VINYL ME PLEASE
Rap & Hip-Hop
BACKGROUND
Until 2017, the popular record-of-the-month club, Vinyl Me, Please, had been offering one flagship “essential” record to a consistent pool of 15,000 subscribers. In order to grow, VMP needed to expand its base.
OPPORTUNITY
Versus Creative posed the notion of genre-based tracks in 2015, and in late 2016 led the Denver-based organization in a strategy to appeal authentically to new audiences in rap & hip hop, and later country, while serving the core audience with new offerings they would love.
APPROACH
Versus focused on three core elements: curation, content strategy and industry relationships.
It was crucial in launching this product that VMP made a solid first impression—offer products that are thoughtful, remarkable and sell out of its limited edition quantities—without wavering on its brand identity or alienating either existing or new audiences.
THE POINT OF VIEW
Like any brand, it was important to have a viewpoint and not just hit the low hanging fruit. Curation included a combination of heady crate diggers like MF Doom, Camp Lo and Handsome Boy Modeling School; some of VMP’s most sought after titles from rising stars like Noname, Saba, Denzel Curry and Little Simz; and classic titles from heavy hitters like Future and Lil Wayne.
SUCCESS
SUCCESS
The Rap & Hip Hop subscription significantly expanded and diversified VMP’s target audience.
The track grew from 1,000 initial subscribers to 5,000 in just 14 months.
Roughly half of subscribers were new to Vinyl Me, Please.
Overall, Rap & Hip Hop increased VMP’s customer base and revenue by 20% and widened their reach culturally.