How Latto Mastered The Art of Campaign Rollouts

If you’ve been on TikTok lately, you’ve probably heard a trending sound that goes: “Rip me out the plastic I’ve been acting brand new” followed by someone emerging from a plastic bag symbolizing how they’ve been, for a fact, acting brand new.

That TikTok sound is part of the chorus of Put It On Da Floor - a new song from Atlanta’s very own Latto. And as I alluded to earlier, The “Rip Me Out The Plastic” challenge has been crushing TikTok for the past few weeks.

Latto is part of a new wave of rappers taking the game by storm. From her first song From Da Souf, to Big Energy and now Put It On Da Floor, a huge part of her success is the level of mastery she’s shown with her song rollouts. No stone is left unturned, and no trend is left unfollowed.

She’s killing it. 

So let’s do a breakdown of some of here recent hits because there are definitely some synergies between what she’s doing musically and what brands can learn when attempting to be a part of culture.

Remember early 2000s, when bootlegging (almost) killed the music industry?

Not only did the digital revolution affect the funnel for music consumption, it also affected the process of releasing commercial music in and of itself.

Before mp3s, albums were big budget affairs that followed a tried and true formula for success. Every high selling record followed a formula:

A. Record get sent to radio

B. Artist makes a big budget music video

C. Press Run/Mini tour

D. Remix w/ another star

E. Album drops

It was essentially a tease, hype, sustain model - a tried and true formula that’s worked countless times. The initial record drop and radio push were a tease for the album, the video created the hype, and the remix kept the buzz going.

However, as music became more accessible to consumers and production equipment became easier to acquire, the barrier to entry into the music industry was almost non-existent.

People all but abandoned the formula.

Kids bought DSLR cameras and moved the video shoots to their house, and rather than pay hefty producer fees to remix a record, labels repackaged the same song with a new verse or feature.

That brings us to Latto.

She was young when the music industry was at its height. Like most Millennials & Gen Z’ers, she remembers how the formula and has even improved on it. Now it’s:

A. TikTok sound teases the record

B. Big budget video to drive hype

c. Remix to sustain the buzz

Here’s how she’s implemented to OG Album rollout for her new batch of records.

I. Big Energy (2021)

Ingredient #1: TikTok Trend

Before Big Energy made its impact at radio Latto teased it on TikTok.

She had the record playing in the background of various TikToks (some of which can be seen below), and from there her fanbase was able to latch onto the record and start creating content of their own putting their spin on “big energy.”

Ingredient #2: Big Budget Video

While the sound was bubbling on TikTok Latto & her team quickly followed up with the official release of the song and video on the same day! It instantly gave fans a visual to attach to the record and when combined with the favor the record gained on Tiktok the video did numbers (48 million views and counting).

Ingredient #3: The Remix

In 2022, to keep the buzz going, Latto got with Mariah Carey (who she sampled for Big Energy) and together released the official remix featuring DJ Khaled.

The track was the right amount of nostalgia and big energy (see what I did there), and together they clocked over 14 million views on the remix, and the song became number one Billboard’s U.S. Digital sales & radio charts — both of which were a first for Latto.

After the release of Big Energy, Latto followed up with a few more singles that proved to be successful like “Wheelie” & “It’s Giving” from her debut album.

The successful rollout of those singles coupled with the massive radio success of Big Energy set the stage for 2023 when she began releasing her next batch of new music.

That brings us to…

II. Put it on the floor (2023)

Ingredient #1: The OG Video

The original “Put It On The Floor” dropped in April of this year and began to climb up Billboard’s HIp-hop/Rap charts.

At the same time, Latto experienced a viral moment after her Coachella performance where accusations of her photoshopping the audience started to bubble on social media.

However, undeterred by the hate, she kept pushing the record and even used her Coachella performance to create the official video for Put It On Da Floor.

Ingredient #2: TikTok

Put it on the Floor was making its rounds across TikTok when it experienced a moment that most brands hoped for.

A viral piece of UGC.

While on her bus route, a woman on TikTok participated in the Rip Me Out The Plastic challenge which sparked a video response from her daughter. Just like that the song was viral & people across the globe were “ripping” themselves out the plastic because they were “acting brand new.”

Ingredient #3: The Remix

Keeping with the buzz she built on TikTok, Latto connected with none other than Cardi B for the remix.

Fresh off the buzz of her verse in Glorilla’s “Tomorrow 2,” news of Cardi’s feature created another level of anticipation and within days of the video releasing the remix racked up over 10 million views on YouTube and a ton of social chatter.

The Bottom Line for Brands

It’s all about how we move people down the funnel folks. And it’s about Comms too.

I’d venture to say that brands should tweak rollouts so that maybe the entire offering isn’t available at the time of purchase. Leave something for later, ya know?

Lastly, think about the remix.

In a way, remixes are about market penetration.

Brands attempt to do that via collaborations and giveaways. Often times, these partnerships rely on influencers who fit the current demo you’re trying to reach, but what if you did a stretch collab?

Latto’s core fans are likely Gen Z and Mariah Carey might be more aligned with a prior generation. However a collab between both parties benefits them both. Gen Z gets to know Mariah and Latto gets the X’ers/Millenials. It’s a good deal.

Either way, it’ll be dope to see what happens next with Latto. We haven’t seen a Hip-hop song reach #1 on Billboard in 2023 yet, but I wouldn’t be surprised if “Put It On The Floor” was the first one.

Peace.