Grace Watson
5 March 2021
Media Studies
Week 5 - Artist and Branding Research
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I have linked an article below which discusses seven musicians who really aced their branding campaigns. Below the linked article are a few notes and observations I made as well.
7 Musicians That Nailed Their Branding Campaigns
1. Taylor Swift
One of the most influential singers worldwide, and has been since way back in 1989 when she released her Polaroid-heavy nostalgic album. Since then, the branding campaigns of all her albums and songs have been iconic!
According to the article, Swift has reinvented herself “for each album release”. For example, just before releasing her villainous album ‘Reputation’, Swift deleted every photo from her Instagram feed, and “teased fans with images of a snake”. This was an obvious comeback to the comments she had received of being a back-stabber. By deleting her entire feed and posting these pictures of snakes, Taylor Swift firstly attracted the attention of possible audiences, but also created an image of herself being “unapologetic” and ruthless, matching the themes of the whole ‘Reputation’ album...effective to say the least.
2. The 1975
This indie band include a rectangle surrounding their name on most of their designs, from digipaks to CDs and merchandise, keeping their designs simply and clear. Now, this rectangle has become a symbol of the group, with fans pairing the two together, and even having the symbolic rectangle tattooed on their bodies.
3. Paramore
The band Paramore has been going for a multitude of years. In these types of situations, it’s so vitally important for bands to look for ways to keep things exciting and interesting. If they don’t, they can easily be pushed to the side and forgotten. In their 2017 release of ‘After Laughter’, Paramore completely reinvented their brand image from pop-punk kids to a glossy, 80s-inspired group.
Created by Scott Cleary, ‘After Laughter’s’ music video was bright and colourful, incorporating lots of “bold duotones, clashing patterns” which, one could say, really ‘face-lifted’ the brand. According to the article, “juxtaposing colourful imagery with an album that comments on mental health issues an isolation” was an excellent idea.
4. Slowthai
Slowthai had billboards with facts all about the country’s problems erected all over the UK. He then encouraged audiences to take and send their photos of these billboards to him. This is an excellent way to create a buzz and excitement toward your song, captivating and interacting with audiences who will feel drawn to then listening to the song.
5. Christine and the Queens
This French artist decided to change her stage name, proving that if done right, one can actually survive such a change in the music industry. Christine and the Queens first teased her new album and its name ‘Chris’ (which was also her new stage name) with a crossed out Christine and the Queens logo. This instantly created a marketing buzz and intrigued the interests of listeners.
6. Ariana Grande
Ariana Granda grabbed the interest of viewers by posting upside-down imagery across her social media accounts. Her 2018 album ‘No Tears Left To Cry’, was paired with upside-down branding which “extended throughout Grande’s video for the lead single”. Additionally, Grande released merchandise which boasted upside-portraits of herself and created an Instagram filter as part of the branding campaign. The upside-down branding, which was created by SB Project’s art director and lead designer, Jessica Severn, was a massive success.
7. Ed Sheeran
After a year-long break from social media, Ed Sheeran posted a plain and simple light blue square. Almost a month later he officially announced the record, ‘Divide’. Here. the pairing of one bold colour with a simple divide sign made this branding campaign one of Sheeran’s most successful. The suspense at the beginning during the first two social media posts of the album stirred up excitement and anticipation within listeners who hadn’t heard from or seen Sheeran on social media for over a year, right from the get go.
Evidently, branding campaigns are such an integral part of an artist and their album’s overall success. With the music industry being so immensely saturated (Spotify releases 40 000 tracks a day), it is vital that the branding of an album consists of an “eye-catching and captivating campaign” that stops people in their tracks. Essentially, the musician’s branding needs to become synonymous with them, “instantly recognisable and above all, timeless”, so that people instantly associate the two with each other.
BRANDING POWER
Many years ago when music videos were first introduced to MTV, they provided a very unique and effective opportunity for artists to “convey a more comprehensive message, portray an image” and, essentially create a visual representation of their brand. Additionally, these music videos also provided the opportunity for them to gain new followers. Then for a season of time, when MTV stopped playing music videos, the music videos faced a decrease in their power and impact. Viewers could not easily access them, and they simply could not be watched “at one’s convenience”. However, now, a few years later, music videos are back like never before. Although they may not be streamed on the television, they are now better yet, thanks to the proliferation of the internet, shared and reposted all over the World Wide Web. A post from one major artist reaches hundreds of millions in seconds.
The two main advantages of the internet are its accessibility and share-ability. Below are what each of these mean.
Accessible:
Now more than ever, thanks to the web, viewers are able to search, watch and rewatch music videos over and over again. As long as they have either data or wifi connection, they can seamlessly pull the music videos up online and enjoy watching them, “whenever they are in the mood” to.
According to the Forbes article, this “unlimited access of the Internet magnified everything that goes into an artist’s image.” Instead of only seeing the music video here and there on television like in the MTV days, viewers are able to watch the music videos even ten times a day if they’d like to...on the way to work, when they get home from work, as they cook dinner etc. This repetition is what helps to “develop a strong brand”.
The accessibility of these videos provides the opportunity for artists worldwide to really put themselves out there, gain a following and support, and even make changes to their brand, if they desire to do so. A prominent example of this is Wiz Khalifa. Khalifa was able to successfully diversify his fan-base from being solely a “marijuana-loving rap” one to also really pleasing pop-song loving fans as well. By playing an important role in Maroon 5’s music video for “Payphone” (which had more than 60 million views soon after being released), he was able to show audiences that he is capable of being both a pop artist as well as a hip-hop one quickly, within seconds of the video being posted. I mean...60 million people had already watched the music video within minutes. The accessibility of the internet allowed him that rapid growth. According to the article, “he can have a foot in both worlds, guerrilla style rap videos and big budget, more widely seen pop videos”. By using the web, he has been able to diversify his image, maintain his previous successes, and build on them substantially.
Shareable:
According to the Forbes article, the “widespread usage of social media has propelled the influence of the music video to new heights”. Viewers are now, more than ever before, able to quickly, easily and hassle-freely forward and share music videos to people they know. They can film videos of artists during their performances and send it to millions within seconds by one click of a button. This, too, really enables artists to evolve their brands and make a real mark. Justin Bieber, for example, was able to transition his brand from his “previously teeny bobber image into something more adult-like” in his song “As Long As You Love Me”’s music video. Brian Pethchers, the writer of the article, made an excellent point... ‘The imagery of this video and the fact it was shared globally, branded him in an organic yet still almost immediate way.’ This is exactly what the web provides for many other artists as well.
The internet will be a great tool for me to use in advertising my music video as well. I’ll create a social media page, as well as a digipak. More often than not, social media pages are what really attract and intrigue larger audiences, create a buzz and stimulate an excitement towards music videos. This is evident in many celebrities instances, such as the buzz that was created when Ed Sheeran announced on social media the release of ‘Divide’ and again in 2018 when Ariana Grande announced her release of ‘No Tears Left To Cry’ over social media as well, and it’s for this reason that most successful and well-known artists have large social media followings.
Prime examples being Selena Gomez with 207.15 million and Ariana Grande with 219.23 million Instagram followers. With just one post of advertisement, these artists have reached millions...literally!
In the pre-production and planning stages, the internet has also provided me with a large scope of resources and inspiration when it comes to branding ideas and creative ways of portraying our brand image etc. Researching previous students’ digipaks and CD covers enable me to grow and learn from their mistakes and the things they aced. The internet really is an amazing tool in creating music videos!
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Demi Lovato is one of the artists who wrote the song "What Other People Say" which my music video is based on.
Below is some research on Demi Lovato and her branding campaigns over the years.
Demi Lovato
With 100 million Instagram followers and well over 35 million likes on Facebook, Demi Lovato is exceptionally well-known.
Both her Instagram and Facebook pages are, in themselves, forms of branding. They are platforms which allow Demi Lovato to express herself and her views on matters, to establish relationships with her fans and really get her name out there. As mentioned ample times above, after one post, Lovato reaches millions (literally).
Social media provides Lovato, and all artists, with a quick and easy way of advertising. We all know how to post a picture and add a caption. How to post something to our 'story'. How to add a 'highlight' to our feed. These are simple and quick steps which can, if done right, really improve Demi Lovato's global image and her following overall. I mean nowadays Lovato could even, if she wished to, post her music videos as IGTVs on Instagram!
How does Demi Lovato brand herself?
Below are a few of Demi Lovato’s CD covers over the years. Coming through quite clearly in most of them is her love for the colour black.
Paired with this colour are bold and very clearly-read fonts. It’s evident that Demi Lovato’s campaign is a bold one, one of confidence. The colour black is in itself a very bold colour, symbolising drama, formality, elegance, mystery and power, which is so interesting because all of these seem to have been themes throughout Lovato’s life.
For example, Lovato has experienced a very fair share of drama throughout her adult life, being in-and-out of hospital with drug overdoses and near-death experiences. Also, the theme of power (first implied by her use of black in most CD covers) is emphasised in Lovato’s poses. Looking at most of her CD covers, Demi Lovato always seems to be power-dressed, standing in a power-position. Her stances are often very defined, and her facial expression always seems quite focussed and serious, or at peace with life. Additionally, Demi is always very dominant at ‘centre-stage’ of the cover, with no-one else in the picture. Just her, and sometimes (in her older CDs) an instrument.
One could say Demi Lovato’s target audience would be those from around the age of sixteen and older, perhaps 16-25. In a lot of her songs and even magazine articles and interviews as well (pictures below), Demi touches on topics such as mental health, body positivity and drug abuse.
These are all topics very important for those in their teenage years who often battle with body image and insecurities. It’s as if Demi Lovato is always depicted as being very powerful and strong-willed on the outside, with motivational, ‘I don’t care what you think or say’ ‘vibes’ in some of her stances, in effort to motivate and inspire younger girls (and boys) to raise up and be who they are. By not having a crowd pictured in her CD covers, Lovato is recognising that those types of photos often come across quite similar to Miley Cyrus’ songs which are aimed at younger girls. More serious and simpler CD covers (“less is more”) often seem to do the trick with teens. Often, close-up shots of Demi Lovato are used as her CD covers. Close-up shots are often used to reveal deep emotion and expression...up close and personal...captivating.
Keeping this in mind, I plan on using either a mid shot or close-up shot of Phoebe Armitage and Ethan Scharneck (my talent) for my music video's CD cover and digipak. Perhaps standing opposite each other, facing each other, with Ethan looking forward and Phoebe looking to the ground, or even better a close-up shot of Phoebe and Ethan standing with their faces against each other facing the camera. The shot will reveal only one of each of their eyes and their mouths (example photo below). In this shot, viewers will clearly be able to see their differences in skin tone, gender and eye colour.
Similar to the fonts used in most of Demi Lovato’s CD covers, I plan on using quite a clear font on my CD and digipak.Below are a few examples of possible fonts I may use, which I designed on CANVA.
