Musical artists get creative with collabs, marketing

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Courtesy General Mills

Innovation During Covid- Rapper Lil Yachty shows off his branded box of Reese’s Puffs cereal.

Many rappers and famous influencers have collaborated with brands and many food corporations in an attempt to enlarge their audience and reach out to more people.

It benefits the brand by making more sales and the influencer with promotion. Travis Scott and Lil Yachty did a collab with General Mills cereal releasing a special-edition line of Reese’s Puffs cereal boxes. Although the product’s exterior packaging was different, the pairing’s collaborative effort does not involve changing the taste and flavor of the standard Reese’s Puffs cereal.

Travis Scott handled the design of the packaging, taking his inspiration from his Cactus Jack record label and the artwork from his latest studio album, and Lil Yachty did too, releasing a collection only available on Reese’s Puffs website.

Another example of this is an alcoholic drink called Cacti by hip-hop artist and frequent marketing collaborator, Travis Scott. Cacti is a hard seltzer infused with 100% premium blue agave from Mexico. The beverage has a 7 percent ABV, compared to the 5 percent found in most hard seltzers, and is already taking the country by storm. Last week, Cacti reps announced that the fruity spiked beverage broke records at its parent company, selling more in its first week than any variety pack in Anheuser-Busch history.

Courtesy McDonald’s

McDonald’s celebrity meals have been hits so far, from J Balvin to Travis Scott, but the latest one might be the biggest one yet. The fast-food chain announced that it will team up with K-Pop group BTS for its next meal, which will be available on May 26 in the U.S and Canada. The group’s meal will include a 10 piece chicken nuggets, medium fries, and a Coke, and it will introduce two new sauces to the U.S that were inspired by store locations in South Korea: sweet chili and cajun.

Another way rappers have found ways to market their music and expand their audience is with collaborations with streetwear brands. Drake has teased an online collaboration between his brand “Certified lover boy” collab with the brand Chrome Hearts. Another very popular streetwear brand that does collaborations and bundles of albums when an artist release something is Vlone Clothing. Vlone has had collaborations with Nav, Pop Smoke, Juice WRLD, and others in an attempt to branch out and expand its audience.