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January 15 2016

Chris Blackwell

Founder of Island records
Island Records
366 Kensington High St
London W14 8NS

Liam Smalley
RITS Band manager
55 Helmsley Way
Leicester, LE5 8YT
Liam@RITSBAND.com

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