Magazine Advertisement: Placement Research

Emily’s genre is acoustic and her music is aimed at people much like herself with similar daily challenges and issues. Therefore, the advertisement that I have created needs to be placed in a magazine that will allow her target audience to see it. Essentially, this magazine will be British as she is a new British artist and would be discovered in this country before being globally recognised. Also, it would be a magazine aimed at either acoustic fans or females aged between 13 and 25 because this is her audience.

Initial Research:

To begin my research into which magazine my advertisement should be placed I have researched existing magazines: content, demographic and position of advertisement.

• Acoustic Magazine is the only magazine in the UK of its kind. It mainly includes News (instrument, technology, artists and general), Features (various), Interviews, Reviews, Techniques and Competitions. The advertisement for Emily’s music would fit into this magazine due to it being an acoustic genre and also due to their being other similar artists – Ed Sheeran etc. – who have been featured before.

The downside to this magazine is the artistic style of it. From the front cover, it’s clear to see that it’s quite minimalistic and processed. This minimalist style may not suit the style that I have chosen for my music video, advertisement and digipak and therefore it will look out of place. One would suggest that this magazine is aimed more at male musicians because of the colour scheme: orange, white and black. These colours are fairly bold and appeal to a male because they are eye-catching. What’s more, a lot of the artists featured are males, which further indicates that this is for a male audience. £5.95 per issue

• Q is a specialist music magazine which is published monthly in the UK. It features New Releases (music), Reissues (music), Music Compilations, Film, Live Convert Reviews and Radio/TV Reviews. I think Emily’s advertisement would fit into this magazine because it focuses on new music as well as current music, meaning new artists can be identified. Nina Simone and Laura Mvula are examples of fairly

new artists who feature in the ‘News’ section.Dissimilar to the previous magazine, I feel that the artistic style for this magazine may suit my magazine advertisement as the layout inside uses alternative styles and genres. The pages are more varied and less minimalistic compared to ‘Acoustic’ magazine. I think the style that I chose for my magazine advertisement will sit well in the magazine and reflect the style well.Clearly, this magazine is aimed at people who love music. One would suggest that it’s aimed at both males and females due to the wider range of content and unisex colour scheme. The content is varied which means it could appeal to a younger or an older audience. Although Emily’s music is suited more for teenage females, the wider audience could increase her demographic.

£3.99 per issue

• Shout magazine is published in the UK fortnightly for teenage girls. It includes articles on fashion, celebrities, music, real life and problems. The magazine has flow charts and polls which let readers express their opinions on new things: essential for a new artist like Emily.

The style of this magazine would suit Emily’s audience as I found in my audience profiling task that they have an interest in celebrities and fashion. Also the different fortnightly styles would allow the advertisement to be placed in any edition without it looking out of place.

However, this magazine is aimed more at younger teenage girls than older ones; therefore the content is slightly less mature. Emily’s audience are predominantly older teenage girls due to the topics that she writes about, therefore the magazine needs to be aimed more at them.

£3.99 per issue

• Look is a fashion and celebrity magazine for young women. It’s published weekly and includes news and real life stories. Although it doesn’t have a section directly for music, the magazine does include many news stories on celebrities and the music industry. This could mean that Emily’s music advertisement would suit the style of the magazine.

This magazine may not be entirely suitable as it focuses more on fashion as opposed to music. The style of the magazine would however suit the style of my advertisement because the fonts and colours used are similar. It would also ensure that the correct gender and age range observed the advertisement because young females read this magazine.

£1.80 per issue

• M is produced by PRS for Music for around 100,000 members. It has features, news, reviews and comments about the music industry, music makers and issues that affect members. It’s published every three months: March, June, September and December. It’s free for members of PRS for Music. M Online is updated daily as the digital version of the magazine.

The nature of this magazine is perfect for the purpose of my advertisement as it heavily focuses on new artists as well as well-known stars. The contemporary style of the magazine reflects the style that I created in my works (music video, advertisement and digipak). The style of this magazine suggests that it has a male and female audience due to its wide range of articles and features. Essentially, this would help a new artist like Emily to build her audience and gain more fans.

Free

• DIY is a music, style and culture magazine which focuses specifically on new artists in the UK. They release a new magazine each month, as well as a weekly online magazine. It’s free to purchase and the monthly copy can also be found online. It has news, reviews, features, photos and a ‘Neu’ section for new music and bands.

I think this magazine would be perfect for Emily’s advertisement as there is a huge focus on new music. What’s more, the style of the magazine appears to appeal to both males and females, again due to the wide content that the

magazine offers. The fact that it’s available digitally or in a copy means that various people will be able to see it. Furthermore, the publication is available in many places across the UK so Emily is able to build a wider audience.

Again, the contemporary style means that the works I have created for Emily will suit the style of the magazine.

Free

Magazine Advertisement: ‘DIY’ Case Study

After researching suitable magazines for my advertisement, I have decided my advertisement would be best place in ‘DIY’ magazine. The main reason for this was the range of audience that it has. The audience types for the other magazines I researched were very specific and limited, therefore Emily’s target audience or future audiences cannot be reached. However, DIY has both a male and female demographic and appeals to teenagers/young adults – this is the type of audience that Emily’s music is produced for. Furthermore, the style of the other magazines that I researched didn’t work in some cases with the type of advertisement that I have produced because they used basic fonts and styles instead of more contemporary designs. The style of the magazine DIY is very much similar to the style of the body of work I have produced. Therefore, my advertisement should mirror the contemporary style of the magazine, whilst still being able to stand out from the other advertisements.

To ensure this is an appropriate magazine to use for my advertisement I will study the March 2014 issue, exploring existing advertisements and their position in the magazine.

This is page 2 and 3 of DIY magazine. The first advertisement features on page 2 and would be the second thing that a reader sees after they turn the front cover over. Crucially, this would be a prime spot to have an advertisement because of the large number of people who would see it and possibly take interest. Securing this position in a magazine would increase the sales of the album due to it being in such a well-seen place. The black and white colour scheme contrasts the following page strongly which makes it stand out.

Page 41 advert. This isn’t an advert for a new album but it still advertises music. This is much further on in the magazine and is placed inbetween two interview pages. The colours of the advert contrast strongly from the pages before, therefore it stands out. Although it wouldn’t be the first thing the reader of the magazine sees, it would still be an ideal place to put the advert in the magazine as the reader of the interview will see it before continuing onto the next page of it.

Page 49 advert. Again, not an ad for a new album, this page promotes a new gig. This is positioned at the end of an interview and breaks up one feature of the magazine from the next. Essentially, this position in the magazine means that the audience may take more time to read it as they don’t rush to get to the next part of an interview. Again, the colours of the advertisement strongly contrast the colours of the interview which makes it stand out. Much like my advertisement, the colours used are darker, thus it’s useful to see how this works well in comparison to the rest of the magazine. Ultimately, this indicates that my advertisement will suit this magazine.