Thursday 26 November 2009

Interview with Chipmunk Marketing manager

We thought it would be helpful if we got some advice before designing marketing ideas such as posters to talk to someone who could give us some tips of what to do to make a successful CD cover and magazine advert. At first we decided we might interview MGMT's marketing manager as this would be perfect to get inspiration and help from, however the manager from the band was not available and we decided to ask the marketing manager for chipmunk , who is a solo grime artist although he is not the same genre as MGMT, we thought it would be helpful to get some advice on marketing an artist and how to successfully portray the image and music.
Lily asked her dad who works in Sony Bmg to set us up an interview for a few hours so we could get advice from Chipmunk's manager.




1. When you first sign an artist, how would you begin to market them?

Firstly, I would sit down with the artist so I can get to know them and their interests and it gives them a chance to get to know me, and this is very important because for a long period of time we will be spending many hours together. I then proceed to sit down with the Artist and Repertoire (A&R) man to see what he thought when he recommended them to the label. I make sure I know what the artist is about, the genre they are planning on moving into, their image, their idea of a target and some more of their plans to get themselves to the tops of the charts, for example, when I worked with the Ting Tings they told me they wanted to be seen as a D.I.Y sort of band, they wanted an original idea and not just to be seen as a stereotypical Hollywood type band.





2) How do you decided on the image of the band?


Again, this depends entirely on sitting down with artist, getting to know them, getting to know their interests and understanding how they would like to come across to their audience. At the moment I am working with Chipmunk (Chip), he was very clear about what he wanted his image to be, so then that was our job to make it happen. We do not decide everything, the artist themselves are pretty much the backbone to our job. Chipmunk's image and audience is basically him. His age group, his music interests, his styles, etc.MGMT were not as obvious as Chip as to who they wanted to appeal to and what they wanted their image to be. It took much longer with a group like them because their image can appeal to many different genres. However, we need to make sure the genres are specified and not just a general outlook, so from then on we have a good idea on what the album covers, advertisements and music videos will look like.





3. Do you decide on the target audience?


As a marketing manager I do have an important role when deciding on the target audience for a band. However, in the past 12 - 18 months, there has been a new area introduced to Sony which specifies in the decision of the target audience for an artist. When MGMT first started out, they would have been aimed at a group in society called the fanatics, people who go out of their way to find out the new music. Suddenly a radio D-G heard of them and played them on Radio 1 then they got heard by millions of people and this is what got them to the height in the charts that they are at at the moment. When marketing MGMT we had to come up with suitable places to advertise them. For example, if we were to dedicate a whole page to them in Sugar magazine, we will probably not get the response we need. However, if we were to advertise them in a magazine like NME for example, they would stand more of a chance because of the people who read the magazines and the people who like their style of music.





4. How are you involved in the making of the music video?


I am very heavily involved in the making of the music video. Me and my team begin by listening to the song that we are making the video for then continue to have meetings and produce a long list of features to put in the video. We run these by the A&R man, seeing his opinions on them, how effective they will be in comparison to the song and how easy or difficult it may be to stay within the budget of the video. We then tell the artist our ideas, hear their feedback and work on any changes they would like to make. We all make up storyboards which we rely on very heavily. I am there most of the time during filming to make sure the process is running smoothly and to plan.




5. How important do you think the music videos are to marketing and image of the band?

The importance of a music video definitely varies with the artist and the song choice. For example, MGMT's music videos are relatively important because it is the most effective and easiest way to portray the bands trippy or hippy sort of image. The importance of the video is also to do with the target audience of the artist. MGMT are aimed at a younger generation who are mostly very involved with technology, and rely on the TV to see the new music videos and singles. On the other hand, an artist like Harry Connick Junior, who aims at an older group of people because of the genre of his music and other aspects to him, like his roles in films etc. Somebody like this does not rely so much on a big budget, amazing music video because his fans are most likely older and rely on technology much less than the fans of MGMT.




6. In a band, is it important to give the separate members different identities?


This is a different marketing plan. The Spice Girls did this and it was one of the things that people could relate to with the band. It is mainly about whether the artist wants to or not. The Spice Girls were most successful going down this route because it was something new and different to anyone else around at the time, it also suited their genre. A band like Kings of Leon, for example, will not need this sort of plan because the people who listen to their music are not obsessed with what they look like, or what their names are, the majority of Kings of Leon's listeners become fans with them purely because of the sound of the music they produce.



7. What form of advertising is the most successful?

Whatever advertising we choose to do for the artist it is key to making the band successful, from bus stop posters to glamorous TV appearances. An appearance on a TV show like the X Factor would allow any artist to boost up in the charts. Even when Daniel Merriweather's song Red was played as background music it suddenly had about 10 times more buyers than it had done the previous week. This is a very hard question which, again, ultimately depends on the artist.



8. When making a music video what are the more challenging aspects and what are the easier aspects?

The whole process is constantly up and down on the scale of how easy or difficult it may be. The whole thing can be challenging or the whole thing can run smoothly. I would say that the hardest thing during the making of a professional music video is staying in the budget. It almost never happens. If we begin with a budget of £50,000 the overall price will end up being at least £55,000. After coming up with extravagant and amazing ideas it's not surprising that it can be hard to keep within the price limit.


9. What makes a successful magazine advert?

A bright, bold, simple idea. Something that stands out from the page when somebody is flicking through a magazine, as the majority of people do not spend time reading the advertisements in full detail. Once you have caught the reader's attention they will read it, but there needs to be something vibrant to catch their attention in the first place.



10. What makes a successful CD cover? E.g. Something original or something the audience can relate to.
Again this varies on the artist and buyer. It is difficult to determine whether a good album cover is one that has sold 3 million copies or one that has an amazing design but may not have sold as many. There needs to be something that buyer can see that links to the artist, for example, a logo, photo or phrase. Chipmunk's album cover to the album, 'I am Chipmunk', I found very off putting, I didn't like it at all, however, Chipmunk himself loved it and so did his target audience because that's who it is targeted at, so that is who will like it. Another good example of an album cover is ACDC. They always have the same band logo, with the bold red writing and the lightning bolt striking through the middle of the letters. Fans will be able to see straight away that it is definitely the right album and artist. People who may not have heard of them before would still be able to tell what genre they are and who they would be aiming at because of the photos and the logo. It is a very simple design, but at the same time, an extremely successful and recognisable one.




11. How much do you rely on technology, how useful do you think it is?


Technology is a vital part of the music industry, so much so, that record companies would find it extremely difficult to survive without it. It has progressed so much from 30 years ago, and everyone has adapted and now relies on it a great deal. A lot of what we do would not be possible without the great standards of technology that we are able to get a hold of, from being able to produce incredible effects in a music video to funky and eye catching images on a poster.

Wednesday 18 November 2009

Possible CD Covers

Below are some possible CD covers I have designed them to fit in with the bands image and to match with the song, and the songs that will be on their album.
I think album covers that are original have a lasting effect on the audience and are most visually attractive, therefore attracting audience into buying their album. So I have decided to do something original but also something that will match to there songs, but I also wanted to try and keep it fairly simple and simplicity attracts attention and will be eye catching.

This is one I have designed on Photo plus and Paint software, the cover is made up of a series of photographs and drawings to create a fantasy/ random effect. The whole of the cover is meant to portray imagination and the idea of 'pretending' and keeping the idea of child like behaviour.
I used lots of bright and vibrant coloured images to catch the audiences eye and to also create a happy mood by looking at it. I have collage lots of different, random images of all kinds of people and objects, such as flowers,animals, cartoon pictures and children.
The background for this cover its imaginative and a childlike atmosphere, the narrative im trying to protray with this cover is a hippy image as this is MGMTs look.








After designing some CD covers I will narrow them down to a few and ask some of the target audience to decide on which one they like the best. I am designing them on paint, and a few I have decided to draw myself, I want to keep in the theme of imagination and fantasy.






This cover is made up of a photograph of MGMT that I have traced the picture of them out on photo plus software, I then copied the drawing out in a black colour. Although I do like this CD cover I don't think it matches with their songs as well as their image as well. At first glance it seems boring and they do not appear to be indie singers,after asking students in my year what they thought of this CD cover, although a lot of them liked the way it was designed many people agreed that it did not match well with the genre of the music or MGMT's image. One person said thought the band looked like a folk singers, so therefore I will not be using this particular CD cover although I may use some of software for designed the art work.