How do two young French rappers promote themselves and play in a sold-out stadium?

Non classé 4 Minutes

If you are French, you probably know them already, but if you are not, this article will sum up both their career and communication strategy.

Bigflo & Oli are two French brothers from Toulouse (south of France) and since their first album came out in 2015, their career has exploded.

Florian (Bigflo) is 26 and Olivio (Oli) is 23 years old. They studied music in the Conservatory of Music in Toulouse and started writing rap songs at a very young age. While still in high school, they took part in different “Rap Contenders” and they worked hard to have some recognition. In 2013, they were signed by the record label “Polydor” and it was the beginning of a success.

Their 3 albums’ names are a great way to sum up their career:

  • La Cour des Grands (“The major league”) in 2015: They began as the new young artists who wanted to prove that they belong to the French rap scene.
  • La Vraie vie (“The true life”) in 2017: They sang songs about the real life that they are still living in.
  • La Vie de rêve (“The dream life”) in 2018: They thought that their life was not « normal » anymore and that they were living a dream. This album and the previous compose a diptych, the second answering the first one.

In those three albums, they wrote songs that anyone can identify to, really far from all the rap clichés that we can hear most of the time. There is nothing related to guns, violence, alcohol or drugs. It is exactly the opposite and they play with it. That is the whole idea with Bigflo & Oli. They are truly atypical for the rap scene.

Their strength is their sincerity and simplicity; and it has always been there. That is a key to their communication strategy.

They say “We have never wanted to build ourselves an image”. They just do what makes them laugh. They do all the TV shows that they want, even if it is nothing related to rap, or even music because they’re just having fun. They grew up watching those shows (like Top Chef), and even if it is the opposite of the “street cred”, there is no point for them to stop doing it. They add “We do anything and everything as long as we do it together and that it is fun for us to do.”

Another reason for them to go on so many popular and family TV shows is that in those shows, the hosts or the participants are often adults who have a bad image of rap music. Now for those reviewers, they are the “nice guys of the rap scene” and they are family-friendly. Thanks to those interventions, they show people that rap is not only about violence and drugs and that your children can listen to it without becoming a drug dealer.

 They quickly understood that TV was not the main media anymore and that social media and YouTube were the future leaders.  On their YouTube channel, which gathers 2.5 millions of subscribers, they regularly upload their video clips and freestyles, but they also share some insights of their tours with the fans. Those videos are a way to share their artist’s lives with the fans with a lot of sincerity.

In the meantime, they appear in a lot of videos of some of the most popular French YouTubers (Squeezie, McFly & Carlito, etc.), not only to speak about music but mostly to have fun and play games. They became friends with them and they have even invited them on some shows. The audience of those YouTubers and Bigflo & Oli is quite similar (mostly young) and the two brothers show their fans that if they are two famous rappers, they are above all two ordinary men who like to spend time with their family and friends… like we all do. They say: “Our YouTube channel has become our own media and our school playground. Make a video with Squeezie has more impact than a big TV show.”

They use all the social media available to promote themselves but not only. They run their account themselves and announce different big news on it. For example, they announced the launch of their second album through a live video on Facebook, and did the same for the third one with an Instagram live. They also launched an online clothes brand called “Visionnaire” and promoted it through social media.

Instagram is the media they use the most. They have a group account (1.9 millions of subscribers) but also a separate account each where they both have 1 million subscribers. On their personal Instagram account, they like to show their life as it is. So, one night you see them in the Cannes Film Festival, enjoying it with their father, and the next day you see Oli hanging out with some friends in a kebab in Toulouse or Bigflo struggling with his washing-machine that is out of order.

By doing that, they are able to deeply connect with their fans because they share everything and not only the fun and fame part. You can relate to them, at least for half of their stories on the platform. They confidently pull off their tacky style, they are skinny, vulnerable, sensitive and they admit it.

At the end of their firsts big shows, they spent hours with fans backstage, taking pictures and signing autographs. In bigger venues it became impossible and they truly regretted it. Last May they organised a press conference entirely for their fans, so they got a chance to discuss together and answer some questions.

To conclude, these artists decided to go against the usual rappers clichés and to stay true to what they knew and how they grew up. And surprisingly it works, their fans love the honesty and simplicity that they have. They say that they have achieved their childhood dreams by doing 2 shows in the stadium of Toulouse (last one who did that was Michael Jackson). But they are humble and can even get quite emotional on stage, whe playing in front of 30,000 people.

Bigflo & Oli during their last concert in the Stadium of Toulouse

Bigflo & Oli accounts:

References:

Post written by Clotilde F.

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