Simply the best - Hip-Hop, QR Codes and a Deep Engagement

Published: June 27, 2023

min read

Hip Hop is 50 and Sprite is celebrating with QR codes and social spend.

The beverage brand is diversifying its media mix in a bid to appeal to Gen Z and millennials and honor the 50th anniversary of hip-hop music. They have a 30-second ad spot that features Nas, Rakim, Latto and GloRilla on connected and linear TV. A shorter 15-second version of this can be seen on Instagram, Twitter and TikTok. Sprite is also using Instagram Reels to feature the various celebrities that it has worked with on this campaign. Sprite has a slideshow on TikTok that has over 2.3 million views and 23,000 likes!

Sprite is also doing its thing on Twitter, by tweeting organically at the BET Music Awards on June 26. It had a significant sponsorship role to play in the event ceremony itself where it sponsored a series that featured various Gen Z hip-hop artists who told their stories of how they got hooked on hip-hop.

We’re leaning into where our consumers are and creating content brd on their behaviors and what we believe resonate with them. We’re always reviewing and seeing how our consumers consume media, and that’s inherently where we would like to show up.

A.P. Chaney, Sprite’s Director of Creative Strategy.

Sprite has been exploring new ways to engage customers.

Sprite is also using QR Codes to drive customers to its website Sprite. The beverage brand is also doing a “Summer of Drops,” with exclusive content, merchandise and event experiences. The QR Codes can be seen on Sprite packs which will give customers access to events and product drops that include signed merchandise such as Polaroids from Nas and slates from Rakim, GloRilla and Latto.

Sprite is one of many brands, including Google, celebrating the anniversary of hip-hop music.

Music sparks passion like few other art forms and hip-hop has been driving global culture and commerce for 50 years and counting. Sprite is smart to combine cutting-edge digital tools with real-world experiences in its campaign, and smarter still to leverage the brand credibility brought by genre-defining artists like Rakim and Nas, two seminal MCs that the company has a long history with.

Christopher Sealey, SVP (Marketing) and Creative Director of Web3 software company OneOf

Sprite and QR Codes

One can see that the brand is trying to find new and innovative ways to attract and engage customers.

QR codes are something that just about everyone is familiar with. They have been around for ages. They know how it works. They know how to use it.

The benefits of QR codes are many – this is a great way to cut out many of the intermediary steps in the customer journey. Brands can then get the potential target customers to the exact place where they want them to be. It can be a website or a space on Web3.

It will increase engagement and go a long way in helping build a returning audience. Brands can educate customers. Do product tutorials. They can offer exclusive content to only those who use the QR code to access it.

So this is a great way to get customers to get into a virtual space and interact with all the drops that Sprite has in store for them.

QR codes are a great way for brands to actually measure the effectiveness of a campaign that they do. It is easy to track how many people actually used the code to connect. Through this, brands can also collect precious first party data, which is very important at a time when the world is moving away from third party data.

Through this QR code campaign – Sprite is seen to be using a simple, familiar but very effective tactic to get customers to engage with the brand and the drops that it has on the website.

Sometimes simple is simply the best way to do things!

Author

Bill Walker

Bill is a marketing strategist who believes in the power of storytelling. He's known for his creativity, wit, and ability to connect with audiences across all channels. When he's not crafting marketing campaigns, you can find him hiking in the mountains or reading a good book.