Multinational brands and tourism marketing agencies alike must continue to invest and participate in cultural marketing. Through respectful, not exploitative, partnerships with culture commerce has thrived with active marketing energies over the years. In the United States, it has been hip hop culture that has generated billions in shareholder value and 401K retirement accounts. And in Jamaica, reggae and dancehall continues to do the same.

Since the start of 2026 Jamaica has benefited from its display of cultural excellence post-Hurricane Melissa. Whether it was Protoje’s hosting of his two-day Lost in Time Music Festival, which featured the return of Chronixx, a successful Carnival in Jamaica season that saw at least 40 events being held, Mystique Integrated Limited’s inaugural Impact marketing conference on Caribbean Business Intelligence, or iShowSpeed’s Caribbean Tour in which his Jamaica stop was a must-watch, our cultural richness stands firm.

Culture, which involves the everyday ways of life of our people, not only serves as the language of our soul, but it is also big business that everyone can participate in and earn from — as long as it is respected.

During my participation in the Impact panel titled, ‘Global Playbooks, Local Power: Why World-Class Brands Win by Embracing Brand Jamaica’, I explained that culture provides translation. For multinational companies operating in our jurisdiction, our creative ecosystem fosters brand equity through leveraging cultural elements to resonate with local audiences. In emerging markets, cultural partnerships provide a unique avenue for brands to align themselves with local values, traditions, and creative expressions, leading to enhanced consumer loyalty and brand perception.

In Jamaica, cultural artforms serve as our cinematic mirror, so it’s imperative for brands and companies alike to ensure that reggae and dancehall serve as communication apparatuses for messaging, in addition to the growing integration of Carnival in Jamaica into our national calendar.

So it was no surprise that reggae and dancehall were the vehicle to drive our cultural displays to the world for iShowSpeed’s visit. Whether it was reggae artiste Jesse Royal assuming hosting duties after media broadcaster Yendi Phillipps instantly upon visiting Hailie Selassie High School, where Sean Paul is a patron of their music programme, Speed could, without prompt, vocalise the melody of Sean Paul’s hit single Temperature. This is the same Sean Paul who, last month, went viral through dancehall music, as his Heineken House performance during Coachella was over-capacity, as audiences — ranging from Gen Z to millennials — came in droves to listen to Jamaican creative expressions on display.

The recurring B-roll content during iShowSpeed’s livestream was not the Caribbean commonalities of sun, sea, and sand, but his continuous singing of either Beenie Man and Fambo’s Rum & Redbull, or Shenseea and Masicka’s Hit & Run. Dancehall was the central character of Speed’s visit. After cultural immersions in our very own reggae music, Rastafari and sacramental marijuana usage at the Bob Marley Museum and Dub Wise Café, Speed continued his uptempo stream which included him freestyling at the latter with Gyptian to his hit single Hold Yuh, he closed his stream with dancehall.

At a street dance curated by dancehall entrepreneur and savant Romeich Major to a backdrop laced with Jamaican cultural elements such as Wray & Nephew signage, pushcarts, and pan chicken, Speed danced to the instructional songs by Ding Dong, with dancehall staples such as Gabbidon “The Billboard” Dancer, Expensive, and Can’t Tired. The dancehall singles from Ding Dong such as Shoulder Fling, Genna Bounce, and
Drift by Teejay, provided a joyful cultural translation to global audiences. It’s the same reason for the importance of dancehall’s continued role in our Carnival.

All cultural displays in Jamaica should showcase home-grown music genres as, whether some like it or not, reggae and dancehall will always serve as our differentiator in a world of Trinidad-style Carnival products, or in a region where many countries and territories can similarly promote sun, sea, and sand tourism offerings. So, whether it’s in the corporate boardrooms in New Kingston, Spanish Town Road, Spanish Town, or Montego Bay, commerce can be, and has been, fuelled by cultural production.

Marketing excellence in Jamaica, or of Jamaica to the world, must incorporate all that makes a Jamaican a Jamaican, and makes Jamaica unique amongst others. While the world experiences cultural omnivorism, which is essentially the broad consumption of culture, audiences no longer see culture as monolithic. Gone are the days when everyone liked the same thing, listened to only Michael Jackson or Madonna, or only watched
Star Wars.

This is why we need to be careful with cultural critique that is based on subjective biases. One of which has been placed toward Stephen McGregor’s contemporary take on the Jamaican folk classic Hill & Gully Ride. Whilst there is merit to having an issue with some of the lyrics on the songs not being radio-friendly, it doesn’t take away from the genre producing dance-friendly, potentially hit records for the summer, coming on the heels of DJ Mac & Crash Dummy’s WYFL rhythm. The colourful visuals of Masicka’s Slip & Slide, the Jonkonnu elements of Valiant’s Woii, or the traditional community bars in KES’s Masterpiece, cultural retention is being engaged by these creatives, while generating commerce within their community, and positive brand equity growth and top-of-mind awareness for Brand Jamaica.

Let’s continue to harness and amplify our contemporary culture, provide constructive critique as opposed to holistic damnation, as culture plays a role in commerce, and it is the creative industries and our wider cultural eco-system that will preserve the distinctiveness of our country in a globalised world.

Dominic Bell is a marketing communications professional and the communications manager at J Wray & Nephew Limited. He is currently an MPhil candidate in cultural studies at The University of the West Indies.