Learning Outcome 1 (U3): Be able to create a proposal with sample materials for an original media product to a client brief (P1, P2, M1) Learning Outcome 2 (U21): e ale to create a proposal and pitch for an original media product based on a given brief (P2)

Learning Outcome: Be able to create a proposal with sample materials for an original media product to a client brief

My Proposal

The magazine will be based on an "artist" or "band" who would primarily perform Indie Rock music. This was favoured more than my other ideas which were to base my magazine on Indie Rock venues or on the genre of comedic music because it was my only initial idea in which the positives outweighed the negatives.





For my media product, I propose a magazine which will be based on the Indie genre, the reasons for and against said idea were expressed when I was 'generating ideas'. The name for said product would be called 'Indie Insider'. This name was chosen as the two words have are alliterative. In addition to this, the name shows the reader that the magazine is based on the Indie rock genre through the blatant use of the word 'Indie'. Lastly, the use of the word 'Insider' would suggest to the reader that inside the magazine, they would be receiving information that wouldn't normally be disclosed to the public causing a reader more likely to choose 'Indie Insider' above any other Indie Rock magazine such as 'Pitchfork'.

 A possibility for the font of the magazine is the font Fragment Core which I found on Dafont.com. This font was considered as it appears to be old (as the Indie Rock was most prominent in the past) due to its serifs and the obvious use of the letter 'g' which makes the font look appear in a  handwriting and script which isn't as used with more modern fonts such as avenir. The font was ultimately not chosen as the magazine is meant to be based on modern Indie Rock instead of the height of the genre's popularity in the 90s and 2000s.

It will appear in a Kevlar Underwear font that I found on Dafont.com which looks like this:

This font was chosen because as well as it looking modern, the serifs of the font make it easier to read thus making it more likely to be bought by a potential customer. This font relates to the indie genre because as well as looking retro with serifs (as the Indie Rock genre was most prominent three decades ago), the font also looks modern as it's bold suggesting to the onlooker that the magazine is about Indie Rock artists today.

The strap line font has been decided as Lavigne which I found on Dafont.com because of its lack of serifs it would contrast with Kevlar Underwear well and due to its comparably tall lettering.

For the main text of my magazine, I chose the font Apple Garamond. Besides mentioning earlier in the project that I will most likely use the font Times New Roman for the main text of my magazine, I ultimately decided against it as it came across as too plain due to the vast use of it. In its place I decided to use Apple Garamond. The main reason behind this choice was because as well as having similar serifs to Times New Roman, it is skinnier which allows there to be more space for text on the page. This was decided for as the brief states that in the double page spread, there should be a body copy.

The magazine's purpose is to hopefully make the Indie Rock community in North London a lot larger. This purpose's main goal would be of course to gain more readers of the magazine thus having more finance available. This would allow the magazine to hire more staff, have more interviews with bigger Indie Rock artists and bands ultimately making the magazine's content better allowing the magazine to continuously gain more readers until expansion is possible. As well as expansion, I would also like this magazine to bring the Indie Rock genre back to being prominent hopefully causing the genre to have similar popularity as it had twenty years ago.

The magazine would have a traditional paper form as well as being digitally available on book stores such as those on Kindle, Apple and Android products. Both forms will have the same amount of content, but the digital form will cost one pound cheaper as there won't be expenses such as printing and the buying of paper. There will however be expenses such as the digital book stores taking a percentage of the profits from each sale of each magazine issue. Due to this, there will not be a large difference (if any) in profit between the digital and physical issues of the magazine. This is useful because as more people are becoming environmentally friendly and reading issues of magazines and books digitally, there wouldn't be a noticeable change in profits. The length of each issue will be roughly 150 pages as it will be a monthly issue and to ensure that there will be as much content in each issue as possible. The length of the magazine and regularity of it coming out also affects its price which would be 5 GBP per issue.

Mood board depicting various artists of the Indie Rock genre as well as several magazines in competition to mine

The majority of the magazine would be composed of upcoming Indie Rock shows taking place in North London venues with four or so small interviews with upcoming Indie Rock artists based in the North London area as well as reviews of Indie Rock albums that have come out recently. The double page spread, however, will consist of the longest interview of the magazine as it would be with the featured "artist" of the magazine who's picture will be on the cover as well as in the double page spread. The reason for the interviews with the Indie Rock artists and the Indie album reviews is because the brief states that my magazine should be based on a vibrant music scene. The reason why the venues are based in North London and why the artists will be primarily based in North London as well is because the brief states that my magazine should be territorial to North London.
Competition
The formula for the content of the magazine was heavily inspired by music magazines that cover similar genres to Indie Rock such as The Wire and Magnet.

The main difference in the content is that my magazine would be less based on interviews and be more focused on reviews of Indie Rock albums and upcoming Indie Rock shows. This is mainly due to these afore mentioned magazines having a much larger access to Indie Rock musicians due to their finance, because they are already well established magazines and because they operate on a global scale of Indie Rock magazines rather than a comparably much smaller sector being North London.

The primary target audience for my magazine will most likely be British Caucasian males aged 25 to 35 in social grades A1 to B.  This is mainly due to the fact that Indie Rock music was most prominent in the 90s and 2000s (the time the primary target audience would be adolescent and listening to a large amount of music). Because of this, the fans of genre would most likely want to read the magazine in order to find out how artists may differ today in the North London area as opposed to 20 years ago. The social grade of the primary target audience was decided upon as people in social grades below C tend to not have the income to afford the magazine or enough time to read it. As well as this, as a lot of the content of the magazine will be referencing Indie Rock shows and albums, people in social grades below C may find the magazine boring as they most likely won't be able to afford to said shows or to purchase the Indie Rock albums referenced.

A representation of what my primary target audience may look like

For the first issue of my magazine I will be working the duties of all the personnel. As funding and awareness for my magazine grows, interns early on would be hired for each personnel position

To ensure that the marketing budget is being used efficiently, advertisements for the magazine must be geared to be shown specifically to the target audience. As the primary target audience of my product will most likely be British Caucasian males aged 35 to 50 in social grades A1 to B, it would make sense to have the magazine's advertisements in places they would most likely be. Due to this, I propose that advertisements for the magazine to have a social media presence as a large amount of 25 to 35 year olds are on it for various reasons. However, I don't propose that said advertisements would be on social media such as Instagram or Snapchat as those social media tend to have a younger demographic mainly aged 13 to 25. For this reason, I would suggest that the online marketing of the magazine was to take place on FaceBook as the majority of the primary target audience would most likely be on it.
 Another reason for choosing FaceBook as the main platform for placing the online advertisements is because the business can effectively which target audience they could display advertisements to due to their ability to process the information through the users history. For example: FaceBook may display advertisements of my media product to a user who is active on Indie Rock related FaceBook groups as it would suggest that the user would have an interest in the genre. These will be geared to advertise the digital version of the magazine available on multiple platforms rather than the physical copy as the viewers of said advertisements will most likely be more technologically savvy and thus would be more likely to read the digital version of my magazine. To advertise the physical copy of my magazine, I would use physical advertisements such as posters in areas where my target audience would most likely be such as Indie Rock venues in North London. This meets the client brief as it would ensue that my magazine would be based in North London and that there would be a printed and digital version of it.
Digital issues of the magazine, as previously stated, will be distributed on Kindle, Google Play and Apple stores. The physical issues of the magazine will be distributed in a number of ways. For example shops such as convenience stores or supermarkets who may buy stock in bulk keeping a percentage of the profit depending on the amount of issues sold. They will however have the fixed price of 5 GBP per issue printed on the cover of each magazine to ensure that the owner of the store doesn't have extra profit or to deter customers from buying due to the heightened price. Another form of distribution of physical issues of the magazine would be through mail in which readers of the magazine may have an annual subscription of the magazine mailed to their address every month the issue is published. An annual subscription to the magazine would be marginally cheaper for both digital and physical issues. This meets the client brief as it ensures that there is a digital version of the magazine as well as a printed version.

Sketched layout of what the front cover may potentially look like

Sketched layout of what the double page spread may potentially look like

Learning Outcome 1 (U21): Be able to generate ideas for an original media product based on a client brief (P1, M1)

Learning Outcome: To be able to generate ideas for an original media product based on a client brief.

Interpretation of the client's brief- requirements
I interpreted that the requirements for the brief have me pitching a music magazine aimed for the North London music scene to a representative of the media industry. This will be done by creating an array of aims and objectives as well as visual representations such as mood boards, spider diagrams, a front cover and a double page spread.

Explicit Requirements- Front cover and double page spread. Must be online and print based. Must be based in North London

Implicit Requirements- Vibrant music scene suggests younger target demographic

Open to Interpretation- Range of mediums is not specific so gives me free reign to express myself creatively

Initial ideas:

Three key ideas:


Idea 1: My first thoughts are that I should make my music magazine on an "artist" who performs Indie Rock (which is very prominent in North London and is played in venues such as the Dublin Castle which is located in Camden).

My primary target audience will be those in a social grade of A to C1 caucasian British males who are aged 35 to 55. This is because the majority of popular Indie Rock music was created in the 1970s and 1980s suggesting that the primary target audience grew up with the music and that they may want to read about how the genre is popular today. The secondary target audience would most likely be caucasian British males who are of social grade A to C1 and aged 15 to 25 as they may be interested in modern Indie Rock or enjoy the genre due to their fathers. The price would be 5 Pound Sterling as it would be a monthly issue magazine and is due to the target audience's social grade connoting that they'd get the pay to be able to afford the magazine. My double page article idea would most likely be an interview with  the "artist" in a Q&A fashion. At the end of the interview of my double page spread there may be a review of the artist's new "album". As there aren't a large amount of Indie Rock magazines, I will most likely base my colour scheme on album covers of Indie Rock artists  which would most likely result in the cover scheme being composed of browns and neutral colours

A mood board about the potential idea of my magazine being about a specific Indie Rock artist that I would feature

Idea 2: Another idea is that I base my magazine on one single artist within a specific genre that may be up and coming. This genre may be Comedy because there is a wide variety of artists that perform music in the genre as shown in the mood board below. However, due to there being a very small fanbase in the North London area, it is unlikely that I could go to a venue and ask a musician to potentially model for the front cover or double page spread of my magazine.

The target audience would most likely be British Caucasian 12 year olds to 18 year olds in the A to C1 social grades who live in North London. The price of the magazine would most likely be 3 GBP as the main target audience would most likely be able to afford that due to their social grade and will most likely not be too expensive as their main source of income will most likely be pocket money due to their age. The content within the magazine will most likely be light hearted interviews with comedic artists in a Q&A fashion. Reviews of comedic albums may be at the end of the interviews. The colour scheme would most likely be light colours as the magazine is comedic and light. A name for the magazine could be 'The Nut Case'.

Mood board for my magazine potentially being about the Comedic music genre

Idea 3: Another possible idea for my magazine is that it is based on a specific music venue in the North London area such as the Dublin Castle. This would allow me to go into said venue and take images for the front cover and double page spread of my magazine.

My primary target audience will be those in a social grade of A to C1 caucasian British males who are aged 35 to 55. This is because the majority of popular Indie Rock music was created in the 1970s and 1980s suggesting that the primary target audience grew up with the music and that they may want to read about how the genre is popular today. The secondary target audience would most likely be caucasian British males who are of social grade A to C1 and aged 15 to 25 as they may be interested in modern Indie Rock or enjoy the genre due to their fathers. The price would be 5 Pound Sterling as it would be a monthly issue magazine and is due to the target audience's social grade connoting that they'd get the pay to be able to afford the magazine. The content would most likely consist of interviews in a Q&A fashion with a person who works at the venue such as the bartender or the owner which would mainly be about their recent artists and their music in a light fashion. The colour scheme would most likely be similar to that of a Country magazine's (as there aren't many Indie Rock magazine's colour schemes I can draw inspiration from) and be composed of a large amount of shades of brown and neutral tones. An idea for the name could be the "Indie heirloom".

My ideas if I was to base my magazine on a music venue

4. A discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of the different ideas

5. A conclusion
Doing my music magazine on the Comedic music genre will prove to be a challenge. This is because it will require me to take a large amount of photos for my front page and double spread. This may prove to be challenging as I will probably not have access to a large amount of participants. It may also be difficult as there isn't a large community in the North London area that listens to Comedic music. This is evident as there are a lack of said venues in the area. This would suggest that as there would be a shortage of music listeners, there would be a very small amount of people who would purchase my magazine. This would be hard to explain to the media representative. However, the photos that I would take of individuals would be easy as I would only need them to produce a comedic prop such as a hat with a spinning wheel or a tiny birthday party hat with a balloon. Also, the magazine could easily be advertised to its target audience (lovers of comedy) at stand up bars of which there are many in the North London area.
Focusing my magazine on Indie Rock venues in North London may prove to be challenging. This is due to the fact that there aren't  a large amount of Indie Rock venue magazines from which I could draw inspiration from regarding colour schemes and font types. This may make it difficult when editing the front cover and double page spread of my magazine as it may be hard to make the pictures that I would potentially take of the venue to seem exciting and to capture interest from the onlooker of whom the magazine is supposed to attract in order for them to purchase the magazine. As well as this, despite there being a large amount of Indie Rock venues in the North London area, there isn't an high enough amount of music venues to have a large continuity of magazines, each one about a different venue, to continue using the same formula or to move concentration of venues to another area of London which would mean going against the brief requirements. This would most likely result in an inability to answer the media representative when s/he would probably ask the question. However, if I were to base my music magazine on Indie Rock venues in North London, due to the large amount of venues, and because I only need to focus on one magazine cover and double page spread, I could potentially go to another venue if the first one rejects me due to my age or another factor such as a policy that they don't allow photographs of the venue.
If I were to base my magazine on an Indie Rock "artist"or "band," the main challenge would be finding someone or multiple people willing to model for my front cover and double page spread. As well as this, an obstacle may be that there aren't a large amount of Indie Rock magazines from which I can draw inspiration concerning colour schemes and font types. However, the photos for the front page and the double page spread would be easy to take and due to the small amount of Indie Rock magazines, there would be a very small amount of competition against my magazine if it was to be accepted.
To conclude, I will be basing my magazine on an Indie Rock "artist" simply because it is the only one of my initial ideas in which the positives outweigh the negatives.