M1 Distribution and marketing

Audience 

As I mentioned in my M1 Justification of content blogpost this song best fits into the dream-pop genre. A genre that spreads throughout generations as it was founded more than 40 years ago but is most popular with Gen Z (ages 14-20) in all genders. Yeek's work tends to appeal to this audience with a majority male audience however this difference is insignificant in the creation of my video as the songs lyrics are relatable for everyone. The genre and the artist are both associated with the reformers and strugglers of the C1, C2 and D classes. classes. I don’t think this genre is aimed at people with any specific education level, occupation or ethnic background however I think that it is probably more accepted by younger generations. In terms of psychographics the song , genre and artist are all aimed more towards; Explorers (those seeking discovery/experience and valuing individualism,) Strugglers(disorganised and seeking escape, typically lower demographics,) and Reformers (those seeking enlightenment with a freedom from restrictions.) In relation to the song and the music video I want to create this target audience is good as the other demographics and psychographics aren’t as open to new ideas and effects as well as the music itself.

Export

This video will be exported as a high bitrate .MP4 file with a H.264 codec to make it better suited for upload to sites such as YouTube, Vimeo and Instagram reels. As they compress the original file upon upload. The decrease in quality won't be too noticeable though because the video will be filmed and uploaded at 1920x1080 25fps as this is what the main camera operates as and the editing software works well with however the aspect ratio will be 4:3 as opposed to 16:9 to give a more nostalgic feel in addition to the frame posterization from 25fps to 18fps to support this feeling. 

Instagram research

Instagram is the second most popular social network and the third most famous. Instagram is described by fans as: Addictive, Colourful, Amusing and Always check it. After being bought by social media giant Facebook in 2012 98% of people have heard of Instagram. This Facebook ownership means that the two huge social media platforms are very cross-compatible and integrated with one another. This link between the two means there are many features within Instagram that Facebook supports such as their business account tools. These business tools include features such as "Insights" which gives you information regarding who has seen your content/page, how many people, their demographics, your ideal time to post and many more features. In addition, Business profiles in Instagram (which are created using Facebook,) have the ability to promote their content to a specific target audience profiled by demographic and age, for a cheap price compared to old media mediums as well. Instagram is the most popular social media platform amongst Millennials and Generation Z, meaning that Instagram is a great means of promotion and distribution for our video as it overlaps the TA. There are many features within Instagram however the 3 main ways to distribute content are as followed: Story (Maximum 15 second long post which disappears from your profile after 24 hours,) Post (appears on people's main feed and appears visible on your profile until you decide to delete it,) and 'Reels' (social media video site inside of Instagram where you can upload much longer videos.) I will talk in more detail about I'll use Instagram for distribution and marketing later in this post. The artist already has an established and verified account @imyeek with 54.8k followers. Instagram's algorithm favours accounts who post frequently which means that to pre-empt the release of the video Yeek may have to start posting more content, maybe a post a day and also a few story posts. 

YouTube research

YouTube is the 3rd most popular digital service and the 6th most famous, 99% of people have heard of it. It is described by fans as: Great for entertainment, Useful, Easy to use, Fun and Accessible. It is owned by Google which means that similar to Instagram it is integrated with many different google features such as Google Ads, Google pay, Google drive etc which is why it is seen as so accessible and efficient. There are majority positive opinions of Youtube across all generations and genders as we can see on YouGov which is beneficial as it means people aren't as reluctant to spend time on it and therefore there is a higher chance that YouTube users will come across our video, increasing Yeek's listener time. On YouTube anyone with a Google account can upload any video they desire within the guidelines of any duration however this means that without effective promotion and distribution our video will get lost in the algorithm as 30,000 hours of footage is uploaded to YouTube every hour. Yeek's youtube channel 'Yeek' currently has 22.4k subscribers and averages around 150k views per music video. It is important to build a following on Youtube, maybe by promoting his channel via his other social media platforms, because it means that more users see his video as soon as it is uploaded - increased interaction by users at close proximity to the release of a video favours the algorithm and means the video is pushed to more users.     

FaceBook research 

Facebook is the most popular and most famous social network and was founded by Mark Zuckerberg in 2004. Close to 100% of people have heard of Facebook according to YouGov data, being described as addictive and a great way to keep in touch with people. It is most popular among Generation X closely followed by Millennials and 10% more popular among women. Over the years Facebook has expanded into one of the largest corporations in the world from acquiring and merging many huge firms and buying out companies. They seem to dominate the messaging and social media market; owning Instagram, Whatsapp, Messenger etc. This large scale of ownership means a high amount of compatibility and integration between platforms and as I mentioned earlier this allows for features such as tailored business promotion, analytics and cross-platform posting (more efficient way to post content across Instagram and Facebook.) Like Instgram you can post videos, images and create timed story posts. Yeek doesn't currently have a Facebook profile as the majority of his audience frequent other networks however Facebook could be useful if he wanted to break into other genres that maybe have older demographics. 

Twitter research

Twitter is the 4th most popular and 2nd most famous social media network with close to 100% having heard of it. It is seen as a more informative social media platform, keeping users up to date with all types of news. It is popular among all generations however unlike Youtube or Instagram there isn't as large of an under 13s prescence. All types of media can be distributed on Twitter from videos to GIFs and it allows people to 'retweet' which is where users can share another persons 'tweet' on their page for more to see. This can lead to a sort of multiplier effect which would increase the virtual footfall on our video, increasing Yeek's listening. Yeek has 4000 followers on twitter and appears to be very inactive on it, with only 5 total tweets - his last post was a month ago

Other new age media

There are many other social media platforms however I didn't research these in as much detail as they either don't appeal much towards the target audience or don't align with the artist's image and brand. Platforms such as Linkedin and Tumblr have demographics older than my target audience and although networks such as Snapchat and Tiktok are popular amongst the target audience there is no synergy between them and Yeek's aesthetic. One platform I didn't outline earlier on in this post is 'Vimeo' which has a similar business model and operating interface to YouTube and will be a useful platform to use for distribution as it's users have a larger interest in higher quality media products such as music videos. 

Old media evaluation 

I considered using old wave promotion and distribution such as radio shoutouts/plays and/or TV distribution by means of MTV or Vevo however these methods are more expensive than the cheaper social media option. In addition social media platforms allow us to promote our content to a specific group of people which old media does not, meaning that marketing and distribution will be more effective overall especially seeing as the majority of our TA use social media and don't consume old media as much as older generations do. 

Marketing and promotion methods

In conclusion I will be avoiding old age media and some specific social media platforms as mediums for promotion for reasons I outlined earlier in this blog, mainly relating to TA and the artist's iconography. Promotion and marketing will occur on the artist's profiles on Instagram, YouTube, Facebook (new profile), Twitter (needs to be more active in the hope of retweets) and Vimeo. In addition we will also use Yeek's website as a means of promotion as maybe his more established fanbase will be present on here. Firstly I will design promotional covers for the video, one in portrait orientation (for story posts) and one in landscape orientation (for feed posts and Youtube/Twitter banners.) These posters will feature an interesting shot from the video which matches each orientation and leaves room for copy, with the 'Solstice' logo, Yeek's logo and an 'Out now' header also present on the poster. These stills will be efficient as they will remain present on the artist's social media pages as headers, posts or profile pictures which increases the likelihood of people seeing the video. I'll use a six second exert from the video where I think there is a fast paced and interesting range of shots, firstly overlaid with the song logo, then Yeek's logo and then an 'Out now' title. I'll create both a vertical and horizontal version of this promotion - the vertical version will be used for paid and targeted story promotions on Instagram and Facebook whilst the horizontal version will be used as and un-skipable advertisement on Youtube and Vimeo. This method of marketing is effective (especially with our TA who use these platforms,) because although it may not spark immediate interest within some people, the repetition across all platforms subliminally builds interest and leads to more viewers and further interaction. I chose to create a 6 second promotion as opposed to a longer one because it is proven that the ideal 6 second exciting promotions are much more efficient than longer ones, especially within the younger demographics (TA.) The final means of promotion/marketing I intend on executing invloves paid promotion of the uploaded video on Youtube, Vimeo and a 30 second Instagram preview. On Youtube and Vimeo this means the the video itself will be placed in-front of similar videos as a 2 minute skipable advert whereas on Instagram this means a preview will appear on user's feeds who don't follow the artist. These mean that the video reaches a wider range of people outside of Yeek's following which will increase the multiplier effect and lead to a sort of 'snowball effect' which would increase the video's views across all platforms. The reason I chose to do faster and more exciting promotion methods instead of longer but more informative methods is because this is proven to work well amongst my TA (outlined earlier.)

Distribution 

The video in it's full duration will be published on Youtube and Vimeo - both on Yeek's own channels with fairly active subscriber bases. Furthermore I noticed that Yeek posted his videos to his website https://yeek.site/ using an integrated Youtube link which gives us even more reason to publish on Youtube as the more linked together platforms are the better as this increases utility for the user. I considered uploading the full duration video to Twitter, Facebook and Instagram Reels, alongside the already planned previews however this actually tends to hinder the growth of the video as it can easily be lost in the algorithms and feeds on these platforms in comparison to Youtube and Vimeo and seems to draw attention and views away from the videos on these two sites. In additon Yeek has never posted his full videos to any platforms other than Youtube and Vimeo which means that to remain aligned with Yeek's brand we will do the same. Although maybe our target audience may be more active on networks such as Instagram I feel that these are more effective to use for promotion and lead users to Youtube where the consumption of music videos is easier and more comfortable.