The Context
Recently, I've been working with a team of four to create a marketing campaign for a new and upcoming artist/group for a randomly assigned genre, which would turn out to be heavy rock (metal). But of course, we had to conduct some research before we could create this cool, new artist.
The Research
We first had to research two different record labels, then two artists apart from each label. To make this task easier on ourselves, each group member tackled one of the four artists. Due to already enjoying their music, I researched the band Slipknot and in turn, worked with another member of my team to write about Warner Music Australia, which is the record label both Slipknot and their artist In This Moment is a part of.
For the record label, Warner Music Australia, we discussed its brief history, its goal for its artists, and some more popular artists associated with the label, like Dua Lipa and Green Day. Despite this label only being a branch of the bigger Warner Music, this label was still very strong with very prominent artists and had a strong distribution, despite mostly being for Australians and New Zealanders.
After filling out the information on the record label, I focused on my case study about the popular metal band Slipknot. Through my research, I was able to determine their brief history, branding, target audience, marketing tactics, and distribution practices.
The Brand of Slipknot
Slipknot has been around for around nearly 30 years, being formed in 1995. Because of how long this band has been around, many of their fans are young Gen X and old millennials who were fans during their teenage years and have stuck with the band since. This doesn't mean that Slipknot doesn't have a younger audience. In fact, a lot of their fans are also current teenagers ready to continue the cycle started by the previous generations, including myself. The reason Slipknot's music is so appealing to teenagers and can easily stick with them is because of the band's strong branding.
Teenagers are filled with hormonal angst, and Slipknot's music has that angst that they can relate to. Their music tends to focus on the anger, pain, and even sometimes madness that many people, especially angsty teenagers, feel as they try to figure themselves and the world out. So despite their music and concerts being filled with chaos, Slipknot is able to offer comfort to these teens.
As for the band's look, all band members wear masks to differentiate from each other, which then gives them an identity that their fans can become attached to. The band members tend to be outspoken and charismatic making it more appealing to the masses through the connection to the band members themselves and not just their music, which helps fans stick with the band past their angsty teenage years.
Despite the angst, Slipknot is all about identity. Whether it is something you still need to search for or have already found it. Their masks give them identity and their music can help their fans find theirs.
“Slipknot offers a sense of identity, solidarity, and a path that isn’t the mainstream.”-Terri Witherden, LinkedIn
@slipknot on Facebook
The Marketing and Distribution of Slipknot
Overall, the marketing and distribution of Slipknot is simple but effective. They use both digital and non-digital tactics to achieve the widespread reach they currently have.
For Marketing, the most obvious way is their use of Social Media. I hunted down their profiles on the most popular sites and found that their greatest following is on Facebook, with 17 million followers. This is hugely to do with their strong Gen X following and the strong use of FaceBook within Gen X. Besides Social Media, they use their website (https://slipknot1.com/) as a way for audiences to easily find upcoming events, be informed on news about the band, and have a portal to all social media and music distribution. Slipknot also has a few partnerships to spread their music even more. For example, Slipknot had a promotion with the TV show 'The Boys' which advertised their music to fans of the show and advertised the show to fans of their music, creating a well-developed partnership.
That's just digital marketing. For non-digital marketing, Slipknot hosts a huge event called Knotfest where metal fans of all kinds gather to listen to multiple different metal bands perform with the biggest headliner always being Slipknot themselves. So while they are mostly advertising other bands, they are also marketing themselves to fans of the other bands as well as simply getting their name out with such a big event. They can be seen on billboards, magazines, and more posters, but my favorite marketing tactic I found in my research was the band's use of stickers. They sell cheap stickers that are then used by typically teenagers to stick to places like skateparks and road signs which helps get Slipknot's name out even more. Even if this wasn't their initial intention for the stickers, it is how the stickers are mainly being used. Even people sticking the stickers on their personal belongings get Slipknot's name out. That goes for most of Slipknot's merch.
Slipknot distributes their music mainly through YouTube where most of their music and music videos, making them gain 8.8 million subscribers. They also release music on Spotify, Apple Music, and other streaming services. This helps their music be easily accessible to millions around the globe. They will also distribute their music through Vinyls and CDs they put for sale. And of course, they still loudly and proudly perform live in concert.
@Slipknot on YouTube
The Discussion
This case study and the other three studies conducted by my group were vital in developing the brand, marketing, and distribution for our own project. We are basing our new metal artist on the research we've conducted and our own creativity.
My group and I came together to discuss what our research meant to us and how we think it should apply to our future band. We reviewed each other's case studies and analyzed what made each band successful and what made a band like Måneskin more successful than a band like Sleep Token.
As we combined our ideas, a brand was already forming. One that combined aspects from each of our case studies. We divided the work of our Marketing Campaign presentation between the four of us and created a schedule that would help us stay on time and have certain aspects completed by certain times before the due date so we could take our time and create unrushed work that we would be proud of.
Once the schedule was completed the real planning had begun.
The Presentation
First off, we found that there are really only bands within the heavy rock genre, so we created an all-girl heavy metal band called Eternal Kiss. Now, a metal female group is a risky move since the genre we're working in is heavily male-dominant, demonstrated by one of my group members Madison's case study on In This Moment and how the lead guitar initially rejected the lead female singer because she was a woman. But if we play our cards right, using the right marketing and branding strategies we could become highly successful and even bring more women into the metal scene which is one of our main goals. And that is what our presentation plans to prove.
Since our main goal is attracting more women into this genre, they are our target audience. Alongside that, we want to take a page in Slipknot's book and aim at teenagers and young adults. To achieve our targeted audience we have to know what they are looking for in a metal band, while still staying true to what makes a heavy rock band. Combining these factors the idea of female rage has recently begun gaining traction from younger women all across the internet. Female rage references a woman expressing all of her anger and pain without any restraint. On social media, this term is usually used when discussing media, so if we take this media and encapsulate it into our branding then I think we will definitely gain the attention of our target audience all the while keeping the angst that made bands like Slipknot successful.
I've also noticed while comparing our case studies that the more interactive each band was the more successful they were. That's what made my group agree to the idea of giving each band member a character and lore to go with them. The lore would be spread across social media posts and music videos to keep each fan more engaged than the next and maybe even give more traction to our social media so more people check out our music.
Social media overall will be our best friend when it comes to marketing. YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok will be our main platforms. YouTube for our music videos and other distribution of our music while Instagram and TikTok will be filled with videos and photos of behind-the-scenes of creating our music and music videos, as well as lore drops and of course promotional videos/photos. We would be very interactive, evening replying to comments when called for!
Distribution would be very basic. YouTube is an obvious must especially when posting our music and the videos to go with them. Spotify and Apple Music are also a huge must to have our music on since they are the most popular music streaming sites. Our music would also be able to be available to purchase on platforms such as iTunes. We would work to develop very unique and cool CDs and Vinyls to sell to the masses since recently teens have been growing a taste for physical copies of music.
Following this plan, I believe our band would be able to reach many of its goals empowering women and getting them bigger roles in the metal scene. Another huge goal for the band would also be to be invited to Knotfest, but that would definitely be a long-term goal since the festival is very selective.
Obviously, there is still more needed to become a successful band such as Slipknot, but my group believes this plan will help lay the framework needed to be successful.
The Video
The final aspect of this project is a music video that represents our brand. We had the choice of four songs to perform and the one that appealed to all of us the most was Duality by Slipknot. This song would take a new name and be imagined to be created by our band, Eternal Kiss. The song fit what we thought our band would truly make a song about and there was so much room to create a beautiful video of it.
To start we read through all the lyrics and broke down the meaning of it to both rename the song and to figure out how to emulate the meaning of the song through the video. None of us were short of an idea and we worked together to create a great concept.
I drew up the storyboard showing different camera shots and angles wanted. Using the ideas of all my band members, I was able to complete the storyboard of a combination of a promotional and artistic music video for our band. We all quickly agreed to the storyboard and began discussing the mise-en-scene elements we wanted to include. There will be multiple overlays numerous shots and colored lights used to create a sense of chaos, fitting the song.
Three out of four of us have already had a few years of video creation and four out of four of us are fully committed to this project, so I am excited to see our finished products, both the video and the presentation.
The Final Thoughts of Lee
Although this is a huge product, I am confident in it. This is because of the research, effort, and planning we have all put into this project. Each of my band members is just as dedicated as I am and because of that, we have good conversations about what we want for our band and its goals. I am genuinely having a lot of fun with this project and enjoy experiencing what is needed for artists to market themselves and develop a brand that helps get the target audience they want.
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