Sean ”Diddy” Combs, formerly known as P. Diddy and Puff Daddy, is working on rebranding his brand of premium vodka, Ciroc. The mogul’s ”Step Into the Circle” plan will hit TV and digital platforms this week, and Diddy recently spoke with Adweek about the rebrand.
The rapper and marketing pioneer wants to take Ciroc in the direction of ”we” instead of ”me.” ”You are in a circle of friends, you are in a circle of people that you trust, unplugging, cherishing those times. I wanted to remind people of those times and what’s important about that inner circle,” he explained.
Diddy recruited some pals for the new spots, like producer Jermaine Dupri and rapper French Montana. He said there are other people included who the public may not know are friends with the mogul too.
In recent years, other hip-hop artists like Jay Z and Nicki Minaj have gotten into the liquor game, but Diddy was one of the originators, taking Ciroc from 40,000 cases annually to 2 million.
”The people at Ciroc and I didn’t look at ourselves as, you know, ’We are combining hip-hop with a liquor brand,’” he said. ”So I don’t really know how to answer that question [outside] that when I came to Ciroc, I came from the hip-hop community. I think people try to simply put it in a box like that. But that’s not what happened. I don’t care if you are into rock ’n’ roll or dance music or are the biggest act in the world. A regular celebrity cannot get you to that — to what we’ve done. A person with a great idea or a team with a great idea gets you to 2 million cases.”
Diddy celebrated the one-year anniversary of his TV network, Revolt TV, in August. A music conference sponsored by the station took place in October in Miami.
