New to the #Verified list on Twitter but a well known London rapper, TE Dness has just released the video for his latest single entitled ‘Girlfriends‘ featuring Afrobeats artist, Moelogo.
Whilst he’s been pushing out content over the years, constantly fine tuning his sound with producer Sangeet, CreativeNerds have worked with TE developing his online presence and branding.
For us, our heritage begins in the music industry, starting with MySpace layouts and single artwork to branding SBTV & LinkUpTV – music stays in our legacy. It’s something we’ve always had a passion for.
If you’re a upcoming artist, here are some thoughts to get you a little bit closer to that polished ‘shop-window’ look you need!
1 – Think Colour & Emotion
Get the right tone, not just vocally, but visually you need to position your branding to ensure it connects with the audience you want to reach. With an artist, it’s much like a business. You know your loyal consumer, you understand your existing audience but you also have considerations for new eyes & ears who might be open to your offering.
Create some form of consistency in your artwork so people know your style for an entire campaign, and instantly recognise it.
Singer Ed Sheeran, also known for his hair used a complimentary Green tone and made his ‘X’ sign marketing so striking, it almost felt like a household name. Clean Bandit followed another pattern by using objects and a style that was seen on every single artwork.
Colour tones and how they create impulse and emotions are also something to consider. The music should influence this heavily, however these articles add some further insight:
The Psychological Properties Of Colours
The Psychology of Colour in Marketing and Branding
2 – Tell a story
Perhaps in the urban scene more than others, storytelling plays a big part in a fan finding something they feel is a personal connection to an artist. Take a look at some of the artwork we’ve created since 2013, these slowly develop to reflect the change in style and TE’s personal life experiences.
In these years, TE has shifted from an underground scene and slowly into a mainstream funnel, with recent plays on Capital, BBC 1Xtra & support from number one artists such as WSTRN’s Haile.
My brudda @TE_dness Just dropped a MADNESS with @moelogo ! #GirlFriends https://t.co/Ssxc1BhAT2 ?? support the ting !!!
— Im Just In My Zone ! (@HaileWSTRN) August 18, 2016
So now, it’s all about ensuring we’re putting together a collection of artwork that stands out from the others, that builds a legacy and continues to show his progress. As a musician you are a brand, that you’re piecing together, but you never know when you’ll have to pivot and shift your approach. The industry changes and you have to adapt with it. Take a look at this tweet from Austin Darbo which compares the speed of success from 2004 to 2014:
Clearing out some of my old documents and came across this slide – one for new artists to think about pic.twitter.com/w3hIMahzN3
— Austin (@AustinDarbo) August 16, 2016
3 – Make it memorable
Why stick to the same old boring design style? Try something a little different. Here we’ve decided to use an object rather than a photo of TE. Seeing as the song is about the past, we thought we’d try to do the obvious and stick on some text to a cassette tape… pretty basic right? But it works. The photo below shows the different steps in reverse.
4 – Create Social Assets
You hear it everywhere, you know it yourself, social media is a #majorkey ? to getting your name out there, so you need to ensure you’re utilising each platform to its fullest.
- Create Twitter / FB headers, ask your fans to update theirs:
Flex if you wanna flex. ???? #girlfriends pic.twitter.com/NY437yKlwv
— GirlfriendsVID?! (@TE_dness) August 16, 2016
- Create Twitter / FB slides
#GIRLFRIENDS ??? Video sent to @Vevo_UK! Watch out for it tomorrow! @te_dness x @moelogo! Branding & digital by us! pic.twitter.com/JsfSptChkt
— CreativeNerds (@CreativeNerdsUK) August 17, 2016
- Create video content too, not just static images:
GIRLFRIENDS featuring Moelogo Prod. Sangeet – OUT THIS EVENING @Vevo_UK pic.twitter.com/4dtvlbwrHb
— GirlfriendsVID?! (@TE_dness) August 18, 2016
- Use Snapchat & Instagram Stories to make a personal connection. Create some portrait slides (they work nicely as iPhone Wallpapers too!)
5 – Consider Ad Spend
Make it your mission to build an organic relationship, you’ll start to notice a loyal following of regular fans who comment, share & like your posts. Bounce off them to gain a wider reach.
But what if you’re after a little bit more? If you’ve got some budget to spend then Twitter, Facebook & Instagram provide some fantastic opportunities for you to push your message out to a completely new audience.
At CreativeNerds we deliver targeted advertising on these three platforms for our clients. Say you’re an urban artist, you might want to reach fans of people who consume media from platforms like SBTV, LinkUp, GRM etc – so we can push you’re ad out to those who may ‘like’ their respective FB pages, or follow them on Twitter. However that is only one side to advertising on social networks, there are a wide range of techniques used to get your content in-front of the millions who use them daily.
Give it a go yourself, and when you’re ready to take it further, pop us a message!
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