What up y’all. Let’s talk guerilla marketing for sec.
Google defines guerilla marketing as innovative, unconventional, and low-cost marketing techniques aimed at obtaining maximum exposure for a product.
That’s simple enough, right?
The market is more crowded than ever these days. Whether it’s the phone category or dish soap, It’s hard for brands to really set themselves apart. I mean, how many times can the formula REALLY be new & improved? Do you mean the last version wasn’t the best iteration? BUT WAIT. It’s double the stain-removing, 4x the pixel capturing blah blah blah.
No one cares.
And honestly, no one has the attention to give. As a result brands are no longer competing with just competitors in their category; the competition is wider. That’s why guerilla marketing is so important — because it’s the last vestige of garnering attention in a crowded marketplace.
But enough marketing speak. Let’s dive into some hiphop sh*t.
Rappers are really great at Guerilla Marketing
Earlier we talked about how guerilla is all about being unconventional and low cost. Fam. That’s literally rappers bread and butter.
Oftentimes, when rappers are on the come up, they are faced with small or non-existent budgets that force them to get scrappy to reach the audiences. This is a mindset that they carry throughout their career, and it’s why their marketing tactics continue to be unconventional when they finally “get on.”
Don’t believe me? Totally fine. But you know I got receipts, mayne. Let’s get it!
Jeezy x Can’t Ban The Snowman
When I was in school, they once tried to ban The Snowman. Was it frosty? Ehh. Not quite.
It was Jeezy. Jeezy the Snowman.
The year was 2005. Jeezy (or Young Jeezy as he was called) had the streets on fire. His recent mixtape Trap or Die was a certified street classic, and his debut album Thug Motivation 101 was highly anticipated. At the time, there was no artist in Atlanta or in hip-hop that was bigger than Young Jeezy. But what happened next was bigger than merch — it was a move that sparked a movement.
They Tried to Ban The Snowman
One can only infer how Jeezy got nicknamed “The Snowman.” I’m not quite sure. I just stay in my lane on these things. But nevertheless, he was known as The Snowman and even had a signature “Snowman t-shirt” to match. Take a look below:
This shirt started as a trend amongst hustlers, and like most trends, it eventually made its way to the school system. Next thing you know, kids of all ages were coming to school wearing Snowman T-shirts — some official, most bootleg; Regardless, they were doing it.
The Snowman t-shirt was so controversial that it became the center of news reports. Conversations became so heated that the “The Snowman” t-shirt was swiftly banned from schools. All of this press, in combination with Jeezy’s buzz in the streets, led to his debut album selling over 1 million copies and becoming an instant class.
Til this day *Deontay Wilder Voice* if a Millennial sees this shirt, they know what it means. And they probably owned one themselves.
So if you’re a brand reading this be controversial. Like it or not, Jeezy created a conversation — and it resulted in him getting a ton of buzz. Brands have to figure out how to create controversy.
“Who? Mike Jones”
It’s been 17 years but I still remember the phone number: (281)-330-8004.
When rapper Mike Jones hit the scene in 2005, he had to find a way to stand out. The south was emerging as the premier market for hiphop and Atlanta’s own, snap music, dominated the airwaves.
If that wasn’t enough, file sharing was now becoming the preferred way to consume music and as a result recording budgets were shrinking. To be frank: it was a hard as sh*t to succeed in 2005.
Mike Jones took all of this stride though. After catching steam from his single “Still Tippin” — a classic I stream til this day *Deonte Wilder voice*
Knowing how tough the landscape had become, and his underdog status as a southern artist Mike released his follow up single “Back Then” but with an added twist.
In a stroke of geurilla marketing genius he placed his phone number in the middle of his song (at the 1:22mark) and fans were bold enough to call it! At its height Mike said that people called the number 40,000 times a day!
Mike learned that the best way to get attention was to consumers off guard by giving them access to his personal life. By giving out his real phone number in a record. fans who called had a unique experience where they were alerted to the next concert, were possibly greeted by the rapper himself!
Yeezus Season Was Approaching
Before surprise album releases were a thing, Ye set the trend with his album Yeezus by only giving everyone a two-week warning before the album would drop; something previously undone before.
The album release came with a ton of pressure. This was Ye’s follow up to the critically acclaimed My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, and like many other artists, he was looking for ways to stand out in a stagnant music market.
Kanye needed to find new ways to garner attention for his new project, and how did he do that? Well. He premiered the video for his new single “New Slaves” on the side of skyscrapers across the world!
The stunt itself garnered so much PR that when Yeezus dropped it debuted at #1 despite not having a traditional rollout, or even an album cover for that matter.
It was past unconventional, it was innovative. When everyone else was premiering their music videos on MTV/BET/VH1 Ye realized that he had to take it to streets to really get peoples attention. In the process he literally stopped traffic to get his point across and reaped the benefits thereof.
The Bottom Line
There are ton of unconventional ways to promote a project — most times budgets are stretched thin and you have to get creative with how you promote.
Rappers have been finding dope & low-budget ways to build buzz using some of the tactics outlined above. Like, imagine a brand that had its own street team? I don’t know about you, but that sounds incredible. At the very least, it’s something to think about.
See y’all next week.
Peace.