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

Rianne Addo

My group and I aimed to maintain similar visual properties between the music video and the ancillary texts.

Magazine Advert/Poster Inlay Design 1 Inlay Design 2

Front CoverBack Cover Music Video

On Youtube Royal Tee- Better Than Yesterday (Published by Rianne Addo)

Mise-en-scene

I believe that brand identity is used between the CD album cover and my music video effectively especially through Mise-en-scene. On the CD album cover, the artist is seen wearing a red hoodie, this is the same hoodie that he wears throughout the video. He is also wearing the same shirt whilst performing in the music video as with the magazine poster. This creates continuity between one product and another, and allows the audience to associate the two aspects together, thus creating brand identity. We used clothing such as a hoodie and a checked shirt on our main artist, to adhere to the dominant representations of our target audience’s clothing, which is seen to be casual and laid back. With this, our target audience can identify with the main artist, and may feel more welcomed to watch the music video and buy the CD album. However, the artist wore the checked shirt in the performance scene, and the hoodie in the narrative mode of the music video to inform the audience that the performance and narrative scene were on different days, as the performance scene represented ‘today’ and the narrative scenes represented ‘yesterday’. The message with the theme of positivity and improvement can also be seen through his clothing as arguably, the checked shirt is more formal than the red hoodie., which provides the audience with positive connotations in sync with success.

Clothing

Mise-en-scene

The setting of the scene when the artist confronts his brother is the same as the setting that the artist is pictured in, in the CD front cover, back cover and inlay design 1. This allows the audience to associate each product with each other, which prevents the audience from being confused. The setting of a luxurious place gives off the impression of hope and progression, in contrast to the urban streets that he is seen in, in some of the narrative scenes, i.e. when the artist meets the little boy and gives him encouraging words, which connotes a lower economical and social class.

Setting

Characters

Mise-en-sceneThe characters in our story were the same throughout, especially the main artist. This provides the music video with continuity and allows the audience to be able to reference the characters through reinforcement of their appearance in the music video. This also holds the narrative of the story together, as through their constant appearances, the audience are able to piece the parts of the storyline together, with the characters in the forefront of the narrative.

MessageThe pose of the artist on the CD album cover looking at the city links with the message behind the music video and the lyrics ‘We represent the future’. As the message behind the music video is about being better than the past and gradually looking towards the future, the connotations seen in the CD cover mirrors this, as the artist looking at the city signifies the artist looking at the future and its great opportunities. In the print advertisement, the artist looks pleased and is standing upright towards the camera. This also links to the message seen in the song of being ‘Better Than Yesterday’. This is evident, as he is wearing the shirt that he was wearing in the performance scene with represents ‘today’. This again allows the audience to piece the ancillary tasks with the music video.

OverallOverall, I believe synergy is created between these products, as through elements such as mise-en-scene, in which similarities were remained between the products, which allowed the audience to see an association between the products, with the message of the music video being enhance with the ancillary texts.

I thought it was important to do this, as synergy is seen through many music videos and their CD albums, which creates brand identity. For example:

CD Album Cover Still image from Rihanna’s song ‘Only Girl in the World’ from the album ‘LOUD’.

The CD Album cover almost mirrors the still shot from a song from that album. The colour scheme, hair and lighting are extremely similar, which allows the audience to distinguish the two products as being related- synergy is created.

Questionnaire On Target Audience’s Response To Effectiveness Of Combination Of Main Product And Ancillary Texts

I conducted a questionnaire in which 16 individuals of my target audience were asked to answer a series of questions in reference to the effectiveness of combination of main product and ancillary texts. Here are the results:

Participant 1 Participant 2

Participant 3 Participant 4

Participant 5 Participant 6

Participant 7 Participant 8

Participant 9 Participant 10

Participant 11 Participant 12

Participant 13 Participant 14

Participant 15 Participant 16

Question 1 & 2: Analysis and Trends

On this question, the common answers were that the scenery, clothing, colour scheme and characters were similar. In reference to this, with Question 2 the majority of the participants liked the fact that they were all similar, as it increased brand identity in which the participants were able to associate all ancillary together and with the music video through the variables mentioned (e.g. same scenery and clothing). This reinforces the fact that it is important for the audience to be able to identify all products that are associated with each other as a whole, as if the same message is meant to be portrayed with all products, the audience would need to grasp the idea of what the message is in all products without being misled or confused by the differences, which is why similarity between products of the same nature is important.

1. What similarities do you see between the music video and CD front cover, back cover, magazine advert and inlay designs?

2. Is it good to have similarities between a music video and CD front cover, back cover, magazine advert and inlay designs? Why? Why not?

Question 3, 4 & 5: Analysis and Trends

On this question, the majority of participants said that there were not many differences, however some participants commented on the fact that ‘inlay design 2’(see questionnaire) was different as the artist was in a different setting and was wearing different clothing. This was done to provide a different presentation of an ancillary task with still portraying the same message portrayed within the music video and with the other ancillary tasks, which supports a strong balance between the music video and ancillary tasks being similar but also being able to be distinguishable. Majority of people commented on question 4, stating that it is important to have few differences, to surprise the audience, with holding their interest. I believe this is true, why would an individual be interested in 5 products that are exactly the same? Therefore, I believe it is vital to include similarities so the audience can identify that all the products are a collective, but it is nice and interesting to have few differences, in order to surprise and hold the audiences’ attention. Many of the participants stated that the video was effective with reference to the combination of ancillary task being important for identification of branding.

Overall, I believe that from these results, it is evident that brand identity is important in making a music video along with ancillary tasks, in order to attract an audience and provide them with a coherent message without confusion.

3. What differences do you see between the music video and CD front cover, back cover, magazine advert and inlay designs?4. Is it good to have differences between a music video and CD front cover,

back cover, magazine advert and inlay designs? Why? Why not?5. How effective is the combination of our music video and ancillary tasks?