The Marketing Genius Of Lil Nas X

💡The marketing genius of Lil Nas X

THREAD ...

— Marketing Examples (@GoodMarketingHQ) February 4, 2020

1/ When Lil Nas X dropped out of college to pursue music he didn’t write many song.

His sole focus was on growing an audience.

He lived on Twitter, made friends, and got popular posting memes. Quickly his account grew to 30,000 followers.

— Marketing Examples (@GoodMarketingHQ) February 4, 2020

2/ The plan was to use his following to promote his music. But it wasn’t that simple.

“I’d post a funny meme and get 2,000 retweets. Then I’d post a song and get 10.“ — @LilNasX

— Marketing Examples (@GoodMarketingHQ) February 4, 2020

3/ So Nas got creative.

He stopped tweeting SoundCloud links and started writing a song he could promote through memes.

“It had to be short. It had to be catchy. It had to be funny.“ — @LilNasX

— Marketing Examples (@GoodMarketingHQ) February 4, 2020

4/ Old Town Road was the result.

Nas paired it with a video of a dancing cowboy and shared it with his followers: https://t.co/TOEHUbYDmj

— Marketing Examples (@GoodMarketingHQ) February 4, 2020

5/ The video went viral. So Nas stuck to this formula:

• Short viral videos
• To the tune of Old Town Road
• Full song linked underneath

As an unknown artist, it was the only way he could get the word out. And the views started piling up.

— Marketing Examples (@GoodMarketingHQ) February 4, 2020

6/ Inspired by Old Town Road's success on Twitter it spread to TikTok, and even onto Billboard’s country music charts.

Yes, the country music charts. Nas listed it as a country song aware that the charts were less competitive.

— Marketing Examples (@GoodMarketingHQ) February 4, 2020

7/ One week later Billboard removed it for “not being a country song”.

Ironically, this was the best thing that could have possibly happened.

Billboard's decision turned Old Town Road into a national talking point and two weeks later it was No. 1.

— Marketing Examples (@GoodMarketingHQ) February 4, 2020

8/ Nas wasn't stopping. He lined up remixes with some of music's biggest stars.

Billboard has a loophole where remix plays count towards the original song's chart placement.

With every remix millions more streams poured in, and Old Town Road became impossible to budge.

— Marketing Examples (@GoodMarketingHQ) February 4, 2020

9/ 17 weeks later he'd broke Mariah Carey’s record for the most consecutive weeks at No. 1.

It’s easy to forget what an extraordinary story this is.

5 months earlier, Nas was a college dropout sleeping on his sister’s couch with a negative balance in his Wells Fargo account.

— Marketing Examples (@GoodMarketingHQ) February 4, 2020

10/ “A lot of people like to say a kid accidentally got lucky. No. This was no accident.“ — @LilNasX

The more I learned about Nas the more I believed him.

— Marketing Examples (@GoodMarketingHQ) February 4, 2020

11/ A key moment in Old Town Road's rise was a video of a man standing on a galloping horse going viral on Twitter.

The audio was set to Old Town Road. Different versions of the video were viewed millions of times.

— Marketing Examples (@GoodMarketingHQ) February 4, 2020

12/ I wanted to know how the video spread, so I did some digging and found it first posted on the 24th December:

I asked the Twitter user why he made the video. He told me Nas had DM'd him the idea. But it doesn't end there ... https://t.co/BkrVe1TIrl

— Marketing Examples (@GoodMarketingHQ) February 4, 2020

13/ Aware that people watching the video would search the full song, Nas changed the song title on YouTube and SoundCloud to include the lyric from the viral video.

He also posted the lyric on Reddit which ranked on Google: pic.twitter.com/41FoqOflks

— Marketing Examples (@GoodMarketingHQ) February 4, 2020

14/ Things didn’t happen to Nas. Things happened because of Nas.

Virality is not mystical.

Take a peek behind the curtain. Nas is sitting in his underpants, on his sister's couch, iPhone in hand, making the whole thing happen.

— Marketing Examples (@GoodMarketingHQ) February 4, 2020

15/ No one knew him. No one cared about his music. No one promoted anything for him.

He made friends, made them laugh, and built an audience.

Then he packaged his song in a way that fit into their life. https://t.co/DCp02WAWfd

— Marketing Examples (@GoodMarketingHQ) February 4, 2020

“The marketing genius of Lil Nas X“ 👉 https://t.co/8HK9zf6avX

— Marketing Examples (@GoodMarketingHQ) February 4, 2020

For more real world marketing examples 👉 https://t.co/rqS3CzMIL3

If you like the thread following @GoodMarketingHQ is appreciated.

Big thank you to our new sponsor @seobuddy

Over and out - Harry

— Marketing Examples (@GoodMarketingHQ) February 4, 2020

Ok, so this thread went “viral“ on Twitter.

But, let's peek behind the curtain once again.
Because it's not magic!

I have a big email list who got sent the article.
I added the pink box to the bottom of the email.

And, it seems to have worked ... pic.twitter.com/hANNgQZsqT

— Marketing Examples (@GoodMarketingHQ) February 5, 2020

Aazar Shad: Marketing

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That's all folks.

If you found this thread helpful, please:

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— Aazar Shad (@Aazarshad) July 11, 2022

How do you like my story? Building Credit History For Everybody https://t.co/CMscYpswVL Comments?

— Paramendra Kumar Bhagat (@paramendra) July 11, 2022

Here's a lesson on how to do cold outreach right.

Don't ask someone for "coffee" or a "quick 20 min call"

(or worst of all - "to pick their brain". You brain pickers stay away)

Here's an example of how my cousin hustled & got connected with @chamath

— Shaan Puri (@ShaanVP) February 3, 2021

A day later, @Amaansayed_ builds the website in Webflow - the site is live: https://t.co/HK937Q4Xf7

They email it to chamath & go to sleep pic.twitter.com/lEz07XT1Vy

— Shaan Puri (@ShaanVP) February 3, 2021

So good!

— Nathan Barry (@nathanbarry) February 4, 2021

11: Comedian, VC, Founder

See you at 200K.

— Paramendra Kumar Bhagat (@paramendra) July 11, 2022

Q: how is @binance doing now #bitcoin price is $20k?

Me: when @binance started, #bitcoin price was $2k.

— CZ 🔶 Binance (@cz_binance) July 10, 2022

Anti-Putin coalition, you say? Why the hell did #France allow Russian government plane fly over its territory?
I want #Russian politicians to go home by train & car, spending several days on it, as #Ukrainians, including me, are doing now to get to Brussels, Strasbourg or Berlin. pic.twitter.com/QJokTzaio9

— Inna Sovsun (@InnaSovsun) July 9, 2022

4/ Like this 'joke' that Graham posted.

Despite YC being a very innovative idea 17 years ago, this is a decidedly 'square' joke: it's punching down, insulting the diner & all of Boston.

(I live in Boston & took issue with it.)https://t.co/bLG91wYIkc

— Paul Griffiths (@paul_griffiths) July 9, 2022

8/ TL;DR
'Squareness' is bad biz for VCs to embrace, IMHO & it's not 'wokeness' to recognize historical imbalances of power still impact VC funding decisions, to everyone's detriment pic.twitter.com/YNxNAJEArt

— Paul Griffiths (@paul_griffiths) July 9, 2022

Yep, this metaphor checks out.

And having bartended at a comedy club in undergrad, I’d also add that the funny comedians were super humble, and the unfunny comedians thought they were killing it. I think there’s a parallel there too 💀

— Rebekah Bastian (@rebekah_bastian) July 9, 2022

A founder, a VC, and a comedian show up at the bar. The comedian hops onto the other side for the evening shift. The founder grabs the mic instead. The VC tips.

— Paramendra Kumar Bhagat (@paramendra) July 9, 2022

IMO too.

— Paramendra Kumar Bhagat (@paramendra) July 9, 2022

👏

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Only married people understand the joy of shopping for supplies for their own surprise birthday party.

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End Russo-centrism

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During the Cold War, if you were found to be taking Soviet money, you’d be labeled a traitor. Now, former officials and security elites take money from foreign adversaries shamelessly

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The world if junior VCs never gave advice and only made intros pic.twitter.com/F5wi4Us6Be

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We have more Americans working in the private sector today than any day during the former president's time in office.

In the second quarter of this year, we created more jobs than in any quarter under any of my predecessors in the nearly 40 years before the pandemic.

— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) July 8, 2022

Yes!

— Paramendra Kumar Bhagat (@paramendra) July 9, 2022

A pregnant woman drove in the HOV lane alone in Texas and is arguing she can’t be ticketed because the Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade… and now Texas law says that a fetus is a person 😂 pic.twitter.com/7kPkWIDUxa

— Lucy Guo (Hiring Engineers & Designers) (@lucy_guo) July 9, 2022

pictured: everyone who was married in San Francisco City Hall, from 10am to 2pm, July 8th, 2022 and also myself pic.twitter.com/yFEZ3ZlgKN

— Vincent Woo (@fulligin) July 9, 2022

this week I accepted a 100% remote offer as a Healthcare Business Analyst/Tech Writer, doubling my salary + a fully funded relocation I want 🥺 I’m officially a #blackwomanintech y’all

— 💫 (@kearaplease) July 8, 2022

If Elon Musk can afford to pay $1 BILLION to NOT buy Twitter, he can afford to pay his fair share of taxes.

— Jack Cocchiarella (@JDCocchiarella) July 8, 2022

Everything in our condo is gorgeous. Marble everywhere, Sub-Zero, Siberian Oak floors... but the interior doors and closet doors are flimsy as can be.

— Rakesh Agrawal (@rakeshlobster) July 9, 2022

(1/5) Looking to start a #biotech ? Here are the most active investors by stage - Seed, Series A, Series B

With our commentary of course! 🧵👇 pic.twitter.com/RL1ug6Miu3

— BowTiedBiotech 🧪🔬🧬 (@BowTiedBiotech) July 9, 2022

not many think pieces on sri lanka just yet. the problem is our writers have to google the country, first, and figure out how to graft their politics into the u.s. culture war. give it until monday, i think.

— Mike Solana (@micsolana) July 9, 2022

As someone who has worked with over 1,000 startups, 500 angel investors, and now $2 billion in PE deals, I’m really excited to see what @agazdecki is building with @microacquire. A thread 🧵👇

— Mark Thorsen (@markthorsen_) July 8, 2022

I think you and I could treat this as a business challenge and bring World Cup to India by simply investing in a team/league (Calcutta) that scoops up talent across the country. #possible

— Paramendra Kumar Bhagat (@paramendra) July 9, 2022

Streamlining the investment process will lead to faster closes and avoid unnecessary delays ("time kills all deals").

— Mark Thorsen (@markthorsen_) July 8, 2022

@AngelList proved out angel syndicates. An equal or greater opportunity exists for micro PE syndicates.

And, it's an opportunity to leverage @Angelist's experience setting up angel syndicates for micro PE syndicates (pretty cool that @naval is a @microacquire investor).

— Mark Thorsen (@markthorsen_) July 8, 2022

I think the biggest money might be in small, innovative products that are not making money but would be great innovation gene slices to plant into stale Fortune 500 companies.

— Paramendra Kumar Bhagat (@paramendra) July 9, 2022

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Losers on #TruthSocial ... again: pic.twitter.com/HPKHdgnQvw

— ava anderson🌊🌊🌊 (@avaanderson87) July 9, 2022

Honestly, I never understood why they named it Truth Social when it actually bans the truth. Why not name It Lie Social since you can't event tell the truth about how the #GOPDomesticTerrorists and Trump were behind January 6th on there?#TruthSocial pic.twitter.com/M1og1Vrhif

— King Leloge V. Roachia - #IStandWithUkraine (@RoachKing6) July 9, 2022

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— 🌻🦋💙Alex💙🦋🌻 (@AlexButterfly01) July 9, 2022