Charlotte Mcgiff , Becky Baker, Eve Pearson

How is the audience targeted?Case study: AC / DC

We chose the rock band AC / DC for our case study because their latest album, the soundtrack to Iron Man 2, shown left, has just gone to number one in the UK album charts showing convergence between two conglomerates.

The members of the band first saw the name AC / DC from a label on a sewing machine, the abbreviation for this is ‘alternating current / direct current’. They did there first live performance on New Years Eve 1973 in Sydney, Australia and were then signed to EMI records. Their debut album was released in February

1975 named ‘High voltage’ and sold over 3’000’000 copies in the US alone. Since then they have released 14 more studio albums, including ‘Back in Black’ which sold over 49 million units internationally, it’s currently the highest-selling album by any band and the 2nd biggest selling album ever behind Michael Jacksons ‘Thriller’. As of 2002 AC / DC have been signed to Sony music on a multi-album deal and in 2004 the magazine, “Rolling Stones” listed AC / DC as 72 on their ‘100 greatest artists of all time’.

Synergy is a term used when two different technologies combine together to “feed of each other” and evidently produce more together than they would do separately. An example of this technique is ACDC forming an alliance with Harmonix music systems to feature their music onto “rock band 2” a video game where the consumer can become one of their favourite rock band members via their TV. ACDC also have their own version of Rock Band developed by the same company but distributed by MTV and Electronic arts (EA games). Another form of synergy would be through their merchandise. The band has a variety of different gifts and memorabilia ranging from: t – shirts to guitar picks. In 2009 Brian Johnson (the lead singer of the band) went onto car show programme Top Gear, where he became “the star is the reasonably priced car”. In his interview with the host Jeremy Clarkson, Johnson discussed his bands upcoming tour promoting his band to a wide audience, through the form of synergy.

Convergence is term used by different industries combine their own technologies together, so make their produce more products to the market. An example of convergence would be when Columbia Pictures released a double and triple DVD

Charlotte Mcgiff , Becky Baker, Eve Pearson

titled “Plug me in”, a DVD which had 5 to7 hours of rare footage of ACDC performances and live gig’s.