Client Profile: Empire Rolling is a global leader in custom premium rolling papers and manufactures their signature rolling papers in the likeness of $100 bills.
Client Needs: Empire Rolling was a brand new company on the block in 2016 with no advertising whatsoever, a couple hundred Instagram followers, and one of the best products I’d ever seen. When they hired me three months after going to market, I was tasked to create some edgy ad stills, a logo animation, and a memorable launch commercial.
My Analysis: When I came on board, I wasn’t surprised in the slightest to find that the overwhelming percentage of the company’s online social media content was user generated (UGC), or in other words, selfies of customers smoking $100 bill joints — images then shared by Empire Rolling’s Instagram. There was absolutely no doubt in my mind this was the type of product capable of selling itself — I would simply need to present an enticing, artistically professional visual of the product on its own and dangle it in front of the consumer.
My Process: During this time, the CEO of the two person company successfully attracted a major influencer and popular rapper, Rick Ross, to endorse the $100 bill paper and to become a part owner in the company. I met with Rick Ross in the quaint lounge of the Normandy Hotel in Washington, DC to discuss his ability to promote the brand on his platform. Due to contractual obligations, Rick was unable to show his own likeness in the launch commercial but allowed us to use his official Instagram account to catapult the commercial to his 7 million followers. With his green light, I pitched my vision for a mildly humorous, deliberately understated commercial concept of a subtitled voicemail recording of an Italian mobster giddily describing to his friend Tony his experience of seeing some motherfucker smoking a joint rolled with a $100 bill. Rick loved the idea so much that he just about knocked over the small circular table when he jumped up to high five me. “Who’s going to be the voice of the mobster?” Rick asked. I squared him in the eye with a smile and said, “I’ll do it!”
My Outcomes: We released Empire’s launch commercial on Rick’s Instagram a week later. As a congratulations gift, I sent the Empire co-founder a 10 foot wide canvas print of the same $100 bill joint that appears in the commercial, which he has proudly hanging in his office today. Two years later, Empire Rolling has been endorsed by major influencers including Dan Bilzerian, Lil Pump, and Lil Uzi. Empire Rolling has over 100K Instagram followers, now sells in 1,000 Mr. Checkout stores across the US as well as online, and has sold over a million boxes of their papers. To this day, if you scroll down far enough on Rick’s Instagram, you can find me ranting with a heavy Italian accent.
