From Reggaetón to resilience: Lessons from a Bad Bunny on communicating brand building messages with your target audience
As NFL fans around the world gathered to watch the Super Bowl LX last weekend, most expected big plays and even bigger commercials (all 54 of them)! Yet it was the hotly anticipated half-time performance by Puerto Rican artist Bad Bunny that completely stole the show – and created a buzz in the IBA office!
Many artists dream of performing at the Super Bowl or winning a Grammy for Album of the Year – but for Bad Bunny these became a reality in the span of a week. In what PR News has dubbed the “Bad Bunny approach,” his meteoric rise is a blueprint for modern crisis management and leadership – even outside music. In the words of PR News, “Bad Bunny’s rise reflects a leadership path familiar to anyone guiding teams through uncertainty.”
And indeed aside from brushing up on our Spanish, picking up a few new dance moves, and annoying our colleagues with out-of-tune renditions of “DtMF”, we started to notice something else. Behind the spectacle and the stadium-shaking beats, we realized that the Bad Bunny phenomenon was a masterclass in resilience, audience engagement, authenticity, and adaptability – key factors in any effective communications strategy.
The IBA team has a saying for comms strategies “show don’t tell”. You can’t just talk the talk, you have to walk the walk. So let’s dive deeper and explore the key takeaways from the Bad Bunny playbook:
1. Understand what matters most to your audience and build a connection
Bad Bunny has created a worldwide career without giving up who he is. He performs in Spanish, stays deeply rooted in Puerto Rican culture, and reflects his audience authentically.
During his halftime show at the Super Bowl he shone a light on Puerto Rico’s chronic power grid problem (one that many believe has been largely overlooked) when he performed his song “El Apagón,” or “the power outage”. By having his dancers dangled in mock line worker gear from four distribution lines, which sparked and appeared to “explode” with stage pyrotechnics, Bad Bunny was able to center the island’s reality on one of the world’s biggest stages. In doing so, he reinforced a key leadership principle: refusing to sacrifice authentic connection for wider appeal.
2. Don’t just listen, respond to credible feedback
After Hurricane Maria, Bad Bunny chose to listen before he acted. In his song “Estamos Bien,” the translated lyric “Even if my house has no electricity, Thank God I have good health” captured everyday reality. It resonated because it reflected people’s lived experiences rather than imposing optimism from above.
For leaders, this lesson extends beyond natural disasters. Crises can take many forms—a hurricane, a cybersecurity breach, or a supply chain disruption that leaves customers without critical products or services. In every case, feedback becomes operational intelligence. When leaders visibly incorporate feedback into decisions, they build trust and credibility. When input vanishes into reports without clear action, trust erodes.
3. Engage audiences where they are
For Bad Bunny, every beat and lyric is a conversation with his fans – and it’s paying off. Bad Bunny isn’t just dominating Spotify, he’s rewriting its record books. He holds the record for the most annual No. 1 finishes in Spotify history, topping Spotify Wrapped four times across 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2025. So what’s behind this success? His ability to connect with audiences through a popular medium – music! But what’s the takeaway for crisis management?
Crisis operations work best when organizations honor the ways audiences already communicate. Programs that rely on rigid timelines or technical jargon often fail because they clash with people’s everyday realities. True engagement succeeds when it builds on existing strengths and meets communities where they are. Social listening for instance, can be a key tool to help companies understand audience demographics, behaviors, and key trends on social media in order to help create more effective and targeted campaigns.
4. Discover the power of collaboration in action
Bad Bunny approaches his art collaboratively. His albums and tours highlight fellow artists (such as Rosalía, Drake, and Cardi B) and reinforce a shared cultural ecosystem. Effective crisis leadership works on the same principle.
After severe flooding in Mexico for instance, Amazon worked with five local nonprofits and government agencies to deliver food and water through community-driven networks. Strong leaders foster collaboration from the start, so that when a crisis hits, coordination happens naturally.
5. It takes a team to pull it off
Bad Bunny’s success isn’t a solo effort. It relies on close coordination with his creative director, production teams, and management, who turn his vision into practical, executable plans.
Crisis management demands a similar internal rigor. Teams empowered to make decisions on the spot—and confident that leadership will support them—consistently deliver better results. For many of our clients, investment in AI leadership team for example has been a conscious effort to tackle the issues surrounding AI governance and breaches in data security.
Preparation is the key to success
Every Super Bowl halftime show starts in darkness before the lights blaze back on – a moment that showcases what careful, coordinated preparation looks like. Months of rehearsal make the performance feel effortless.
Communications leadership works the same way. Success comes from preparation. Leaders who invest in readiness, listen to their communities, and stay true to their purpose build trust before a crisis, sustain it during one, and strengthen it afterward – it’s the Bad Bunny way!
Hannah Watson is PR Lead – Analytics at IBA International.
On the mic at the Super Bowl – leadership, empathy, and crisis management lessons we can all learn
Table of Contents
From Reggaetón to resilience: Lessons from a Bad Bunny on communicating brand building messages with your target audience
As NFL fans around the world gathered to watch the Super Bowl LX last weekend, most expected big plays and even bigger commercials (all 54 of them)! Yet it was the hotly anticipated half-time performance by Puerto Rican artist Bad Bunny that completely stole the show – and created a buzz in the IBA office!
Many artists dream of performing at the Super Bowl or winning a Grammy for Album of the Year – but for Bad Bunny these became a reality in the span of a week. In what PR News has dubbed the “Bad Bunny approach,” his meteoric rise is a blueprint for modern crisis management and leadership – even outside music. In the words of PR News, “Bad Bunny’s rise reflects a leadership path familiar to anyone guiding teams through uncertainty.”
And indeed aside from brushing up on our Spanish, picking up a few new dance moves, and annoying our colleagues with out-of-tune renditions of “DtMF”, we started to notice something else. Behind the spectacle and the stadium-shaking beats, we realized that the Bad Bunny phenomenon was a masterclass in resilience, audience engagement, authenticity, and adaptability – key factors in any effective communications strategy.
The IBA team has a saying for comms strategies “show don’t tell”. You can’t just talk the talk, you have to walk the walk. So let’s dive deeper and explore the key takeaways from the Bad Bunny playbook:
1. Understand what matters most to your audience and build a connection
Bad Bunny has created a worldwide career without giving up who he is. He performs in Spanish, stays deeply rooted in Puerto Rican culture, and reflects his audience authentically.
During his halftime show at the Super Bowl he shone a light on Puerto Rico’s chronic power grid problem (one that many believe has been largely overlooked) when he performed his song “El Apagón,” or “the power outage”. By having his dancers dangled in mock line worker gear from four distribution lines, which sparked and appeared to “explode” with stage pyrotechnics, Bad Bunny was able to center the island’s reality on one of the world’s biggest stages. In doing so, he reinforced a key leadership principle: refusing to sacrifice authentic connection for wider appeal.
2. Don’t just listen, respond to credible feedback
After Hurricane Maria, Bad Bunny chose to listen before he acted. In his song “Estamos Bien,” the translated lyric “Even if my house has no electricity, Thank God I have good health” captured everyday reality. It resonated because it reflected people’s lived experiences rather than imposing optimism from above.
For leaders, this lesson extends beyond natural disasters. Crises can take many forms—a hurricane, a cybersecurity breach, or a supply chain disruption that leaves customers without critical products or services. In every case, feedback becomes operational intelligence. When leaders visibly incorporate feedback into decisions, they build trust and credibility. When input vanishes into reports without clear action, trust erodes.
3. Engage audiences where they are
For Bad Bunny, every beat and lyric is a conversation with his fans – and it’s paying off. Bad Bunny isn’t just dominating Spotify, he’s rewriting its record books. He holds the record for the most annual No. 1 finishes in Spotify history, topping Spotify Wrapped four times across 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2025. So what’s behind this success? His ability to connect with audiences through a popular medium – music! But what’s the takeaway for crisis management?
Crisis operations work best when organizations honor the ways audiences already communicate. Programs that rely on rigid timelines or technical jargon often fail because they clash with people’s everyday realities. True engagement succeeds when it builds on existing strengths and meets communities where they are. Social listening for instance, can be a key tool to help companies understand audience demographics, behaviors, and key trends on social media in order to help create more effective and targeted campaigns.
4. Discover the power of collaboration in action
Bad Bunny approaches his art collaboratively. His albums and tours highlight fellow artists (such as Rosalía, Drake, and Cardi B) and reinforce a shared cultural ecosystem. Effective crisis leadership works on the same principle.
After severe flooding in Mexico for instance, Amazon worked with five local nonprofits and government agencies to deliver food and water through community-driven networks. Strong leaders foster collaboration from the start, so that when a crisis hits, coordination happens naturally.
5. It takes a team to pull it off
Bad Bunny’s success isn’t a solo effort. It relies on close coordination with his creative director, production teams, and management, who turn his vision into practical, executable plans.
Crisis management demands a similar internal rigor. Teams empowered to make decisions on the spot—and confident that leadership will support them—consistently deliver better results. For many of our clients, investment in AI leadership team for example has been a conscious effort to tackle the issues surrounding AI governance and breaches in data security.
Preparation is the key to success
Every Super Bowl halftime show starts in darkness before the lights blaze back on – a moment that showcases what careful, coordinated preparation looks like. Months of rehearsal make the performance feel effortless.
Communications leadership works the same way. Success comes from preparation. Leaders who invest in readiness, listen to their communities, and stay true to their purpose build trust before a crisis, sustain it during one, and strengthen it afterward – it’s the Bad Bunny way!
Hannah Watson is PR Lead – Analytics at IBA International.