Magna Carta Frenzy is Just the Latest from an Artist Who Understands Engaging Marketing

By Dana Sedgwick

You may have caught our post earlier this month on the unique sneak peak J Cole gave his fans for latest album, Born Sinner. The young MC caught our attention when he invited fans to listening sessions hosted all around the world, flash mob style, powered by a smartphone app that unlocked the tracks if you were at a certain place at a certain time.

That album’s first week sales are in and at 297,922 units moved (just under Kanye’s Yeezus, which totaled 328,800), the tech-enhanced hype surely couldn’t have hurt.

Speaking of tech-enhanced hype… we were just as surprised as anyone by Jay Z’s announcement that the release of Magna Carta Holy Grail will be hosted exclusively through Samsung. Surprised, but confused. As we march ever more towards mobile, why not? Users of various types of the Samsung Galaxy Phone would have first access to the album, with 1 million copies given away on the platform for free99.

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The app was released Monday, full of plenty of tantalizing teasers and blacked out lyric lines… enough to keep us all guessing. Today, the enjoyable album hype frenzy was stirred a bit further with the release of the lyrics for a new song featuring Frank Ocean aptly titled “Oceans” (see below).

But this isn’t something new for Mr. Carter… in fact, his track record suggests that he thoroughly enjoys teasing the masses and seeking unique marketing partnerships. Back in 2011, he partnered with Bing to bring to life a worldwide scavenger hunt in which every page from the memoir “Decoded” was placed in real-world locations.

As their blog explains, Bing provided the platform for a virtual game-like experience that translated into real world experiences:

“Bing Maps was a central grounding element in the Decoded marketing campaign. Visitors answered questions and then navigated through both aerial and StreetSide views to solve clues and discover pages. Decoded provided contextual geographical and subject-matter content, and Bing Maps provided the surface area in which to experience the game. Users learned to navigate Bing Maps views as they competed to win prizes.”

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The campaign was celebrated for its deep level of interaction and engagement… even taking home several awards at the Cannes International Festival of Creativity.

You can see the influence of that campaign in the most recent addition to the Magna Carta craze – a scavenger hunt through the winding streets of Manhattan to find Jay Z’s publicist who held in her position only 60 black books which held the track listing for the upcoming album. So if you were wondering about all those wide eyed kids trading in their Sunday Funday for a frenzied run around lower Manhattan… mystery solved.

Image courtesy of NY Daily News

And just when you thought the pot was already in full boil, Jay’s turned up the heat further with the announcement of a surprise, public show atop the marquee of the Ed Sullivan Theater in Times Square on 7/6… pretty much the ultimate block party.

When J Cole announced his listening sessions, we asked: “Gimmick or Gold?”

With 20M from Samsung already paid and a nation that is literally crazed over blacked out lines of text… I believe we can go with gold on this one. Hats off.