written by Edwin St. Fort
The success of “The Blueprint 3″ is highly credited to the marketing campaign behind it and to Jay-Z’s loyal fan base. Despite the album being leaked on the internet prior to its official release, The Blueprint 3 sold 476,000 copies in its first week of sales. The achievement help Jay-Z pass Elvis Presley to become the second artist with more No.1 albums in the 50 year history of the Billboard 200. The second week of sales resulted in 301,000 copies being sold dominating the Billboard #1 spot for two weeks straight. A month and a half later, Mr. Carter goes platinum selling nearly 1.3 million copies.
Let’s recap the blueprint to the marketing campaign that resulted in successful results. The key features to this campaign were strategic partnerships and media coverage. The release became more of an event rather than just another album on the shelf. It built anticipation and sustained momentum unlike many previous releases. To begin the buzz Jay-Z released “D.O.A” creating controversy to obtain the attention of listeners to usher in the following events.
Strategic Partnerships
Rhapsody
Jay-Z teamed up with Rhapsody® and MTV to promote the highly anticipated release of his new album, “The Blueprint 3”. As part of the partnership, the entire album will be available for fans to listen to for free on Rhapsody.com and from MTV’s “The Leak”, almost two weeks prior to its official release.
Fuse
FuseTV televised Jay-Z’s “Answer the Call” concert in Madison Square Garden in New York City. Fuse will air the concert at 9pm EST on September 11th. The event was sponsored by Absolute Vodka, Roc Nation, Live Nation, and Citi.
“ANSWER THE CALL” charity concert ticket sales and concert merchandise benefited the “New York Police and Fire Widows’ and Children’s Benefit Fund.” Airing in HD and commercial-free on the music television network FUSE, the wildly successful sold-out concert featured artists Beyonce, Mary J. Blige, Rihanna, Kanye West, John Mayer, Pharrell Williams, Swizz Beatz, Kid Cudi and Memphis Bleek, and ranked among the highest-rated television programs in Fuse history.
MySpace Music and DJ Hero
Jay-Z performed at a secret show on September 10th at the Gramercy Theater on East 23rd Street in Manhattan, New York with help from MySpace Music and DJ Hero, it was announced barely 24 hours in advance, and 250 fans were given free tickets. The show was to promote the new game that also features songs from Jay-Z and Eminem.
Media Coverage
Jay-Z made high-profile appearances on HBO’s “Real Time With Bill Maher,” “Late Show With David Letterman,” BET’s “Food For Thought,” “The Oprah Winfrey Show” and performances on the MTV Video Music Awards and “The Jay Leno Show” according to publicist Jana Fleishman.
Tom Biro of MTV noted that after the VMA performance of “Empire State of Mind” the record immediately went to the #1 Top Song on iTunes for the next 6 days.
Jay-Z with Rihanna and Kayne West performed the second leading single “Run This Town” on “The Jay Leno Show” to an estimated 17.7 million viewers according to the Nielsen Company.
He also made a highly anticipated debut appearance on “The Oprah Winfrey Show, which builds upon their initial conversation in Brooklyn, New York’s Marcy Projects for O magazine. “The Oprah Winfrey Show” reaches 44 million people each week. And those numbers translate into big sales for the products Oprah recommends. The product placement during the shows airing generated 134,000 copies in the 3rd week of sales.
Mr. Carter also obtain media coverage from international sources making appearance on German and French television shows.
Source: RapRadar
Merchandising & Touring
Jay-Z also capitalize off the merchandising for the album. He promoted the Blueprint 3 graphic tees on Myspace, Roc4Life, and on the Live Nation website. Pharrell’s clothing line Billionaire Boys Club, designed a custom graphic t-shirt in correlation with the two artist working on a track off the The Blueprint 3 titled “So Ambitious” which was made available starting September 23, 2009 on the BBC website. The 18 city tour around the U.S and Canada continues to keep the album afloat on the Billboard charts maintaining a top 10 position.
In conclusion as record labels marketing dollars decrease corporate sponsorships seem to give artist an outlet to market themselves to a different audience. As artist become brands, strategic partnerships with other companies are essential for their marketing plans. Companies benefit by finding a way to relate to their consumer and artist get to tap into different markets to obtain more listeners. Jay-Z’s marketing plan with the Blueprint 3 is a great example that demonstrates how great partnerships with other companies such as Rhapsody, Fuse, and DJ Hero can result in successful album sales. The “Answer The Call” concert also shows being philanthropic can also gain sales, you got to give to get. His recent performance at Yankee Stadium shows no limit to the corporate sponsorships he can obtain as he remains one of the biggest names in pop culture.
The following marketing campaign that will be analyzed next is 50 Cent’s Before I Self Destruct.
[...] written by Edwin St. Fort [...]
[...] recap the marketing campaign behind BISD. Jay-Z’s Blueprint 3 campaign revolved around strategic partnerships where as 50 promoted his album through social [...]