A2 Advanced Portfolio Evaluation

Question 2: How effective is the combination of your main product

and ancillary texts?

Introduction • The A2 Advanced Media Portfolio consists of a main product and ancillary texts. In my case, the main product was the Music Video and the ancillary texts being the CD Cover and Magazine Advert, as shown below.

CD Cover

Back of CD Cover

Magazine Advert

Music Video

CD Cover Back of CD Cover

Magazine AdvertMusic

Video

My digipack effectively markets itself to an audience through my use of style and images, these are consistent throughout all 3 texts.

This is shown in the images to the right, as the artist is wearing the same style of clothing in all the media texts, the jeans, baseball jacket and New Era Cap. This style of clothing represents that of a youth culture, therefore it is an effective way of marketing itself to its audience of youths. Also there is an urban use of imagery in all 3 pieces, which also connotes to youth culture, as this is a common stereotype as to where youths tend to hang around, again this makes it effective in reaching out to its audience.

As the theme of the song by Conor Maynard represents that of a youth culture, I had decided to continue this theme in my main and ancillary texts. We see this above, where the graffiti area where Conor is seen to be hanging around correlates with the stereotypes of the teenage audience of the present day. Furthermore, I had chosen the images so that the stand in artist is looking at the words ‘Can’t Say No’, this was to add emphasis on Conor’s situation in the video.By taking these factors into consideration, I was able to select and edit the appropriate images to use in the CD Cover and Magazine Advert successfully.

Brand identity is constructed between the media texts through the use of costume and location in the video shoot and photo shoot for the ancillary texts.

As shown in the images above, we have used the same style of clothing when shooting the Music Video and taking photos for the CD Cover and Advert. As the artist is seen like this throughout all the media texts I have made, it creates a brand identity, this allows him to reach out to his audience as they know what style of clothing the artist likes to wear and promote. This also connotes to him being a role model for teenagers in the audience, as they may watch the video, and purchase his CD, therefore they notice the link and aspire to be like him.

Brand identity

CD Cover Back of CD Cover

Magazine Advert

Music Video

I have created synergy between all 3 media texts as we see in the images shown. The same font is used in the CD Cover and Magazine Advert for the title of the song, ‘Can’t Say No’. Again the same font and lettering style is used in the text ‘Conor Maynard’. Furthermore, the colour scheme throughout is a main mix of blue and white, I also decided to follow this colour scheme in the fonts used.

The artist is also wearing the same clothing in all three texts, the baseball jacket, jeans and New Era Cap. This again follows the blue and white theme created in the media portfolio. The artist also wears hoodies etc., which represents the youth in the video & is also used in the Video and CD Cover.

Furthermore, the pop/electro-pop genre tends to have frequent use of bright colours, I have used this convention, through the use of blue/purple clothing and font styles in the video and ancillary texts.This again emphasises on the youth culture of the artist and his music.

I believe that all three pieces of text created would fit and feature in the genre of electro-pop, because of the synergy created between the product and the artist, also between the Video, CD Cover and Magazine Advert.

Magazine Advert

I would expect the magazine advert to feature in magazines such as The Magazine (California) or Shout Magazine as Conor himself has featured in articles in these magazines, as a model for the front page and has also been interviewed by these magazines. Furthermore , as he has been successful in featuring in these magazines, it is clear that the readers are interested in him and his stories, hence the interview and him being on the front cover. Therefore I believe that this would be an ideal magazine to place the advert in as he is well known in this magazine, hence the advert having a positive effect on readers.

As for the record label, Conor Maynard is currently signed to Parlophone Records.

However, I believe another suitable record label that would promote and sell the artist would be Island Records.

This is because they promote and deal with artists like Justin Bieber, who is a highly comparable artist to Conor Maynard, therefore this label is highly suited to artists like Conor.The video could appear on the record labels website, as he would be a brand new artist, Island Records would be wanting to promote the new arrival as much as possible to their viewers. Furthermore, this would then filter through the viewers of Island Records and be seen all over the internet to allow a wide variety of audiences to see and hear his music.

CD Cover

Music Video