When Taylor Broke the Internet...Brands Swiftly Broke Records
When I've written in the past about brands painting the town pink for Barbie and waving marketing wands for Wicked, I've been impressed by the breadth and depth of their product collabs. With over 500 combined promotional partners at those launches, media events turned the world pink and green for months with dazzling success.
With the announcement of her newest album The Life of a Showgirl on 12:12am ET on August 12th, Taylor Swift not only broke the internet, but fast-moving brands broke records. A recent Meltwater report notes that within the first 48 hours of the reveal, brand-led activations generated 2,600 posts with a potential audience of 20 million for engagement. And the pace has only quickened.
As Être's brand color has always been orange - see it 7 stories high on the NASDAQ tower or on our favorite Lilly Pulitzer print - we couldn't love this more. Here then, in an epic hat tip to the marketing mastermind herself, are Être's favorite TS12 merch moments so far. No matter what you're searching for (well played, Google), we bet you'll find it:
For Swifties going out: Check in with United Airlines, freshen up with Tic Tacs, lay on your orange glitter freckles from Fazit, don activewear from PopFlex and stack fresh bracelets from Little Words Project. Don't forget a confident Invisalign smile - they're here for the sparkle too.
For Swifties staying in with snacks: Shake it off and order in Shake Shack, Goldfish, Funny Face Bakery, Cinnabon, Buffalo Wild Wings, Crumbl and M&Ms; then quench your thirst with Poppi, Dunkin, Vuum for more protein or Tropicana for the pure thing.
For Swifties decorating dorms: Head over to Walmart, build orange vision boards on Pinterest and Canva, stock up on Post-It Notes and get fully hooked with Command. Shipping more to new freshmen? Find the nearest FedEx - they're already orange!
For more brands originally in their orange era: Think teams like the Cleveland Browns, the Texas Longhorns, the Philadelphia Flyers and McLaren - all enthusiastically in Taylor's game. The sports angle is especially interesting, since Swift made her announcement on a football podcast as opposed to via a more typical music venue. Brilliant? You bet - when the episode aired it literally broke YouTube, forcing the site to add extra bandwidth and reassure viewers.
Then entire cities got into the mix. When Kansas City, San Antonio and NYC illuminated stages, paved rivers and lit up landmarks, a new era was dawning in a big way.
Why orange? We'd never speak for Taylor, but from the time Être was first envisioned I loved the idea of orange as the logo color. If felt aligned with the energy and joy I felt, and that instinct was reinforced time and time again by our initial teen board. That vitality remains today, and, indeed, our friends at Post-it chimed in months before the TS12 announcement, sharing the orange vibe.
What does this tell us about marketing as summer deepens to fall and leaves turn...well, orange? It tells us a few things. First, speed to feed counts. In mere minutes following the announcement, clever creative teams were on-brand and at the center of a moment.
Second, a single hue can be the cue. One color, one shade - as our mentors at Pantone and Pinterest remind us - can start a movement. Whether in music, art, fashion or film, the strategic use of a color can get everyone on their feet.
And third, moments like these let us cheer eachother on. We watched as brands across all industries, audiences, ages and budgets jumped in, and there was more than enough fanfare for us to engage while amplifying each other with joy.
So stay tuned as October approaches and new music awaits.
It might be the greatest era yet.
Looking forward,
Illana
ÊXTRAS: Three more TS12-inspired collabs you'll want to share with the younger set: Tootsie Pop's Mr. Owl hooting about TS12, Minions reenacting the life of a showgirl, and Elmo asking if we're ready for all the fun that comes next!
