And so Jay Z was cheating on Beyoncé and I get to write a post about marketing?!
Indeed so.
In case you weren't connected to the interweb in 2016, I'm sorry to be the one who tells you that the two birds of the hip-hop world had a fight. Here's what happened:
Jay-Z was a bad boy. The queen was offended, then angry, then kicked him out, then decided to forgive him, let him back home and love him for ever and ever.
Oh, and one more thing –
Lemme explain…
But just before, let's talk about you for a sec.
Here's a rather familiar situation –
Your phone is ringing. Unknown number. You might decide to pick it up.
Someone you do not know presents herself.
…
Now, how long would it take you to figure out whether this person is someone friendly or a salesperson trying to sell you something?
Less than five seconds.
Over the last few years/decade, we've learned to recognize patterns very quickly. So quickly – that we sometimes judge a book by its cover before we even open it.
The brain is a powerful pattern-recognition machine.
That's a blessing and a curse.
Beyoncé's album, "LEMONADE", was released as a surprise on the morning of April 23rd. What made it special wasn't just the music (though it is special), but the manner in which it was presented.
She understood the pattern. She knew that when an artist releases an album, there's a story. Usually it starts with some pre-release hype, some teasers here and there and eventually the almighty album drop.
She knew the pattern so well, that she decided to break it. And by breaking it, she made a HUGE impact.