Music Marketing Blog Post #2

  Hello everyone! It has been a little over two weeks since my last blog update regarding my music marketing project, so I thought I would share everything that has occurred since then. 

Research

As I mentioned in the previous blog post, my AICE media class was assigned a marketing project where we create an entirely new band and come up with some marketing strategies to successfully increase the band’s success. We began with research, learning more about two music companies and researching two bands from each label. We chose Atlantic Records and RCA Records (both very successful music companies) and four case studies: Nothing But Thieves, Foo Fighters, The Rolling Stones and Highly Suspect. By looking at each band’s road to stardom in terms of their advertising and marketing campaigns, we were able to get a feel of which strategies were useful and which approaches were unique to each band. After defining what these “marketing standards” were, we began implementing them into our own music marketing project and thought of ways to make these approaches complement our band’s brand, message, and music. These “staples” included the use of multiple social media platforms (mainly Instagram) to interact with audiences, a website to provide more detailed information to fans, touring with bigger artists with similar music, and more.

This is our band's logo. We wanted to have the planet Venus somewhere in the logo because 

of the band's name (as well as their space-like brand), so we made that the base and put some 

simplistic, curved letters over the planet. 

This is a screenshot of the Instagram account the we created for our band. We wanted to post some 

behind-the-scenes content, as well as some informational and advertising content. This establishes 

Venus's friendly character, as well as helps solidify their brand and message.

Brainstorming

After laying down these basics, we decided to get more creative in order to find unique ways to spread the word about our own band. One of these special techniques was using the band’s backstory to not only make the marketing process more personal (since audiences feel closer to artists that share their stories), but also to find even more ways to market our group. For instance, we decided that the members of the band went to the same school and bonded at a local ice cream parlor, Twisty Parlor. Therefore, we included spoon rings, pop-up shows at this location, and even an original ice cream flavor (the Venus Twist) that is sold at the parlor and named after the band, all in our plan. Moreover, both members would jokingly call themselves “the floating rock society,” which not only matched their “otherworldly” theme but also ended up being a part of their brand (and printed on merchandise). Just as extras, we also decided to collaborate with a growing clothing company to sell merchandise, and create a snapchat filter that would play the group’s new music as well as market the band’s brand. 

This is an image of the Floating Rock Society logo that we created for the merchandise. 

We wanted this logo to be simplistic yet still have an ethereal aesthetic to complement Venus's brand. 

We then used this logo to design merchandise and give something for the band's audience to 

identify with. This would increase audience engagement and ultimately maximize the 

success of the band.

In addition to creating a logo, we also used Canva.com to lay out what the products 

from the collaboration with the clothing company would look like. We included spoons in 

the image because spoons are a large part of their brand (thanks to the members' history and 

ongoing collaboration with Twisty Parlor).

Music Video: Planning and Production

After brainstorming and creating the website, social media accounts, and more, we planned the music video and prepared to film. Unfortunately, due to the surprisingly cold and windy weather that South Florida experienced the weekend we set aside to produce our video, we were not able to fulfill our original plans. We were not able to film, forcing us to come up with a brand new way to convey the message in the band’s “new” song, “My Name is Human.” This song is about someone encouraging others to break free from something that is holding them back. Before having to rethink our idea, our group thought about it very literally, especially after hearing the lines “get up from your knees, girl, stand face to face with your God.” We wanted to produce a video about a girl who felt trapped by her religion and ultimately broke free. After being unable to execute our initial idea, however, we came up with something more abstract yet something easier to portray - society’s obsession with social media. 

This is a photograph from the first time our group met to film (when we were still trying to 

execute our original music video idea). Though it might seem like Maya is relaxing in the water, 

this could not be any farther from the truth (the water was at least 50 degrees and the air outside 

was even colder). If we had not met up early to film, we probably would not have been able to 

come up with let alone produce a brand new music video.

We decided to tell a story about a young woman that is held back by her addiction to her cellular device, yet eventually faces her issues and comes back stronger. In order to convey this message, we used complementary colors (orange and blue) to establish the contrast between someone that is living passively on their phone and someone who has taken control of their own life. Furthermore, we made sure to explicitly show the subject “facing her God,” which in this case we achieved by editing a shot of her getting sucked inside the phone that she is a slave to. 

This is a picture of our second storyboard (which we completed on a white board out of pure 

frustration and lack of time). We used this as a reference while filming this second idea, however 

still ended up having to compensate for lack of footage in the post-production process. 

The filming process was quite stressful, yet very educational. Before meeting up, I went to Michaels and bought cellophane, a plastic, see-through material to place over lights to achieve colored lighting. We set up the lighting, removed everything but my bed from my room, and made sure that we were all set to begin. We then started filming around 6pm, beginning with the “blue” shots on the bed. This took quite a while since these shots made up a majority of the video (and some shots were difficult to capture). The still shots of the subject swiping on the bed were quite easy to get, but the shots of her “falling through the mattress” and getting sucked into her phone definitely required more thought (and a sturdy bed frame for all the times that Maya, one of the group members, had to repeatedly fall on my bed). We then proceeded to film the orange shadow shots with a blanket and floodlight covered in yellow and pink cellophane, and took the pictures that were showcased in the beginning and end of the video. We achieved the “ghost” effect by shooting with a very low shutter speed and the same orange light in the back. After capturing all that media, it was already 2 am, so we decided to call it a night and work with the footage we got.

Post-Production

This inevitable, last-minute decision added plenty of stress when it came to editing, especially since we were not able to capture some of the footage we needed for the chorus. Despite this, however, I was able to edit the entire thing in a total over 11 hours. I used Adobe Premiere for line editing and masking, and used After Effects for the more advanced effects (such as the “sucked into the phone” effect). I made sure that even the still shots (such as the orange shadow shot) were interesting by using key frames and masking, as well as playing with the opacity. While editing this, the rest of the group members were perfecting the presentation and ensuring that all of the information we needed was on the Google Slides. Though rushed, we managed to finish on time and create a quality band, marketing campaign, music video and presentation. Presenting this was also quite enjoyable, especially after putting so much work into the project. It was super satisfying to see all of our hard work come together! 

This is the link to the final video. As you can see, it is quite different from the original 

storyboard due to the last minute changes, but I was able to edit this as best as 

possible within the time we had left to complete the project.

Reflection

Overall, I think that this project not only introduced me to some amazing peers within my AICE media studies class, but it also taught me a lot about marketing, music video production and time management. I learned a lot of new things about lighting (specifically colored lighting), low shutter speed photography, and even how to use certain tools on Adobe After Effects (ex: puppet points). This was also the first time I thoroughly enjoyed a class presentation (probably because I love the material and would potentially like to pursue marketing and production in the future). This has been by far the most enjoyable AICE media project yet. Super excited to see what we do next! Anyways, hope you enjoyed reading about my experience. Until next time!