Ben Howard

Promotion and Branding

Here I’m looking at how Ben Howard distributed his debut album Every Kingdom (EK). It was released in the United Kingdom on 30 September 2011 as a digital download, on CD, on LP and as a 200 copy limited edition cassette. It reached a peak chart position of 4 in the UK Albums Chart on 24 February 2013 following his success at the BRIT Awards that week.

Straight away it is clear that Ben’s website has been redecorated to match EK. The same font is used throughout the site which is the same as the album cover (see top right).

Another clear visual link is that of the album cover art, a man (possibly Ben) swimming. This image is taken from a video (sample here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrzJ4VXjm-g) doing this allows similar pictures to used to promote the album, whilst being slightly different they’re taken from the same source so it’s easy for audiences to make the link.

(Video source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrzJ4VXjm-g)

The same font and imagery is used in Ben’s album sampler on YouTube. This creates a strong link between the visual adverts and the album cover.

Same video, same font used for titles

At the end of the album sampler video the image below is shown on screen for roughly 10 seconds, it has all the necessary details and is simplistic to fit with the rest of the album promotion we’ve seen so far. Everything is in line keeping it easy to read, the artists name stands out along with the iconic shot of a man swimming.

A magazine advert for EK. Either half a page or full landscape. It’s bad quality however all the visual links are present making it easily recognisable.

Top—large font, artist’s name and album title

Left side—Ratings and reviews most likely from magazines and newspapers (smallest font on page). Along with small logo likely to be album producer/distributor.

Right side—Medium sized font stating date of release.

The different font sizes allow audiences to take in the most important details first, catching their attention is done with large text on a (usually) contrasting background.

Second most important in medium sized text is the release date, important but getting across the artist is more so hence the large title.

If audiences are still interested they go on to read the smaller text, which is reviews and ratings which tempt them into buying the album.

To the right is a poster for EK (usually wouldn’t have Ben’s signature on it), It follows all that I have noticed so far; various sizes of text, Ben’s name in bold, album title is same size font but not bold, same iconic photo of swimmer, same colours, small producer /distributor logo in corner, and lastly it’s simplistic and in-line with itself.

Ben’s brand identity is shown here by his website and album cover etc. sharing the same font. This continued after the release of EK as to the right is a E.P cover of Ben’s released after EK exhibiting the same font again Ben’s name being bold and the album/E.P title is normal. This reoccurring font helps establish Ben’s brand identity, which allows fans/audiences to quickly recognise new material from an artist.