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A grocery bagger from Puerto Rico just headlined the Super Bowl, entirely in Spanish, in front of 135 million people.
No industry connections. No code-switching. No compromise.
Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio uploaded songs from his bedroom while bagging groceries. Today, Bad Bunny commands a $100M empire spanning music, fashion, film, and sports.
His World's Hottest Tour? $435 million.
His Adidas collabs? Sell out in minutes.
Most-streamed artist globally? Four times.
And he did it all without speaking English, diluting his identity, or playing by anyone else's rules.
This is a masterclass in building and owning your brand.
Whether you're building a startup, growing a personal brand, or scaling a team, Bad Bunny's playbook has something for you.
Here are five moves that built his empire and how you can translate them into your work.
MOVE #1
He Refused to Dilute His Identity and Made the World Come to Him
Every major Latin artist before Bad Bunny eventually crossed over to English. Shakira did it. Enrique did it. The rule was clear: if you want the biggest stages, sing in English.
Bad Bunny said no.
He performed the Super Bowl (the biggest stage in American entertainment) almost entirely in Spanish. When critics said he "wasn't American enough," his SNL response? "You have four months to learn."
His Grammy-winning album Debí Tirar Más Fotos didn't broaden by watering down. It went deeper into Puerto Rican bomba, plena, and folk traditions.
The result:
19.8 billion Spotify streams in 2025.
135 million viewers.
Top 6 Spotify US chart positions the morning after.
Your move:
Stop trying to be everything to everyone. 62% of content creators say that focusing on a specific niche is what drives their engagement and reach. And niche creators with smaller, loyal audiences are consistently outperforming mega-influencers, generating 4 to 5x higher engagement rates.
Your specificity is your superpower. The things that make you "niche" are what make you magnetic.
MOVE #2
He Made the World Come to Puerto Rico (Literally)
Instead of touring city by city like every global superstar, Bad Bunny announced a 21-show residency exclusively in Puerto Rico.
"No Me Quiero Ir de Aquí" ("I Don't Want to Leave Here"). Thirty dates in one venue on his home island.
It sold out in 24 hours.
Fans from around the world booked flights, filling hotels and restaurants. It wasn't just a concert series. It became an economic engine for the island.
Instead of going where the audience was, he made the audience come to him. He turned Puerto Rico into the center of the global music conversation.
Your move:
The biggest names in business figured this out years ago. Warren Buffett never left Omaha. Tyler Perry built his empire in Atlanta, not Hollywood.
Loyalty to your community is magnetic.
You don't need to be everywhere. You need to be so rooted in your space that people seek you out. When you plant your flag and build something real, the audience will come to you.
MOVE #3
He Owns Everything (and Protects it Fiercely)
Bad Bunny maintains full creative control through Rimas Entertainment. He owns his masters, which are worth tens of millions in future royalties.
He doesn't license his name to brands. He controls how it's used.
His Adidas partnership (now worth over $10 million dollars), Cheetos campaigns, Crocs collabs — they sell out because they feel authentically him. He has full creative sign-off.
He also launched Rimas Sports. Every venture extends the same brand DNA.
Your move:
If you're creating content or building a brand, own it. Don't just create. Protect what you create.
I covered Taylor Swift's battle for her masters previously. Bad Bunny learned from Taylor and others – and made sure to take the right approach from day one. The most valuable thing you'll ever build isn't any single piece of content. It's the ecosystem around your name, your voice, and your point of view.
MOVE #4
He Turns Every Release Into a Cultural Event
Bad Bunny doesn't drop albums. He creates moments.
For Debí Tirar Más Fotos, he used GPS coordinates to reveal song titles. Fans who pre-saved on Spotify received coordinates that led to Google Maps street views with hidden track names.
He directed a short film with a legendary Puerto Rican filmmaker to accompany the album.
His residency announcement? A single image of two white chairs — a subtle reference to his album cover that sent the internet into speculation frenzy.
At the Super Bowl, he staged a real wedding on the field, recreated an entire Puerto Rican neighborhood, and even had Lady Gaga and Ricky Martin as surprise guests.
Every touchpoint is designed to be talked about, decoded, and shared.
Your move:
Content alone isn't enough. The future belongs to experiential. Global experiential marketing spend is projected to hit $128 billion in 2025, and 9 out of 10 consumers are more likely to buy from a brand after participating in an experiential campaign.
Bad Bunny understood this instinctively. The brands that win create participatory moments that invite their audience to become co-creators of the story. Make your audience feel like insiders, not spectators.
MOVE #5
He uses his platform for what he believes in — and it makes him even bigger
Bad Bunny is one of the most politically outspoken artists of his generation.
And it hasn't cost him a thing. In fact, it has made him more powerful.
During Puerto Rico's 2019 protests, he paused his tour to march in San Juan. His music addresses the island's power grid failures, tourism's impact, and political status.
At the Super Bowl, the most corporate, brand-safe stage in America, he criticized the treatment of Puerto Rico's blackout crisis with dancers climbing power lines.
He ended with: "The Only Thing More Powerful Than Hate is Love."
The performance drew fury from politicians. It didn't matter.
With 135 million viewers and billions of streams, the cultural conversation proved that when you stand for something real, your audience will not just accept you, they’ll rally around you.
Your move:
Bad Bunny knows the importance of taking a stand. The reality is, the brands that try to appeal to everyone end up meaning nothing to anyone. 58% of Gen Z and Millennials are loyal to brands specifically because they took a public stance on social or political issues. 83% of Millennials prefer buying from companies that align with their values.
Bad Bunny's willingness to be polarizing is exactly what makes his community so fiercely loyal. You don't need everyone to love you.
The Bottom Line
Bad Bunny's $100M empire wasn't built on talent alone. It was built on five principles any brand builder can steal:
1. Be unapologetically specific. Your niche is your superpower.
2. Make them come to you. Build something so good in your own space that the world shows up
3. Own everything you create. Protect your IP like it's your most valuable asset. Because it is.
4. Turn launches into cultural events. Make your audience participants, not spectators.
5. Stand for something real. Conviction builds the kind of loyalty that algorithms can't buy.
He told the Super Bowl audience: "My name is Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, and if I'm here today at Super Bowl 60, it's because I never, ever stopped believing in myself, and you should also believe in yourself — you're worth more than you think."
That's billion dollar energy. 🐰
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