Marketing Package Analysis - Adele

Research - Task 3

As part of my research I have decided to examine marketing packages for different artists' albums, so that I can gain an understanding on how record labels and artists promote their products to specific audiences. For my marketing package analysis I have decided to analyse Adele's album named 25 which was released on the 20th November 2015. 25 is the third studio album by British singer and songwriter and was released through XL Recordings.
Examining a variety of marketing packages will allow me to gain an insight into how different genres of music are marketed towards the general public, so therefore when I create my own marketing package later on in the year I will have a wide knowledge of the different conventions that accompany each genre.

The digipak for Adele's album uses a sepia-toned colour scheme throughout which creates a retro and glamourous effect, therefore suggesting to the audience that these themes may also be present throughout the album. The retro-glam theme of the digipak, particularly on the front cover, also suggests that this album will be the most sophisticated in comparison to her previous albums as she has grown and matured. This will help her to appeal to a wider audience as her album cover will attract both the older generation and the current generation as her new modern look will attract younger adults, and the mixed theme of Hollywood/retro-glam and maturity will appeal to the older generation.

Adele is featured on the front cover staring straight into the camera lens, which is known as direct address as she is making a visual connection with her audience. The artist is also featured wearing a full face of makeup which reinforces the retro-glam look of the album cover as she is shown wearing very thick, bold eyeliner which flicks out towards the end of her eye. Her strong contour also adds to this effect as it creates the appearance of enhanced cheekbones, which creates a more angled and precise look to her facial features. Her serious facial expression reinforces the sophisticated look she's portraying, as does her sleek hair style.

The album title is featured down the spine of the album, and is fairly simplistic and modern as she uses three main colour schemes: red, white and black. These colours attract the audience's eye as they all contrast off of each other, and as she has chosen to use the black as a background colour this creates a reverse-block appearance which works to attract the audience's eye. For the title of the album and her name, Adele has chosen to use a sans-serif font, however the font has a layered effect which makes the words stand out against the black background to capture her audience's gaze.

The back cover of the album also continues these themes of sophistication, maturity and Hollywood/retro glam as the sepia-toned colour scheme continues. The artist is photographed leaning forwards onto her arm, and again staring directly into the lens of the camera to draw in her audience's attention.
The font for her track-list is very simplistic and modern, yet again portraying that the artist has grown and matured throughout her musical career. The artist has used a classic, white sans-serif font with red sans-serif numbers down the side to create a nice contrast which will catch her audience's eye and encourage them to read the titles of the songs. The use of white font against the dark photography creates a reverse-block kind of effect which further attracts the audience's gaze.

The CD in the album is yet again very simple and classic, sticking to the common theme which runs through this particular marketing package. The CD is a muted yellow colour (although it does look slightly pink in the photograph), with 25 written on it in bright red. The typography used on the CD resembles a handwritten effect, to suggest that this album has been personalised by the artist and is hand-crafted specifically for every listener. The use of this typography also suggests an old fashioned, retro aesthetic which could be to highlight these elements in Adele's personality, as titles were commonly written on home-made CD's.

To market her album further, Adele's album was advertised on large billboard posters across the world, which showed the front cover of her album. This would attract mass attention as the image is very large and the black background sharply contrasts with her pale skin and bold font, which would catch people's eye and encourage them to purchase the album.

As you can see on the left, Adele also advertised her album on her website, which would inform her current fan-base that follow her on social media to the release of her upcoming album. The advertisement is quite simplistic, as are the other varieties of marketing she has used throughout her release. She uses an out of focus background image of her album cover, with a smaller image of her album cover layered over the top. She then has the title of the album featured as a logo, and a small amount of text in sans-serif font to inform her audience of the upcoming release.