwide stations, such as BBC Radio 1 and Capital FM.
We believe that stations such as these may be motivated by the fact that a band
that has usually kept quiet on the scene is now making a much larger push into the
market, using their creative talent to ensure that their new album sells more
records than ever before.

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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