What Lil Nas X can teach marketers about creating fame
https://www.campaignlive.com/article/lil-nas-x-teach-marketers-creating-fame/1662522
One of the hottest songs of the summer this year was “Old Town Road” by Lil Nas X. It’s not immediately apparent why this song exploded to the level that it did. Campaign US says, in an article titled “What Lil Nas X can teach marketers about creating fame”, that it was use of market techniques and information cascades that fueled the success of the song. This led it to top the Billboard Hot 100 for 19 weeks.
The popularity of a song is partially due to the content, creativity, and likeability of a song, but it also relies on the way in which it’s presented and published to the world. In the case of Old Town Road, Lil Nas X used both memes, appeal, and information cascades to give his song the best chance to go viral. In terms of an information cascade which we’ve learned about in class, it’s a phenomenon in network theory where many people make the same decision as a result of group knowledge and non-private decisions. Essentially, if all of your friends think a song is good, you’ll probably give the song more of a chance than you typically would without influence. The success of the song isn’t 100% reliant on its quality or inherent worth, but rather the support of a crowd. A group loving this song pushes more people to like this song and creates this virality that surrounded “Old Town Road”.
So much of the group mentality that formed around “Old Town Road” was intentionally driven by Lil Nas X. He made sure the song had appeal, social diffusion, and mass exposure. The article starts by talking about the Appeal factor. He pulled on the PIA model to develop a song that felt familiar but also like something entirely new. Through his combination of country and trap, Lil Nas X appealed to a wide variety of audiences expanding the potential spread of the song. In terms of Social Diffusion he created memes on social media and tapped into Reddit, TikTok, and increased sharing on the individual level to form information cascades. In terms of mass exposure he started the song on less competitive charts and gave it to influencers to help the spread. Just because someone completes all these steps doesn’t mean they can create a #1 song for 19 weeks, but it definitely sets you up for success.