Between rave reviews and a $56 million opening weekend, Straight Outta Compton, the Universal Pictures biopic chronicling the rise of West Coast rap outfit NWA, is nothing short of a hit—just as the group’s debut of the same name was in 1988.
Like most major box office hits, exemplary marketing played a large role in Straight Outta Compton‘s success. TV spots, pre-roll video ads, tremendous word-of-mouth, as well as a big-ticket play on consumers’ nostalgia; all of the usual suspects of great cinema marketing were present. But, the movie’s marketers struck true gold by successfully harnessing influencer marketing, user generated content, and virality by way of Apple and Beats Music’s Straight Outta Somewhere meme generator.
Straight Outta Somewhere memes continue to proliferate the Web through traditional social channels such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, and also peripheral digital communities such as discussion boards and music forums. Users not only represented their neighborhoods and hometowns through the memes, but also contorted the viral movement to poke fun at other pop culture components.
