AOB 2: Marketing schedule

AOB2: Marketing Plan

Description of Product
The product is a new studio album by the band The Heretics, titled 'Bloodshot Eyes'. The album itself will be released on the eleventh of January 2013, with a couple of singles being released beforehand.
The product's main drive will be the band's new single, 'Alpha', which will feature as one of the band's pre-release singles.

Marketing Mix
I will be using several marketing elements to promote the product, including things like music store promotions (live guest performances, interviews in-store, etc.), announcements on social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook, print ads on billboards and flyers, features in music magazines like interviews, adverts and reviews. Website promotions, Single releases and tours will also be promoted to help herald the product.

Aims of the Campaign
The main aim of the campaign is to promote the release of The Heretics' 2013 studio album.
Other hopes for the campaign include being able to raise the band's profile and gather a new audience. as well as hopefully dismissing the common stereotype that the band is an Emo-Rock band by changing the band's musical direction to appeal to more audiences.

Review of the Current Market

Strengths

• Other related genres like Punk and Metal provide a large marketing audience for the band, ensuring that they will gain a sizable cult following and a good sized audience.
• The success of the band's previous album provides a good basis for the success of their upcoming album, with the band having had several hits with their first album.
• Virgin Records' large financial fundings ensure that the band will have a good basis for marketing with a large advertising campaign.

Weaknesses

• The band's reputation for vulgar or violent lyrics makes it hard to convince the public that the band has taken a new direction and are exploring new genres, thus making it more difficult to draw in new audiences
• The advertising campaign does not use mainstream methods such as T.V ads, instead relying on internet advertising to spread word of the band's new single.
• Although the market research has been thorough, the band's current audience is restricted to a minority population, which may be difficult to expand on.

Opportunities

• Mainstream artists are looking to collaborate with other artists, providing an opportunity to make the band more well-known through collaborating with mainstream artists.
• The band's first album gives them a foundation from which to spread recognition, hopefully gathering a wider audience.

Threats

• Mainstream genres like dubstep, hip-hop and pop threaten to overshadow less mainstream genres such as Grunge, Punk and Metal.
• The Heretics face competition from already-established bands like Breaking Benjamin and Panic! At The Disco, both of which have already released several albums, making it harder to establish The Heretics as a serious band.

Potential Market
The potential market has been identified as fairly national, with the Heretics having gathered a cult following from all over the U.K, although a minority of fans exist abroad, there aren't enough to consider making a global campaign for.

A typical 'Heretic' is cast in the generic appearance of a goth or even a Steampunk fan (Due to the band's past iconography). Most will wear dark clothing or the band's new primary colours (white and red), though this shouldn't be taken to account for all fans. The market is predominantly male, due to the band's past reputation for violent and vulgar lyrics.

Some may wear band-branded clothing released with the last album, though again this will be a minority.

Income will range between fans, though generically most are imagined to have average or lower income, making it necessary to make band-branded merchandise cheap.
The age range is generally anywhere between seventeen and thirty, with the large majority being college or university students, once more making it necessary to make merchandise cheaper than it would normally be.
The album has a darker atmosphere, which fans have come to expect, which is why the new album, like the last one, will be released in winter.

Indirect Advertisement
An advertisement will be published in the next issue of NME, promoting the new album.
The advert will feature a stark white background, and will also have the ballroom mask featured in the previous advert, lying shattered and broken on the floor. The lyrics for the opening verse of Alpha will also feature, hovering just above the ballroom mask as the background fades from white to black.

Direct Advertisement
A survey will be posted on the band's Facebook account, prompting viewers to take part and vote for what they'd like to see return from the band's previous work, what they want the band to do in their future work, what their three most favorite tracks from the previous album are and what they think of the band's new direction and iconography. Completion of the survey will allow viewers access to a one-minute sample of the song Alpha.

Promotion
An interview will be published in NME magazine with the band's lead singer, discussing the new album and the band's new direction. Subjects such as the band's new direction, their iconography, their musical style and the style of their lyrics will also be discussed.
An upcoming music video for the song Alpha will also be discussed.

Another song from the new album, Grey Lady, will be used in a music video for the game Dishonoured, to promote both the game and the album.

A music video for Alpha will come out shortly before the album's release, featuring the band playing on a spherical platform, surrounded by multicoloured lights.

Audience Feedback
The campaign has opened several opportunities for audience feedback.
The Facebook survey released with the Alpha sample on the 2nd of December will allow for both audience feedback about the band's new musical style, and fan opinions on the advertising style and what they would like to see in the new album.
Lady Grey, the song featuring in the music video for the game Dishonored on the 23rd of December, will be released on the band's Youtube account, allowing for audience feedback regarding the music and the band's new style.
Additionally, the music video for Alpha, released on the 29th December, will be shown on both Facebook and Youtube, allowing for audience feedback through both websites regarding the band's new colours, musical style, and most importantly, feedback regarding the new video overall.
The band value audience feedback and opinion, and will look at each opportunity for audience feedback personally, and regularly.

Official Bodies

BARB
BARB's role in the campaign is a minor one, that will track the placing of the music video for Alpha in the weekly UK charts, regularly broadcast on channels like 4Music, Kerrang! and other music channels.

RAJAR
The role of RAJAR in conjunction to the new album will most likely include observing how many people end up listening to pre-release tracks aired on radio, using the traditional sample method along with RAJAR's continuous diary survey.

Audit Bureau of Circulations
The ABC  will be working to ensure that the quality of the tracks aired on radio meet with the standards set by the media industry, and will take steps to ensure anything that doesn't meet with those standards can be altered.

ASA
The ASA will fulfill their trademark role of ensuring that advertisement for the campaign is acceptable and enjoyable. ASA will be monitoring the campaign as it progresses to ensure it continues to meet standards.

CAP
Working in conjunction with the ASA, the CAP will be working to ensure the campaign's advertising methods are legal and ethical. Any advertisements or methods of advertising will be passed along to the CAP before going public to ensure that they meet the required standards.

AOB2: The Heretics - Advert

Advert Draft 2: 30 Seconds To Mars

Advert Draft 1: 30 Seconds To Mars

AOB1: Analysis of existing product

Introduction
Space Marine is a Hack & Slash, third-person RPG that allows the player to step into the boots of a Space Marine, eight-foot tall giants with a wide arsenal of weaponry and a duty to protect mankind. Set on an industrial Forge World in the far future, the game initially charges the player with taking out a horde of savage orks, before launching into a plotline much darker and more deceptive.

Product
Space Marine is a game for both Xbox 360 and PS3, and utilizes a complicated graphics engine to craft outlandish and surreal landscapes, realistic characters and brutal combat to immerse the player in a grim, dark Sci-fi world where every different environment holds something new.
The graphics system runs flawlessly with both consoles, making for a smooth, rich game for the player to lose themselves in.
Space Marine got plenty of attention before it's initial release for Xbox 360, with it's first teaser trailer in 2011 prompting speculation amongst both fans and media companies and online magazines.
Since the first teaser trailer, Space Marine has undergone several graphical makeovers, two changes in the game's graphical engine and several changes in gameplay style.
Advertising truly began with a full-length trailer in early 2011, which advertised the game and the main characters, as well as the Orks and the darker forces of Chaos.
Space Marine's release was much anticipated by fans of the Dawn Of War franchise and Relic Entertainment's previous release for PS2, Fire Warrior, which featured the Space Marines as antagonists.
Relic began advertising the game through other means, allowing websites like Youtube to play still-shot advertisements as well as advertising on the official Relic facebook channel.
High street shops like Game Station and HMV began advertising the game with cutouts and posters, spreading the game's popularity to those outside the franchise's main audience.
A few months after it's debut release, Space Marine received two expansion packs on Xbox Live after the game's initial success.
The first pack, Chaos Unleashed, allowed the player to step into the boots of the enemy and play as a renegade Chaos Space Marine in multiplayer, and also added a new mode to the game called Exterminatus. Three new maps were also added to the game with a more 'hellish' feel to accompany the playable role of Chaos.
The second pack, 'The Dreadnought', added a new multiplayer mode called Dreadnought Assault, in which a player can take control of a twenty-foot tall walking tank known as a Dreadnought. Both expansion packs were met with great success, and heralded a sudden increase in purchase of the game.

Price
Space Marine's initial cost of production was estimated at twice the game's final cost of production, due to Relic's insistence on a constantly living background environment (e.g: ships flying overhead while the player is moving through the game environment), but game designers speculated that the budget wouldn't be able to handle that as well as the game's current mechanics, and also stated that it would make the game unbalanced in terms of graphics.
Space Marine hit shops on 9th of September 2011, at the retail price of £34.99 for the high street shop Game, £39.99 for HMV, £29.99 for Gamestation and £33.50 for Amazon.
The two expansion packs cost 400 and 320 Xbox points respectively.


Promotion
Space Marine's methods of promotion were mostly below-the-line methods, incorporating websites and other companies to advertise the game.
A month before the game's release, the official website was launched with artwork of the main character filling the main page, and a countdown until the game's release.

Place
Space Marine became available to pre-order online from the official website, from Amazon, Play.com and Game on the 6th, three days before it's official release in high-street shops like Game, Game station and HMV.
Despite using Below The Line promotion methods, Space Marine gathered a large audience, even outside its target genre.

Conclusion
Despite receiving mixed reviews, Space Marine has been branded as the must-have hack & slash sci-fi game of 2011, with approval from publications like Xbox Magazine, Gamer Pro and Game Magazine.
With its fast-paced gameplay, stunning graphics and richly-detailed environments, Space Marine is a must-have for fans of the sci-fi genre and for those veterans of the Dawn Of War franchise and Relic's 2002 1st Person Shooter, Fire Warrior.
The marketing campaign has been an overall success, with Space Marine receiving an official game rating of 78.13% despite mixed reviews from sites like GamePro, who described the game as "Linear and uninspired".
Sales figures for the game exceeded expectations, with the tidy sum of $146 million far outweighing the predicted figures of $77.1 million.