The Marketing Bestie Podcast with zoeunlimited - the depreciation curve of ‘Hot Girl’ branding - Ice Spice

Episode Date: September 1, 2025

FREE EMAIL LIST ⁠https://tapx.it/stanzoeunlimited⁠* A case study on digital marketing, branding, and business growth from a Gen Z perspectiveno one cares if you're hot. How did Ice Spice lose 39 million listeners?👉🏻Start speaking a new language in 3 weeks with Babbel 🎉. Get up to 60% OFF your subscription ➡Here: https://go.babbel.com/t?bsc=usa-influ-eg-mob&btp=default&utm_term=generic_v1&utm_medium=paidsocial&utm_source=Instagram&utm_campaign=zoeunlimited&utm_content=Influencer..Jul-2024..USA-TATAM..1200m60-ig-zoeunlimited-jul-2024

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How far can Bean Hot take you? 23-year-old rap princess. Ice spice. Ice spice. Ice spice. Iceface solidified her status. Winning best new artist. Co-signs from Taylor Swift and Nicky Minnage. Leaked DM from Drake. Everybody was trying to be like, oh, she a one hit, one day, da-da-da, but it's like, now what?

I think you're the s-p-p-you-not even the fuck. I'm gross. If there was one person destined to be famous, it must be Ice Vice. Having Taylor Swift to be your best date, Drake to praise one of your first songs before it was even released. And Nicki Minaj to collaborate with you when you first start. There really is no better way to start a career.

But somehow, there is still a way to mess everything up. Ice spice. No. What? I don't know. What? So how exactly did Rapp's new princess screw up multi-millions of hot girl privilege and lose 39 million listeners? That's exactly the mystery we will uncover today.

But not only that, as you're a marketing bestee, who graduated top 1% UCLA business economics. with a background in marketing, we're going to explore how being hot can still fail you if you have a terrible brand. And how you, yes you, no matter if you have hot girl privilege or not, can build a successful brand to help you down your career. And by brand, I don't just mean slapping your name on a vinyl figure.

Branding is about how your future college, future boss, future boyfriend sees you. And I'm creating the series to analyze pop culture girl icons from a marketing perspective, because many of whom do not recognize the power of influence they have over a generation of young girls. Oh, you cheating? Then I'm cheating back. Exactly. And I think it's so important to be aware of and reflective of the people who are shaping our culture.

I'm taking her man. He's calling me poopie. It's because I'm the sh-h-and-I just genuinely don't respect women. And despite how the whole internet is counting down on ice spices, downfall, we will also talk about a few potential ways to save her brand, other than desperate publicity stunts or lyrics about farts. IcePice dropped a new song. I just did a fart and a poop at the same time. I call that a fooop. First, we need to understand how Ice Spice had every single chance to build a billion dollar music empire.

IcePice or Isis Nijia Gaston, yeah, that's her real name, was truly born in the right era. The era of TikTok. More than a musician, she first gained fame in 2021 after going viral in the Busset TikTok Challenge, which was essentially a trend showing off your assets. Nothing wrong with that. Embrace what you were born with and be proud of your hotness. But her real fame began with her song Munch in 2022, which allegedly received praise from Drake before the release. With a DM from Drake himself that somehow got leaked.

Not surprisingly, the song gained massive attention, before it was even released. He was actually like, yo, munch is hard and you're on the radar freestyle is hard. And I was like, damn, that's crazy. And this has become the first ingredient to Ice Spice's secret recipe to rapid fame. Also known in marketing terms as borrowed credibility,

which is using endorsement, such as using social proof to elevate the brand through the power of association, which is very common. For example, Nike and its whole slew of notable affords, which works the other way around too, like how Emma Chamberlain began her high-fashioned identity through first partnering up with Louis Vuitton. And for Ice Spice, the Rice Store Association did not stop from Drake. In February 2020, the remix of singer Pink Panther song, Boys the Liar Part 2, gave both artists a huge boost as it became the training song on TikTok. Then two months after, the remix of Princess Diana with Nikki Minaj brought the huge fan base of Nicki Minaj over to Ice Spice.

To be associated with the rap queen herself gave a lot of social proof to Ice Spice in the rap space, which only snowball further. Just one month after, she scored a collaboration with Taylor Swift, a collaboration nobody saw coming, which now undoubtedly puts the brand value of Ice Spice on steroids, as she is perceived to be at legend levels with Taylor Swift. As if she could not get more famous, just one month after, she did another collab with Nikkim Anage Barbie World,

which took over Pulp Culture for the whole Barbie summer last year. At this point, even though as an artist who has not yet released one single album yet, it is almost impossible to not know Ice Spice, because within the span of one year, her brand was associated with Drake, Nikki Minaj, and Taylor Swift, while taking over multiple TikTok trends, which will actually be the very same reasons to her downfall, that I'll go over in a moment.

But while we're talking about TikTok, writing the algorithm of trends is a second key ingredient to Ice Spice's explosive success. From the way her songs are very TikTokable to how she has the look to dominate trends herself, she easily gained free exposure to millions of new eyeballs and with a visual identity that is super memorable, her bright orange hair and pale complexion

that stands out in the traditional hip-hop and rap space, It was very smart branding that made her recognizable. Where on an app people usually scroll and forget, her visual brand stuck. But with this consistent visual brand also came her consistent music style, which is a double-edged sword. On one hand, her repeated lyrics, beats, melody are catchy and easy to create TikTok trends too. Hence creating a free marketing engine on its own.

Girls liked her because she was a hip-hop sweetheart with an air of confidence. Okay, when I sell my business, I want the best tax and investment advice. I want to help my kids, and I want to give back to the community. Ooh, then it's the vacation of a lifetime. I wonder if my head of office has a forever setting. An IG private wealth advisor creates the clarity you need with plans that harmonize your business, your family, and your dreams. Get financial advice that puts you at the center.

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The paradox of branding is that while sticking to the golden rule of consistency, there also needs to be innovation. especially in the current digital age, where everyone's TikTok brain is constantly craving dopamine from new stimulus. The appeal to IcePice is about to fade just as quickly as it came. And so let us uncover how in the world did Ice Spice the new rap princess, liked by women and men, vetted by legends like Taylor Swift, Nicky Minaj, Drake, end up in a huge branding crisis

that lost her 39 million listeners. where she fell from the top of billboard to trashy wordplay. Well, nothing is a coincidence. The domino fall always starts with just one block, and in this case, her music. You see, because of everything else that was worth getting the attention, the publicity, notoriety, the visuals, the TikTok trends, we have yet to actually talk about the music of Ice Spice,

which is kind of important given that she is identified as an American rapper per Google. And while her looks, publicity stunts, and TikTok trends can generate attention, what ultimately builds a lasting brand for a musician is the music. Although IcePice has dropped different singles and remixed other artists' music, the true test came with her very first album, Y2K, which can be summarized in one line. Thank You're the shi-bracket, fart.

and sold an underwhelming 28,000 copies. Now, I'm not an expert in music, even though selling over a million copies in one week might be too high of a goal, as achieved by artists like Taylor Swift, Adele Gaga, but 28,000 copies sold is still relatively low compared to the remaining 23 million monthly listeners that IcePice has, with lukewarm reactions like, quote, Ice Spice has listeners plugging their ears after dropping

yet and disappointing fan reactions like. Quote, I spent so much time defending IceBites last year when hip-hop heads came after her. I can't believe she embarrassed me like this with Y2K, I am so upset. Quote, thought I just listened to the Y2K album by Ice Spice. Well, never mind, instant regret. Quote, I thought she was going to sing. Before we analyze the actual music, let us dissect everything else that catapulted the downfall. Quick reminder, how did Ice Spice become famous so quickly in the first place?

First, as someone known because of her associations with other people who are famous, credibility borrowed eventually needs to be returned. The songs that hit the charts and made headlines are highly correlated with the brands of Nicki Minaj and Taylor Swift that took decades to build. Once the associations with these established brands began to fade, the hype also fades. Actually, not only did the added brand value fade, it also backfired through personal drama. Ice Spice's ex-best friend exposed alleged text from her talking trash of Nikki Minaj. Quote, Barbie asked me to do it alone, but since that's her brand, I invited her on and she doesn't even see that as me bringing her something.

She's kind of like my mom, ungrateful and delusional. I cut her off, by the way, not speaking to her until January, which definitely did not sit well. with Nikki fans that made up a considerable portion of Ice Spice's listeners thanks to their prior collaboration and damaged her previously unproblematic brand that girls find likable and because Nikki Minaj has established herself deep in the rap and hip-hop industry for almost 20 years the cut of association and now even the negative association with Ice Spice in the same genre of music only limits the potential audience size of Ice Spice on top of which the perceived entitled attitude of iSpice and not being a girl's girl was furthered

in two additional dramas. First, releasing an underwhelming discrack against Lotto with distasteful toilet lyrics like quote, thank you are the S word bracket fart that didn't hit with fans. Ice spice dropped a new song. I just did a fart and a poop at the same time. I called that a foo. I'm gross. You know what they said? She has a scat fetish. And rumor public city stunt were rapper Central Sea, who was exposed by Madeline Argy to cheat on her with Ice Spice. Imagine you break up with your boyfriend one night and the next day he is posted up with Ice Spice in Chromeheart. I didn't even actually get to break up with him and he's already with the next girl. To which Ice Spice may have addressed or a TikTok titled, quote,

mood after digging Hamesz, which of course promotes her music. Right, I get it. Mads is not that big of her artist like you. She's not a pop star. She's not a shit. bum on the net yeah and you think you're bad bro you lost everyone's respect ice spice the UK don't like you be although the purpose of the amplified drama and publicity stunts were to promote the music think you the sht you're not even the fuck in the end the only eyeballs they attracted did not bring favorable attention to the music or any attention to the music at all on top of which the music itself fell flat the downfall of ice spice all boils down to the the confusion of mistaking the packaging as the product.

The product being her music, just as self-explanatory as all product marketing, whether physical or digital, no matter how shiny, dazzling, beautiful the exterior packaging is, if you wrap a pretty bowl on a piece of crap, which is quite literally what Ice Spice's new album is about, people won't buy the crap just for the packaging, which in this case is all the marketing effort into getting more media attention, including the messy dramas and shade throwing. That in itself is not the best packaging. So if you have a crappy product, Raptorbound and crappy packaging, it makes no logical sense for people to waste their time

or attention on things that have no inherent value. Even though with so much initial potential, IceBest's brand has been way overcrowded by drama and short-lived TikTok trends, where she is now known for basically everything other than her music. her looks, her dramas, her TikToks, her underwhelming lyrics about poop and butt. Thus, without the boost of credible associations like before, without much innovation from the previous releases, and written more so for the appeal of short-lived TikTok than to be listened to as an actual album, just like a TikTok trend, it is short-lived.

Easy come, easy gone. So what are some things that could save Ice Spice from this flop era? First, while her hacked to virality through making the right brand associations and reliance on TikTok has been ultra successful, attention does not equal retention. A sustainable brand cannot be built through a few viral moments. It takes years of value-giving to build a reputation, so there won't be a need to rely on other people's reputation. Thus, Ice Spice needs to make a crucial decision of whether she wants to be an influencer, Continuing the celebrity dramas and publicity stunts to chase relevancy,

to be only known for drama with other famous people known for their talents, were stopped chasing but attract fame as the byproduct of making high-quality music as a musician instead of an influencer. Speaking of which, second, as much as TikTok is a powerful marketing engine for her music, the TikTokification of her music make her songs almost impossible to listen to you, their own and this is not just the case for iSpice. In optimizing for that quick beat and virality, a lot of music releases are now all about repeating a few quick,

substance-less lines that could become a trend to momentarily satiate the fast consumption habit created by TikTok. But inevitably will be forgotten and replaced by the next fast and cheap trend. And in the case of iSpice has been more apparent than ever that to remain tic-tokable, to generate a conversation for the sake of attention, her music is lacking soul and identity, with extremely mediocre lyrics about pooping and the same repetitive subjects. Sure, it can be funny and cheeky if you do it once or twice, but as this ex-user said,

quote, all she raps about is thorns and feces. It is hard to think about who the songs appeal to as it is neither aspirational nor relatable. And third, although it is important to build conversations around the new album, the actual release was all hype and minimal substance. I'm sure a lot of efforts still went into producing the new album, but don't build up an out of proportion expectation if it can't be delivered. Because now, the Ice Spice brand in people's minds is diminished, which is really hard to come back to regardless of how many publicity stunts are done

and does not help clear any previous rumors that Ice Spice is an industry implant. This is why artists like Hardy B hasn't released an album since, 2018. A bad release does so much harm to the brand that takes years to recover. So it might not be a bad idea to not prematurely drop another album, but rather take the same amount of time, if not more, to work on a banger single. To prove that the iSpice brand is not just a one-hit wonder or a pretty face and body. Let me know your thoughts on if you think the iSpy brand is on its way to failure or not. and comment which pop culture girl icon you'd like me to analyze next through a marketing perspective. This is your marketing bestie, Zoe Unlimited. Share this video for Impact and I will see you next week.