Magazine Advert Draft

Here is the draft of my magazine advert that I created:

Much like my digipak did, my magazine advert both coincides with and differs from my original plan.

The image I have used is the one that I outlined in my plan for my magazine advert. I decided to use the image that is on the front cover of the digipak, as this links the two pieces together very well. It is also part of the opening shot of the promotional music video we created, which ties the promotional package together nicely. Instead of centring the image like on the digipak, I positioned the image so that Hannah was to the right-hand side of the frame. I did this so that I could add text in the 'empty' space of the image, so that it would not get lost over the top of Hannah. I thought that this positioning of the image also helped to draw attention to the text layered on top of the image because it acted as a frame.

A key difference between my original plan and my draft, is that in the draft I have used two black shapes that act as a header and a footer to the poster. I took inspiration from the magazine adverts for Mumford & Sons album 'Sigh No More', of which most of which the image(s) were the focal point of the centre of the advert [featured to the left]. The album and artist names were featured in a black coloured strip/space above this, and other information was featured in the equivalent below the image(s). I thought this would be effective to use on my magazine advert, as I had found that the text had been disappearing into the image, which meant that it could not easily be read. 

I kept the album title and artist name the same as on the album cover, in order to make sure that the promotional material included all of the same typography to make the package sleek. However, the text needed to be visible on the black layer, so I had to change to colour of the font to white.

On the plan, I said that I would include the phrase "out now" layered on top of the main image, and that I would outline this with a box. When I was creating the draft of my digipak, I realised that simply saying the phrase "out now" would not be effective, as I had not specified what it was that was being released. Therefore, I chose to include the word "album" in this phrase to make this clear. I did out line the phrase with a box, as I thought that this was a useful tool to draw the eye to this piece of information.

I chose to include the phrase "12 new songs" as the purpose of this piece is to attract people to buy the album. This information is a tool used to draw interest of the target market by multiple artists in the existing magazine adverts that I have viewed. I did not include this in my original plan, as it was not something I had noted well as a convention of magazine adverts for albums at the point of creating the plan. However, once I discovered this was a common convention, I felt it was necessary to use this in my piece.

Fitting with what I outlined in my magazine advert plan, I said that I would include the information about the singles that were included on the album. This is a useful tool for promotion, as the target market (and possibly people outside of this, too) may have heard the most popular singles that were released prior to the album. If individuals liked these tracks, they would be inclined to purchase the album. However, if an individual has not previously heard the tracks, this provides them with the knowledge to research the songs if they so wish to, before deciding whether they will purchase the album. Also in-line with what I planned, I have made the text size for the names of the singles slightly larger than the rest of the sentence as this highlights them as the important information, and will increase the likelihood that people will focus on them.

I included the common conventions of a small image of the actual album cover, and of a web address, as I had outlined in my plan. The small image of the album cover allows it to be identifiable to the potential buyer, and the web address allows for individuals to find out more information on the band, and to find out their social media information, etc. I felt that both elements were getting lost in the main image, so when I added the footer, I felt that this allowed them to stand out more which was essential for them to be effective. 

I had originally planned to include information about how the album was available to be bought over the main image of the text. However, when creating the draft, I discovered that this information would have made the main image too cluttered. Therefore, I chose to still include the information, but I would do so on the footer of the advert.

Adding the footer also allowed me to include some extra information, without the advert appearing too cluttered. There was plenty of space for me to include some album reviews, which were a convention of magazine adverts that I discovered that I failed to include in my original plan. Positive album reviews by respected music magazines are important promotional techniques, as they reassure the target market that this is a good product, and that buying it will be beneficial to them. Using the star rating system also provides an easily interpreted review/rating of the album, without having to have to read any information. This is suitable for magazine adverts, as the star icons will draw the reader of the magazine to reviews, and when the ratings are high and are presented clearly, the reader will be more inclined to pay attention to the advert. Subsequently, the reader will be more likely to consider the album, and considered purchasing it.