Rimas Music: Tracking Bad Bunny
Rimas Music challenged DDB Latina Puerto Rico to launch Bad Bunny's sixth album during a period of heightened political tension for Puerto Rico. They needed to engage a global audience of 180 million fans while responding to a derogatory cultural insult. The goal was to drive record-breaking streams and pre-saves by turning the album release into a moment of national pride and interactive discovery.
Creative Idea
Replaced Spotify song titles with coordinates, hiding the tracklist inside Google Maps Street View.
Bad Bunny replaced his Spotify tracklist with GPS coordinates, forcing fans to use Google Maps Street View to discover song titles hidden across Puerto Rico, turning a political insult into a global scavenger hunt that celebrated the island's beauty.
Turning a Political Insult into a Global Scavenger Hunt
Reclaiming the Island Image
The campaign served as a defiant creative response to a 2024 political controversy where a comedian referred to Puerto Rico as a "floating island of garbage." By leveraging Google Maps Street View, Bad Bunny and DDB Latina Puerto Rico forced the world to look at the island's actual beauty. The production required a massive technical feat: coordinating with Google to update Street View imagery in specific rural and urban locations just days before the launch to ensure the hidden song titles were visible to digital explorers.
The Verdulero High Fidelity Takeover
Beyond the digital hunt, the team reimagined the "verdulero" - traditional Puerto Rican produce trucks - as mobile high-fidelity sound systems. These trucks bypassed traditional radio, driving through San Juan, Madrid, and Buenos Aires to premiere tracks directly to the streets. This grassroots approach contributed to the album becoming the #1 pre-saved project of the artist's career and driving a 43% increase in sales.
Endangered Symbols and Hidden Tags
The creative team utilized the "Sapo Concho", an endangered Puerto Rican toad, as a recurring symbol of resilience throughout the rollout. In a nod to deep-cut lore, one coordinate led fans to a specific graffiti tag in a San Juan alleyway that had existed for years, which the agency "claimed" as part of the narrative. The effort generated over $40 million in earned media and engaged fans across 61 countries, proving that hyper-local storytelling can command global attention.
Creative Strategy Deconstructed
Company
Rimas Music possessed a global superstar with a loyal fanbase and a deep, authentic connection to his Puerto Rican roots.
Category
Music marketing typically relies on standard digital tracklists, paid social ads, and traditional billboard announcements to drive album streams.
Customer
Fans craved a deeper connection with the artist and a way to defend their heritage against derogatory external narratives.
Culture
A viral political insult against Puerto Rico created a moment of intense national pride and global curiosity about the island.
Company
Rimas Music possessed a global superstar with a loyal fanbase and a deep, authentic connection to his Puerto Rican roots.
Category
Music marketing typically relies on standard digital tracklists, paid social ads, and traditional billboard announcements to drive album streams.
Strategy:
Transform digital utility into a narrative tool to reclaim cultural identity through collective fan discovery.
Customer
Fans craved a deeper connection with the artist and a way to defend their heritage against derogatory external narratives.
Culture
A viral political insult against Puerto Rico created a moment of intense national pride and global curiosity about the island.
Strategy:
Transform digital utility into a narrative tool to reclaim cultural identity through collective fan discovery.
Results
The campaign achieved massive global scale, reaching over 182M fans from 61 countries. It resulted in Bad Bunny's most pre-saved album ever on Spotify. The engagement generated over 30M organic interactions and more than $40M in earned media value. Google searches for Puerto Rico spiked by +350% during the campaign. Ultimately, the album reached #1 on the global charts, turning a moment of national insult into a massive cultural and commercial victory.
182M+
fans reached across 61 countries
+350%
increase in Google searches for Puerto Rico
$40M+
earned media value
Strategy Technique
Borrow Equity
The campaign leveraged the global ubiquity of Google Maps and Spotify to turn a local cultural defense into an interactive worldwide event, effectively borrowing the utility of these platforms to host a scavenger hunt.
Explore Technique
Creative Technique
Gamification
By turning the album tracklist into a geographic puzzle, the campaign transformed passive listeners into active explorers, gamifying the discovery process through a first - of - its - kind integration between Spotify and Google Maps.
Explore Technique
Craft Breakdown
This campaign excels by merging digital utility with cultural storytelling, turning a global mapping tool into a narrative device for music discovery.
The innovative use of Google Maps API and Spotify metadata to create a cross-platform scavenger hunt is a masterclass in creative tech.
The strategy of using real-world physical locations in Puerto Rico to drive global digital traffic creates a perfect OOH-to-mobile loop.
The framing of the campaign as a 'love letter' and the clever use of coordinates as titles creates a compelling mystery.
The visual integration of Google Street View aesthetics with vibrant Puerto Rican iconography creates a distinct, modern identity.
The synergy between the digital platform (Google Maps) and the cultural context of the island makes the technology feel soulful rather than just functional.
