THE CACTUS THAT SPROUTED ASTROWORLD

Travis Scott’s amazing year—which included ASTROWORLD, the #5 album of 2018, which spent three nonconsecutive weeks at #1 while getting boosts from a series of branded merch releases, the sold-out his ASTROWORLD: WISH YOU WERE HERE arena tour and the inaugural ASTROWORLD Fest—was orchestrated by Cactus Jack.

That’s not a guy or a succulent, but the company Scott formed with longtime associate/now-GM David Stromberg (below right) in order to focus on branding, artist development, merch, set design, creative consulting and more merch.

Those giant gold heads that have popped up around the world, those 24-hour merch drops that broke the record for artist-merch gross revenue, those pop-up circus listening parties in major cities were all part of an elaborate, multifaceted marketing campaign conceived and executed by Scott, Stromberg and the Cactus Jack team, which also includes Scott’s manager, Irving Azoff. So, too, was the subsequently imitated season-pass concept for early entry to shows, as well as collaborations with Nike Air Jordan, Saint Laurent, Helmut Lang and Ksubi.

On top of all that, Cactus Jack’s Sheck Wes, who was signed to Interscope, hit the Top 10 while generating through-the-roof streams with his debut single, “Mo Bamba.”

Cactus Jack’s ambitions will expand beyond music in 2019, according to Stromberg. Among the items on the agenda, Travis has just announced the second leg of the ASTROWORLD tour, which runs from January through March, after which he plans to study architecture at Harvard.