Evaluation

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

As part of our project, we did not only have to create a music video, but also create two ancillary texts. Ancillary texts are promotional packages, for example, a Digipak and a poster. We wanted there to be an effective combination of all them. We wanted our video to look glossy and expensive so we felt the Digipak and poster should follow the same style. If they don’t really follow the same ideas there isn’t much of a “brand identity” which we felt was essential. If everything matches it is easily identified. We did this by using the same colour schemes and fonts and photos from the same photo shoot.
So, for the song title, “Money Honey” we used the same font on the poster as on the front of the Digipak.

Digipak -

Poster -

They do vary slightly in colour schemes but we felt that there should be some variety to make it more fun. In the music industry, artists use crossovers of ancillary texts to make it easier for the consumer to identify. So for example, if they saw a poster and liked the look of it, it would be easier for them to find the corresponding album/single as they look similar.

Poster/advert -

Digipak -

Here you can see that both ancillary texts follow the same colour scheme and are easily identified as being associated with each other. They both incorporate dollar bills too. The Digipak also matches the video as the two of the frames have screenshots from the music video. They are mirrored which gives a good effect. The clothes Grace is wearing in the pictures are also the same as on the poster and in the video. Where the CD would be placed has lyrics from the song which can be seen on the bottom left and middle two frames. Two of the images we used on the Digipak (top left and middle frames) are also quite similar to the picture used for the poster/advert. Grace has her hands on her hips in all three of them, however, they are still quite different though as she has a different stance and facial expression in each which we liked because it showed variety but kept the combination of all ancillary texts intact.

We researched Lady GaGa adverts and single/album covers. The trend that followed throughout them all was that they all focused on Lady Gaga herself. We felt this would be a good idea for our products as it would create a good relationship between Grace and the audience. The photographs we took are focused on her. It is conventional for a female pop artist to be on the cover. Dollar bills are incorporated into both the Digipak and poster/advert, however they are dark green and this didn't really follow our colour scheme, so we edited the hue of the photograph to make them more of a turquoise colour which matched better.