Trends

Hip Hop keeping brands ‘real’

Footwear and clothing brands will do well to "view urban as a state of mind rather than a geographic place when targeting 15–29-year-olds who connect with Hip Hop music and the culture associated to the genre," cautions US trend watchers Robert Brown and Ruth Washton in a recent report titled The U.S. Urban Youth Trendsetters Market: Tapping the Power of the Hip Hop Mindset and Culture*.

This view, that Hip Hop has today became more of an idealisation of street wear, rather than actual street wear, is echoed by Alan Light in his book The VIBE History of Hip Hop**. Remember, he cautions, modern Hip Hop clothing is often produced by popular and successful designers, who charge significant amounts for their products ... and worn by young people whose monthly pocket equals the annual income of the true urban families.

Today, the Hip Hop look has spread to consumers from all levels of society. However, catch them while they are young! The urban youth report points out that the popularity of Hip Hop declines as the audience becomes older.

The authors of the report define Hip Hop consumers as those who live for the moment and are motivated by money — or rather by the lust thereafter. Non-conformity is a key value for the followers of the genre — but, Hip Hoppers are keen to stay on top of the latest fashions.

Many Hip Hop artists and executives have started their own fashion labels and clothing lines, including Russell Simmons (Phat Farm), Damon Dash and Jay-Z (Rocawear), and OutKast (OutKast Clothing), writes Light. Hip Hop fashion companies also include FUBU, Eckö, G-unit, and Mecca USA.

However, brands are not limited to clothing and footwear deals. There have been various occurrences of artists mentioning brands in their songs — both when they are being paid for the product placement as well as when they are not. An excellent example of this is when Run D.M.C. performed their song My adidas — fans reacted by waving around their adidas gear.

Why has Hip Hop turned out to be THE method of product placement?

Hip Hop historian, Nelson George maintains that Hip Hop is "an incredibly flexible tool of communication, quite adaptable to any number of messages, which is why it has been so easy to turn every element of the culture associated with it into a product".

American Brandstand, a research project from Agenda Inc., a brand strategy agency based in San Francisco and Paris, keeps track of the number of times that brands are mentioned in songs. Nike was 2005’s 2nd most mentioned brand with 63 mentions — after Mercedes Benz with a 100 mentions (11th place in 2004 with 4 mentions). In 2004 Nike was in 4th with 11 mentions.

"Until recently, branded lyrics have been almost exclusively the domain of Hip Hop lyrics. But in 2004, they spread over into R&B tracks, and last year moved into more pop-oriented tracks, such as Gwen Stefani’s Rich Girl and the various fashion brands in Hip Hop-lite My Humps by The Black Eyed Peas", reports American Brandstand (www.americanbrandstand.com).

Reebok has already signed numerous artists to their "I Am What I Am" campaign, which celebrates contemporary heroes of today’s global youth, including music icons, athletes and entertainers.

Some of the signed heroes are local star Kabelo (who will be participating in the 2006 Comrades), Allen Iverson, Jay-Z, 50 Cent (billed by American Brandstand as the top brand-dropping artist for 2005), Christina Ricci, Stevie Williams and Nelly.

The deal with Nelly, a man with both a passion for his music and a love of sports, includes a signature range of athletic footwear, apparel and accessories, which will feature "clean, aggressive, sport-inspired designs with unique colours and materials that reflect Nelly’s personal style and flavour".

Reebok recently launched the second phase of their campaign, which continues to celebrate authenticity and individuality. The second phase will incorporate more multimedia items, such as the internet, mobile phones and downloads to the PSP — an approach that is directly targeting young consumers.

Most prominent brands are associated with Hip Hop artists.

Footwear Trading will introduce the Mecca Snoop Dogg range into the SA market this year.

"Nike has a relationship with numerous people from the fashion, music and media industries. We see them as ambassadors for the Nike brand. The people we partner with are industry leaders who are innovative and inspirational within their work environment and communities", says Lauren Collier of Nike SA.

adidas and Missy Elliot’s collaboration, Respect M.E., which has been running since April 2004, aim to provide a positive message to the urban sportswear market, by being a platform for positivity, style, skills, friendship and respect, according to adidas’ website (www.press.adidas.com).

Just keep in mind that there is such a thing as too much. Hi-Hop artists are very aware that fans could catch on and become annoyed or disillusioned by the artist seemingly selling out to big corporate companies, if they think the song is just a camouflaged advertisement. While enjoying the dollars earned, they assure fans they are not for sale and are keeping it real.

This indirect advertising is not limited to the music industry.

The movie industry has already embraced the idea of product placement, and this will probably become the norm on television, once the PVR decoders that enable viewers to fast forward through advertising breaks, are available locally.