music marketing (part dos!)

"wojaks, zines, and gorilla... wait no guerilla marketing"

 

Hello hello! Wow I have to say, this was one of my favorite projects yet. My group and I were assigned to create a marketing campaign for a band in the "alternative" genre. I was excited to have been assigned this genre because a lot of the music I listen to falls into the alternative genre and subgenres. Based on our research, my group and I noticed a pattern. Our case studies took a DIY and "non-corporate" approach to marketing their music. They utilized social media in a casual way: posting random objects/places and talking directly to their fans. Their target audience consisted of teenagers and young adults. 

My group and I wanted to incorporate similar techniques that other artists used, such as casual posting, all while bringing something new and unique to the genre. We initially wanted to create a riot grrrl (a punk subgenre popular in the 90s) and female fronted band. Eventually we decided that it didn't fit well with the song we chose, and would cause inconsistencies in branding. After a lengthy brainstorming session at Panera, our band Jigsaw Youth was birthed. 

One of my main jobs during this project was focusing on the branding of the band. I had just watched Suspiria (1977) by Dario Argento and was heavily inspired by the creative use of lighting throughout the film. I consulted my group members and we decided on creating a thrilling music video that relied on color symbolism. Since we filmed after sunset, we knew that lighting would be one of the main challenges we would be faced with. We borrowed a lighting kit and gathered all of the flashlights we had laying around our houses. Since we didn't have gels, we came up with the idea to use plastic binder dividers to create the colored lighting we desired.

Look at this lighting!!!

We filmed over the course of two days and not everything went as well as planned. The first night of filming, we didn't check the weather (it was in the 50s). We also expected to finish filming our entire project that night and were feeling pretty discouraged as the hours passed. However, we allocated enough time to dedicate another night to filming. In post-production editing, we didn't have to make any major edits to the lighting of the clips. We did however layer scenes and use a distortion effect to better convey the feelings of the song. In addition to that, it created visual interest that could captivate our target audience of teenagers and young adults.

Album cover and music video thumbnail

Presentation time! In our PowerPoint presentation, our ultimate goal was to keep our audience engaged. We did this by using music related memes (appealed to target audience), creative titles, and keeping the amount of words on each slide to a minimum. While we presented, we were enthusiastic (and were even said to be charismatic!)

Wojak meme about our case studies

This project has taught me about unique marketing techniques and developing a distinct brand image. Through Jigsaw's Youth website, social media, and music video, we were able to develop a cohesive brand that would stand out to our audiences. I also did extra research and learned about guerilla marketing: an advertising technique that uses unconventional interactions to promote a brand or service. We decided to develop stickers with a Spotify scan code that would link to our single and also interview with art zines. I have also learned how much effort it takes to produce a 2 minute music video: days of planning, filming, and editing.

Physical sticker design

The website!

Our instagram page!