R&P Post 23: Planning my web pages

An artist's website is important as it acts as a hub for all elements of the marketing campaign. The website is different from other marketing formats because it is a cross media platform where the consumer can watch videos, browse through photos, engage in social media and much more.

We are using WIX; a simple user-friendly tool that would act as a proper website. Here is our first attempt at using WIX. We have put in place the banner, institutions and social media which we will expand on during production of the website.

A basic layout for our website

I have made a list of the web pages that we will need and explored how existing artist's pages will influence our decisions when we make our own.

Home page

Daya's home page is simple and efficient. It has a photo of the artist with the link to her debut album as well as a preview of the track. I have decided that, as we are marketing a debut artist, our website will be simple and therefore bear resemblance to Daya's website. We also will have our own GiGi logo at the top of the page.

About/Bio

 Taylor Swift's bio page consists of a personal message to her fans, which I found very touching. In her bio, she talks about her own inspirations and her drive to write her lyrics about love and her experiences as a pop star. We can use this to write a personal autobiography of GiGi in our own bio section of our website.

Photos/Gallery

Beyonce has an extensive gallery that consists of editorial, performance and personal photos of herself. This shows the audience the many sides of Queen Bee. The editorial photos are from magazines and shows her professional image. The performance photos are from her concerts for her Lemonade tour which are fierce and passionate. The 'my life' section is of her and her daughter, Blue Ivy; depicting her as a typical mum who is relatable to her fans.

Videos

I like the video page on Shakira's website because it is split up into different categories: Official music videos, philanthropy, tour, fragrances and behind the scenes. I feel like we can do a similar thing but on a smaller scale with our music video and our behind the scenes video.

Tour dates/events

Almost all websites have a page for the tour dates. Fifth Harmony have this calendar with a list of the cities that they will be performing in. Alongside, their are links to purchase tickets on Ticketmaster and to the Jingle Ball 2016 where you can read more information about the other acts on the lineup.

Shop & Merchandise

Ariana Grande's merch consists of T shirts and jumpers with the promo photo for her album Dangerous Woman. She also has the lyrics from Side to Side on a jumper. This promotes her newest single and the album and is very lucrative.

Quiz/Games/Interactivity

I found that most websites were quite basic and was not interactive enough. The Little Mix website is an exception and this Hair Quiz is an example of one of the ways that the fans can have fun while browsing the website. The hair quiz tells you what member's hair you are most similar with and this ties in with their recent single "Hair".  I think that it would be a fun addition to our website. However this will be put in only if we have all other aspects completed because it is not a necessary convention.

Community section for fans of the artist

Selena Gomez's community page allows her fans to comment on topics about her. This enables her fans to unite over a common interest as well as generating a buzz around the artist.

Social media links: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube

The social media links are typically found at the bottom of the page in the footer. I discovered that this is also where the institutional information is put.

Flatplan

After formulating our ideas for the website, we worked to create a flatplan that represents how we want our website to look like. Below is the flatplan that Gabriel drew:

Website flat plan

I will use the reference points from other artist's websites to formulate my own web pages. I have gathered references from a lot of different female solo artists in mainstream media and I would like to see how I can bring out the style in my own artist through use of visual motifs and colour scheme.