It's the World of Montero and I'm just doing deals in it

The branding history of Lil Nas X

I remember coming back from a vacation in the Spring of 2019, Columbia Records was buzzing about a new artist. His name had something to do with an X, and something with the name Nas in front of it… This Nas wasn’t to be confused with the iconic rapper, Nas, from Queens – rather, he was a new, youthful Nas. A 20-year-old kid from Atlanta who found some beats on YouTube, created a meme, and pulled content from the?Red Dead Redemption 2?game to create his own music video. A kid who knew how to manipulate social content and created a frenzy by merging trap with country, while breaking records and glass ceilings. The success of Lil Nas X’s hit, “Old Town Road” continued to grow as Nas leaned into internet culture – promoting the song as a meme on Twitter until it blew up on TikTok, resulting in the “#Yee-Haw Challenge” which spawned millions of TikTok videos and garnered more than 67MM streams of the track. Lil Nas X was catching fire and we were lucky enough to be in it from the start.

Wrangler on my Booty

As head of Branding for Columbia Records, my first order of business was to help offset costs for Nas’ first major music video, “Old Town Road.” It was going to be epic; Chris Rock had a featuring role, Billy Ray Cyrus jumped on the track and would be in the video as well. We were looking at 2-day shoot in out in the desert, with horses and cowboys.

In the music industry, videos come down fast and hard. We typically have about one week to get funding to offset production costs. The dollar amount ranges, but this mega video was going to need a lot of bread! I huddled with my team – we brainstormed ideas and possible partners. As it’s always best to start partnerships from a place of authenticity, we start with the creative. In “Old Town Road,” Nas raps the lyrics “Wrangler on my booty,” and “Driving down Rodeo in my Maserati sports car,” so we started there.

We partnered with Wrangler to dress the full cast in Wrangler gear. We then took it a step further and created a capsule collection of “Old Town Road” inspired merch including “Wrangler on my booty” booty shorts. ?The line sold out in hours.

As far as “riding down Rodeo in my Maserati sports car” was concerned, we were able to incorporate a hot red Maserati into a pivotal scene with Nas and Billy Ray Cyrus driving away with bags of loot. Ever see a Maserati get-away car? That’s Lil Nas X’s world.

To date, “Old Town Road” has been viewed over 600 Million times. What’s especially great for Maserati in particular, is that the thumbnail jpeg used for the video is a screenshot of Nas and Billy Ray in the vehicle. When Google came to us to include “Old Town Road” footage in their 2019 Year in Search campaign, it was this image that appeared in Google’s massive broadcast campaign. Talk about earned…

Who Got Next

From “Old Town Road" onwards, the hits and brand opportunities kept on coming. We filmed a “surprise and delight” stunt for Nas’ second single, “Panini” with Panera (get it?) right at my apartment. We started seeing Nas getting more involved in the creative - ideating and writing treatments, and eventually, putting the storyboards together. Along with his creative mastery, Nas continued to sharpen his social skills, better than any other marketer we’ve seen do. The advertising world was starting to take notice because then came Super Bowl.

?Doritos crafted incredible creative to feature Nas and “Old Town Road” in their 2020 Super Bowl commercial. We filmed for several days again out in the desert, cowboys, horses, Sam Elliot. As big as “Old Town Road” was, it was thrilling to bring this opportunity to Nas and his team. The spot was ranked in the Top 5 of the Super Bowl commercials of 2020.

I had the privilege of bringing Nas to the Super Bowl that year in Miami – just at the edge of pandemic. Easier times. We walked through the stadium. Fans were screaming his name, asking for autographs. Nas stopped for every single kid, taking selfies, shaking hands. Once settled into the suite, we watched the game and waited for his commercial. What an incredible experience it was to watch Nas watch his first Super Bowl commercial at the Super Bowl featuring a song that he created on his sister’s couch a mere 2 years ago. Surreal indeed.

Hey, It’s a Holiday

Nas spent most of the pandemic making music. Toward the end of 2020, he was ready with his first new single, “Holiday.” Nas reinvented himself as Santa Nas X, dipped head-to-toe in silver?lamé?– a Santa like we’ve never seen. To generate awareness for the single in the season of giving, Nas wanted?to show up at random places and pay it forward. Thus, my team and I arranged for him to arrive as Santa Nas X at Starbucks and Target stores, where he treated fans to purchases and posed for pictures. We brought several brands into the video for “Holiday” and even got a snippet of the video put into a broadcast television commercial with?Postmates?during Monday Night Football.

Next up, we were able to secure another Super Bowl commercial, featuring his next single, “Montero (Call Me By Your Name).” Logitech believed in Nas. They worked with us in lock step cutting the visuals to match the pacing of the track. We were able to use the most important media placement of the year as a way to tease his next single. We were laying the ground work for not only for a deep cultural touch point, but what was to become one of the most successful album launches in years.

The Devil Made Me Do It

When we got the music video treatment for “Montero (Call Me By Your Name),” we were blown away, but thought this time, it might be just a bit challenging to get brand partners on board. It’s sometimes hard for brands to be brave. Twerking over the devil may be too much for some. I can’t tell you how many times, I’ve said something along the lines of “trust me, Nas is the best marketer in the game, he will unequivocally put your brand, your launch, your company on the map with Gen Z - and in very credible way.” Unfortunately, we couldn’t find any brands to participate with the devil lap dance, and you all saw what happened with Nike. So, we waited to see what Nas was going to do next knowing that he had many more tricks, more content and social stunts to follow.

Think Outside the Bun

A few weeks later, I got a call from Nas’ management team asking if knew anyone at Taco Bell. Nas was going to shoot the video for his next single, “Sun Goes Down,” as an autobiographical tale. He had worked at Taco Bell when he was in high school and wanted his fans to get a look into what his world was like growing up. As usual, Nas was always looking for the connection, the authenticity, and the best way to communicate his story. We were able to integrate Taco Bell into the video, right into the storyline like a featured character. On set, Nas hung out behind the counter of the restaurant, showing us how he had made drinks, prepared tacos.

He really walked the walk. The Taco Bell team on set were able to see first-hand what real partnership looks like. From the video integration we further developed the partnership into a groundbreaking collaboration where Nas has been appointed Chief Impact Officer for the brand. With music at the core of our work, we teased Nas’ next single, “THATS WHAT I WANT,” in the broadcast commercial for Taco Bell, using the brand’s media to promote his content.

Sir Nas X

Nas was on fire with his social prowess. For the trailer teasing his next track, “Industry Baby,” Nas is in court on trial for?Nike’s copyright infringement case?against him. He tweets?sarcastic jokes about going to jail, plays every character in the video and wrote the dialogue as well. All of this as a lead in to the music video.

When Drake dropped a teaser for his new album based off a Damien Hirst painting of women iconography, Nas trolled the image creating 12 bearded, masculine-presenting emojis - all holding their own pregnant bellies, foreshadowing his own pregnancy. He was giving us lots of great material to take to our partners, keeping himself on the top of all cultural conversation, while promoting his new music. This led to Uber Eats knocking on our door – a ??multi-part campaign featuring Nas and Sir Elton John? Yes please!

Welcome to Montero

Next thing we know, Nas is pregnant. I’m told he’s going to be pregnant up until album release where he will give birth to the baby he’s been creating for the last 9 months. Poking fun at himself while simultaneously creating brilliant content - Nas throws his own baby shower, poses for a paternity shoot, and films the birth of?MONTERO. As usual, his trolling, memes, and imagination are outrageously funny and continue to build buzz for the release, along with his outstanding VMA performance, and his 3-way costume change at Met Gala.

For the night of album release, Nas came up with another idea, another content piece – “The Montero Show.” The show, featuring Nas as each of the characters, is a video countdown of sorts where Nas ranks his videos from least favorite to most favorite. It’s hard to believe the absurd conversations we had with brand partners, many who didn’t want to associate with Nas until after the baby was born. We did, however, manage to integrate a real brand into the middle of the show, almost like an infomercial. When the show goes to a commercial break, we see Nas’ Taco Bell commercial. Art imitating life imitating art.?Toward the end of the show, Nas’ water breaks, he’s rushed to the hospital, and he gives birth to?MONTERO.

It's just his world, and we’re lucky to be in it…

cc: Hannah Satzke, Edrian Woods, Raquel Roberts, Taylor Ashcraft, Saul Levitz