Artist and branding research:

 7 Musicians who nailed their branding campaigns:

1. Tailor Swift 
2. The 1975
3. Paramore
4. Slowthai
5. Cristine and the Queens 
6. Ariana Grande 
7. Ed Sheeran 

1.) Tailor Swift:

One of the things that have kept Tailor Swift as one of pop's biggest names stars is the constant re-inventing and rebranding of her image constantly reinventing herself for each album cover giving her that reputation. Her branding campaign by ST8MNT is a masterclass in marketing and at what they do, and partially responsible for tailor's success. In an attempt to rebrand and reinvent herself tailor swift deleted her entire Instagram feed then teased fans with images of a snake, which flipped the media view and perception of her as a sneaky backstabber to a strong, independent, unapologetic woman. 

2.) The 1975:

The 1975 is a British indie band that showed us all the possibilities and creative freedom to just using simple shapes and colors. Samuel Burgess Johnson was the creative director, artist, graphic designer, and photographer and was responsible for most of the band's designs. These designs often included a rectangle or multiple rectangles surrounding their name. This proved to many that keeping things plain simple and concise can do wonders in many cases. Their branding has become so popular that people on occasions have tattooed it onto their bodies, the band has used it as merchandise, and using it for tour imagery as well, almost becoming a staple of their band, and brand image.

3.) Paramore:

In 2017 Paramore had a massive and drastic change in its image, this was going from pop-punk kids to a glossy, 80s-inspired group. In their song 'after laughter', they completely rejigged their image using bold duotones, clashing patterns, and zine sensibilities. (quite to the disagreement and dismay of their diehard fans.) This new look extended almost throughout their whole image in videos and fan merch as well, going to the extent of the band wearing bright and bold jumpsuits in the imagery of the press. This was quite a contrast to what their album was really about. Using colorful and bright imagery while talking about the sensitive topic of mental health. 

4.) Slowthai:

Slowthai is a Northampton artist who created the album 'Nothing great about Britain'. The way he decided to market this was very interesting and a very good way to get the name out there. He put billboards all of the UK/ Great Britain with stats and facts about the country's problems and stats about climate change, homelessness, the gender pay gap, hate crime, mental health, etc... He encouraged his fans to find these billboards and send images to him, possibly to create awareness but also to engage with fans and show he appreciates them as well as creating a  buzz for the new album, which the name of was leaked on the billboards. When he placed the name at the bottom of the billboards this would intrigue anyone to look into it. He found out where he could seek and engage his audience and used that to challenge them. 

5.) Christine and the Queens: 

This one is interesting as French Popstar Christine and the queens sort of changed her stage name, as for her second album she changed to Chris: a fluid identity. This was first teased when the album also named Chris showed a crossed-out Christine and the Queen's logo, this immediately sparked a marketing buzz and would have opened many opportunities with merch, album covers, advertisement, posters, etc... This gave way to a movement she started of being yourself no matter what.

6.) Ariana Grande:

For Ariana Grande's 2018 "No Tears Left To Cry" Fans were teased with upside-down images all across her social media. These were created by Jessica Severn, (SB Projects' art director, and lead designer). This branding image was further taken throughout the lead singles music video as well as merch etc... Ariana Grande also adopted her own Instagram filter for the campaign which is a great way to engage fans and intrigue other people as-well.

7.) Ed Sheeran:

Branding Power notes:

1. Music videos can help convey an image in a more precise and slightly better way than trying to imagine for yourself. It can also help an artist create an image and brand for themselves, that's more clear than possible perceptions.
2. Music videos are so powerful in some cases they can make or break a person's career.
3. Videos are very important to artists as key to properly and effectively brand and gain a good following.
4. Accessibility is massive, which was one thing that MTV lacked as it was only who they set but now anything accessible to.
5. The ability for people now to search up and watch as much as they want of somebody's music video whenever they are in the mood, ingraining that image and sound into the viewer's head. 
6. Consistency is what ingrains these things into the mind rather than just watching it once or twice. This is linked to accessibility because it's so accessible people are constantly watching.
7. "Accessibility leads to repetition, which helps develop a strong brand." Good quote. 
8. "The unlimited access to the Internet magnifies everything that goes into an artist’s image.  Artists need to be extremely mindful of their look and feel down to every last piece of clothing." This shows how much effort actually goes into an artists image so that people get the right idea of them because humans literally look into everything that's in from of them, so if you do something for a video you need to show exactly what you trying to get across otherwise people may get the wrong idea of you.
9. Music videos allow up-and-coming artists to keep up with what they are doing on a constant basis, whereas for already established artists it is a way to keep adding to their image in a way that doesn't take extensive uses of marketing.
10. "For example, Wiz Khalifa has taken his homegrown marijuana-loving rap fan-base and expanded that greatly across all demographics.  This was in large part achieved by performing with the internationally known band Maroon 5 in their video “Payphone.”" This greatly widened his demographic and gave him a larger and more diverse brand and image, not just known for his weed-loving antics. Also, the video greatly added much more impact, as it may and probably wouldn't have changed his brand image or increased his demographic either.
11. "The “Payphone” video, released 4 months ago, has had more than 60 million views. That is 60 million people seeing Wiz as a pop act rather than just a hip-hop artist. And, for a catchy song like this, people are going to keep coming back to the same video to hear the song and see Wiz and his brand in this capacity." These stats show how much success one music video can change an image. 
12. "The accessible nature of the web compliments an artist like Wiz who constantly is putting out video content.  Wiz is an ideal example of an artist who took advantage of the web and its all-access nature, and flooded his fans with content, which has lead to the success of his brand." Good point.
13. Shareability This is a massive thing for artists as they need this as a massive way in order for them to get noticed. The ability to share with others has become a massive widespread phenomenon and allows artists to really take control of their brand and image and giving them the power to share things with millions of people on a day to which they couldn't do just as early as 10 short years ago. 
14. Commenting coming in with the whole sharing craze has made things even easier to do new things. "Justin Beiber’s latest video “As Long As You Love Me” was geared to introduce his evolving brand into the adult world. It is a mini-movie where the father of the girl he is pursuing beats him up. Beiber performs with bruises all over his face. This image is something completely new for the teen icon, and almost jarring to see as he gets punched repeatedly in the face. Bieber is at the point in his career where he needs to make the jump to the adult audiences and this video is intended to be a vessel to accomplish that quickly. The shareable nature of the web and social media had millions of people seeing the “new” Bieber within days." This made comments spread so rapidly that in just a short amount of time Justin Beiber had gone from a teen pop kind of artist into something for more adulty in genre. 
15. "The branding power of the web may still be well undervalued as less money is spent now on music videos than in prior times.", "Branding on the web is a double-edged sword, however, since if it is not done in the right way, it can hurt an artist’s career just as fast as it can help it." These points really sum this up well. 

Website information came from: https://www.forbes.com/sites/brianpetchers/2012/09/25/the-branding-power-of-todays-music-videos/?sh=588b51311c1f

Demi Lovato past digipak's:

'Don't Forget' Album:

'Confident' Digipak:

'Here we go again' Digipak:

Other forms of Branding: 

Some artists use Tv Advertisements to get their name and brand image out there. Here is a website with all the advertisements Demi Lovato has been in.

https://www.ispot.tv/topic/musician/qC/demi-lovato

All of these adverts have one kind of thing in common and that is trying to show a positive image and convey a positive message to the viewers her listens to her songs, which range from kids to teens and even some young adults and adults. 

Social media platforms:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ddlovato/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DemiLovato/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ddlovato?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor

A common theme in all these social media accounts is that she is always advertising her music as well social problems and current events, which will attract a lot of people nowadays as people are becoming very socially conscious.

Magazine articles:

A lot of Demi Lovato's Magazine articles are about her troubles and challenges, which is often what the media focuses on, but an interesting factor is that actually with all the fonts pertaining to Demi Lovato they are all in large font making us believe that she is quite a big headline as she is a big star and gets a lot of interest meaning they will emphasize her achievements and not so achievements as well.

Also a lot of what I have seen on the internet, a lot of the news, and even on some of the stuff from Demi Lovato's social media, are all talking about her overdose and how she is recovering from that and using it to make her stronger and influence others not to do drugs and to keep clean. There are also multiple videos on youtube about her talking about this.