3 Things Marketers Can Learn From Rihanna's Super Bowl Strategy

With all the hype, we can't ignore the 2023 Super Bowl halftime show. It doesn't matter if you loved or hated it, we as marketers can learn so much from it. We learned the importance of building brand awareness, driving traffic, engaging the community, and building up hype before launching something, in Rihanna’s case the halftime performance. 

The marketing campaign for Rihanna's performance and her limited edition products has been very successful. We should pay attention to how she was able to create such a successful marketing strategy and create a strategy that suits our needs. 

A key takeaway was the importance of building hype and engaging with her audience. In the weeks leading up to the performance, she and her team created a buzz and started people wondering what may happen. As a result, she collaborated with relevant creators, repurposed videos, and created content that had people coming back for more. 

It’s all about creating sharable content that resonates with your audience and showing up where they are hanging out. If you are about to launch a new product or offer you must create the hype before it comes out which will drive traffic to your offer. In addition to pre-game hype, you should also consider what happens after the campaign. What can you do to keep people engaged and returning? 

“You want to keep the hype train going, Choo Choo”

Storytelling is the key to keeping your audience engaged and connected. Sharing stories is a great way to share your brand's purpose and your why. As a result of seeing your journey, people will really get to know you. And people buy from people they know, like, and trust. 

As a marketer, you can learn so much from Rihanna's Super Bowl Halftime Show marketing campaign. Get your AirPods and something to jot down notes, you'll be blown away by all the ways you can create a successful marketing campaign.

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Transcript

Whether you loved her performance at the Super Bowl halftime show, or you hated it, or you kind of were like, meh, I'm just here for the commercials. Or you actually liked the football teams, right? Whatever your opinion is. We are gonna talk about the halftime show because there is only one person in the last 30 days, actually the last couple months as we've been leading up to the Super Bowl, that just took.

There was one person who knew how to capitalize on a big moment, and it wasn't Patrick Mahomes. It was, you guessed it, Rihanna. She definitely shined bright like a diamond. And we are gonna talk about in today's episodes, three takeaways that you as a business owner and as someone who is a marketer for your business, we're gonna learn three things that you can do from her Super Bowl strategy.

All right. This should be a fun episode. We're gonna do a quick, fast, and furious. Kind of like there's a time limit on the Super Bowl halftime. All right, let's jump into the episode.

Hey, hey, it's your girl, Emmy Cornwell, Instagram biz coach and social selling expert. Welcome to the Hey, hey, Emmy show. This is a podcast where we talk about all things that will be helpful for you and your. Everything from Instagram tips and tricks to health hacks to relationships, and definitely some Jesus, basically everything in between Proverbs 31 and Tupac.

I am so excited to party with you in each and every episode because ain't no party like a Hey, hey Emmy party. Can I get. All right. Let's get into it, sister.

Hey. Hey. What's going on? How are you, sister? Girl. Welcome back to the Hey, hey, Emmy Show podcast. I am your host, Emmy Cornwell. So glad to be with you and talking about all the buzz that is still going on. I don't think it's died off just yet. In regards to Rihanna's halftime show at the Super Bowl in 2023, I personally enjoyed.

I think it was, I mean, it's hard to do a Super Bowl performance. One, there's just massive amounts of people. You're in a live stadium. There's a lot of controllables that you have a hard time controlling, and there's a lot of different people that watch, and that's an understatement that watched the Super Bowl.

Okay. This Super Bowl specifically was like the number one most. TV show ever and the other two, like shows in that category that were behind that were two other Super Bowls. You can't tell me that that many people, and I don't even know how many people I, I could make something up, but it probably wouldn't be accurate.

You can Google it, I'm guessing over a billion. But again, that could totally be off with that many people. There's going to be so many different musical. So many different opinions, so many different reasons why people are there watching the game. Right. Are you watching for rooting for a certain team or are you just there for the commercials?

In the halftime show, the last couple years, especially since the Seattle Seahawks have not been in the Super Bowl, I'm definitely there for the commercials in halftime show, which by the way, speaking of marketing, the commercials have like massively been awful since 2020, like 20 20, 20 20. 2022 and 2023.

I think they, they sucked . I don't know about you and I don't even use that word very often, but the commercials have gone downhill. You can usually even like depend like on a consistent, really funny commercial from Doritos. Didn't happen the last two years. Or one of like the beer commercials. You know what, one of the best commercials I thought this year was.

And it's funny cuz my husband, um, although he is not currently drinking right now, loves Bush light beer. A Bush commercial where you thought it was like a different beer company and they're like, actually it's a Bush commercial. I thought that one was funny. But honestly the, my favorite part was, it was a real, it was a good game and I Love Sports was a halftime show.

And was it the best halftime show ever? No, it wasn't. But I think it satisfied a bunch of different wants, needs, expectations of like a very vast. Pool of people and so many people were like hating on her about her actual performance. Like there was low energy and it just wasn't like what people were expecting from her as she is a really good performer.

You know, I've seen her Fenty specials on Netflix or Amazon, I can't remember which one. It doesn't matter cuz none of those people are sponsoring me unless, Hey, Netflix, Amazon, you wanna , you wanna hit a girl up. Um, and it's so dynamic and her creative direction that she does, like, she is an a performer.

She is an entertainer, but hello, she was pregnant. People from one pregnant lady to the. That stuff can take your energy out. And I'm guessing she's not super far along one cuz she wasn't like popping cuz people, that was like the most Googled thing during that timeframe of is Rihanna pregnant? Which side note too, I think why are, why is it the first thing that we're talking about?

Why do we feel like it's okay just cuz they're a celebrity that we can comment on their body? I don't know. Again, maybe it's just cause I'm pregnant and I can relate and I can like feel fair. Let's not focus on the fact that she, well, she came out and said she was pregnant. Anyways, that can affect your energy, but let's get back into the marketing.

Okay? Because there are a lot of things that she did, right? Her and her people, right? I mean, it wasn't necessarily her, although I do believe she is very involved in the creative aspect of her whole brand and business. , right? Because the marketing campaign started months ago, and hopefully you noticed some of these things.

If not, that's why I'm doing this episode. But she used different tactics to build buzz about her performance. There was massive hype spotlighting her businesses and connecting her with her community the minute she was announced as the halftime performer. Okay? And she used. Little words too. It worked.

But here are the three major takeaways that you can, as a business owner, a marketer, social media manager, you can learn from her marketing strategy that she used for the Super Bowl. Okay? Depending on your business goal, a successful marketing campaign can help you raise brand awareness. It can drive traffic, it can build an engaged community.

And her strategy checked all of those boxes, okay. As it combined her music, her beauty, and her fashion brands, right? She does a lot. this is a, a brand, okay? She has multiple businesses within her brand. She launched limited edition merch. She tapped into storytelling and she generated buzz on social media.

Those are the three takeaways that we're gonna talk about in today's episode. So let's get into the first. Launching limited edition merch once it was announced that she was headlining the Super Bowl Fenty, the marketing empire that it is went to work. Okay, they launched special edition N F L products.

It's N F L branded gloss Bomb with a new shade. Hello? I mean, Two became Kardashian can't sing or any of the Kardashians, cuz they, I think, would blow marketing out of the water even more so than Rihanna did when it comes to something like this. But they also had in real life pop-up shops with exclusive game day collection, Fenty gear.

Okay. And Rihanna is known for her style. She's known for, um, hi her inclusivity, but post performance, Santi also broke. The products that she wore on stage, bringing it full circle. So what can we learn from this? Well, limited edition merch creates a sense of exclusivity, right? So there's a sense of urgency.

It's great for building buzz, you know, if you don't have the budget, you're gonna consider maybe something like a timely promo or a giveaway to do something. Not everyone, it doesn't make sense for everyone to, to create limited edition merch. By the way, at some point I would love to have just, Hey, hey, Emmy merch with some fun sayings.

I just have never thought of anything I thought that was clever enough to put on a t-shirt and sell it. Or a coffee, you know, coffee mug. I don't even drink coffee, guys. I mean, I don't know it ha if when I come out with merchant it has to be good. So if you have any ideas for me, send 'em my way. Hit me up with the d.

Here's another learning that we can take away from that first marketing tactic is you're gonna create a post-campaign or post-launch plan to help you identify the opportunities to continue to promote your product and keep the hype train going. Chuchu. Okay, . There's strategy into it. What about, let's go into number two that she did really, really good, and this is one, this is my bread and butter.

This is what I teach you. I actually am just listening to a podcast that someone sent me about how to be a better speaker and what people remember. They don't remember the facts, they remember the emotions that you've invoked in them, and that's majorly done through storytelling. So what she did is she tapped into story.

It's, it, it has to be, you have to become a better storyteller and there are resources out there to help you do that. It is an integral part of any marketing campaign. Okay? They, they stories give you an opportunity to share your brand's purpose, share your why. The values, like people are really gonna get to know you because they're gonna see the journey that you've been on.

They're gonna see the transformation. And Rihanna tapped into this with her Apple Music commercial leading up to the super. Know, she paired, um, one of her most popular songs and then she paired that with reminding of his, of her upbringing, her values, her love for Barbados. I mean, that honestly is my favorite Rihanna song is Fonda Replay when she first was like, came out as like a massive big pop star and probably had no creative direction.

And obviously you've seen her change over the years, and most pop stars do come out in. Packaged way, because that's what the record labels do. But how cool, right? And so when you are storytelling, you're building off of memories, emotion, nostalgia. You're tapping into things that are gonna humanize you and your brand.

You're a human. Yes, you're a marketer. Yes, you're a business owner. Yes, you're a, you know, you're an entrepreneur. But remember, people are buying you. They're not just buying the product or service that you sell. And for video content, She, she had a strong hook, which you know, I talk about as well, cuz you gotta keep interested, you gotta keep people engaged.

And then she repurposed all her videos across all the different platforms, which again, right now you should be doing. Okay. Number three, marketing tactic. She generated buzz on social media prior to the performance. Fans tried to predict what songs like what the set list was gonna. . And would she have any guest performers like would Drake come out?

Her ex lover and who she has a lot of songs with David Gta, um, Kanye West. Right. She's done a lot of stuff with, with Yay or Ye or Eazy or whatever he calls himself now. And Modern Day Prince, no gag me now. Anyways. I do like Kanye's music for the most part, but people were trying to figure out who would it be, cuz most of the time Super Bowl halftime shows do have more than one performer.

So the Fenty brands leaned into this massively, and they dropped hints as the time was going. Like the building, the hype, building hype is important. They dropped hints in their post. They engaged with fans content too, that were posting, like trying to figure out with it. They even rolled out a custom audio with influencers using it in their reels and TikTok videos.

Hello? Talk about virality like aspect. This is genius. Okay. Um, the Fenty brands continue to post about the performance keeping riri on everyone's mind. Everyone's mind. So what can we learn from this? We'll show up where your audience is. Okay. Is that on Instagram? Is that on TikTok? Is that on Facebook? Is that on wherever that is?

I talk about you have to be where your ideal client is first and foremost. Okay. You don't have to be on everything, but you have to at least be where they. And you have to create content that is engaging, that will provide some opportunities for people to engage, to react to, and to interact with, right?

Like you want to tap into other people's network words. Well, you have to create content that actually is shareable, that people actually wanna share. Like what's in it for them to share? Did they think it was funny? Did they resonate with it? Was it something they needed to hear that day? Um, there's so many different things, right?

Like it's really important. That you have some strategy around that. Hey, also another learning about how to create the hype and the buzz that Rihanna did for the Super Bowl was she partnered with relevant creators to promote her campaign. Before and after the launch. And so I know I've done episodes about how to collaborate with others.

I just did one about Instagram lives and if those are still things. And one of the best ways to do Instagram lives is collaborating with other people that are in your, um, your network or that you want to be in their network. And there's so many, again, strategies behind that. So go back and listen to that episode.

But a successful marketing campaign will be built on hype, especially the, the hype is before. But then after you wanna maintain it, you wanna drive traffic, you wanna engage with your ideal client and with your audience. And, and if there is that one person, like I said, who knows how to capitalize on a big moment, it was definitely Rihanna, man.

I know I'm not the only one who's talked about her marketing strategy, and that's okay because that means like, I know that this is a thing. , there are a lot. Experts in this field who are marveling about how this all went down. And I think it was relevant for us to just take like a sneak peek and look into some of the things that she did well so that you can take what makes sense for your business and your brand and implement it.

Right? Those are money hits. So hopefully you learn something. You may have to go back and listen to this episode, but if you did love it, of course, please take a screenshot. Tag me the, Hey, hey Emmy. And let me know what your favorite Rihanna song is cuz there are so many. I mean, I, there are some, I wish she would've done more, right?

I was, you know, I thought there could have been a better set list, but it doesn't matter. We're still talking about it, right? We're still talking about her. The hype is continued. The trains keep going. I am. I'm just so thankful for you for being here, and hopefully you found value in this. Continue the conversation with me on Instagram.

Come hang out, tell me a re re re song that you like, and I will see you on the next episode.