L01- Unit 3 brief proposal

Overview of fanzine:

I am creating a print copy of a fanzine for Doncaster rovers FC to be sold around the stadium throughout the season. The fanzine will contain information about the clubs history and present and will help educate fans which will develop their love for the club even more. The fanzine will also promote the clubs merchandise and will hopefully increase ticket sales which is important to keep the club financially stable in the future. 

Target audience:

My target audience is predominantly younger males between the age range of 14-19 who maybe haven’t experienced the historical moments that make this club what it is today. However, this does not mean older fans cannot read the fanzine as it may revive old memories or even tell them about moments before they were even born. Also this fanzine may interest women as Doncaster Rovers also have a women’s team labelled Doncaster Belles who play in the WPL division 1. Obviously this is aimed at people with an interest in football as the whole fanzine is around a professional club. This fanzine is aimed at plethora of ethnicities as DRFC do not discriminate against any cultures. I hope black players like Madger Gomes, Jason lokilo and even our manager Darren Moore can interest the black community to Doncaster Rovers. It will be targeted at a mainstream audience as anyone can read this and football is a mainstream sport. This will allow more sales of the fanzine and more publicity for the club. We aim this fanzine at people in the A, B and C1 social class as these people are the most stable financially and would be more willing to purchase the product. 

Purpose:

The purpose of this fanzine is to try and promote Doncaster Rovers to the public and to show the importance of supporting your local team. We have seen it in the past when clubs lack financial backing, they fold in and are no longer in existence which is damaging to the community. I also wish this fanzine will educate new fans of the club on the history as the infectious feeling of togetherness is what this team is all about. Finally this fanzine will be entertaining as that will help provide escapism when reading. 

Competitors:

My competitors for this product will be other DRFC content creators for example 18 dapper and instagram accounts such as DRFC.info. These competitors will challenge me and push me further to create a better product. 

Proposed content:

The traditional house style of DRFC is the red and white stripes and that will be the same in this product. I will also include photos of the inside and outside of the Keepmoat stadium, our home that has treated us well since 2007. The front cover will have a main central image of Amin who is modelling to be James Coppinger (Medium shot) a club legends of ours and the masthead will be to the upper left of the central image. To the upper right of the central image will be the logo for the Football league 1. The cover will be split into three sections, a top banner, and central and main image and the bottom will be separated by a photo I will take of the Keepmoat and the bottom will have a medium shot of Jack and Euan (Medium shot) who have a page inside dedicated to them. Inside will be a contents page that will have the text to the left, an image to the right of the page of Doncaster Rovers' manager (Medium shot) and an image on the bottom of the fans. At the very top if the page will be the date of when the page was made. There will also be two double page spreads about Doncaster Rovers super-fans Jack and Euan with an interview about what DRFC means to them. This page will contain the full interview and an image of the two in their podcast studio which will take up the entirety of the left side of the page . This page sill have a slug line in the top right corner in yellow with black text and in the bottom corners, it will have the page numbers, date and name of the fanzine. 

Justification for content: 

The reason I am going to use red and white as the colour scheme is because that is the house style for Doncaster Rovers and is the clubs identity. This needs to be consistent so DRFC is easily recognisable. The front cover needs to have a central image as that is the main focus of the cover and needs to stand out. It is also important to have Amin modelling an icon of the club as he is a role model to many young Doncaster Rovers fans. The masthead needs to be large and bold so it stands out. It needs to stand out as that is the name of the fanzine and it needs to be rememberable for the people purchasing the fanzine. In the top right of the central image will be the league 1 badge so that it is clear to see what level of football DRFC play at .The needs The banner at the top of the page will have player names as they are some of the people important to the clubs success. The bottom of the front cover will have the medium shot of Euan and Jack as it shows the audience a teaser of what is inside the fanzine. There needs to be a contents page so the audience knows what other pages are in the magazine and where they are. The first double page spread for the interview with Jack and Euan needs to have a large image to take the left side of the page. This is so they are clearly seen and they will be more recognisable for the people who discover them through the fanzine. The right side will have the full interview with Jack and Euan so the audience can see what DRFC means to supporters and that it is a major part of their life. They will also share their experience in 2019 at the play-off semi-final vs Charlton where it will highlight the emotional rollercoaster that football can be. The page numbers tell the audience what pages they are on and the dates along with the fanzine name are telling you when the page was made and it keeps reminding you what the fanzine is called so it is rememberable. 

Resources and personnel: 

The job roles required for this product are a photographer to take the pictures inside and outside the stadium, a graphic designer/editor to design the look of the fanzine, a producer to help produce the product, a researcher to find out facts about the club, a writer so the fanzine is professional and easily understandable, a copyrighter to ensure we don’t use assets that we do not own, a planner so we have a schedule to follow and we know what we’re doing and when, a flat pad plan artist to do the visualisation diagram so the graphic designer which have ideas and examples, admin to make sure nothing is lost and everything is in order. In terms of equipment, we will need a computer with the correct software installed e.g. adobe photoshop, adobe fireworks and other. We will also need high quality cameras to get the best possible photos of the Keepmoat, I printer so the final product can be printed out in good quality and assets from the internet which will need to be checked for copyright. Finally, I need a model to represent James Coppinger. 

Sample materials:

I am going to make a visualisation diagram for the front cover so I can give myself ideas on what I want the front cover to look like. Also I will make a mood board to display the theme and ideas I have and this will help me as i won’t lose any good ideas I gather. Then I will do a description of the club to see what text I will include and see what I can improve.

Distribution and marketing:

I am planning to market the fanzine on social media as this is an online place in which the majority of my target audience are. I can post pictures on Instagram showcasing parts of the fanzine. This will potentially get the audience excited and intrigued which will create sales. I could leave comment sections open on the posts so that I can gather early feedback and see if the audience appears interested. On twitter I can give updates about the fanzine to keep my audiences attention and interpret if there is much attention surrounding the fanzine. Hashtags can be used so there is a place where the audience can make their own posts about the fanzine and give their opinions for feedback. I can potentially find sponsorships which will give both our products publicity. The sponsor could be sports related so a clothing brand or an energy drink. This would be relevant as this is a fanzine based around a sport organisation. I am hoping to actually distribute the fanzine in the club store where all the merchandise is sold. This will suitable as many most fans enter the club store on a match day and then they will be likely to see the fanzine and maybe have a look. It can also be distributed in sports stores such as sports direct and JD as many people go in there daily to shop.