Promotional Materials Production & Launch Event
For the Magic Satin production we have also set out to produce a number of additional promotional materials and aspects which will go towards the final release portfolio for promotional and marketing purposes. For this, it has been my responsibility to produce :
- Website : hosting existing music & art, promotional photography, social media links, existing & upcoming release information, affiliated information, affiliated merch arrangement. [Sociodelic.com]
- Target audience marketing research : covering the areas of focus for marketing approach and strategy. This will direct the marketing campaign for promotion of the release, with scope across multiple market segmentations with specific format and AV specifications.
- Contact Sheet : a collated entry of potential recipients of the promotional package which will be produced for the release’s promotion. This list will span radio station’s [across Merseyside / Liverpool / Manchester / National] submission pages and contact information, international A&R and publishers, playlist curators directories, social media / online music blogs & magazines, labels, production managers, local record stores.
- Promotional CD : A limited series of promotional CD copies of the release for distribution to potential radio pluggers, promoters, record stores and other contact sheet entries. This will include the CD mastered track versions in hard case CD sleeve with cover art, blurb entry with tracklist and production information, and inlay art and additional information.
These materials will form the promotional areas of the marketing resources which will accompany an EPK which will also contain all relevant material for a press package. These will be utilised in the whole collated promotional package, and be distributed according to the marketing framework materials produced by partner Das including : the timeline schedule, release campaign, and launch event plan.
One of the specific areas of the promotional artwork to produce is the poster artwork. To note a campaign idea for these, this will be designed with a simple cream / green art nouveau leaf / tree foliage background artwork with titles, with the idea being to hang a poster with hanging CD’s. Positioned in a public place with relevant location to target audience, CD’s can then be replaced or “regrow” over an allotted period. This could be an interesting marketing campaign to promote the release.
For the accompanying materials the work began with the design and setup of our website, Sociodelic.com. Utilising the website design and hosting service Squarespace for its range of customisable elements, I started with the main splash page laid out like piano keys (mobile) and styled to reflect our psychedelic flare, linking through to each main area of our collective output [Music / Art / Media / Pages]. As the purpose of the site is to professionally present ourselves and our portfolio of work whilst conveying the collective, the styling was done with collective input and structured to include all aspects of our creative output.
The music page presents all our released music productions to date, and the art page collates a selection of art to present for site visitors to view whilst listening in. The media page includes works which consist of multimedia / written pieces which otherwise did not explicitly fit the description of just music or art, with finally the pages section covering information and click through links about us the individuals behind Sociodelic. There has also been included a contacts page, a gallery of photography (to be expanded), and an Upcoming page which will be the main location for promotional information about our project, Magic Satin. To further embellish the site, and to incorporate planned aspects of the projects marketing / promotional plans, there is the affiliated merch page linked through, along with the EPK hosted via Google Drive and linked via the about us section. The site has been structured and formatted with hyperlinks to take site visitors to external hosting sites (such as SoundCloud / Youtube etc) in as minimal clicks as possible, with the emphasis being on accessibility. Google search console was the last stage of the site setup process, where indexing has been requested so that the site will appear in search results.
With regards to the production of the marketing materials themselves, including the appendix document on market research, the aim was to cover all essential aspects of marketing analysis backed by relevant research into strategy and sources on listener habits and trends. Along with the marketing research, the strategy to reach delivery of the project has been extrapolated on to include approaches to different social media platforms, based on user behaviour with specification on variations between AV promotional material.
The target audience market research then specifies the areas of genre which our output will best fit into, as this will be then relevant when considering promotional approaches to different market listener segments. The information then sourced in the document are to reinforce and put to paper the current most relevant listener trends so that we can use relevant and effective descriptors when promoting and for site SEO. Market strategy and promotional campaigns have then been written up to solidify the strategy which we will undergo to push the record.
There is also the EPK which has been produced to present similarly to the site, a professional presentation document of information covering who we are as a collective, and what we produce focused on the upcoming project release. All critical information within the document is condensed closely to the opening pages as these are the first crucial impression pages, summarised in the design of the cover page and then written out on the second page in phrasing which can easily be cut to potential articles by any interested press who receives it. There also contains high-res images of our collective, and contact information.
Running up to the beginning of the release schedule, which the promotional materials have been produced for in preparation. Along with the promotional CD including the short-form EPK (physical insert booklet), artwork for the cover of both the CD and EPK have been created by myself and Bethany Sharp (Singer of Sociodelic). Additionally, we have also produced artwork for multiple posters included in this portfolio. The posters serve multiple purposes, besides being supplementary art to the project and release, as :
- One poster has been designed for the digital download QR code campaign strategy. - One poster designed for merch / additional artwork for the CD insert.
- One poster designed for the launch showcase event.
With the showcase event arranged and organised, I have arranged printing these posters with a local company for promotion. The showcase event will be taking place on August 10th at The Jacaranda after organising with the venue manager through communications with themselves and their label managers. The launch event will showcase work from a collective of classmates and artists who’re all involved in the preparation and organisation of the night. We produced a tech rider in preparation, and have organised the line-up, with all this information presented in the hand-over document for the venue manager.
Promotion has been followed-through with regard to the social media campaign strategy over these weeks running up to Aug 10th. These have focused on the showcase event, and has been supplemented with a promotional music track and video (AV) release of our cover of Gimme Shelter, which involved a number of those presenting in the showcase. We will also be promoting some more over the next few days with some information and pictures of the CDs and related production content such as in session video clips and pictures. To further push the event showcase, we have distributed the poster image through direct messages to some social media pages, including relevant local blogs, journalists and radio. We have also begun to launch the website, with a soft launch done in preparation for a full announcement.
