How effective is the combination of your

main product and ancillary texts?

By Rocharna McNaughton

What is Synergy?

In order for us to answer this evaluation question effectively we must first identify what is meant by synergy and how it can be effective in relation to this A2 coursework.

Synergy is the interaction or cooperation of two or more organisations/agents to produce a combined effect greater than separate attempts. In this case I will show how synergy between my music video, the CD digipak and my magazine advert, achieved this.

Digipak The digipak is used to directly sell my artist ‘Jhene Aiko’ and

her music ‘Wrap me up’. For example, my artist is wearing a big gold chain around her neck, which conforms to representations of the R&B image. This helps sell her music as the target audience will recognise this CD as belonging to their desired genre.

Jhene Aiko is represented as angelic yet powerful. As can be seen, she is lying on her side looking down which shows her innocence. This contrasts with her black/black lipstick to show that her words are powerful and presents her music as powerful.

Digipaks of other genres (for example, indie) contain powerful lyrics and this is seen as most important. However in an R&B genre it is mainly about artist image which is why the inside of my digipak contained more photos of my artist.

Throughout the four panel digipak I have used images of the same background as opposed to conforming to a white backdrop. As a result existing costumers will associate this background with my artist which will help me with synergy when making the magazine advert.

Magazine Advert The magazine advert has the same image as seen on the front cover of my CD

digipak. This magazine advert would be posted in R&B magazines such as VIBE and also online R&B magazines such as rnbmagazine.com. Furthermore, because we know that the audience for R&B hardcopy magazines are decreasing, it is clear that my target audience is predominately online. This means that it is easier for my target audience to make music purchases online which is why there is an iPhone barcode on my music magazine that is directly linked up to iTunes (another online source).

Doing this we can see that there is synergy between the digipak, the music advert and the music video. The photos where taken from the music video and therefore there is a consist image running through all ancillary products to help promote and easily recognise features from my music video, an example of this is the patterned backdrop.

There is also synergy between my magazine advert and iTunes. The magazine advert promotes that the single ‘wrap me up’ can be purchased on itunes which increases revenue and also Def Jam record labels.

There is also synergy between the typography used on the music advert and the CD digipak. Whereby I kept the idea that R&B fans like big chains so the same gold typography and font on both text.

Brand Identity

Creating a brand identity for Jhene Aiko was more difficult than it would have been for an already established artist because they already have an established fan base. Due to Jhene being new to the mainstream industry I could not work around her pre-existing image, and I therefore had to create what I thought it would be from similar R&B artists within the same record label.

A lot of this research was done on Def Jam Records; the brand identity of their signed artists and how that contributed to the brand identity of Def Jam Records as a whole. I think that this was my strong point in this coursework.

Brand Identity & Record Label The brand identity of my artist Jhene Aiko has to conform to other artists in this record

label. For example, Mariah Carey has a new album coming out called ‘ME. I AM Mariah’ and the album cover is covered in gold. Gold represents the artists as expensive and also of higher status than its audience. This allows the audience to look up to the artist in this record label

All of Def Jam’s adverts when promoting their artists new singles/albums include that the album can be purchased on iTunes. This can create the identity that the artists and the audience are modern and embrace that their audience are part of the age of technology. Maximising their revenue by promoting legal downloads (we are aware that the R&B audience rarely buy CD Digipaks and therefore provide an alternative)

My artist Jhene Aiko is seen as having a celebrity status by publishing my magazine advert in VIBE. Artists that are in this magazine are seen as glamorous, popular and high end in the music industry.

My artist is dressed in black with black lipstick, this represents her as being dark and serious. Furthermore, the lipstick represents her as being able to speak her mind which can mean that sometimes it can be cynical.

The fact my artist is looking down represents that she is looking down on her competition and also reinforces the identity that she is of higher status as opposed to just a regular person (a stereotypical feature of an R&B artist)

To empathise and regain their connection with their target audience/fans, R&B artists normally represent themselves as going through everyday struggles. For example, in their music they will talk about mundane struggles such as falling in an out of love. This is why in my music video I included narrative and a performance element so that the target audience could identify with the artist as they feel like they have been through the same as Jhene Aiko

Brand Identity & Record Label

Def Jam Records usual promote their artists on their official website defjam.com and through VIBE magazine (print and online). Looking through the other adverts in this magazine, such as adidas adverts, we can see that the target audience is materialistic which is what fuelled my decision to make my typography gold.

Jhene aiko is represented as having a well kept image in the magazine advert. This is in keeping with other adverts in this magazine, such as high end perfumes, which shows me that the target audience care about their physical appearance.