The motivation for producing this poster is to sell a lazy, go with the flow, carefree lifestyle, associated with the CD being produced. When the audience sees this they will either be stressing out about a thousand things and want an escape, or they will have already acquired such a lifestyle and be overjoyed that a CD can relate to them so well.
The best outcome would be for a person to see this poster, resonate with the images that imply a carefree, go with the flow lifestyle, and want to go buy the CD. The worst outcome would be for someone to be offended by the idea of laziness. To prevent this, the poster will need to only show the positive side of taking it easy every once and awhile and having relaxed fun.
The target audience will be those between the ages of 22-30 who are either finishing college or working. This audience may possibly be overachievers who desire less stress and fewer cares, or they already live a carefree lifestyle and are proud to identify themselves with it. Those in the intended audience who see this poster are expected to think, “I wish I had that way of life,” or, “Finally someone advocates going with the flow and refusing to worry.”
The context of when this is seen can be chosen strategically. These posters might go up around the spring time, just as winter is ending. This is when people most desire to forget about work. Posters would be put up on the sides of buses that run college and office routes. They would also be put up inside music stores.
The strategy used to achieve this purpose will be to focus on the positive aspects of someone who doesn’t care as much: less stress, sense of identity for going against the current of society, happiness, humor.
There are two types of media that would work very well, possibly in combination. One sensible idea is to make a poster. Most members of the target audience are probably familiar with posters, particularly posters to promote a CD. Another smart idea would be to sell t-shirts. This allows consumers to express pride in identifying with such music. Because the poster does not require an extra purchase for the consumer, this is the best choice; however a t-shirt may be out in the near future. The most important elements to be included in the poster are the following: website URL where one can purchase the CD, title of the CD, images symbolic of happiness and a laid back attitude, such as; a dude smiling, bird, sunshine, an opened window, an alarm that is beeping at 10:30, and a calendar that clearly says Monday. These items will be arranged in a way that leads the viewer’s eye slowly and deliberately to take it all in.

Design Plan

The promotional material for the teen dance mix will be a magazine advertisement. The ad will appear in magazines targeted towards young men and women, such as skating magazines and Seventeen. These types of magazines tell teens what is new and trendy. For example, Seventeen tells teenage girls what clothing, hair, and makeup styles are in and out. By appearing in these types of publications, the compilation will have the image of being trendy.

According to “What We Are to Advertisers” by James B. Twitchell, consumers buy the lifestyle attached to a product more than the product itself. Therefore, to sell this disk most effectively, the lifestyle teens are trying to achieve needs to be connected to the product. Therefore, activities like dancing, cheerleading, and other sports will be depicted in connection with the songs.

As described in the CD design plan, the songs selected for this compilation were chosen because they are typically played on pop stations or in concerts, both of which tend to appeal to the younger crowd. Keeping with this theme, the arrangement of the advertisement will look like band flyers passed out at concerts.

The overall strategy of this media is to sell the compilation to the high school and college-aged group of adults by using popular music and projecting an image of fun and dancing for those who listen to the mix. Colors in the advertisement will be will be bright and colorful with contrasting text to give an upbeat image to lifestyle associated with the product. The fonts will be easy to read but not too large, about 9 or 10-point sans-serif fonts for most of the package to give a young and modern feel to the compilation.

Testing will be done throughout the project. The advertisement will be tested with different colors, contrasts, titles, and fonts. Different people from the target audience groups will check the images for appeal to ensure that they are being reached.

For my promotional material I will be creating a Flash banner ad. I will make this visually appealing to my audience(s). I will be doing this by using the same colors I use on my cd cover. I am creating a Flash banner because I think it will be seen by my audience more because college students are constantly using the computer and the internet.

The purpose of this flyer is to entice college students to buy and listen to the mix CD and use it on a road trip. It will advertise the CD and the songs on the mix CD. This flyer will have a backdrop of a scenic view with a car in the foreground. A few of the tracks will be listed on fuzzy dice hanging from the rear view mirror. It will have a “road-trip” feel that will entice college students looking for a good mix of music for their road trip. The flyer will include the title of the CD listed on the bottom of the flyer and a catchy phrase dealing with road trips on the top of the flyer. It will be printed on regular 8 X 10 papers in color to be handed out individually to students on campus as a marketing scheme. Also this will allow the maker to post the flyers in classrooms, bulletin boards, and on the ground around campus. The color schemes that will be used will differ as to the location on the flyer. The top/sky of the flyer will have a cool color scheme with a few clouds incorporated. The bottom/scenery and car will vary in colors. An idea for the background scenery could be mountains or a sunset.

Sense of Purpose-
To develop a promotional material that will accompany the overall CD and packaging to help draw attention and to show the overall meaning and purpose of the CD. I am choosing to create a promotional poster, that mixes different artistic styles to match the different decades that the music was created in.

Audience-
The audience will be composed of mainly Purdue students with an interest of various genres and generations of music. Age ranges from 18-25 who are interested in seeing the huge change of music styles over the past 50 years.

Context-
I want the audience to be very open to different styles. The style will fit the likings of the age range.

Strategies-
I want the style of the poster I create to be very colorful, with an obvious progression of the style, from 60 (austin powerish flowing into the next style and so forth all the way to the styles of today) top to bottom.

Medium-
I am choosing to create a promotional poster, that mixes different artistic styles to match the different decades that the music was created in. Using a wide variety of artistic style, but still unified to fit together on one poster.

Promotional Item Design Plan

The purpose of creating a promotional item is to give the public an insight to a specific product that is on the market. In this case the product is a CD album. This promotional item will be attractive to a particular audience in which the CD itself is targeting. Using some advertisement concepts, this promotional item should convey a message to a customer that they must have or need the CD.
The audience for this promotional item will be consistent with that of the CD itself which contains athletes and sports fans. This promotional item will be a magazine advertisement in sports magazines. The audience should be in a mood to where they want to know more about current sports, and what better way to show an advertisement for a CD that targets athletes and fans. The advertisement could be represented in magazines such as Sports Illustrated or ESPN the Magazine.
A strategy known as the Democracy of Goods will be used in the advertisement. This idea makes the consumer think that no matter who they are they will have the best CD on the market. The advertisement will have a sports theme in which a regular Joe will be pictured in the advertisement. The arrangement will contain the title of the CD in the very top of the ad. In the lower right will feature a track list or a little sentence saying “Are you ready for the best sports tracks to hit the market” or some line. Some quotes might be involved in the ad as well. The sports theme will involve basketball and football since these are two of the most popular sports. The basic mood of the advertisement will be calm and the excitement will be unnoticed to signal that the theme is without music. Everyone loves when their team wins so a celebration should be included in the advertisement in another section separate from the dull part. Photoshop may be used to create pictures since most copyright free images will not have a theme that is wanted.

Design Plan
College music compilation Promotional Media
Music is an important part of anyone’s life. Music defines culture, interests, moods, style, intelligence, diversity and experience. Because music is so diverse it requires a very specific marketing plan, the goal of this project is to make a CD and package design that will convey a message people believe is specific to themselves while making it still available to as large a consumer market as possible. Specifically college students and young adults will be targeted because of the music that has been provided and the expendable income they posses.
To help formulate a strategy the designer will draw on various readings as well as popular culture and personal experience. Many examples are available to study and analysis of the strategies used with popular products will lead to a successful marketing campaign.

Lastly a poster or other commercial media will be designed to advertise the CD.
The advertising media will follow the same strategy that the CD packaging does. It will attempt to be ambiguous while still selling a lifestyle that the consumer wants to have. A possible design idea involves a student walking through various atmospheres in different social situations and choosing a specific song on an mp3 player. The song will be from the tracks available on the CD. The student never talks so that people understand he or she is “thinking”. It will show the student assess the situation and then make a selection on his or her mp3 player after which they will casually walk to the next scene.

DESIGN PLAN – Promotional Package

The songs chosen provide a unique and absurd like quality when it comes to their lyrics. In order to convey this absurdity, the design plan for the CD package uses techniques which use puzzle-like designs to make the consumer think about the design. In order to reach a wide audience of younger people who would may be interested in something like this, an online advertisement will be used to catch the attention of people as they surf the web. While other forms of traditional media such as newspaper, magazine or posters could be used, the world is consistently moving towards a larger online demographic whereas print materials seem to be losing ground.

The audience will be a very large group of the younger to older teen demographic which is being targeted. The ad will most likely be shown on sites where the younger demographic will show up by using modern contextual advertisement matching. Using these technologies provided by several companies today, a larger click thru rate can be generated. This way, the targeted audience can be specifically captured based on the sites which they view.

The largest ad unit with the best click thru rate according to Google is their medium rectangle unit which has the dimensions 300x250 pixels. Thus, this will be the dimensions used. To help grab attention, an animated graphical presentation will be used (which will repeat). However, in order to help sway ad blindness (or people ignoring ads), the transitions will be smooth and slow. There will be a large pause at the end to display the product and relevant song information. The same colors, techniques, and design used on the CD package will be shown in an animated slide show form in order to allow interest to develop in the viewer.

In an attempt to mimic the success of shows such as adult swim, the promotional advertisement will show text which must be read (with sufficient pauses) related to the theme of the CD package. First, it will display “Like Music”? Followed by “Looking for something crazy?” Then, images will be shown intermittently. The viewer will then be able to draw their own interpretation from the image. Using certain design techniques learned in class, the ad will be simple in order to create a feeling of style, and not to bombard the viewer with too much for them to handle visually. Styling on text will be used to make it stand out

My promotional material for my CD is going to be in the form of a newspaper advertisement. More specifically, because my CD is targeted towards college-aged students, it will be advertised in a college newspaper. I feel that this is the best way to promote my album due to the number of students that look through the newspaper on a daily basis.

The purpose of my ad will be, of course, to catch the eye of the reader and draw his/her attention to the CD that I am trying to sell. Many times this can be done with the colors that are used, but this doesn’t apply here since the advertisement will be in black and white. Therefore, I will have to attract the audience in another manner. I plan on using a design similar to that of my CD cover for my promotional material. By doing so, the audience will more easily be able to connect the images they see in the newspaper to what they see at, for example, a music store carrying my album. Like my CD cover, each decade (from the 60s until 2000s) will be displayed in an easily readable, attractive font. In addition, I am going to include the names of the artists on the album in my advertisement. Doing this gives the audience a taste of the different bands on the album but can make them wonder as to what specific songs are included.

With a catchy design and a medium that is viewed by many people, my advertisement has the potential to successfully promote my CD.

Purpose- To create a promotional poster that will make current Purdue students want to buy my CD.

Audience- If I was to post this poster, it would be on campus so the audience would be composed of mainly Purdue students with an interest of various genres of music. Age ranges from 18-23

Context- I want the audience to look at my poster and associate themselves with the student in the picture. I want them to feel like if they buy this CD, it will help them be productive when they study.

Strategies- I plan to design the poster, so that it lets the audience know what type of music is on the CD without actually hearing a song. It will be a calm picture of a student studying at a desk at night with a desk lamp. The CD title and song titles will also be displayed.

Medium- I will design the poster on an 11x17 piece of paper using Adobe Photoshop. I will communicate the title of the CD with lighter colors and a title that stands out by using drop shadows.

Arrangement- The Image will be the focal point of the poster with the title being clearly visible at the top. Song titles will be across the bottom.

I plan to use posters as my promotional materials. These posters will get viewers interested in both the band and the specific album it is promoting. Hopefully there will be elements that capture the attention of people unfamiliar with the band, but also offer something for people more in the know. These posters would probably be plastered on walls, bulletins, or on the ground for people to view as they walk past, so the visual has to grab attention enough for them to slow down, or have the relevant information prominent enough that viewers can read and remember it while passing.
I chose posters because they are probably pretty cheap and can be put up all over the place without having to pay for advertising space/time. Also, if they posters are visually appealing enough, some people may want to actually have one in their room, and that gives extra free advertising to the band I would be promoting.
The main appeal of the posters will be the picture that should cover the entire poster. As outlined in my CD cover design plan, The CDs 5 songs will correspond to times during a day, with pictures of each of those times in an insert booklet. Those same 5 pictures will each also have its own poster. The picture will be expanded though, as naturally there is more real estate to cover. The extra photo space should reveal something interesting that can't be noticed in the booklet. This layout will hopefully catch the attention of people and make them curious about the pictures depicting different times of the day. The extra revealed photograph will interest the people who already know about the band and perhaps make them want to have a poster of their own (or even collect all 5) and point out the interesting fact to their friends.
Lastly would be the actual text. At the top left I plan to have the name of the song and artist, and the bottom left will have the album name, song tracks, and other promotional information (perhaps room for upcoming concerts). Both of these texts should be big enough to read from four feet away so viewers don't have to squint or stop to read it. I have put them in the corners however to emphasize the pictures.

I want to create a promotional material that catches the audience. To do that it will have to appeal to the audience that would be interested in the CD so it will be geared toward teenagers and college students. The audience is the type where they are not inclined to read newspapers to where they mainly browse through it and just read the small bits that catch their eye so my promotional material will need to be interesting to look at. Also, the promotional material design will mirror the design for the CD package to show more of what the promotional material is trying to sell.

Now, to appeal to that audience the promotional material will have a simple and professional look and not use cheesy images or lines. It will intentional have little text to keep the reader wondering what the CD has to offer so they will be more willing to go look for the CD.

The Promotional Material will be a newspaper ad that will use color. The program of choice for this Promotional Material will be Macromedia Freehand.

The Promotional Material will have a blue and black background that be arranged to look professional to where it will be mainly black with blue lines that will not be too thick. The text will be white so it is a good contrast from the background and will consist of the title of the CD and a bit more. One image will be used and be used to help catch the attention of the reader.

Design Plan for CD Label

The purpose of this mix CD is to persuade college students that exercise regularly that listening to this mix CD can help them feel more motivated and energetic during a workout routine. The students should not think that this CD is only a money-grubbing project so that they don’t buy the CD, instead, they should see that the CD can help them get more out of a workout by pushing them to do their best, as well as make the workout more enjoyable.

To achieve this goal, the CD needs to be appealing to college students. The CD must look interesting, and contain good uplifting music that will get the heart pumping. The CD cover label will be bright and colorful to make the CD look lively and energetic. The background colors will be a mix of yellow, orange, and red, to create a tie-dye effect. Yellow and orange are uplifting colors, and the red will subtly remind the students of what they are trying to accomplish by exercising in the first place: to get their hearts pumping and to improve their overall fitness and possibly lifestyle. The CD cover will also feature the title of the mix CD, BLANK, at about a 30 degree angle to the top of the CD case to make it look more interesting, and in dark lettering to contrast with the bright tie-dye background. There will also be two pictures on either side of the CD title. One will be above the title and to the left; the other will be below the title and to the right. The first picture will be of a dog catching a flying Frisbee, and the second will be of a person posing such that they look like they just threw the Frisbee. These will make it seem as if the Frisbee has flown across the CD cover, reinforcing the message of energy and enjoyable exercise. After all, what is more tiring and more fun than playing Frisbee with a dog? The CD insert will contain the lyrics for all the songs and will use the same tie-dye background and contrasting typeface as the cover. It would be hard to read if the lines were not parallel to the top and bottom of the CD, so there will be no interesting angles here. However, the lines can be staggered a little to the left and right of the center of each column of text in order to imply motion and repetition, much like that of an exercise routine. The area behind where the CD rests will contain a single image of a person or persons stretching on an exercise mat, again, at a slight angle to the CD case, and framed by the colorful tie-dye background. Stretching can mark both the beginning and the end of a workout, a powerful image to see when taking out the CD and replacing it. It is also a friendly little reminder to not forget to stretch when exercising. The back of the CD case will contain the track list, and will use numbered Frisbees to mark each track, and again, each line of text will be staggered left and right.

CD Promotional Material Design Draft

The Purpose of this promotional material will be to alert parents to the fact that they are oblivious to the music preferences (and hence – the lifestyle and experiences) of their children and suggest this music mix CD series as the panacea. The medium will be a large newspaper advertisement. The advertisement will be placed in a newspaper that is mainly read by adults in mid to late forties and early fifties. In the Indianapolis area, a prime target would be the Indianapolis Star. The main strategy would be to quickly make the adults feel like they are old, not fashionable, and “out of the loop”. The advertisement will make heavy use of white space. It will have the following quote at the top of the page: “You don’t know what she’s really into.” This quote is meant to be shocking and somewhat offensive, as to arouse a strong feeling of discomfort. In the middle will be a girl in her 20’s listening to music. Her face will be hidden by her hair, thus making her seem like she could be the reader’s daughter. At the bottom of the page will be the following quote: “Listen and learn.” A picture of the album and its name will follow the quote. This presentation is meant to be short, shocking, and memorable.