Inside Rihanna’s Super Bowl Halftime Show Marketing Engine

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Rihanna is no stranger to good marketing.

In the late 2010s, she made the transition from recording artist to billionaire mogul with the growth of her Fenty-label brands. Her portfolio of businesses includes:

• Fenty Beauty: a cosmetic brand that quickly gained popularity for its shade range and inclusivity.
• Fenty Skin: the skin and body care counterpart to Fenty Beauty.
• Savage X Fenty: a lingerie subscription brand that now includes lounge and activewear.

Rihanna’s business ventures and music career were largely siloed — until now.

Back in September, it was announced Rihanna would be headlining the Super Bowl LVII halftime show, signaling her return to music after a six-year hiatus. As kickoff approaches, we’re seeing Rihanna use her family of brands to promote the upcoming performance.

The Fenty Marketing Engine

This week on the Fenty Beauty social media accounts, the brand shared an ASMR football-themed video to promote the upcoming halftime show. This came a few weeks after the brand offered a collection of football-themed products in its Showstopp’r line.

In January, Savage X Fenty launched a Game Day collection of halftime show-inspired pieces and hosted pop-ups to sell the merch in Los Angeles and Phoenix.

Over the past few years, Rihanna’s brands have caused major shifts in their respective industries.

The wide range of shades offered by Fenty Beauty made other makeup brands increase their shade ranges to remain competitive, and ushered in a new generation of celebrity beauty product lines.

The annual Savage X Fenty fashion show is known for featuring models of all body types and backgrounds, which is a far cry from Victoria’s Secret fashion shows of the 90s and 2000s and may have inspired the latter company’s rebrand to focus on inclusion.

The Fenty marketing engine is effective. With an entire Fenty ecosystem of businesses ready to offer marketing support, the next phase of Rihanna’s music career could signal a shift in how recording artists promote their music.

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