 Wow, what's up everybody, once again, it's Bram and Sean and today we're going over 21 Savage's marketing genius. Before I get started, I want to do a shout out to Jugman Sosa because he asked me to do a 21 Savage video about two months ago. And James Royal in 1987 also asked me to do a 21 Savage video last week. Might not be exactly what you guys are expecting, but it's super important. Now first, when you talk about 21 Savage, you can't ignore the core tenets of his brand. One of those obviously being the overarching street brand that 21 Savage has, but the authenticity that really relates and resonates with people in relation to his story. Of course, there are other streets rappers with authentic stories, but when you hear him talk about his on the breakfast club and just other places, it does resonate. But a second major element is his voice. As a matter of fact, it adds to the authenticity of his street brand because it sounds so rugged and raw. If the streets tucked, they'd sound like 21 Savage. Vocally, 21 Savage is his generation's version of DMX. And a third element is obviously the way 21 Savage looks. Not only does he visually come off as what a lot of people would probably consider street, he took it to the whole another level by looking like a fool on villain. But really, those are just some core elements of Duke's brand makeup. The genius of his marketing comes in when we talk about that knife on his forehead. So of course, if you already know 21 Savage, you're already probably familiar with Slaughter Gang. Just from a terminology standpoint, that's always reinforcing each other. But that's not even what I'm talking about. But the real moment for the knife is to show it to go down as legendary interview with DJ Vlad. The hilarity of the awkwardness of having DJ Vlad just misunderstand what's on his head. The couple with the deadpan answer straight serious is the 21 Savage had when he corrected him. What's the perfect recipe to go viral as a meme on the internet? And you've probably done seen them everywhere. Putting 21 Savage at the dead center of a godsend as far as marketing, which is the internet working for you becoming the machine that pushes you as a meme. Now, everybody's having conversation about first the interview 21 Savage, but then outside of that began to live just the terminology of Issa itself. It's a picture. It's a commercial. It's a sale. It's a bad shit. It's a Wednesday. Having something that's so applicable to almost anything and could be tracked back to you and also is this constant subconscious reminder of you is something that you can't even quantify really and how much that's worth in marketing dollars. That single interview basically took 21 Savage from being a figure in culture to becoming culture itself, constantly interweaving into people's day-to-day lives through language. But why in the world is 21 Savage genius for something that he technically didn't even do on purpose? What made this genius for 21 Savage and really his team because of course it's not just these artists out there making all these decisions by themselves. It's the fact that they as a team decided to capitalize off of the opportunity of the Issa going viral. They utilized a concept which I call agile marketing, which means you market, but you're also agile to make adjustments. No, they didn't just come out the gate saying, hey, you should start saying Issa and then we're going to make this a whole thing. But what they did do was analyze the landscape and what's going on around 21 Savage as an artist. And the best marketers of today will be able to analyze what's going on, what's working and what's not and be able to push the things that are working to maximize their results and awareness, visibility and conversion. See, agile marketing is realizing that you can't mastermind everything from the beginning. People are always creating memes of some kind about public figures. What they decided to do was take ownership of a thought that was already being pushed out. Of course, they also had Issa merchandise. They had Issa.website when you go to that website and basically you can have 21 Savage identify anything that you take a picture with on the phone. And then of course, you have the pinnacle, which is the Issa album. Another great example of this is if you think about Yo Gotti and the Down in a DM song. That song was not supposed to be a single, but it was catching on. So then he took it and he made it a single and that's going to be the smart way to move really going forward. Look at the results. Look at the data, how it's moving and if things are popping and bubbling without you putting energy into it, then you need to put your energy into it so you can really maximize what happens around it. Because it means that you're going to get farther for less money and for the artists that don't have a lot of resources. That's what agile marketing is about is getting the most out of the resources that you have and every single move that you make. As a matter of fact, when I think about Usher, Usher also had the song Shawty Don't Mind. And that song was doing well by itself. He wasn't planning to make it a big song or a single, but they pushed it a little bit more. But they nowhere near maximize the results around that single. They didn't even record a video for that song. It has like over a hundred forty five million views on a YouTube audio clip, which is actually more views, I believe, than the Noah Limit video has on YouTube, which Usher put a lot more energy behind. So I could only imagine that they probably could have got a lot more out of the Shawty Don't Mind song. But who knows what was going on in Usher's life at the time. It didn't really seem like once again that they even wanted to focus on that song. It kind of happened by itself at that time. It looked like his campaign was really trying to go a different direction. As far as the focus and brand they wanted to push at the time. And when you're already solidified like Usher is, it's a lot less urgency to just move and push was already working in itself. A lot of people get sold on what they already had their minds set on campaign wise. So the fact that 21 Savage and his team was really paying attention to the standpoint of maximizing something that wasn't even content, right? There's a lot of people that have it down pat in terms of maximizing whichever song is getting the most motion these days. People are starting to get smart enough to do that. But it's a whole nother level to be able to analyze things that aren't specifically related to the content that you created and to be able to own it so you maximize the look that you get from it. You can kind of even think about the whole interview that Birdman had with the Breakfast Club. I'll stop putting some respect on my name. You understand me? When y'all saying my name, put some respect on it. He made sure he kept off of the fact that people were making fun of him and then started creating shirts. Didn't even think to look it up, but I wouldn't be surprised if he trademarked it. Now, it is likely true that it's about to be time for 21 Savage to rebrand because after making it an album, you kind of closed the chapter on the whole Issa thing. Not that they could stop the world from using it or anything, but just using it as a forefront of their campaign, they probably won't be doing that anymore. I mean, I personally wouldn't recommend it. It's going to get old. But once again, that they played off it at first, but then saw that it kept on getting bigger and it just still existed. And then coming back with the album to remind people this whole phrase that you keep on using started with me. As a matter of fact, 21 Savage actually took so much ownership for they say he created the word, which is arguable, but that's besides the point. But what I see is important to take away from this is realizing that marketing today, especially with the internet and music, is not mastermining some grand scheme of campaign. It's not about the strategy that you come into the game with. It's about the adjustments that you make while you're on the field. It's not even the cause that you make while you're in the huddle. It's about the audibles that you call. Once you get a chance to get up to that line and see what's going down. I love that analogy. Let's brand that thinking about this in a form of steps is basically come up with your plan, which is ultimately going to be a framework that you work within. I'm not saying don't have no plan at all. And after you launch with minor investment and then analyze what's going on, put your energy, even more energy and resources behind the thing that's working, whatever's bubbling up that song that's starting to take off by itself. If people are really starting to take attention to whatever kind of glasses or headband that you're wearing. And then of course, depending on your goals, cap off of that as necessary. So that's it. Y'all know what to do. Hit that subscribe button.