Treatment

Print Advertising Treatment/Proposal

Deborah Anderson

Product name: Rave

Client: The Northern Echo

Date: 9^th January 2014                                     Project completion date: 28^th February 2014

Branding Objectives

What is the genre of your magazine? What are you informing your audience about? How will it branded? What are the connotations of your branding decisions? What are the connotations of the magazine’s name?

My product will be a women’s hybrid alternative lifestyle magazine aimed at 17-21 year olds. It will include articles about fashion, social issues, music and basically just random topics.  It will include an interview with a local rising talent, which will relate it to being the free supplement of the Northern Echo, which is very community-involved. The person I will be interviewing is Andrew Backhouse, he is 18 and so is a similar age to the target audience. The audience will therefore be more able to relate to him and so to the magazine, finding it more accessible. The name of my magazine is Rave. I chose this name because of the different connotations the word has. You can rant and rave about something, which I think the target audience will relate to, passionately debating for a cause. This is the type of article I wanted to include in my magazine associating with social issues. However, a rave is also a type of dance/music style popular with my target audience’s age group. I thought this connotation would also allow me to include articles about music. I thought it would generalise to a wider variety of topics, which is what my hybrid magazine is about. My magazine will have 16 pages and will be A4 size. It will include some advertisements so as to get revenue from selling advert space.

Audience communication objectives
Who is your audience? Identify: tribe, socioeconomics, age, gender split.	My target audience are 17-21 year old student women. They will be in socioeconomic groups A and B. I chose these groups because I wanted to aim my magazine at more educated people, who were more likely to use a more varied vocabulary. This is because I can mirror their education and so, myself, use a wider vocabulary. However, because of the age group I will be using lots of youth-orientated, colloquial language and slang. But, because my magazine is directly associated with The Northern Echo, my language can’t be too taboo as it has to stay in line with the values of the newspaper. Because I want my magazine to be high quality, the advertisers will need to be high quality. High quality advertisers are more likely to be aiming their products at As and Bs because they have a higher disposable income and so may be more likely to buy the products advertised. My target audience’s tribe will be ‘Indie Scenesters’ and ‘Creatives’. I chose these tribes because I think that they are open-minded, edgy and creative. That is why I chose my ‘Make Do And Mend’ article. My target audience hate waste culture so I thought that this recycling of products would appeal to them. Also I thought that they wouldn’t be interested in reading articles that are considered ‘artificial’. That’s why I wanted to have DPS’s about new talent and also the social issue of Facebook addiction and overuse.
Your unique selling point	My magazine’s unique selling point is that it will be an artistic and comical magazine specifically aimed at women without being ‘girly’ like other magazines such as Cosmo and Glamour. I want to create my magazine in a way that means I don’t have to follow the stereotypes of women only being interested in gossip, fashion, beauty and overall, making themselves ‘look pretty’. Most magazines that I have read whilst doing my genre research all take social issues seriously. I think the best way to reach my target audience is to make it funny, sarcastic and to not take it too seriously.

Overview
Description of front cover and contents page Content. Imagery to be deployed: metaphorical, ideal, window to the future self	The front cover of my magazine will also be the contents page. In the middle of the page will be the magazine title ‘Rave’ It will have on it all the article sell-lines and page numbers of where to find them in the magazine. Next to each article sell line and page number will include 1 (or more) picture, either from or relating to the article in some way. I want there to be lots of cartoon images throughout my magazine so the front cover should mirror this. I want it to look relaxed, so there will be lots of handwriting/handwritten fonts and titles.
Double Page 1 Title, content and article type	The Man Behind The Mic This article will be about rising star and local talent Andrew Backhouse. It will be a comical, relaxed interview asking him about his future career in the music industry and how he’s making a name for himself. I will be asking him what it’s like to interview the biggest names in music and DJ-ing at festivals such as Latitide and Swn.
Double Page 2 Title, content and article type	Under The Thumb: Facebook This article will be a comical but informative look at society’s unhealthy addiction to the social networking site Facebook. It will explain the negative impact that Facebook is having on us such as low self-esteem and depression. It will also give a few statistics throughout the article in order to give the informative side.
Double page 3 Title, content and article type	Make Do And Mend This article will be a tutorial on how to transform an old, worn garment into a new, re-vamped and stylish statement piece of clothing. I also have an alternative article in case any of my originally planned articles don’t go to plan/ don’t work. It’s called ‘I Wear Your Grandad’s Clothes, I Look Incredible’. This will be a more fashion-focused article. It would be a series of photographs showing models wearing different clothes in the ‘grandad style’ ie. baggy jumpers, blazers etc. It will, therefore, not have lots of text but maybe just a few captions.

Distribution objectives

Free to view, supplement, retail? Circulation: how many and why this number? Outlets and rationale: Pricing: premium, mid or free to view? Why? Print quality: Discuss print finishing, magazine size, paper quality. Number of pages. Advertising to content ratio

My magazine will be a free supplement to The Northern Echo. I chose this distribution method because I thought that at least that way there is more chance of getting an audience and also I didn’t want to make a poor quality magazine so I didn’t want to use the free-to-view distribution channel. The circulation will need to be the same number as The Northern Echo’s circulation, which is about 40,000 copies. Because it’s a free supplement, I won’t be making any money from the selling of this product, therefore I will be relying on the selling of advertising space to not make a loss. This will be difficult because of the high circulation and so high printing costs. My magazine will be made up of 16 pages, including front cover, back cover and advertising. Because I want my magazine to have a good relationship with the audience, I believe that although having adverts is necessary to make money, it shouldn’t completely take up the whole magazine. Therefore, I plan to aim for a 1:3 (advert: pages) ratio.

Visual Aesthetics
Story control Objectives	See ‘Overview’ for what articles are about. Because my magazine’s focus is on the visual elements of it, I don’t want to have too much text clogging up the pages. Therefore each text article should be relatively short - no more than 500 words each. I want to split the text up into similar lengthed paragraphs. I think being consistent in the length of paragraphs reduces the risk of the audience seeing a really long paragraph and then making them not want to read it. For my articles I’m going to try not to use the inverted pyramid of interest. If there is less interesting information about a topic, then why would I include it? If I do have to have factual information (which ordinarily may seem boring), then I will disperse it throughout the article and try to use humour as a way of making it interesting/ entertaining.
Image content objectives	Article 1- The Man Behind The Mic: For the main image, it will be a visual representation of the article title. The imagery will show a radio microphone stood in front of Andrew, whilst he is having to lean to one side so as to not be covered by the microphone head. Other images will include him DJ-ing at Latitude festival (1 of the topics that will be discussed in the interview). His eye line will be below the top third of the page. This is so that the audience can relate to him as opposed to seeing him as an intimidating figure. Andrew’s costume will be just regular, everyday clothes. This will add to the approachable look of him and so I think that will help to persuade the target audience to read the article – it makes the article/magazine more accessible I think. I want my images to use bright lighting so perhaps butterfly of glamour lighting would be best. I want there to be minimal shadowing as shadow connotes negativity, which is not what my magazine is about. Article 2- Under The Thumb: Facebook: For the main image, again, the imagery will be a visual representation of the article name where a model will be looking up, comically scared with the Facebook thumb over her head. Again, this is not an image that the audience should aspire to be and so the eye line should be below the first third line. The model will have her arms above her, as if she is trying to defend/ protect herself from the Facebook thumb. This represents the playful tone of the article/magazine and the jokey, sarcastic tone of voice I will be using in the actual interview. It should reflect the light-heartedness of the article and overall magazine. I want her costume to be casual but fashionable. The colours of her costume should blend with/compliment the black, white and Facebook purple/blue used throughout the rest of the article. Ideally the costume will be a similar blue to the Facebook colour used. Article 3- Make Do And Mend: This article will be very image-based. It will use close up shots of the garment being made at each stage of the process. I need the lighting to be bright so that the readers can see as much detail as possible. I could then use reflectors in my photo shoot. I will then have a few images showing a model wearing the finished product. These images should be aspirational and represent a ‘window to the future self’ so that the audience are then inspired to replicate the process and create a similar or even different garment of their own. I will use glamour or butterfly lighting and the eye line will be higher than the first third line so as to create a sense of power or at least not vulnerability like perhaps my other article images. Article 3 alternative- I Wear Your Grandad’s Clothes. I Look Incredible: This article will be imagery-focused. The images will show a model in various different outfits that fit in with the theme/style of ‘grandad’ clothes. The eye line will be in the top third of the page so as to give a sense of importance. I want the reader to aspire to be like her. It should represent a ‘window to the future self’. I will therefore use glamour or butterfly lighting. I will use conventional modelling poses and body language such as hand on hip, scrunching of hair etc.
Language Control Objectives	Article 1- The Man Behind The Mic: Like many celebrity interviews, I will choose to start this article with a descriptive introduction. They usually describe the appearance of the person being interviewed at the interview. I will emulate this but I want it to be comical, not just descriptive. There will be an equal image to text ratio. For the article, I will use both 1st and 2nd person narrative. This will mean that I am talking directly to Andrew and asking him questions but that I can also refer to ‘us’ and ‘we’ at Rave magazine. I think this sounds more friendly and welcoming than just asking questions – it makes it more relaxed and informal e.g. “We loved your DJ set at Latitude last year! Did you enjoy doing it?” Because the article isn’t supposed to be an excited and adventurous piece of writing the rhythm shouldn’t be too fast-paced. Also because it’s a non-fiction article and it’s supposed to be quite a natural conversation, I won’t be using alliteration or any type of language that sounds too constructed. I want the interview to be relaxed and informal so that it does just come across as a ‘chat’. I may therefore use slang and youth-orientated and colloquial language. Also, the aim of this article is to be quite a community-focussed article. It shouldn’t therefore have too much taboo language in it (if any). The tone of this article will be jokey, chatty and not too serious. I think this will make it more appealing to a teenage/student audience. Sometimes, I may use a sarcastic tone of voice but I think that my target audience will respond well to this. Article 2- Under The Thumb: Facebook: The narrative voice will be a mixture between 2nd and 3rd person. I want to be talking directly to the audience to engage them and to make the topic of the article more powerful. This will also address the good relationship my magazine should have with the target audience. For this article I will start with a rhetorical question to get the attention of the target audience. The tone of voice will be sarcastic and comical and shouldn’t be too serious. Again, because the topic of the article isn’t supposed to be exciting or adventurous, I don’t need to use short, sharp sentences to build up the tension and make the reading pace fast. Article 3- Make Do And Mend: There won’t be a lot of text for this article and so the text to image ratio will be very high. I will only be writing simple instructions for the audience to follow in order to create a chosen garment. I will therefore use command words such as ‘do’, ‘put’ etc. If I can, I will add comedy but I’m not sure that it will work in this style/type of article. Article 3 alternative- I Wear Your Grandad’s Clothes. I Look Incredible.: This article is a photographic piece and so will have minimal text if any therefore it will have a very high image to text ratio. I only plan to have the masthead of ‘I Wear Your Grandad’s Clothes. I Look Incredible.’ and an additional subheader e.g. ‘Macklemore, eat your heart out’.
Colour control objectives	Throughout the whole magazine, there will be minimal colour. I will use the 3 colour rule. I’ll use black, white and one other colour for each DPS. For example, my Facebook article will have the main colours of black, white and purple/blue (the recognisable Facebook colour). Similarly for each of the other 2 articles I will choose a colour related to the article topic and use it alongside black and white. I think this will attract the target audience because the lack of colour throughout will enhance the bits of colour that are present. I think this colour scheme will add to the informality of my magazine. I don’t want it to be over the top or ‘in your face’ like other magazines can be such as Heat or Okay. I think my target audience will therefore respond to this.
Typography objectives	Most of the ‘indie’ and alternative lifestyle magazines that I have looked at so far in my research have been fairly consistent in their choice of layout and fonts. Most of them have chosen one font and used it for all of the titles and mastheads apart from the magazine name on the front cover. I think this is a good idea as it allows me to focus on the visual elements of the magazine. I can add different textures and mediums without detracting from them with a fancy font. For this font I will use a bold, serif font. I will use a serif font because it looks more old-fashioned and vintage and I feel my target audience will be able to appreciate this particularly. As stated before, I don’t want to follow conventions of usual magazines, for example, having the article text in columns. I would want to therefore have my text in boxes, or surrounding imagery. If I did do this then I feel it would frame the images and accentuate them more, as they will be the focal points of the articles.
Layout objectives	For all of the articles I don’t want to put the text (if there is any) in columns. My magazine’s aim is to try and break the usual conventions of magazines. I therefore want to have the text in boxes or surrounding images, using more of an active layout. In the alternative lifestyle magazines that I have looked at, many of the articles have small blocks of text overlapping images. I similarly want to experiment with this because I do want it to look active, not explosive as such but definitely active and interesting. Because my magazine is an artistic/creative magazine, I want it to be very visual and so the focal points for each page will be the images. The masthead for each DPS will be on the conventional top of the left hand page. I don’t want it to be too confusing for the audience. If an article is set out confusingly then the target audience will be less likely to want to read it. I think they will want to invest minimum effort into reading my magazine so if I can make it as easy as possible to read then I think my magazine will have an audience and be read. I want to use a breakout box for The Man Behind The Mic. This will include Andrew’s tips on how to make a name for yourself in the music industry as he, himself, is in the process of doing. I don’t want to rely too heavily on words to ‘sell’ my product so there will be minimal sell lines on the front cover (which is also going to be my contents page). I want to really on the images to grab the attention and interest of the readers.