This document summarizes the branding and marketing work Denisa Sykaj did for an A2 media coursework project involving creating a music video, digipack, and magazine advertisement for a rap/hip-hop artist. It describes researching existing rap/hip-hop brands to develop an identity representing the genre. Images were chosen for the digipack that portrayed the artist's style and fit rap conventions. The packaging and ad were designed to appeal to the target audience of 17-19 year olds through visuals and labeling.

1. By Denisa Sykaj!

2. The Task!
 As part of our A2 Media coursework we
were asked to create a music video
production and product two ancillary
tasks for this music video. The ancillary
tasks were to create a digipack and a
magazine advert/poster for our artist and
music video and the genre.

3. Branding
The term brand is the name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that
identifies a specific product, service or business. It also differentiates the identities
of products, services, businesses etc. Branding is important because it gives you a
chance to make your product, business, services etc different to others and more
appealing to others. With successful branding comes four key elements which
need to be considered.
1: The big idea – The big idea is the summary of your businesses, products or
services quality and what differentiates it from others. This is the starting point.
2: Vision – A long term vision of where you would like you business to end up or the
direction it goes in. Your vision could be something huge or something small.
3: Values – your values are other peoples understanding of what your business
stands for.
4: Personality – Once your brand is opened up to the world, you will be expressing
and showing the personality and the difference of your company through the tone,
language and design you use.

4. Rap/Hip-Hop Branding!
 Before starting my own products, I
researched rap/hip-hop music
brands which I could present my
artist with. I found a variety of
different music brands which I could
express in my own way and
differentiate it from the other ones
that already exist.

5. Our Brand Identity
 Rap/Hip-hop
 Our brand identity represents rap/hip-hop. We chose this
genre as our brand of music because it is a very popular
genre of music and our artist looks like a rapper so we
thought it would be the best choice, also because we all
wanted to do rap/hip-hop as we are mainly into that genre
ourselves. Our artist fits the rapper criteria perfectly, as he
is very into his music and is a lyricist himself, he has the
characteristics of a rap/hip-hop artist and he looks the part
too as his style of clothing is very similar to those existing
rap/hip-hop artists. He follows the conventions of an artist of
this genre. However, he also challenges the conventions
because of his hair which isn't very common to find and also
mainly because although he looks the part and can rap , our
artist is unique in his own way as he is ‘mocking’ other rap
artists, what our artist is about is real life situations and not
common existing topics such as girls, cars, houses, money,
drugs etc which most rappers talk about.

6. The Final Products!

7. Front cover and
back of booklet.
Advertisement
Back cover of album
Booklet Insert

8. My Final Music video!

9. What is my digipack?
 My digipack is a marketing tool. The purpose of
my digipack is to advertise my artist. To
advertise his style, his sound, his character
and the genre of his music.

10. How does my pack effectively market to my target
audience?
 My pack markets to my target audience
because it has a clear identity of the
genre that it is. From my gatherings of
my audience research I know that
representation of a rap/hip-hop cover is
an important factor as it reflects on the
artist , therefore I made sure that my
digipack represented the genre clearly
so that it would effectively catch my
target audiences attention as my target
audience is mainly teenagers between the
ages of 17-19. An important factor of my
marketing to my targeted audience is
also the ‘parental advisory explicit
content’ which I used on my cover which
conveys a certain age requirement for
the content that it holds, as the whole
purpose of that sign is it indicates to the
audience that it could have
inappropriate use of language or
perhaps sexual references.

11. How did you decide which images were suitable for which
product?
 When beginning to create my own digipack, I had
to construct a lot of research in order to make sure
my own digipack would follow the correct rap/hip-
hop conventions of a real CD album of this genre.
Whilst researching it came to my realisation that
many of the artists of this genre have either very
simple images on there albums were the artist/s is
looking at the camera or at something else in the
frame or there are very well structured, well-
thought images that could include other objects
within the frame such as cars, girls, money etc.

12. Front cover!
 For my front cover I used an image which
represented my artist in a clear form and
also represented his genre clearly. I chose
this image for my front cover because it
gives of a ‘cool’, rapper look as he is sitting
on block stairs which is a common rap/hip-
hop convention when it comes to rap/hip-
hop. Also it shows his choice of clothing
which is another important aspect when it
comes to rap/hip-hop as it is a form
representation. For example the snapback
is a very common feature within the
rap/hip-hop genre as many other existing
artists wear them. Another reason for my
choice to use this image as my front cover
is because of the props he has on him,
these being his phone and the
headphones, these are shown on many
occasions during the music video and also
on the other photos which were taken.

13. Booklet Insert!
 These images were taken on a separate photo
shoot. I decided to use these two images for the
booklet because although they are very simple
shots, they represent his style and genre. The
hat that he is wearing is again as mentioned
before a very common accessory which is worn
by many artists in the rap industry, also because
of his hair which gives him a unique look as not
many rappers have this kind of hair. The first
side of the booklet I decided to keep quite
simple, having a close up of my artist and the
text ‘The Saurus Era’ placed on his mouth as he
mentions it a lot throughout his lyrics and also
because he is advertising himself through his
lyrics by saying that this is his era, this is going
to be his time to shine and that is what I wanted
to interpret. This also challenged the typical
conventions of a rap/hip-hop CD album as there
are not many artists that have a booklet nor front
cover or even a back cover designed this way.

14. Booklet Insert!!
 The second page of the booklet I decided to use a long shot image of my artist as
I wanted to show his position/pose, I made him do a slight hand gesture to
indicate his musical status as a lot of existing artists have hand gestures ‘Hand
signs’ in their music videos and on their advertising packs , this could be either a
sign represent a certain area, or ‘tag’ of a person or just for the sake of doing it to
meet the conventions. I added a ‘Urban street’ background to the second booklet
as I wanted to represent the ‘street’ side of this pack. This again was done to
follow the conventions of what rappers do/ talk about in their music, this also was
done so that the hand gesture and the background entwine together and look
more realistic. I chose specific lyrics to add to this cover so that it links in well with
the main image and the background and again so it follows the conventions of a
real rap/hip-hop booklet.

15. BACK COVER!!
 For my back cover, I decided to keep it simple. Similarly to my front cover, the artist is sitting on the block
of stairs looking at the one of the cameras but not at the audience. He still has the phone and headphones
on him as he does on the front cover. My choice of colour (Black & White) was because my music video
itself is black and white and I wanted to refer it back to the video as many rap/hip-hop artists of this genre
illustrate something from their music video onto their advertisement packs, whether it being the CD Album
or the advertisement/poster. I kept it at a tasteful black and white which was balanced well and then
added a few logos and signs which normal, realistic covers have, again following normal conventions. The
two black bars I kept simple with just the name of the artist and the name of the album and another title
which represents the whole album, the artist and his music, this being ‘Saurus Era’. The typography for
the album title I used on this cover was a replica of the one used in the actual music video, the reason I
chose to use it was because the way it is designed (the tower blocks at the bottom of the text – MY LIFE
)as it represent a city view and links in well with the lyrics / message/ plot of the video as my artist is
talking about his day to day life. The typography for the song titles is from a website I found which I was
able to create and personalise , I thought that the colour I chose would work well with the colours of the
actual cover and would blend in well. The whole structure of my CD back cover is a very common
conventional way to lay it out as many existing rappers have similar layouts. The branding of my album is
also on the back cover ‘MTV’ logo which is a music station of this genre and also House OF Fame logo
just under the barcode.

16. Advertisement!!
 Before starting my advertisement I constructed
research on advertisements for rap/hip-hop artist's.
It came down to two brands which were most
popular , ITunes and Amazon. The reason I chose
ITunes is because (and I can vouch for this) most
teenagers purchase/ listen to music on iTunes and
keeping my target audience in mind I know that my
artist would be marketed more on here as it is very
popular. The typography used for my
advertisement I created on a font website as I
wanted the name of my artist to be very appealing
to the audience and represent his status as a
rapper. I used the front and back cover on my
advertisement as a brief insight on my artists style,
character , looks. I also added lyrics on top of my
back cover again to give the audience a brief insight
of what kind of music is produced by my artist. The
tour dates I positioned on the side of the page as it
would go well in order from looking at the front
cover to the back cover to the tour dates, I used red
and black because these two colours really
complement each other and match the criteria of a
rapper’s style and conventions.

17. How are my products linked
through representation,
costume, props, locations,
colour, typography etc ?

18. My 3 products are all linked for many
reasons, one reason being the slogan
which I printed all over my digipack and
is mentioned frequently in the actual
music video. This is ‘THE SAURUS
ERA’. This is a form of
promoting/advertising my artist and the
era in which he will become a world
wide known ‘realist of the lyricist that's
killin’. When it came down to costume, we made
sure to have his style ‘swag’ very clear and
represent it well. The main fashionable
accessory which he had in the music video
and on my digipack/advertisement is the hat
whether it being the black woolly one or the
‘snapback’. Another fashionable style is the
pants hanging loose which is a typical
common convention/ style used by many
artists and the male public as it gives off a
‘cool’ perhaps ‘gangster’ look alongside with
the trainers or ‘creps’ street term which is
another fashionable item that rappers are
keen on.

19. Colour : The use of black and white challenges the
conventions of a typical rap/hip-hop music video.
Before choosing this scheme of colour for our music
video, I researched other existing music videos which
had similar conventions as the one we wanted to do –
this being Black and white. The use of black and white
gives it that extra, unique effect and in a way links in
well with the story behind the lyrics as he isn't talking
about sunshine and happy times but more of the dark,
depressing days. The black and white colour illustrates
this to a certain extent.
When it came to props, we only
had the beats speaker which was
carried throughout the music
video, this was an illustration of
music as the beats speakers
represent music today. We also
used it as a replica of the
Jukebox which artists used to
carry around in the 90’s and that
itself was a musical prop
sensation. We wanted to bring
this back into the music industry
except the latest gadget.

20.  Mise-en-scene: Before the shooting production, we had to choose a
variety of locations for our music video. These locations had to match
our genre and represent the conventions of a rap/hip-hop music video.
The locations we chose are very common in a rap/hip-hop music video,
we also wanted to illustrate Andrew Goodwin's theory of which states
that there has to be a clear link with the lyrics and the visuals. We
chose a block as our main location were the artist is there with his
friends as is mentioned in his lyrics, and then goes on to central
London outside Gucci which again is mentioned in his lyrics and then
on streets in London, near his house.

21. What label would promote my artist?
 My artist would more or less be promoted by
labels within the rap/hip-hop genre, for example
Bad Boy records which have many rap/hip-hop
artists signed already then there is Roc Nation
which is more about the upcoming artists of the
music industry such as K Koke , Rita Ora,
J.Cole and many more.
Where can I see this artist appearing?
My artist would appear mainly on multi – faceted companies which
are run by young artists. There are many musical platforms for
Urban music – this being rap/hip-hop. These companies help
promote the artists individual talents and help them build a fan
base for the future. Companies like this usually have artists singing
live and free, this being from spontaneous lyrics which they make
up there and then to existing lyrics which the public have already
heard.

22. Where would I see the magazine advert ?
There are many music magazines out there for my artist to appear on. However, I think
that my artist would mainly appear on magazines of the same genre as him which is
Rap/Hip-hop.
And plenty more : Vibe, Hip- hop rocks, Hitlist, Murder Dog, Pound, Situation The , Raw
roots .....

23. CONCLUSION!
 To conclude, I believe that our creation
followed the conventions of a rap/hip-
hop CD album and advertisement. The
ancillary tasks also challenged some
typical conventions but in a good way
adding extra effect on the products,
giving it a strong unique look. I believe
our products are successful rap/hip-hop
products with a strong selling point.