Another One: Looking at Product Placement in the Music Videos off of DJ Khaled's Album "Father of Asahd"
So this past Friday the 17th of May, the Almighty Adlib, DJ Khaled dropped his latest album Father of Asahd. While the album itself could be easily dissected, the point of this post followed soon after with the dropping of music videos for 10 of the 15 songs off of the album. As I watched some of these videos, I noticed something... there is a ton of product placement in them. Close to 50 instances if you look at them all. Now, DJ Khaled's videos have always played the promotion game well, but 50 product placements for 11 companies across only 10 videos, one of which was only a trailer for a music video that never came out? Come on Khaled we're not that oblivious... I think? That brings us to the point: why is DJ Khaled marketing these companies and why do these companies want Khaled to market their products?
First, we must look at what the companies were that Khaled was marketing to try to figure out a connection. The 11 companies that I could find in the videos were Ciroc, Luc Belaire, Beats, FashionNova, Maybach, Bumbu, KandyPens, Puma, Rick Ross Luxury Beard Oil, Ferrari, and Lyft. Ciroc is owned by fellow rapper Diddy and is officially partnered with Khaled. Luc Belaire is closely affiliated with rapper Rick Ross and has partnered with rappers like Young Thug, Dave East, Post Malone, and of course Khaled. Beats has partnered with Khaled for several years and even created a custom headphones line for him. FashionNova does not seem to be directly tied to Khaled, but the online fashion brand is connected to rapper Cardi B and singer Justin Bieber, who feature in the videos that the product is promoted in. Maybach doesn't seem to have any direct connection to Khaled, but the video it was featured in mentioned the luxury car frequently and Khaled does drive a Maybach outside of videos so that one may come down to a status brag. Bumbu Liquor is another company closely associated with Rick Ross and is partnered with rapper Lil Wayne and Khaled. KandyPens is partnered with Khaled as well as other rappers like A$AP Rocky and Young M.A. Puma is not connected to Khaled, but was sponsored by the late Nipsey Hussle who served as an ambassador for the brand (and was featured in the video that it appeared in). Rick Ross Luxury Beard Oil is tied to Rick Ross (as implied by the name) and has been advertised by Khaled on his Instagram in the past. Ferrari is not really tied to Khaled or his features, but it is driven by Khaled and his feature Chris Brown and like the Maybach can fall in the status symbol category. Finally, Lyft has been partnered with Khaled for over a year and he has appeared in a number of their ads. In the end, Khaled's new product placements mostly come down to business partnerships done by him or his featured friends, with contracts demanding an occasional promotion.
Now that we can understand why Khaled is marketing these companies, we must understand why these companies are using Khaled to market their products. I believe companies choose Khaled for three reasons: large audience, wide reach, and the potential for a butterfly effect. For large audience, all one must do is crunch the numbers, Khaled's album has been out a week and the 10 music videos already have a combined 304 million views. That's a large market being reached. Then we can break it down even more for wide reach by looking at the content of the songs. One of the appeals of Khaled is that his music is pretty diverse. The music videos vary from a Jamaican vibe to a Miami Spanish sound to straight-up hip-hop to new-school trap to pop. This means that Khaled is able to reach many different types of listeners and communities not just one target market. Finally, Khaled's heavy emphasis on features creates the potential for a butterfly effect with all of his music videos. What I mean by this is when Khaled drops a music video with Travis Scott and Post Malone, chances are good that they will repost about it on their social media pages, drawing in more viewers and spreading the product placement further. With about 40 unique features on the album, Khaled is drawing from a spider's web of message outreach for these companies he is promoting. Thus, if you look at the numbers and the range of Khaled's music, it is easy to see why many companies flock to him for marketing.
Ultimately, DJ Khaled dropped "another one" on us with the product placements in his new music videos. With millions of views already coming in, the marketers have used Khaled perfectly to get their messages into the mainstream. So, I encourage you to go watch Khaled's new videos and listen to his music. Just don't blame me if you come away with a sudden craving for Ciroc or Rick Ross Luxury Beard Oil.
Final Counts:
Ciroc: 11
Luc Belaire: 9
Beats: 4
FashionNova: 5
Maybach: 7
Bumbu: 4
KandyPens: (Another) 1
Puma: 4
Rick Ross Luxury Beard Oil: (Another) 1
Ferrari: 2
Lyft: (Another) 1
10 videos, 11 companies, 49 blatant product placements
Go observe DJ Khaled's product placements for yourself: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0Kgvj5tc9EMWpEDWJuR1Q/videos?view=0&flow=grid
First, we must look at what the companies were that Khaled was marketing to try to figure out a connection. The 11 companies that I could find in the videos were Ciroc, Luc Belaire, Beats, FashionNova, Maybach, Bumbu, KandyPens, Puma, Rick Ross Luxury Beard Oil, Ferrari, and Lyft. Ciroc is owned by fellow rapper Diddy and is officially partnered with Khaled. Luc Belaire is closely affiliated with rapper Rick Ross and has partnered with rappers like Young Thug, Dave East, Post Malone, and of course Khaled. Beats has partnered with Khaled for several years and even created a custom headphones line for him. FashionNova does not seem to be directly tied to Khaled, but the online fashion brand is connected to rapper Cardi B and singer Justin Bieber, who feature in the videos that the product is promoted in. Maybach doesn't seem to have any direct connection to Khaled, but the video it was featured in mentioned the luxury car frequently and Khaled does drive a Maybach outside of videos so that one may come down to a status brag. Bumbu Liquor is another company closely associated with Rick Ross and is partnered with rapper Lil Wayne and Khaled. KandyPens is partnered with Khaled as well as other rappers like A$AP Rocky and Young M.A. Puma is not connected to Khaled, but was sponsored by the late Nipsey Hussle who served as an ambassador for the brand (and was featured in the video that it appeared in). Rick Ross Luxury Beard Oil is tied to Rick Ross (as implied by the name) and has been advertised by Khaled on his Instagram in the past. Ferrari is not really tied to Khaled or his features, but it is driven by Khaled and his feature Chris Brown and like the Maybach can fall in the status symbol category. Finally, Lyft has been partnered with Khaled for over a year and he has appeared in a number of their ads. In the end, Khaled's new product placements mostly come down to business partnerships done by him or his featured friends, with contracts demanding an occasional promotion.
Now that we can understand why Khaled is marketing these companies, we must understand why these companies are using Khaled to market their products. I believe companies choose Khaled for three reasons: large audience, wide reach, and the potential for a butterfly effect. For large audience, all one must do is crunch the numbers, Khaled's album has been out a week and the 10 music videos already have a combined 304 million views. That's a large market being reached. Then we can break it down even more for wide reach by looking at the content of the songs. One of the appeals of Khaled is that his music is pretty diverse. The music videos vary from a Jamaican vibe to a Miami Spanish sound to straight-up hip-hop to new-school trap to pop. This means that Khaled is able to reach many different types of listeners and communities not just one target market. Finally, Khaled's heavy emphasis on features creates the potential for a butterfly effect with all of his music videos. What I mean by this is when Khaled drops a music video with Travis Scott and Post Malone, chances are good that they will repost about it on their social media pages, drawing in more viewers and spreading the product placement further. With about 40 unique features on the album, Khaled is drawing from a spider's web of message outreach for these companies he is promoting. Thus, if you look at the numbers and the range of Khaled's music, it is easy to see why many companies flock to him for marketing.
Ultimately, DJ Khaled dropped "another one" on us with the product placements in his new music videos. With millions of views already coming in, the marketers have used Khaled perfectly to get their messages into the mainstream. So, I encourage you to go watch Khaled's new videos and listen to his music. Just don't blame me if you come away with a sudden craving for Ciroc or Rick Ross Luxury Beard Oil.
Final Counts:Ciroc: 11
Luc Belaire: 9
Beats: 4
FashionNova: 5
Maybach: 7
Bumbu: 4
KandyPens: (Another) 1
Puma: 4
Rick Ross Luxury Beard Oil: (Another) 1
Ferrari: 2
Lyft: (Another) 1
10 videos, 11 companies, 49 blatant product placements
Go observe DJ Khaled's product placements for yourself: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0Kgvj5tc9EMWpEDWJuR1Q/videos?view=0&flow=grid
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