The Brief

JJ Bola is a Kinshasa born, London based poet. An unapologetic writer that uses his work as tool to transform narratives and encourage discourse, particularly about sensitive issues. JJ reached out to us and asked us to create an event that really interacted with his target audience in a way that remained connected to culture and poetry in an engaging manner. The decision to collaborate came about after a much positive reaction to the #HypeYourWriters pre-launch at SOAS university.

Rap is a dense form with multiple meanings, a cultural expression, and in so many ways poetry; of which is a means to tell life stories through words.

Being that music has poetic elements, JJ wanted to encourage consumers to hype their poets as they do their favourite rappers. The event, was a way to tap into the subconscious mind and become somewhat of an educational process, just like many rappers approach their poetry.

With this being at the brands core, it was essential to have not only JJ Perform but a group of poets to give the event a community feel.

Insights

Being that we promoted the event beforehand, as the event coordinators and digital partners, we engaged users with the #HypeYourWriters and #WORDLaunch which provided continuity from the pre-launch to the official launch. The central role of success was the consumer participation via the DJ set, of which enticed the crowd with a great selection of Hip-Hop tracks and the events key track, Nas - The World Is Yours. The launch introduced to a selection of passionate and thought-provoking poets, discussions centred around literature. The crowd was empowered to rethink social norms, encourage political discourse and carve out a space for writers to be hyped as audiences do their rappers. We were also tasked with strategic publicity to establish a mass presence and promote scalability. We felt it was key to help JJ and the event achieve the attention it deserved, of which successfully brought his brand to a wider audience, and an appearance from Guardian writer Marta Bausells and creators Eddie Kadi and Giggs. This resulted in a plethora of social media reviews igniting a sense of FOMO and Electric Lit coverage, of which planned, organised and distributed.