Since Burnaboy announced his latest album ‘African Giant‘, his first since he signed his publishing contract with Universal Music, his whole media and communications approach has completely evolved.
Starting with a Youtube ‘featured artist of the month’ feature that introduced him to American audiences and jump-started the road to his album launch, paving his way with awards and nominations including the BET Awards for Best International Act.
Now that the album is finally out, Burna is looking for even more innovative ways to get the message out there and get his audience invested in not just supporting the music but embracing the lifestyle.
Last week, Burnaboy spent some time on the Daily Show with Trevor Noah, (yeah, that Trevor Noah) where he performed two new songs off the album and spoke with Noah about his work and his philosophy. Peppering the interview with anecdotes of how he met Trevor for the first time, talking about his musical history and his expectations for his music, Burna proved the perfect guest.
He also used the opportunity to announce the new partnership he had with music streaming giant Spotify to create a Burna Bank.
The Burna Bank is an immersive retail experience that incorporates visual imagery from the African Giant album rollout (the album cover features specific currency with BurnaBoy’s face on it) and a Burna ATM that allows you withdraw the currency featured on the album which can then be exchanged for album related merchandise.
A well thought out offline experience seems to be largely ignored in today’s Instagram driven world and it is refreshing to see a Nigerian artist (Burnaboy no less), really consider all the details of how his album will be received by all kinds of audiences.
This kind of media communication just makes me all giddy inside, and is fun yet immersive and is unconventional enough that some people will just attempt to engage the album purely out of curiosity. More, please.
