We started with the insight that the place you are from is so much bigger than a city, it becomes a state of mind and something that shapes who you become in the future. Straight Outta Compton was so much bigger than one city. It was a universal statement of hometown pride: we’re all straight outta somewhere. Based on this insight, we would develop a simple way for people to celebrate that pride and share it with others, like a badge of honor. This integrated campaign would celebrate every city in the world. Home isn’t just the city where you were born, it’s the place that will define and inspire who you become.

We started with over 100 influencers across music, sport and pop culture to tell us where they’re #StraightOutta and how that shapes their story. We didn’t have to post to our own channels, the talent posted for us, creating an authentic grass roots movement. The most crucial part of the campaign was creating an app for people to make their own custom memes to rep their own hometowns by simply typing in their city name and uploading an image. We planned to go global after the US launch, however, the campaign started to reach global consumers at an alarming pace. Across the world, people began to create their own #StraightOutta memes with hardly any barriers to entry. To start, we had minimal branding and gave users the freedom to be creative. The web app lived on a simple site, that allowed people to access via web or mobile social channel.

In less than 24 hours, #StraightOutta became the number one trending topic on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, something no other brand in history has ever achieved. The world took over and made the campaign its own. Celebrities made it popular, then other brands even joined in, followed up an uncontrollable amount of meme parodies, tipping the scale into mainstream culture. The app received 11.7 million visits, with 7.2 million unique visitors, 8.3 million downloads and 702 thousand shares from the site. The site crashed three different times from consumer traffic, part of over 1.5 billion estimated impressions overall. Even President Obama created his very own #StraightOutta meme. In the end, it not only became Beat’s biggest campaign ever, but the biggest social campaign of 2015. We didn’t just join culture, we created culture.

In connection with a box office movie release, we turned our brand into a rallying cry for the general public. You didn’t need to own a pair of Beats or even know a single thing about Straight Outta Compton or the music of NWA to get involved. People all around the world took this campaign and made it their own, showcasing hometown pride and creativity. Beats not only supported its current consumers, but reached an entirely new audience with digital and social engagement.

From working with the artists, musicians and celebrities of the Beats family, we realized that hometown pride was something bigger than just Compton. This was how Dre showed his pride, but everyone has their own version, like Lebron in Ohio or 2Chainz in College Park, Atlanta. No matter how big or small your hometown, that’s something that you carry with you for the rest of your life. We aimed the campaign at those who shared a hometown with Dre, like Serena Williams and Richard Sherman, then the rest of the world. The world’s biggest celebrities joined in without receiving any endorsement money from Beats. We wanted to give people an easy tool to create and share this pride in digital and social, the places they demonstrate pride the most. Laying claim to your roots is one of the most empowering and prideful actions you can take in life.

Without Compton there would be no Dre, and without Dre there would be no Beats.

Universal Pictures partnered with Beats by Dre to promote Straight Outta Compton – the biopic movie of the headphone company’s founding father and billionaire rap mogul – Dr. Dre – growing up in one of the most notorious neighborhoods in the world.

Our goal was to start a global movement by amplifying Beats voice in music and culture through significant moments around the film and in music. We wanted to inspire our Beats family, influencers and fans to celebrate where they are from.