Mart's Evaluation - Question Two

Question Two: How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

We have maintained a clear image and theme throughout our campaign by keeping everything very similar. For example, our Digipak and Webpage photo shoot was taken when we were filming so we didn’t have to organise another date to meet up for a shoot and that the actors were all in their costumes and would be ‘in the zone’ when it came to acting as our artists Jenny and Johnny.


Our digipak and webpage uses images that appear in the music video and vice versa. This pulls all the different pieces of work together and makes it into one grouped piece instead of feeling like separate work. By interrelating the webpage, Digipak and video it creates a consistent image of the band and that is good for continuity so the audience know what to expect and Jenny and Johnny will be able to use those relations to good effect as it may become a sort of catchphrase or image for them.

A shot without any effects that is used for the album cover

Jenny and Johnny use a shot from their video 'Big Wave' on the album cover

The main purpose of the webpage is for communication to occur between the artists and their fans. This is crucial as the fans want to feel connected and appreciated for the money that they spend on the band. If there is no communication then the fan base would start to become disloyal as the fans need to feel part of the group not just fans on the outside. By placing Twitter and Facebook feeds onto the webpage makes the communication very easy for both Jenny and Jonny to advertise tours and new singles/albums and for the fans to ask questions and communicate between themselves.

The Digipak has to be attractive to the eye as it needs to stand out on the shelf to sell records. In my opinion our Digipak is very eye catching and is appropriate to the song and the artists. It is also very noticeable for the fans to see when buying Jenny and Johnny related merchandise and some of the artwork on the Digipak could be used for merchandise such as posters or clothing designs.

Jenny and Johnny use a image from their music video to advertise their shop

Synergy, which can be defined as two things working together to gain a result that couldn't happen independently is very much a key factor when deciding on aspects of the music video, webpage and Digipak. The synergy between them all has to be there as without it, none of them would be individually successful. This is because the the music video may only get made if the song is popular and for the song to be popular the band has to have a good media image. This is where the website plays into the cycler flow of media where one media product interwebs into other media products to achieve the best results.

As mentioned in the planning and research stages of the production, I found out that the best webpage’s are those that are simple and design and heavily feature the artists images in prominent positions so they are all recognisable. By featuring the band images so much this shows the audience exactly who are in the band and what the feel of the artists is. Another example of synergy is keeping appearance looks similar. If Gene Simmons came onto stage without any makeup on or was pictured without makeup the audience wouldn’t know how to react or they might not even know that it is Gene Simmons due to the change of image.

Gene Simmons with and without make up. Recognisable consistent styling is needed.

Our Digipak and webpage compared well to the Digipak’s and webpages of similar artists. Our Digipak and webpage are very simple in their design but are very effective as they show off the artists in the best possible way and they tie in all of the different products.