Funny Business: Marketing Artist's Humorous Sides

Hey there, Happy Friday and welcome back!

In this week’s edition:

• David Guetta deepfakes.

• YouTube's Creator Music expands.

• Spotify's new recommendations controls.

Funny Business: Marketing Artist's Humorous Sides

The super-serious muso is out, and the quirky artist is in. It seems to be the age of goofy, humorous musicians who are embracing their funny side. Today, we’re taking a look at the artists who do this best, and how they are making it marketable.

Yung Gravy

Arguably one of rap music’s most flirtatious characters, Yung Gravy’s online persona aligns perfectly with his music. This week, he’s kicked off his tour in Australia. The tour has been promoted with some pretty flirtatious collaborative content with influencers like Abbie Chatfield. Gravy’s well known for putting the charm on when it comes to interacting with his fans, both on and offline. Recently, he promoted Jimmy John’s limited-edition red velvet cookie, with a ‘Bachelor’ spoof.

Lewis Capaldi

A regular TikTok poster, Lewis Capaldi is often the butt of his own jokes, and it’s become a distinct element of his public-facing persona. Opposite to Yung Gravy, the Scottish singer-songwriter often pokes fun at his uneventful love life. This went as far as the 2019 campaign with Tinder, where Capaldi plastered his own Tinder profile across the streets of the UK. Over on his TikTok, you’ll find videos where he’s shared his own on-stage vocal mishaps, and pranked fans of The 1975 by leading them to believe Harry Styles was the special guest of their show, rather than himself.

Doja Cat

When she went viral with her 2019 single ‘Mooo!’, Doja Cat burst onto the scene, in an unserious fashion. Since then, we’ve seen and heard , but her quirky brand has persisted. Like Capaldi, her TikTok is packed to the brim with humorous content. Her quirky content isn’t limited to TikTok either. It’s also incorporated in her brand partnerships, like her promotional posts for JBL. The brand’s own stylised posts were contrasted with the artist’s content, where she mispronounced the brand’s name.

Why It Works

When artists let their humorous side shine on social media, it helps build rapport with their audience. By showcasing their less serious sides, they become more relatable, and in turn, their personality becomes just as marketable as their music. In Yung Gravy’s case, his brand aligns with his music and reinforces his artist persona as a whole.

In Doja Cat and Lewis Capaldi’s cases, their brands stray from the themes of their music. Here, we see how showcasing a humour persona, artists can create a unique brand, separate from their music to market. This paves the way for unique media opportunities and brand partnerships, that the artists’ brands might not have otherwise aligned well with.

In Other News

BTS fans can now create the group's 'Dynamite' music video in Lego form. Lego have unveiled a 749-piece set, complete with a mini-figurine of each BTS member, and true-to-life sets from the clip.

David Guetta has teased a new track, featuring AI-generated deepfake Eminem vocals. The producer took to Twitter to share a video from a recent live concert, where he premiered the track, saying “Let me introduce you to… Emin-AI-em." In the video Guetta explains the ease at which he made the sample, and again our attention is drawn to the major issues with creative AI technology.

Snoop Dogg, Death Row Records and TikTok are joining forces to bring the label's catalogue back to streaming services. Before being made available on other streaming services next week, the catalogue is available exclusively on TikTok this week, after being pulled from streaming services last year. Record labels have moved on from the restrictive practice of windowing releases so it is certainly a daring move from Snoop Dogg - we'll just wait to see how it plays out!

Instagram Live Shopping is no more. After removing the Shop tab, the platform has now removed the ability to tag products while live-streaming. Users will now look to advertising to promote products, as Instagram has introduced automation tools like Advantage+, which eliminates "the manual steps of ad creation and automates up to 150 creative combinations at once."

YouTube continues to roll out Creator Music in the US. It describes the new resource as "easy way for creators in YPP to access an ever-growing catalog of music for use in their videos while still being able to monetise". Creator Music is set to expand across more countries throughout the year.

Snap has introduced Ray Tracing - the "technical capability that enhances the realism of augmented reality experiences by reflecting light on digital objects."

AI tech is still a work in progress. During their first demos, both Google's Bard and Bing's Bing AI both made factual errors. Bard falsely credited "the very first pictures of a planet outside of our own solar system.” While Bing AI confused financial data, among other things.

Elon Musk has unlocked the ultimate power on Twitter - his own code to ensure he dominates your news feed. He's bypassing traditional filters and algorithmically rocketing himself ahead of all other content, creating a disturbing new reality for online users everywhere.

Fast Facts

👉 Rihanna's Super Bowl product placement paid off.After briefly featuring one of her Fenty Beauty products in the halftime show, searches for the brand increased by 833%.

Chart

Rihanna gained 286,000 new Instagram Followers from her Super Bowl performance.content

ICYMI

Catch up on our recent stories:

• How an Artist Dropped by Sony Made $250K Selling NFTs

• Making the Most of a Support Slot

• Miley Cyrus' Controversial Marketing Strategy

Written by Olivia Gliku and Nick Lynagh.Promoed is published by Habit Music Pty Ltd.

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