Joseph Anthony on Hip Hop Marketing

Joseph Anthony, CEO of New York's Vital Marketing, a "fully integrated marketing agency targeting Multi-cultural and youth consumers", has a piece at brandchannel.com entitled Hip-Hop Culture Crosses into Brand Strategy. The emphasis of the piece is that hip hop has gone from a niche phenomenon to something that permeates youth culture and corporations are catching on.

I actually would disagree with some of the details of the article but the overall message is quite correct, hip hop is something that companies wishing to reach youth need to get involved with and it's also something that can reach youth nationwide or, as Anthony puts it, "big label brands such as a Procter & Gamble, General Motors and the Gap now subscribe to the theory that you reach the heartland in the same way that you reach the kids in the inner city."

The reality is that corporations still seem to be struggling to come to terms with hip hop, so that Joseph Anthony, whose only prior work experience was a job at The New York Times, could work personal connections to present in corporate settings and build a business in four years that claims "over $15 million in revenues annually."

As Anthony puts it:
"Looking at how urban culture was mainstreaming itself, it occurred to me that the market needed someone to frame it . . . Some companies were getting involved blindly, without a barometer to measure what was a successful marketing campaign or how to properly leverage the culture. I drew them a map."

Vital Marketing lists the following clients:
US Army, Nascar, Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Tommy Hilfiger, Alize, Remy Martin, Footaction and Nike

Guys like this that are brokering hip hop culture in the marketing arena are well worth watching, from Russell Simmons to Steve Stoute. Although they tend to speak in rather broad strokes, I'd be interested in finding out how nuanced they can get.

The reality is, we're still at a stage where a lot can be accomplished with a basic knowledge of rap music and a respect for the cultural elements. However, I also think it's inevitable that marketers will have to bring an increasingly sophisticated understanding to the many niches within hip hop. Exploiting those niches will both allow current agencies to grow and also create openings for hungry upstarts with a deep awareness of the complexity of hip hop demographics.

Comments

[SK]

Folks like Anthony are worse than crack dealers. They're slanging culture to people that want to destroy it. True hip-hop -- which is gutta, street, on every corner and block in America and beyond -- will not be marketed because it's ANTI-ESTABLISHMENT. Like 'Pac said, "there won't be peace until them niggaz get a piece to".
As far as I see it, Anthony is a house nigga slanging wolf tickets to the white man to make himself rich. If he hasn't yet, it's just a matter of time before he sells his soul to the devil.