Puff Daddy. P Diddy. Diddy. Brother Love.
With every generation, Diddy shows his ability to stay in the mix and re-invent himself – which is not an accident. Part of the reason he stays relevant is that he is an expert in lifestyle & branding.
It doesn’t matter what category you place him in.
Wanna talk clothing? Yea, there’s Sean John. Music? C’mon, it’s Bad Boy for life. What about Media? Or Alcohol? Maybe you need motivation?
The point is that Diddy is a marketing maven.
The tactics he used during the Bad Boy era transformed marketing forever – some are even being used in today’s times.
With that in mind… Let’s talk about some of the biggest marketing tactics powered by Diddy.
THE B.I.G. MACK
The year was 1994.
Diddy was fired from his job at Uptown Records so he started his own imprint, Bad Boy. He formed the label with two artists under its umbrella: B.I.G. and Craig Mack. At the time, neither had a hit record, or an album out.
So, what do you do when you have two artists to launch, and you need them both to succeed?
You market them together!
And that’s exactly what Diddy did with The BIG MACK campaign.
The premise was simple enough: Diddy released a promotional tape as a sampler – one side had Biggie records, and the other side was complete with Craig Mack. The campaign also included print ads which were featured in Billboard along with a writeup and pictures of the trio sitting in front of a modified McDonald’s menu and a “B.I.G. Mack” container.
The importance of this campaign can’t be understated — it helped “Flava in ya Ear” become Bad Boy’s first platinum record, and “Juicy” launched Biggie into stardom.
However, the most important victory of all belonged to Diddy who established Bad Boy as a force in the music industry & himself and a genius at promotion.
Take a look below for some more insight on the forming of Bad Boy with Diddy, B.I.G. & Craig Mack (RIH) on Yo! MTV Raps. It all started with the B.I.G. Mack campaign
THE BAD BOY STREET TEAM
As the nineties continued, Diddy carved out a presence for himself not only as a budding record executive, but also as a label owner via Bad Boy records. For those who don’t know, Bad Boy Records was the home of Notorious B.I.G., Ma$e, and more. Part of the reason Bad Boy commanded such attention in the music industry (aside from the hit records, that is) is because of the strength of the Bad Boy street team.
Okay, sounds good. But what is a Street Team?
In music, the street team was responsible for helping to promote artists and the subsequent records they released using guerilla tactics that placed them… on the street.
The street team was incredibly important because they were more or less the ones who helped build the buzz for an artist before their album release. That meant they were the ones going into clubs to connect with the DJs, hanging up fliers, passing out promotional CDs, etc.
While footage of the street team is extremely hard to find, take a look below to get an idea of what it was like in those days:
The street team was the bridge between the people and the label. And while most record labels had some form of street promotions, the Bad Boy street team was iconic.
Seriously.
According to Shawn Prez in his interview with Trapital — you could become a star as a member of the street team. And he isn’t wrong. Old footage shows Bad Boy artists who were once a part of the street team and though it’s defunct, people remember the legend until this very day.
Ciroc & The Ciroc Boys
There’s an old phrase that says “if it ain’t broke… don’t break it” or at least that’s what Lil Wayne said. I imagine that Diddy feels the same way because In 2007, he helped launch Ciroc in exchange for 50% ownership in the brand.
Puff knew he had something with the Bad Boy street team. So, it was only right that he reached out to Shawn Prez. Shawn was the brains behind the street team at Bad Boy to execute a similar formula for the next category he entered: alcohol.
Shawn Prez racked his brain to figure out how to promote the liquor brand when one day, he realized something… Nobody ever tapped into the power of the DJs. That set him on a mission to create a coalition of DJs who would inherit free bottles of Ciroc in exchange for their support of the brand. They also were tempted by the thought of accruing the same level of celebrity that the street team did in the late nineties.
If that wasn’t enough, Shawn and Diddy did a photoshoot with some of the biggest hip-hop influencers. While on the set, apparently, someone referred to the group as the Ciroc Boys, and the rest was history.
THE STORY ISN’T OVER YET
Diddy’s story is so crazy that this post might need a part two lol. The imact of Bad Boy and the Ciroc Boys shows the power of guerilla marketing in hip-hop. And, while brands/marketers don’t typically pay attention to these types of tactics, they’re low cost and pay dividends; but again, that insight comes with being close to the culture & people – both of which Brother Love has the pulse of.
Yea… think this might need a part II. Let me know what y’all think.
Until then, see ya next week.
Peace.