Montreal rapper Wasiu’s new song “Gotta sell my stuff” (a.k.a.: “My homie said he knows a site on the web”) is blowing up on YouTube, with more than 830,000 views in just over a week.
Another song from Montreal rapper Meryem Saci, “Runnin’ the city to catch a sedan or a hatchback,” has attracted 800,000 views since its Sept. 25 debut on the popular online video site.
They are among eight English and French spots belonging to Kijiji Canada’s new “Kijiji Raps” campaign. Running through November, the ads feature up-and-coming Canadian rap stars rapping about their experiences with the site.
Marc-André Hade, manager, strategic marketing for Kijiji in Toronto, said the spots are intended to reflect their advertising environment, providing viewers with entertainment rather than a hard sell.
“I don’t like to play TV ads on YouTube,” he said. “People go to YouTube to entertain themselves with music videos or cat videos or whatever – they don’t want to see advertising. I’m not trying to push an advertising message, I’m trying to present a message that looks organic and genuine and complements the viewer experience.”
Hade said the number video views – the eight videos have a total viewership of nearly 1.7 million – combined with mostly positive comments, suggests the creative strategy is “bang-on.” The ads are aimed primarily at 18-34 audiences, he said.
All of the participating rappers wrote the songs themselves, while Kijiji’s agency CloudRaker worked with the sound studio Cult Nation, which Hade said has done extensive work with the rap and hip-hop communities.
The goal of the “Kijiji Raps” campaign is the same as every campaign, said Hade: Drive site visits, encourage people to post new ads and inspire people to respond to those ads.
Kijiji is the nation’s leading classified site, with 14 million unique visitors per month – more than 45% of the Canadian internet population – and two new ads posted every second.
Denneboom Media handled media for the campaign.
