Jay-Z & Rhapsody

Rhapsody has teamed up with the newly out of retirement rap star Jay-Z to promote his new album, while at the same time promoting the Rhapsody company name. In this ad Rhapsody is targeting an audience who is interested in rap music and is of a younger crowd. They are taking Jay-Z’s fan base and asking them to subscribe to Rhapsody’s music service exclusively, just so they can be the first people to listen to his new album.

I think that this is an awesome commercial that will catch the attention of many people. Most people who are in-between the ages of 15 – 30 will recognize this type of music and identify Jay-Z with quality rap and a sense of style. Rhapsody is playing off the previous success of Jay-Z just so they can promote their products and services. I thought the fact that they had Jay-Z go through everyone of his album covers and pose for the camera with the same pose and backgrounds as his CD’s was clever, and will lead others to believe that Rhapsody has the same type of swagger that Jay-Z has just by association. The logic behind this is simple, find an icon who represents a population or group of people and you have them endorse a company. Then those people who follow that person will be more inclined to buy from that company.

This is an excellent and common way to promote different products and services. Having a company pair up with a celebrity figure that is important in the social spotlight can help boost the sales and credibility of the company who hires them to promote their product. We see this everywhere in marketing, the more you can identify with the product or service that a company is offering, the more likely that they will be to make a purchase from that company.