Liam Smalley

RITS Band
55

manager
Helmsley Way

Leicester, LE5

8YT
Liam@RITSBAND.com
Chris Blackwell
Founder of Island records
Island Records
366 Kensington High St
London W14 8NS

January 15th 2016

RE: Main and Ancillary Texts

Dear Mr Blackwell
I am writing this letter in reply to your question, How Effective is the
combination of your main product and ancillary texts? after careful
consideration and many hours of work I have been able to answer this question
for you to the best of my ability. I hope that you find my answer adequate and I
hope to hear from you again soon. My answer is positioned below.

When creating my Digipak and advert I needed to ensure that I was able to create brand
identity throughout, therefore I had to throw in subtle similarities or in some cases
obvious recurrences in order to guarantee brand identification. Moreover I used symbols
and images in order to link both my main and ancillary texts.
For our main product; the music video, we decided to use the Catfish and the Bottlemen
song 'Bite down Salvador', this is because it is a song that matched the genre of our
ancillary texts therefore would appeal to our target audience. The feedback that we
received from our draft video was influential in our decision to use a black and white
colour scheme; we received compliments from not only our target audience but those
outside of our target audience also. Our original idea was to place pieces of
advertisement within our video, for example placing my advert on the drum kit or on the
surrounding walls; however after doing this in my draft we discovered that due to the
darkness of the video the advert was not as visible as wed hoped therefore this idea was
not feasible. After all of this and the feedback that we received we decided that our draft
video did not meet the target audience criteria. The reasons for this are as follows: The
room in which we filmed our music video was very small and therefore the video was
very static and stationary throughout, this was an issue as generically an
Indie/alternative rock band is very lively and they use a lot of space whilst performing,
moreover the room was also very dark and with little room there was not an option of
artificial lighting, again this did not bode well in relation to our target audience, the room

was so dark that it suited the style of Heavy Metal or Emo rock therefore the room was
not suitable for our music video. Also after editing our draft video and adding the black
and white filter effect, the lead singer was hardly visible and every close up of an
instrument was also very hard to make out. Because of this we decided that a change of
venue was necessary, moreover our final music video was to be set in a large dark room
capable of accommodating artificial lighting, and with lighting equipment used to
enhance the quality and reduce shadows. Because we were able to avoid the draft
problems in our final video we were able to edit the footage with a black and white filter,
which meant that we could match my ancillary texts and the criteria of my target
audience. The dark and retro effects are generic of a music video for an Indie/Alternative
band, after researching on UK Tribes I discovered that Indie music followers are
susceptible to dark and lively music videos therefore we attempted to add these qualities
to this video. Therefore this product on its own is very effective in what it is supposed to
do, appeal to my target audience.

My ancillary texts are both very similar, I attempted to achieve simplicity throughout
both of my Advert and my digipak, with the exception of the main image of the wolf
which I have used to symbolise the 'Bite Down' album name. After researching I
discovered that the simplest designs are usually the most effective and therefore decided
to use the most simplistic colour pallet, black and white, this would later be transferred to
our music video in order to create continuity throughout our bands branding. Because of
this, it was something that I was adamant on including into my design, my original draft
was also in a black and white colour scheme, and this applies to both the advert and my
digipak. Again I received positive feedback for both of these and therefore I decided that
I would continue down this path. Using the examples of similar bands I was able to
decide what would relate to our target audience and what wouldnt, for example a
solitary image is used in many of the adverts and digipaks that I could find, from bands
such as Pink Floyd, 30 Seconds To Mars, Catfish and The Bottlemen and Mumford and
sons, and therefore I decided to include the solitary image of the wolf. Another way that I
have managed to link my music video with my ancillary texts is through the use of font, I
have used the same font throughout my three media platforms so that there was clear
association between them, a bold and sharp text was used, not only for brand recognition
but also so that it corresponded with the rest of my design, simple yet elegant. The font
is evident within our music video during the introduction and is evident within my digipak
and advert throughout.
Another way that my ancillary texts work with my music video is lack of band imagery. I
have not included any pictures of my band within the Advert or Digipak, this is for the
sole purpose of making the band seem more elusive and underground like many of the
same genre. The first time that we see the band is during the music video, therefore the
advert and digipak act as a teaser, they allow you to see the style of the band, but not
the members themselves. This works well as it makes people want to watch our music
video, from this we can conclude that our ancillary texts have excelled in their purpose to
advertise. Overall the digipak and advert work together to install brand identification,
they do this by using the same font, colour scheme and basic style, this is then
complemented and brought together by our main product our music video which also
includes these features. To conclude the combination of my Main product and the
ancillary texts is extremely effective not only do they come together to create brand
identification and synergy they create a sense of cross media convergence allowing the
maximum amount of advertisement and attraction, not only this each individual piece

has a purpose of its own aside from corresponding with each other. Each piece has the
necessary inclusions and features to make it appeal to my target audience.

I hope that this answer was to the standard that you expect. The music video has
been a huge success and we hope to work with you again in the future.

Sincerely,
Liam Smalley