3 years ago, Budweiser decided to promote the careers of emerging urban music artists in order to protect them from all of the bad habits of the traditional music industry. That’s why the brand created BUDXRECORDS, a music label that has been working on discovering those hidden superstars that want to be famous but haven’t had the opportunity to be listened by the world. Every year, different types of activations need to me bade in order to do so. On 2022 it was no exception, and the brand needed to create something impactful to encourage new artists to send their music demos so the moguls of the music could hear them.

Many famous artists around the world have been discovered by big superstars. Justin Bieber was discovered by Usher, Rihanna by JayZ, Eminem by Dr.Dre, The Weeknd by Drake… among many others. The problem is that is almost impossible for an emerging artist to have the opportunity to be heard by their idols. Well, we found a way to easily connect them through one of the most common and popular tools of communication these days: Whatsapp voicenotes.

That is when we created Whatsapp Records, a simple idea that made public the mobile phone numbers of the biggest stars in Latin America so the emerging artists could send their demos via whatsapp, so the artists could hear them, giving them feedback, and chose the best ones to become the new superstars.

We partnered up with 5 of the biggest urban music stars of Latin America. Then we challenge them to give us their actual mobile numbers. After that, we published the numbers in our media (TV, Billboards, Bus Stops, Social Media) across the country and encourage emerging artists to send their demos via Whatsapp, so their idols could hear them. After that, each artist needed to pick two favorites to make it in the final competition, where after giving the new artists the opportunity to meet them, share tips, record a single, and even perform live togheter, one final winner was chosen. Then, Budweiser signed their career contract to record a full album, take them on tour on Bud events and promote them as the genre’s new superstar.

- We received more than 5000 Whatsapp messages (besides some other crazy stuff).

- We received more than 25000 music demos, 5 times what we had last year.

- The campaign had more than 200 million Impressions.

- Our brand power grew more than %14.

- We discovered 10 potential superstars, and led one big winner to true musical greatness.

- We bridged the gap between emerging artists and the superstars that once seemed unreachable, but now, thanks to Budweiser, are just one Whatsapp message away.