Eminem’s Marketing ‘Relapse’

350_eminem_relapse-lg After taking an abnormally long hiatus spanning five years, Eminem officially returns to the rap game today with the release of Relapse. As you can imagine, the landscape has changed significantly and it takes more than slickly produced videos, mixtapes, headline-grabbing interviews and song “leaks” to transform an album into actual sales. Slim Shady and company are fully aware of the brutal new environment rapper’s face and aren’t messing around for this release. From video games for iPhone fanboys to special edition comic books and streetwear t-shirts, a lot of money was doled out to make sure this album targets as wide a demographic as possible. Click below to see the huge arsenal of PR and marketing resources* it took to make one of the best rappers of all time, relevant again.

Playing on the whole ‘Relapse’ motif, a mock website for the Popsomp Hills Rehabilitation Center was launched. Eminem even posted a photo of himself “checking in” via his Twitter which was used to build buzz.

eminem_promo_pills Fake ‘Relapse’ branded promotional pills—they’re actually mints—were made available.

eminem_infinite Like a true hype-man, 50 Cent released Eminem’s mostly obscure first album, Infinite, in its entirety online.

eminem-undefeated-relapse-tee This t-shirt collabo between cool guy outlet Undefeated and Eminem represents the streetwear outreach of the marketing plan, a must to capture the hearts and minds of the highly sought after “influencers.”

eminem_rap_radar Funded by Eminem’s manager, Paul Rosenberg, Rap Radar launched about two months before the debut of Relapse and served as a great way to get the word out with an “authentic” voice. It not only got the #10 spot on the Vibe Hip Hop blog list, but also posts lots of Slim Shady “exclusives.” Examples: here, here, and here.

eminemcover1 Why is Eminem dressed up as The Punisher on the cover of XXL? Who knows, since the movie was a flop, but it likely had to with reaching the comic book crowd and to highlight the Hip Hop magazine’s partnership with Marvel (see below).

eminem_punisher In addition to looking ridiculous on the cover of XXL, he also did this special edition Marvel comic that was made available online.

eminem_vibe Featured on the cover of Vibe, the rapper was basically given free reign to explain his drug addiction firsthand. It was accompanied by photos by the always popular photographer Terry Richardson.

eminem_iphone_game No album drop would be complete without a specially designed ‘Relapse’ game for the iPhone. Control Eminem as he carries a 2-by-4 and beats down zombies.

eminem_am_video An uncensored version of Eminem’s horror music video, 3A.M., debuted on Cinemax, a first for the network.

eminem_family_guy Venturing into enemy Fox territory, an animated version of Eminem sat alongside the Family Guy’s quick witted baby Stewie Griffin this past Sunday to shamelessly promote the album.

eminem_kimmel A total of three appearances were booked on Jimmy Kimmel Live beginning last Friday night. In addition to performing songs from the album, Eminem flew in 200 autoworkers from Detroit.