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Everything Taylor Swift Can Teach Us About Marketing In 2017

Forbes Agency Council
POST WRITTEN BY
Jackson Murphy

Taylor Swift is thought leadership’s current hot take. Even with her latest album two months away, every move is a teaching moment for pretty much everything you can think of. According to a variety of writers, she can teach business, show what capitalism can make you do and, as early as 2014, she was teaching master classes in marketing.

So what can the biggest star in music teach marketers about how to reach fans and audiences and how to maximize the sales funnel?

Step 1: Start with a brand makeover and create a new storyline.

Swift's marketing playbook feels like she's borrowing heavily from the absurd showmanship of professional wrestling. Like WWE’s Vince McMahon's -- part CEO, part evil villain character (the ultimate “jerk boss” persona) -- it is nearly impossible to tell what’s real anymore. Swift's new album is the revenge cosplay of professional wrestling. A tailor-made (pun intended), post-reality TV character in an Instagramable world.

Her power is creating drama that gives fans access to her celebrity feuds with A-listers like Kanye West and Katy Perry, the revolving door of relationships and breakups and her ever-changing group of friends in her inner girl squad. Swift takes aim at every single one of them Micheal Corleone style, with not-so-subtle hints in her lyrics and video -- a true snake in sheep's clothing.

The all-American Swift has essentially turned heel -- she has become the villain. Going to the dark side works just like it did when Hulk Hogan joined NWO. For Hogan that meant turning his back on 15 years of good-guy branding and his fan base to become the ultimate bad guy, reviving his brand once again. Everyone likes to root for the big bad guy, so Swift, like Hogan, can morph from "superhero act to become a conniving, cowardly villain" that fans like even more.

The key for brands – and this might sound crazy – is that you don't always have to be the goody-two-shoes. There are times when you could push the boundary of what people think of your brand, provided they are in on the joke. And they'll like you even more when you make the turn back to the good guy.

Step 2: Unleash the teasers.

To make this turn, everything must change. In an instant, Swift proved that old social content isn’t worth anything when rebranding; without warning, she deleted every post and comment and went completely dark online one day in August.

After clearing her social media sites, Swift relaunched with snake videos, which have millions of views and whipped her fans into a frenzy. Every subsequent post encouraged the chatter of fans, enemies and members of the media explaining that a new album was imminent.

All these pieces ensured that when Taylor’s first single, "Look What You Made Me Do," was finally released in early September, it was able to join the list of summer hits despite not being around for any actual summer listening. It cracked Youtube’s coveted top 20 and the 360,000,000 plus views since August 27 impressively powered it onto the list before the Labor Day cut off.

Brands are already getting into the teaser game, but mostly with teasers for things fans don't always want. Fans want and social channels demand content and there is no better way to get value out of your content than stretching the storytelling out in small pieces. It's like throwing chum in the water.

Step 3: Shock and awe them across mediums all the time.

The end game of the Swift roll-out strategy is like a page out of Little Finger’s playbook on Game of Thrones and the life or death battle for the Iron Throne: “Fight every battle everywhere, always, in your mind. Everyone is your enemy, everyone is your friend. Every possible series of events is happening all at once."

Cut to Swift’s total marketing domination. In recent years, she has forged marketing relationships with brands like Diet Coke, Apple and Keds. But this time, in the weeks since her new single dropped, she brought new meaning to the saying, “look what you made me do.” Her new single has enabled her to sign lucrative deals.

There’s the UPS tie-in where Taylor Swift Delivery roams the streets encouraging fans to take selfies to win prizes. There's the Taylor who can pretty much do any AT&T spot – part of a multi-year deal that apparently includes a 24-hour Taylor Swift channel. To ramp up the distribution, major TV networks are leaning heavily on the new single to promote both ABC’s primetime dramas and College football at ESPN. There are the exclusive album version and magazines at Target, and finally, her own platform, The Swift Life, is an app launching later this year for her fanbase.

To get your message out you have to go beyond the micro-influencers and find the “super social influencer,” a new model of pure media domination that only celebrities like Swift can reach.

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Step 4: Make them pay for it.

Once you’ve whipped your fan base into a complete frenzy, get them to pay for it. That means quantifying your fan base and using the data to squeeze every drop of revenue out of them. Swift likely has an entire data division crunching numbers and slicing and dicing her fans into micro-groups to maximize revenue.

Working with TicketMaster, Swift created the “Taylor Swift TIX powered by Ticketmaster Verified Fan” program, connecting the dots between purchases of merchandise and album pre-orders and unlocking a virtual line for concert tickets. Translation: You buy the album and a t-shirt and you get in the "line" for the chance at tickets.

Right on cue, music industry commentator Bob Lefsetz wrote, “It’s almost a Ponzi scheme, but in this case you buy stuff you don’t really want for a chance to get what you do want, tickets, but you can’t get.” For brands, that means connect every item in your purchase funnel so you alone can play winner and losers with your fans.

In 2017, this is how you plan a successful launch. Erase the boundaries between reality and fiction and create a living breathing storyline for fans and enemies to play within.