The night before last, Jay-Z unveiled his latest joint in front of a large crowd in South Beach. And to the surprise of the celebrities, media, and fans in attendance, his latest release isn’t his usual street poetry. It’s prose. The Mariano of the Marriott has written a book. As exciting as it is that Hov is coming out with a memoir, what’s really big pimpin’ about this project is the marketing campaign that accompanies it. Designed by Droga5, it spans multiple continents and channels. You crazy for this one, Jay.

To promote the book, select pages have been placed on billboards and other locations (such as the bottom of a very expensive Miami hotel swimming pool). Each ad has a code associated with it, which you can either text or enter on the promotion’s home page, Bing.com/Jay-Z, which also offers up clues as to where the ads might be. Enter the codes through either channel, and you could be in line for an autographed copy of the book, as well as an exclusive invite to Jay’s New Year’s Eve concert.

Staying true to the book, this campaign aims to let fans ‘decode’ the author himself, by purposefully placing certain pages in locations to which the page actually applies. Some of his lyrics will end up printed on or around the very same place that inspired those lyrics years ago. And, just like Hova himself, it’s an inter-continental phenomenon – pages can be found everywhere from Los Angeles to London.

Just when you thought Jay had done it all, he hits us with this. I’m just going to go ahead and say it – this might be the coolest marketing campaign for a book, ever. It’s like a giant puzzle of Jay’s past, and each page is a different piece. In this sense, it’s a particularly good way to mobilize his “superfan” base — the Hip-Hop heads who know every lyric and the whole backstory, from the Marcy Projects to Roc Nation.

Using a viral combination of digital, mobile, and traditional print techniques, the consumer is actively engaged by being placed into what feels like an all-encompassing ‘whodunit’ scenario, and anyone at home in front of a computer has the opportunity to be a key player in unlocking parts of the larger mystery. True PostAd brilliance.

Check out some highlights of the unveiling at Nah Right.

One thing is for sure. He’s already told us, and is proving it yet again: He’s not a businessman. He’s a business, man.

Thanks to Henry Adaso

Image via Billboard.com