The Genius Reddit Campaign That Launched Lil Nas X’s Career — And The Primitive Reason It Worked
How Montero Lamar Hill outplayed the Internet
Before Lil Nas X started producing work that sells itself, he engaged in less glamorous marketing tactics over the Internet. One of them in particular caught my attention.
“Old Town Road”, Hill’s debut mega-hit, may have earned three Grammy Nominations (and one for its creator as the Best New Artist), but it didn’t do so without some behind-the-scenes work.
Before the song had gone viral, Hill himself quite literally spammed the Internet with clever references to his song, hoping that it would catch enough traction to spread. His genius bread-and-butter move was to post lyric excerpts from his song on Reddit, asking fellow Redditters whether they knew what the actual song was.
Naturally, when such threads gain traction online, they prompt thousands of Internet users to search for the song in question, which is conveniently available on all major platforms.
