In using quantitate and qualitative data to curate a campaign, I have decided to use my personal artist brand (MYER) to help me paint a marketing picture. For this process I will be focusing on a music video campaign. This will involve many underlying factors that I had to learn to consider along the way.
Strategic goals
The reason I have decided to go with a music video campaign rather than something more physical like a gig or selling merch is because due to my artistry, which I consider to be more visual based through lyrical imagery which includes having themes of global issues interweaved in it, I believe that having a video to cultivate these messages effectively will be very important for illustrating my craft to my respective audiences. This idea of artistic expression is mirrored through the website ‘Medium’. “Music videos form a large part of an artist’s general creative vision and output.” In the listeners perspective, ‘Promoly’ states that “By combining audio and visual elements, music videos can evoke a deeper emotional response from viewers, making your music more memorable and impactful.” With this visual release, I would like to captivate an audience that enjoys engaging with all rounded forms of media. For example: wanting to target audiences that will be interested in poetry and art as these are elements that I will be focusing heavily on representing in my recent and future projects. Due to lyrical elements in my songs being heavily inspired by worldly topics like nature and people’s behaviours affecting the world negatively, I want to create a music video to show the link between the visual and lyrical elements of my song.
This will be mirrored with what social media platforms I focus my marketing on. This is to gain a specific fan base and be able to portray my brand in the way in which I would feel comfortable meaning, not oversharing with content or participating in ‘gorilla marketing’. This is a campaign that “intend[s] to astonish your audience by introducing a shocking and unconventional marketing tactic.” I will be expanding on the specific media’s I will be using towards the end of this essay.
My theoretical framework
The marketing theories that I will use to frame my campaign are Relationship marketing and the User Generated Content Theory.
Relationship marketing refers to a “long-term strategy which focuses on building close relationships with your customers.” This means providing fans with constant meaningful media to help them feel like they understand the artist and their musical intentions as well as their life in general. Even though this can be a fuel for many toxic practices like super fandom over an artist, I believe in moderation this can be effective marketing. Elements like newsletters and social media posts create this closeness. I plan to use this form of marketing through platforms like Substack which is “an online platform that allows creators – especially authors – the ability to easily publish articles, podcasts and newsletters. Readers can comment on articles, creating a community-like atmosphere.”
User Generated Content Theory refers to “content created by your customers about your brand or its products.” Apps like TikTok can be great for utilising this form of content as well as Substack as it enables community building for people to understand the artist’s creations more.
My Plan
A tool I have used to plan my campaign is a Gantt chart. I’ve used this to maintain a detailed timeframe of when I will need to complete all my tasks by. For example, from the chart on the left, I have scheduled out when I need to have found a videographer and a venue by. In both scheduled times I will be explaining the type of music video I would like to create style wise and showing a mood board to the videographer.
(An example mood board with my desired aesthetic). The chart highlights other elements like when my song demo should be completed so we can record with it during the video session. Signing up for video distribution services and logging in royalty splits for my band are also on this chart. I have designated “three weeks in advance” therefore it gives time for “inspections and any needed adjustments. Digital partner processing. Promotion” according to the website ‘CD Baby’ which is a “music distribution service for independent artists.” Essentially, this Gantt chart will help me maintain a realistic pace of consistency throughout so I can complete all my desired milestones on time and effectively. Within this plan, I will also be figuring out what materials to use as promotional content (this falls into the social media promotion on the chart). As I’m not planning on participating in gorilla marketing, this content shouldn’t take a lot of preparation as the marketing I would want to create would be organically formulated. This means making the content artsy but naturalistic so incorporating song lyrics, music video snippets and poetry and artwork associated to the topic of the song. Creating thumbnails for YouTube and a cover image for streaming platforms will also be included in this planning and preparing. I will create these by conversing with the videographer about using shots from the video to create these elements.
Financial planning
Another important element of the planning that I have incorporated to keep me organised throughout this process is a spreadsheet. I have used a spreadsheet as it is an effective way of organising my expenses throughout this process to be able to calculate potential profit margins from this endeavour when I begin to monetise from social media and streaming platforms.
On this spreadsheet, I have organised it so that it focuses on the expenses paid during the week of the video shoot. I’ve included travel and food costs only in exception of it being related to the efforts in completing the video project. For example, expenses like bus fares are due to recordings and rehearsals that are focused on the music videos production.
To have a valid estimate of expenses, I’ve sourced out a videographer that quoted me on the expenses of a standard video so that I could accurately see how much this would cost according to factors like me being an independent artist working with independent professionals. From the spreadsheet we can see that I was quoted £350 which included the warehouse venue to record in which significantly benefited the overall cost.
Travel costs for ‘Uberxl’ are considered as I want to incorporate instruments into my music video which I would rent out from my university. This would cut down the cost of renting instruments from an external source as I would be renting for free however, the downside to this endeavour is having to transport a drum kit and multiple amps therefore, booking a ‘Uberxl’ that is a van adjacent car would be the solution. (see graph)
The time estimate for all this was 2pm therefore, the costs shown would be the average I would be paying as the costs, time and dates could change due to changes in plans that may occur, traffic cost inflations and specific time charge changes, this cost could vary so this is an overall average price. For clothing for the music video, I’ve designated a small charity shop budget to this. This is due to wanting to have a sustainable option, reflecting on my brand messaging. Food and drink are an estimate as I want to consider all forms of costs possible. (Distribution services are not considered in pricing as they are subscription based.)
In addition to the costs of the overall project, I wanted to see the potential chance in me receiving income back from this endeavour through social media/streaming platforms that I would be considering using. (This isn’t considering subscription-based platforms like Substack.)
Therefore, I calculated how many views, streams or individual purchases I would need to achieve to receive a profit from this endeavour. To make the investigation fair, I divided £463.32 by the total number of apps included in my research (7) to get the same leading number for each app. Therefore, I could see how many interactions I would need to reach £66.50 in payments. (I rounded this figure up 35p to receive a profit.) In the case of the small figures in which I was given regarding pay per stream, I took the highest amount I found during my research to show the results. The graph on the right shows the results.
As we can see, the figures between all the platforms besides ‘Bandcamp’ are astonishingly high with the highest being ‘Instagram’. In this research, I believe it shows what media platforms are beneficial to independent artist.
All about the fans
Finding what apps would work best for me promotionally wise to fit my brand and boost it is important to consider for this campaign. Therefore, I’m limiting the number of social media platforms I use.The ones I will be heavily focused on are Instagram, Bandcamp, Substack and YouTube. This is because I want to use more intimate forms of marketing and having a platform which is designated to prioritise readers commenting and a ‘community-like atmosphere’ (like Substack), is highlighting those elements effectively.
Due to Bandcamp being more artist friendly in terms of profit margins, this seems like the most sensible option for an independent artist to take part in. In terms of bigger platforms, I wanted to focus on which ones are more artistic and creative friendly. The website ‘Artfundi’ suggests that “Instagram is about visuals, which makes it great for artists. Just be professional and post only art and be consistent.” “Oh, and just use hashtags, please use hashtags.” It also says that “YouTube […]There is no better way for people to truly connect with you then to see you in action creating art.[…]budding artists love nothing more than to watch artists at work.” This brings back my point of wanting to create an intimate space for aspiring artists willing to appreciate long forms of content and constructive commentary as these four apps push that idea if the message is clear in what you’re promoting.
The cons in this way of promoting could result in less media coverage or widespread accessibility to my content as well as me not recouping my expenses however, I will face this hands on by using effective, trendy hashtags that fit cohesively with my branding (like mentioned previously by ‘Artfundi’) as well as encouraging fan engagement through starting challenges for fans to encourage them to make art or poems that are adjacent to the themes of my song and video. This will be shared through my Substack page. This touches on the ‘User generated content theory’ marketing because as well as that, I will also encourage fan conversations through live streams in which I will be hosting, on different topics every day of my promotional run (see on Gantt chart) that link to the lyrical themes of my song. In doing this, it encourages fans to talk and possibly spread these conversations amongst the multiple platforms that they engage in that I may not be focusing promotional activities on. This theory is backed up as ‘Content science reviews’ state that “The social networks Gen Z users report using the most are YouTube (93%), Instagram (76%), Facebook (68%), Snapchat (65%), TikTok (59%).” Due to this being my designated target audience, this shows the likelihood of my marketing floating over to other social media platforms to be high due the percentages of GenZ on these platforms. Again, this ties into the ‘Relationship marketing’ as it involves interacting with my fans to create a space for them to feel closer and more engaged with me. A music video is a great way to achieve fan interaction and closeness to the artist as it encourages conversations on the themes at hand. Like I mentioned before, by creating these social media posts with intimate personal themes and things regarding the world that I care for, it enables fans to feel closer to the artist.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I have found that despite the challenges and the countless number of elements you need to consider regarding a marketing campaign, it is a very essential and beneficial part of an artist’s strive for success. There are many ways in which this can be achieved however, I believe a music video in the perspective of my artistry would be beneficial for the fans that I will accumulate but also for me to be able to expand on my creativity, drawing in all types of creatives that would be willing to participate in the marketing theories that I have embedded into my campaign. Areas for development in my plan could consist of finding ways that I could incorporate other social media platforms into my marketing as well as possibly seeing ways in which I could incorporate other factors like merchandise to help support the cost of this endeavour. Overall, I do believe that I will use this campaign in the future to stretch my artistic reach as I can see the pros it could have on my career.
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