The Art of Spotting Drake
Updated: Mar 15, 2022
Bring Drake to Drake wasn't just a PR campaign gone great, it was a model for how public relations and digital marketing professionals should treat grassroots movements.
I have this weird thing about calling out to people in public.
The reaction is rooted in a fear that the other person won't hear me, but that results in me compromising on a weird half-whisper, half-shout that is begging to be ignored. I'm setting myself up for failure from the beginning.
In the same way, it can be extremely easy to set yourself up for failure when working in public relations and digital marketing. The fear of being washed out in the sea of noise that is the Internet can push you to ignore brilliant ideas that are deemed "not feasable for a brand our size".
So when students began using the hashtag #BringDraketoDrake after he skipped his scheduled visit to the university, the school was faced with a decision: Do we run with this or not?
Being from a small, private university that isn't necessarily a nationwide household name, I can imagine some of the concerns that the Drake University PR students and faculty must have had when considering this idea. But thankfully, that didn't stop them.
Instead they went out on a limb to execute a risky campaign to bring the rapper to campus.
Students used the hashtag #BringDrakeToDrake to share photoshopped images of Drake on campus. The school released a public statement asking him to visit while dropping references to his lyrics throughout. Even the president of the University jumped in on the campaign.
And in the end, it worked! After his concert in Des Moine, Iowa, Drake stopped by campus and posted about his late night visit on his Instagram.
This is an incredible victory story and proof that anyone - no matter their size or influence - can get the attention of millions. But that story has been told. I want to focus on the other group of people at play in this story.
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