Rhapsody Thinks Outside the Box

by Justin Levy on September 7, 2009

A few days ago I saw a tweet fly by from Todd Defren mentioning something to do with Jay-Z and Rhapsody.  Since I’m a HUGE fan of Jay-Z I followed the link.  The link took me to this amazing Rhapsody commercial promoting Jay-Z’s new album, The Blueprint 3.  If you’re not a fan of Jay-Z then it will be a little hard to understand why this commercial is so cool.  BUT, any true Jay-Z fans will notice that, in the span of one minute, the commercial seamlessly takes you through most of Jay-Z’s album covers.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iM1mPXJ95vc[/youtube]

I think this is a great example of a brand thinking outside the box.  Most commercials, especially for upcoming music albums, are sheer promotion for the album.  This commercial takes you back to all of the fantastic albums that Jay-Z has released over his career.  While showing you the previous album covers, the new single, Run This Town, from The Blueprint 3 is playing in the background thus hyping you for the new album.

The commercial ends with a call-to-action to head over to the specially designed section of the Rhapsody site dedicated to the album release.  There you can listen to the album, send updates to Twitter and Facebook of your favorite songs from the album, comment on the commercial, sign up for a subscription to Rhapsody and a whole bunch more.

There is so much that I think is cool about this but I want to know what you think about it.  If this was a commercial for an artist you really liked, would the commercial and landing page make you any more likely to try Rhapsody and/or buy the album?

If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or subscribing to the feed to receive future articles delivered to your feed reader.

  • Straight up brilliant. It's a great ad even if you don't know that it's all his album covers but it's that much better if you're a fan. In a sea of worthless, pointless, expensive ads, this one is effective and does a great job of tightening the tribe.

    Great post, Justin.
  • I agree! It's such a great commercial. It's definitely one that I'll watch
    in the future again :)
  • It's over the top! Nice find, Justin.
  • WOW!!! that ad is fantastic.
    Jay-Z is the man, and a huge kudos to Rhapsody for that great ad idea
  • I agree! I think it was a fantastic concept and well executed.
blog comments powered by Disqus

Previous post:

Next post: