How Hip Hop Culture is Impacting Experiential Marketing and Boosting Brand Love!
The hip hop culture was born here on the streets of New York. It’s reach and influence has transcended to every industry from fashion, food, music, television and technology. It has also become dominant in all cultures and recently surpassed rock music as the biggest genre of music.
There is a negative stigma surrounding the perception of hip hop artist. Some consumers feel these artists only know about music and the street lifestyle projected by media. However, they continue to show the world that they are the most multidimensional human beings on the planet. There have been only a handful of artist who have mastered the ability to translate the relationship between culture and commerce, and now events.
Your favorite musical icons are no longer satisfied with just the standard meet and greet as a way to connect with their audience. Over the past few years they have begun to shift away from traditional advertising and lean more towards digital and experiential marketing.
According to skift.com , “A survey conducted in April by Eventbrite, found that 78 percent of American adults respondents age 18 and older have attended a live event in the past 12 months.”
Every aspect of these experiential events are authentic to the culture, allow attendees to create their own user experience and activate all five of the human senses. Fans can now experience augmented reality clothing stores, trap museums celebrating music culture, international themed pop-up shops and other Instagrammable moments from their favorite artists.
Artists have more creative control because they are not bound by the same restrictions as Fortune 500 companies; that means no brand guidelines and no red tape. As artists continue to create these immersive experiences, brands should strategically consider how they can insert themselves into these moments.
Here are some ground breaking experiential marketing events created by hip hop artists:
Nipsey Hussle — Marathon Smart Store
Nipsey Hussle opened up the doors to his Marathon Clothing store on Crenshaw in Los Angeles. The Marathon’s store is not just another retail brick and mortar. The Shop, as Hussle refers to it, is a smart store where his most loyal fans can consume exclusive content and purchase merchandise. When customers arrive, they can download the app for the store and use it to scan different clothing items. Once they scan the clothing tag through the app, they can experience exclusive content curated by Hussle. The content includes lyrics, behind the scenes videos, freestyles and more.
2 Chainz Pretty Girls Like Trap Music Pink Trap House
To promote his Pretty Girls Like Trap Music album, 2 Chainz turned his marketing plan up a notch and leased a one-story home dubbed “The Pink Trap House.” The can’t-miss attraction garnered many from Atlanta and other parts of the world who wanted to snap a photo of themselves outside the all-pink house. 2 Chainz also used the Trap House as a place of Sunday worship ,free HIV testing clinic, and currently a Halloween Trap Haunted House.
A look at the numbers: “The Pink Trap House” showed up all over social media being tagged in over 300,000 photos on Instagram within the first two weeks of inception. 2 Chainz’s album, Pretty Girls Like Trap Music reached gold status selling over 500,000 albums.
Rihanna — Fenty Moroccan Spice Market
Photo Cred: Bella Gerard
Rihanna hosted a Fenty Beauty Pop-Up shop outside of The Pennsy in New York City. This experience was inspired by a Moroccan spice market. Rihanna brought to life the Moroccan culture and integrated it into her makeup line. The pop-up featured a super-sized Moroccan Spice Palette that served as the ultimate photo backdrop along with a miniature hookah lounge.
Fans were able to see exclusive items from the new Moroccan Spice collections and test new products in private Fenty tents against the backdrop of Madison Square Garden.
A look at the numbers: Fenty Beauty sales in its first month of operation were five times Kylie Cosmetics the following month after Fenty Beauty was launched. Rihanna’s line also stands out for having one of the largest customer demographics that spend the most on beauty products in general.
T.I. — Trap Museum -Trap Muzik Anniversary
Photo Cred: Mike Jordan / Entercom Atlanta
This past September, T.I opened the Trap Museum exhibit that served as a salute to Atlanta’s deep-rooted music culture and the major players who have helped to shape trap music. The Trap Museum features artists like 21 Savage, Rick Ross, Future and Gucci Mane. To top it all off, there’s even an “Escape the Trap” room which requires guests to figure out secret codes to break out. Here is a link to visit the Trap Musuem online.
50 Cents — HBO Power -Truth Nightclub Pop Up Experience
This past August Starz hit series Power and EFFEN Vodka teamed up to bring the iconic TRUTH Nightclub to celebrate Power season 5.
The event was held in multiple cities where guests got to experience different rooms that represented the set of a club. You could sit behind Ghost desks’ where he made his big deals, Tommy Eagins money vault and photo ops throughout the space. To top it all off 50 Cent who is the Executive Producer for the show and also plays Kanan Shark, popped out for the first night to surprise fans.
A look at the numbers: Starz made Season 5 show opener available to Starz subscribers at midnight on July 1st, eight hours before it was shown on television. The Starz App saw a massive surge of 115% streams of Season 5 compared to the Season 4 debut. This experience created a space for Starz to introduce themselves to more of the core audience of Power.
The Takeaway
Hip hop integration can go further than just an a brand endorsement. In order to do this brands MUST hire diverse talent that represent their audience, strategically research how they can insert themselves in the music culture, and finally make the partnership with artists make sense.
