So, I made a Music Video!

For the past few weeks, I was tasked to make a researched marketing campaign to promote a new and upcoming artist. So, as one does, I made a music video for a band titled, "Super Cyber-Punk Space Cowboy Band." And yes that was the real title. 

 -While the name may come off as a mouthful just to be confusing, the length was intentional. In order to be able to spread our branding, we wanted to go by a title that would be unforgettable, stick in people's heads, and draw attention. A unique name also seems to be a prevalent common factor for bands within this genre (Vampire Weekend, The Strokes, Arctic Monkeys). 

The chosen genre for the band was Alternative/Indie Rock and target audience would therefore be the typical "alternative" crowd of unisex, 16-25 year old people. To build a successful campaign for our band, we had to view current marketing trends for this style of music. 

What we found were that popular bands such as, Cage the Elephant and Grizzly Bear thrive on evoking a nostalgic sound and feel. With our aesthetics, we wanted to emphasize that with the wacky costume designs, smiley faces, and collage themed website.

As far as our literal marketing goes, we posted merchandise to be sold on our website. The items included things such as vinyl stickers, patches, and a CD for the single. The items were not only in tune with our aesthetic, but also with our audience who typically don't like/can't spend large amounts of money. Our items were inexpensive and convenient as this would make our fans more open to buying them.

-Another marketing scheme was the use of a QR code that would be posted along various local entrances of shops and places around. This guerrilla form of branding is incredibly useful at reaching for a more broad audience that would be attracted to it by the colorful aura around it. The QR code would take you to see the music video, which gives new fans a dive into the band in a quick and easy way.

-In terms of online presence, social media such as Twitter, Youtube and Instagram is crucial in this day and age. With 75% of Instagram's users being 18-24 year olds and 80% of Twitter users being millenials, this massive pool of potential fans has to be touched. Instagram is mainly used to help build our band's image and branding, while Twitter helps maintain a strong audience interaction. Youtube is the primary location to view music videos among younger audiences .

And speaking of music videos, a few aspects of the video that we kept in mind for our genre were the costume design and look of the shots. The music video had characters who were the band all dressed up in wacky costumes, ie. the banana flannel, sunglasses, ski mask and the cowboy hat. The way we edited the shots were vibrant and used a film grain to implement a classic feel. The ski mask was an allusion to the classic robber masks from known culture and the water bottle being stolen was a gimmick in itself, as well. The entire concept for the video came from the title of "Night Running" and what it can really mean. The phrase can refer to a criminal escaping police custody and for our video, we wanted to follow this story line with an otherwise silly crime and instead of police, it would be his own guilty conscience represented by the band members following him and appearing throughout.

If there's anything I've learned from having to create a music marketing campaign was that the most vital thing you do is to find your genre, audience, and brand; you start there and you finish there! These are necessities to research and get a deep understanding of in order to make a successful music artist campaign. Even in terms of the music video, the genre and branding of your artist must be made apparent in order to engage your wanted audience with the artist and their music. After all is said and done, maintaining a music artist's success is way more research and business planning than I had ever imagined.