Website Marketing Campaign Analysis

Michael Buble

http://www.michaelbuble.com/

http://www.warnerbrosrecords.com/

I’ve chosen to look at Michael Buble’s marketing campaign through his website as he is a very current artist.  He has a new single coming out called ‘Hollywood’ so I want to see who and how it is promoted.

Which institutions are behind the band/artist and in what ways is this relevant?

The institution/record label behind Michael Buble is Reprise Records which are the record label for Warner Brothers.  It says ‘Reprise Records’ at the bottom of the website in the right hand corner..

There is a link to the record label website, http://www.warnerbrosrecords.com/, the website has links to all their signed artists official sites, facebook, twitter etc. so this is an effective way to market their other signed artists to the audience.  Having a huge mainstream record label shows us Michael Buble is an established mainstream artist and having a record label enables him big budgets to market, promote and sell his records.

What functions does the website serve for the band/artist?

• Sells his image (mainstream pop artist)

• Creates an identity and brands him

• Promotes to his target audience

• Gives you a taste of his music

• Sells and promotes his songs

• Sells and promotes his upcoming live tours

• Links to download singles/albums

The website also promotes his new single coming out because the song starts playing automatically so the audience are forced to listen to it.  Then there is a link to the music video below and as most people going onto his website are his fans, they would listen to his song, then buy or download it making him more money.  There is a huge picture of him on the main front page on the website and as most of his target audience are females, and because he’s really good-looking this will really appeal to them.  There are also links at the top to ‘Pictures’, ‘Videos’ and ‘Tours’ so his fans can look at all pictures and videos of him promoting him even further.  There is also links to his merchandise called the ‘Hollywood Budle’ which is a T-shirt so his fans would be interested in this and may buy it.

Describe the band/artist’s brand identity and explain how the website is used to construct this.

I think its very clear from the website that he is a mainstream pop artist.  The website looks really posh and professional with a white, cream and brown colour scheme, it looks very clean cut.  The font matches this, it looks really professional and stands out on the screen.  In the picture, he looks very groomed --> clean, hair cut, nice suit and tie etc. this will appeal massively to his female audience.  All of this makes it very clear to us that he is an established mainstream artist.

Who is the target audience for the band/artist and how do you know?

The target audience of Michael Buble is young adults and people in their 30s/40s who are female.  I think also more middle/upper class as although his music is very current, there is still an old fashioned traditional vibe.  This is shown through the colour scheme and layout of the website which is very professional.  There is links to his Facebook, Twitter and Myspace but they are very small which shows us the younger audience may not be his core audience.  There are also loads of pictures of him around the website which makes it obvious his target audience is women.

How is the website designed to appeal to the target audience?

The website is designed to appeal to his target audience through all the pictures, videos, tour information etc.  There are many links all over the website to download his music, watch the music videos and buy his products and just generally anything to do with the artist.  All of it is very easily accessable and involves the audience.

Identify all the different strategies used to market the artist/band on the website

There are many different stratergies used to market him.  There are obvious links to iTunes to download his new single and his album, the upcoming tour dates and performances, the pictures, videos, biography etc.  There is regular updates on his website of what hes doing and where he is which makes his fans feel more involved making them want to buy/download his songs.  There are loads of different ways to learn more about him and his music.

How many opportunities does the website offer the audience to buy into the band/artist (ie. to spend their money)?

The audience are given many different opportunities through the website to buy into the artist.  As soon as you go on the main front page, his new single automatically starts playing with a link with a big picture to download it on iTunes and also a link to download his whole album on iTunes.  This means the audience don’t have to search to find the download, its given to them so they’re much more likely to spend their money.  Links and tickets to his upcoming tours and performances are there.  There is also links to his merchandise, ‘The Hollywood Bundle’ which is a Tshirt for his fans to buy and a link to join his fan club so his fans can join and be regularly updated on what he’s doing, where he is and where his next performances which makes them feel really involved and again the audience are given everything so they will want to spend their money on him.

Apart from the band/artist, what or who else is being sold on the webiste?

Apart from the artist, the other artists signed to his record label are being sold on his website as their is a link to the record label website which enables the audience to be introduced to all their other artists.  The website is working in synergy with Facebook, Twitter, Myspace and most importantly iTunes as both companies get something out of it --> Michael Buble gets his sales and the other companies get promotion and publicity which widens their audience and effectively gives them more money. 

In terms of reaching their target audience, how important are the following to your case study band/artist:

• Music television
• Radio
• Magazines
• The charts
• The internet
• Festivals
• Live performance
• Awards
• Other bands/artists

All these are very important to the marketing of the artist and targeting his audience.  As he is very well-known and mainstream and is already established with a big fan base, accessability and choice to all these resources are easy for his record label to get as they will want to advertise him because it will be good for them too especially festivals and performances like that as it will increase ticket sales making them more money.  By having access to all these different marketing techinques and being able to do cross platform marketing, it broadens his audience massively as it has a huge reach.

Track Ideas

Goodwin Anaylsis

Andrew Goodwin's Theory:

1.  Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics
2.  There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals (either illustrative, amplifying or contradicting)
3. There is a relationship between music and visuals (either illustrative, amplifying or contradicting)
4.  The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close-ups of the artists.  These include close-ups of the stars face - the money shots
5. There is frequently reference to the notion of looking and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body
6. There is often intertextual references (to films, TV programmes, other music videos etc.)

Katy Perry - I Kissed a Girl


1. Does the music video demonstrate genre characteristics?

• The genre of pop is shown through:
• Very colourful pastel colours
• Fun light-hearted atmosphere
• Main focus on the main singer, everyone else is background
• Lots of conventional close up beauty shots
• Dance routines
• Bright lighting
• Makeup and Hair done perfectly
• Sexualised but in a way females would like and relate to as well as males
• Very glamourous/stylised
• Edited and cut to the music and lyrics

2. Is there a relationship between lyrics and visuals?

Throughout the song, the lyrics match up to the visual which make the video really effective and forces the audience to concentrate on the lyrics as well as the visuals.  This is very conventional and typical of the pop genre as it keeps it literal and simplistic and doesn’t over complicate it or have any hidden deep meaning which will appeal to a much wider audience.  One obvious match between lyrics and visuals in this video was she said soft skin and then on screen was a visual illustration of this:

3. Is there a relationship between music and visuals?

Throughout the song, the video is cut and edited in time to the beat.  This is really obvious in the first 5 seconds of the video, the beat is very fast and each time it changes, the shot changes, this is very fast pace cutting and gives us a visual and lyrical feel of what the song will be like.  The whole video is cut to the beat and the match is always perfect, it’s quite an upbeat song so the pace of editing is kept constant the whole way through.  The cutting to music draws the audience’s attention to the beat and generally makes the video more effective, it the video was cut randomly and not to beat it wouldn’t look quite right and could be quite confusing and disorientating.

4. Is there lots of close-up of the artist? Close ups of the stars face – the Money Shots?

This is very constant throughout the video, although there are other people in the video, the focus is constantly on Katy Perry and close-ups of her face (the money shots) and of her body are regularly used.  Katy Perry’s image is used as a way to target her audience even further, by doing the close-up ‘beauty shots’ of her face, the audience can see her hair, makeup and clothes are perfect which will instantly attract teenage girls and she’s very sexualised in the video with pans and close-ups of parts of her body eg. breasts, legs, eyes, lips which will attract teenage boys.  The beauty shots are generally used to make the artist look good and attractive to the audience.  The record company insist that these beauty shots are used as they will attract a larger audience therefore making them more money, that’s why they’re called the money shots.  These are some examples of the money shots in the video..

5. Is there frequently reference to the notion of looking and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body?

There is a lot of emphasis on and voyeuristic treatment of the female body in the video although she is not objectified as she is wearing nice clothes and is surrounded by girls showing that girls will be able to appreciate it as well as boys.  There are a lot of close-ups of Katy Perry’s legs, at the start there is a slow pan moving up her body which sexualises her and there are also a lot of close-ups of her breasts and eyes throughout the video.  Katy Perry directly at the camera as she’s singing which creates an emotional connection for the audience and makes them feel more involved in the music.  

6. Are there any intertextual references?

None in particular although the sleepover setting and also the pillow fight remind me of typical American high school films about girls having sleepovers etc. so this could be another way of targeting her core audience, teenage girls by showing them something familiar to them and that they can relate to.

Genre Analysis

Hip-Hop/R&B
Ludacris - What Them Girls Like

• Club/party scene
• Lots of girls
• Sexualising the female body
• Close ups of the erogenous areas: breasts, bum, legs, lips, eyes
• Dancing quite sexual
• Never any dance routines
• Edited to beat of music
• Not focused on main singer, more on the girls

Men:

• Cool laidback attitude
• Black/Dark Clothes
• Sunglasses
• 'Bling'
• 'Swagga'
• Clean and groomed

Girls:

• Very sexualised
• Objectified
• Low cut tops showing cleavage
• High tops showing stomach and hips
• Short skirts/dresses showing legs

Here is another Hip-Hop/R&B music video using all the exact same conventions..

Akon - Beautiful


Pop/Dance/Electronic
Lady Gaga - Just Dance

• Bright electric colours
• Metallic/leather clothing
• Main focus on the main singer, everyone else is background
• Lots of conventional close up beauty shots
• Highly-charged
• Dance routines
• Bright lighting
• Disco ball
• Sexualised but in a way females would like and relate to as well was males
• Not objectified, completely different from R&B
• Makeup and hair done perfectly

As this was Lady Gaga's debut mainstream single it was really important to make it obvious what genre her music was and target her audience so as many conventions as possible were used to do this.  Now as she's an established artist with a huge fan base she can go against and mix up typical conventions of music videos which is what she does.  She's very unconventional, original and different which is why she is so successful and this is reflected in her recent music videos.

Album Cover

Deconstruction

Front

The artist fills upthe whole space on the front cover of the album with the only other thing on the front being his name and his album name in a small simple font, this together with the low angle shot make Drake look big and powerful. He’s taken the less-is-more simplistic approach on the artwork of his album cover as he’s the only picture on it, there is no background image, artwork or big colourful distracting writing, it shows the audience that all the attention and focus is on him and his music. There is a black, white and red theme throughout the album cover which are all very strong colour and it shows the audience he’s different as he’s changed the typical black and white theme and made it his own. Also, half his face is in a dark shadow maybe telling the audience that some of the lyrics in his music is quite dark. There is a blurred contrast effect which I think is really effective as it makes this album cover stand out from the rest.

Back

The back of the album cover is completely different to the front. The artist isn’t featured on the back, instead there is a lot of artwork and patterns and the songs are written around a circle in the centre. Below that all the executive producers that have worked on the album with Drake are listed eg. Lil Wayne. This isn’t very typical of album covers. Still the black, white and red theme on the back of the album and there is a barcode and all the copyright information at the bottom.

Inside

Inside the album cover, Drake himself writes a lot about himself and writing the album etc. There is also many pictures of him and a bit of information about each song. I think this is really good for his fans as it makes them feel very involved with the artist and will give them more pleasure when listening to his music. He also lists huge artists that have featured on his songs eg. Jay-Z, Alicia K eys, Lil Wayne and by adding huge names like this to his album, he is targeting a much wider audience as fans of these artists may want tobuy the album.

I don’t think the genre is very obvious from this album cover if you didn’t know Drake as its very simple but I think people would take a good guess of Rap/Hip-Hop based on his image alone. Its obvious that Drake doesn’t need amazing artwork or imagery on his album cover and that just a simple yet effective picture of the artist alone will sell the music as he already has established such a huge fanbase.

Reflections on 'What Music Means To Me'

It was really interesting to hear about what tracks/videos people had chosen and why, it showed me that the type of music people listen to and how they consume it says a lot about the person. I thought it was interesting how everybody’s choices were completely different but the reasons behind them were very similar and there were very clear patterns between all of us.

1. When do you listen to music? When? Where? Who with? How?
Personally I don’t have a specific time of day or place where I’d listen to music, also I never really listen to music or different types of music depending on my mood although different genres of music does bring out different emotions. I just listen to music I like at that time when I feel like it. I listen to the radio in the car every morning, either Kiss or Choice, in the morning I listen more to the lyrics of the song rather than the beat. While I’m on the computer at home, sometimes I listen to music on my iPod speakers and I always go on iTunes and YouTube and listen to the latest releases to see whether I like them or not. I listen to music a lot through the TV as I have music channels on in the background a lot because I can actually watch a performance or a narrative for the song as well as listen to it and this keeps me captivated for longer. I like listening to music with my friends either when we’re getting ready to go out as it gets me in the mood to go out or when we’re just relaxing as we can talk about the music etc. When I really enjoy music is when I’m out at a club or a party with my friends, when the music is really loud and it surrounds the whole room. The music then is more about the beat and the feeling it gives you as it really gets you in the mood to dance. I love the club atmosphere as it really lets you escape reality and that whole atmosphere is created by music. I also love seeing music live at festivals and concerts, you hear music from a whole different perspective as its live and the atmosphere is amazing. I could never listen to music while doing homework as it would distract me completely. In our presentations, there were some patterns I noticed about everyone’s daily music routines eg. Listening to the radio in the morning, listening to iPods on long journeys and listening to music with friends at clubs or festivals.

2. What are the pleasures of listening to music?
Although this was different for everyone, there were some very obvious trends between us about the pleasures of listening to music. One pleasure of listen to music that came up a lot was that it lifts peoples mood, if they’re in a bad mood they would listen to music and it would make them feel good. The main one though was about memories, a specific time, place or feeling in your life that a certain song reminds you of. This could be childhood experiences eg. last day at primary school, first concerts, holidays, good time with friends etc. generally times with emotional connections. Another pleasure of listening to music was for socialising, it gets you in the mood to go out and if you’re out at a club or party, music creates the whole atmosphere. Another one was listening to music to get away from their surroundings and ignore everything so music really allows escapism for people. Also, people mentioned part of the pleasure of listening to music is being active in your choices and influencing friends with your taste of music, when we’re younger we didn’t have the accessibility to music that we do now.

3. Where there any patterns in our music choices?
I think there were many patterns in our music choices. In our childhood choices, noone seemed to have any particular taste of their own, they were based on whatever people around us eg. older siblings, parents, friends were listening to. Music wasn’t accessible to us when we were younger so we were easily influenced and we just listened to what everyone was listening to and what was ‘cool’ at the time. I think the music industry strongly influenced kids through CDs like ‘NOW that’s what I call music’, a compilation of all the songs in the charts at that time and the TV show Top of the Pops as a lot of people mentioned both these things. Popular groups were Steps, S Club 7, Spice Girls etc. children would instantly like these bands because they like their image and the bright colours rather than the lyrics behind the song, this was almost irrelevant when we were younger. In our Early Teens choices, it was clear people had grown up and started developing their own music taste as they now had more accessibility and could explore themselves. By now, I could see just how music everyone’s music taste has changed and grown over the years and I also saw that things like lyrics and the actual artists themselves became much more important as you grow up. This made me see that age is so relevant to music taste.

4. How was this task relevant to our coursework?
This task made me see about the audience involved in music consumption and how important it is to target your audience. It allowed me to see how different audiences are targeted so differently eg. when you’re a kid you’d be targeted through Top of the Pops etc. but when you’re older you can be targeted through the internet, festivals etc. I’ve realised how much music actually means to people and a we’d have to do more than produce a good technical visual music video, we’d have to relate the audience and try to bring out different emotions and feelings.

Intertextuality

Lady Gaga & Beyonce - Telephone

There are many intertextual references in this video to the 60's ero and comics. For example..

• Comic style titles
• Comic style font
• Bright colours
• Big hair - quiffs
• Big sunglasses

The video starts as if its a film with the titles which it has taken from 60's films. People will instantly recognise the 60's references and so will connect and relate to more people attracting a larger audience.

Ideas

I think this video is really effective because its totally unexpected. Its a club song as its really upbeat and is always played in clubs so when I saw the video I was a bit shocked as I expected it to be a club/party video. I think the contrast works really well and it has a sense of humour to it aswell which captivates the audience. I also really like the effects used, the old fashioned flicker effect and the sepia effect and the title at the start work really well together to give the video an old fashioned feel and a fun atmosphere.

Ideas

I started thinking about music videos that I like and I realised the ones I find most effective are music videos that tell a story and have a mixture of both narrative and performance, I think this works really well as the artist is performing their song to their audience but also capturing the audience's interest and making them want to carry on watching the video by telling a story with it which ultimately sells the song. Also I think when a music video has narrative, its more emotional and audiences can relate to it a lot more.

Eminen & Rihanna - Love The Way You Lie


Taylor Swift - Love Story

What Music Means To Me - Now

This song really reminds me of my holiday in Summer 2010. It was played everywhere in Miami, on the beaches and in all the bars. I remember sunbathing around the pool and this was playing on my iPod so it makes me feel like I’m back in Miami! It’s a holiday club song as it’s really upbeat and this matches the video, I don’t think its very well known or mainstream but I really like it.

I also love Lily Allen's music. I think she's really edgy and original, all her songs sound really light and fun and her music videos are always really bright, fun and colourful which is a complete contrast to the lyrics of the songs as they are quite dark and have a dark sense of humour which I think is so effective and works really well. Also the lyrics of her songs are about every day life so I think alot of people especially girls can relate to her. When I saw her at Wireless Festival earlier this year, it was obvious her music was based on her personal experiences as it came so naturally to her which I also think is really effective.

What Music Means To Me - Early Teens

Choosing a song from my Early Teens was hard, nothing stands out in particular but I do remember listening to this song a lot because it reminded me of my favourite film at the time, A Cinderella Story. I used to be so obsessed with this film, I watched it loads with my friends. And I used to love Chad Michael Murray when I was young so this song reminded me of him! There is no official music video for this song, just a compilation of clips from the film.

What Music Means To Me - Childhood

There are so many songs I remember from my childhood and when I was in primary school so this was really hard to choose. I use to love Britney Spears, I remember being really excited about getting her album ‘Baby One More Time’ because it was the first CD I ever bought. My favourite ones were Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Steps, S Club 7 and the Spice Girls.

I always made up dance routines with my friends at each others houses and then I’d make my mum record us on video which are hilarious to watch back. One song that really stands out was ‘Stomp’ by Steps because me and my friends made up a dance to it and did it in our last assembly and the first concert I ever went to was to see Steps at Wembley with my best friend from primary and my mum and I remember being so excited about it.

I never really took any notice of the lyrics of songs when I was younger whereas now I’d focus more on the lyrics and that’s what would interest me in a song.

Music Video

Lily Allen - The Fear

I remember really liking this video when it came out.  I think its really effective because when you first see the mise-en-scene, you get the idea it’s a really happy innocent song but the song and the lyrics are a complete contrast to the atmosphere and setting of the video.  The lyrics are quite dark and very sarcastic and we get the idea that Lily Allen’s taking the piss out of other pop stars and generally people who are shallow and only care about being famous or being thin.  I think the contrast here is really effective and makes the music video really original and to me it really stands out from others.  The whole music video is performance, their isn’t really a narrative to this video and there are also a lot of close ups on her which forces the audience to listen to and emphasises her lyrics.

Thoughts and Reflections

After coming back to school, we have quickly been introduced to our new project for the year  --> Music Videos.  I love music videos and always watch them on music channels so I’m really excited about this project.  I’m really interested to see the production, technical and editing side behind a music video. Music video production and editing seems completely different to film as shots can be much more complex, their isn’t necessarily a narrative pattern and we’d have to edit along to a soundtrack matching up sound etc. which I’ve never had to do before so I’m really looking forward to seeing how music video production differs from film production and learning all new techniques!

We started looking at the music video of a song called ‘In the Sun’ by She and Him.  We will be re-creating this video shot by shot and we will all be performing as background dancers or singers in the video.  Before actually watching the video, we started interpreting the lyrics of ‘In the Sun’ and brainstorming ideas of how we think the video would look and sound.  We all agreed it seemed to be a light-hearted song about a girl who likes a boy.  Then we watched the video, we saw we all had the right idea.  The music video is set in an American high school which is very typically American, the genre is indie folk and it is very ‘tongue-in-cheek’.

Last Friday, we met Jake who will be the director of our music video on our workshop day.  He directed Geri Halliwell’s famous video ‘It’s raining men’ which was made on a budget of around a quarter of a million and he has directed and edited music videos for artists such as Stereophonics and the Stupid Furry Animals and many more, he has also directed and edited many TV commercials so it will be really interesting to work with someone who has a lot of experience in the real music industry and has directed real music videos.  He told us a lot about working in the music industry, working with the artists and how it is important to keep them happy as the mood and atmosphere of the production day really shows on camera.  We learnt how music videos can be either narrative or performance or a mixture of both and how music videos are effectively commercials for the song so it promotes and sells the song.

On Monday, Jasmine Blackborow came in to teach us the choreography on the music video.  She helped us warm-up and become familiar with the steps which relaxed us and then taught us the dance routines which I hope I don’t forget by next week!  Then we performed the routine all together which was good as it gave us some practise before doing it on the actual shoot.  We also learnt how important it is to act in character and our facial expressions as the theme of the video is very ‘tongue-in-cheek’ happy so we had to make sure we displayed the same feeling.  I’m playing one of the background dancers in the library scene which will be good as I’ll get an idea of what its like to be in a real music video.

Overall, I’m excited for our workshop day and seeing how all the cameras and equipment are used and it will be a really good experience of seeing how music videos are made and also will help massively for when we have to make our own music videos.  I’m really excited to see what it all looks like when its done!