Audience Engagement Research- Billboard

Billboard magazine is an internationally renowned entertainment magazine that focuses on the hottest music and trends in the music industry. Although they are not solely focused on rap/hip-hop our audience bases are similar in interests and age range. Both Rap Caviar and Billboard Magazine attract audience viewers that are a majority of 18-25 year olds that are influenced and interested in media, music, and fashion. Billboard Magazine uses promotion techniques such as social media, Billboard Events, and free newsletters to promote the Billboard brand and ultimately attract more viewers to all aspects of the Billboard brand. This is a smart technique in using mainly digital promotion techniques due to their young audience demographic which is constantly browsing the web making it highly likely that Billboard will attract a majority of their viewers through word of mouth around the web.

Billboard Events

Social Media

Billboard Newsletter

Audience Engagement Research- XXL

XXL magazine reports on the newest and hottest rap/hip-hop topics, culture, and style trends. They attract a demographic that is considerably similar to my magazine Rap Caviar. It attracts a demographic that is interested in pop culture and rap industry media that is also heavily influenced by fashion, sports, and media. This demographic range of audience is mainly 18-25 year olds with a vast majority of the population being male viewers. Marketing and promotion techniques used by XXL magazine include social media, a free newsletter subscription, YouTube channel, and an online XXL website. All of these attract viewers towards their magazine weather it be their print or digital version. These tactics are great for attracting their younger type audience as the younger generations are constantly flowing through social media, watching YouTube videos, and keeping up with the hottest trends.

Social Media








































Newsletter




















XXL YouTube




















XXL Website

Audience Engagement Research- The Fader

The Fader and Rap Caviar have similar target audiences as they are constructed within the same community based around rap/hip-hop. Each magazine has a style and topics that appeal to the same audience. Audience members include mainly millennial men with very little female attraction. Our magazine audiences is targeting mainly 18-25 year old males. The Fader uses marketing techniques such as social media influence, a YouTube channel, and digital emailing newsletters. The Fader does extensive posting on the main social media platforms of Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook with huge followings on all accounts. They know their audience is young millennial and gen z population so as an intuitive business decision they put most of their efforts towards social media marketing. They also over extensive options on their website to free email newsletters and extensive subscription options to help promote both their digital and print versions of their magazine. I would adopt their style of marketing through persuasive social media posts to help promote my magazine, Rap Caviar.

Social media


































Newsletter

















YouTube

             

Indesign Class Activity

Today in class we utilized Adobe Indesign to lay out our two page spread. In my experience with the software it was definitely more complex than Microsoft Publisher and seemed overwhelming at first glance. After using the software for a little and learning the basics it allowed much more in depth customization and abilities to masterfully craft my magazine. Therefore, I do believe I will continue to use Adobe Indesign to complete my revisions for my magazine in quarter three. The customization abilities are uncanny and will allow me to craft my perfect magazine submission.

 (unfinished design)

My Target Audience

For my rap/hip-hop magazine my audience will be a niche community of people. Most likely the subscribers to the magazine would be 18-25 year old with majority being males. geographical we hope to see it grow to be internationally recognized but realistically it will be mainly in the U.S. (mainly south, northeast, and west coast). The personal interests of my audience will include obviously rap/hip-hop but also, sports, mainstream media, and fashion. Education and income level's may very between my audience due to rap/hip-hops broad range of impact and types of listeners. My magazine will appeal to my audience because I understand the style and aesthetic that this group is looking for as I am apart of this social group. My articles will also seem relevant and interesting to this for this same reason. I have the same mindset as many of the target audience of the magazine and therefore will know how to attract readers.

Feedback and Revisions

As I presented my magazine issue to my peers I received constructive feedback to better my magazine submission. Generally my cover and table of contents was well received besides some lettering on the cover that wasn't spaced out enough. They found my photography quite good and layout to be elegant and natural feeling. When we got to my article pages is where I found the majority of my feed back and where I will be dong most of my revisions. They found the full page photos with text to be to much and found spacing between pictures and text to be dysfunctional. I received feedback to alter this and I plan on taking out the full page photos and replace it with smaller photos that will be used instead to help fill out the page and have a larger majority of text. This will allow for a more pleasant looking and natural read for my article viewers. I had also left out page numbers which I will add on the corner of each page. Overall my magazine was well received with some valid layout revisions that will only make my submission that much better as it will be better conveyed and more appealing to view.

Use of Conventions

In my magazine project I researched countless numbers of magazines in the same genre of my project. While viewing these magazines there was a standard use of conventions that can be seen in font sizing, photography, and article topics. To emulate these professional magazines I complimented some of these conventions as shown in my finished magazine. I used bold tittle fonts to emphasize tittles and important headings which is conventionally used in the production style or hip-hop/rap magazines. The photography that I took and used emulates the feeling and mood promoted by those in other hip-hop/rap magazines. In my research the photography was almost always of the artist and had a serious or gritty tone with a style that is used to emulate that of the rap/hip-hop artists type of style. I used photography techniques to and editing to produce gritty and real photos and had my models dress up in clothing similar to fashion that would be found on conventional rap/hip-hop artists. This adds depth and realism to my magazine that gives off a professional look to my issue. The article found in my issue is one that relates to topics typically found within a rap/hip-hop culture magazine of today. All of these emulations of conventional style magazines helps give me an opportunity to see precedent and help my issue be the best looking and most accurate portrayal of a professional magazine. In order to attract our target audience of you thrills rap/hip-hop enthusiasts we wanted to represent the social group of teenagers in our photos.