Marketing Just Got Schooled By Taylor Swift

Kim Dolenowski
Kim Dolengowski, Chief Strategy Officer, The Australian Foundation, takes a look at what we marketers can learn from the release of Taylor Swift's Midnight album.
From a subtle online launch that had millennials and Gen Zers eating out of the palm of her hand, to The Atlantic basically calling it "The Real Metaverse," Taylor Swift has nailed every brand's brief: Building a Meaningful Brand right here. culture.
What's interesting about all this is not what his music is about, but how it is. It wasn't your average new album. You don't even have to be a huge Taylor Swift fan to consider this one of those marketing books.
It's worth saying up front that I don't consider myself a Swiftie. My call has nothing to do with the music, but everything to do with his campaign launch strategy.
If you couldn't help but admire his transparency, creativity and commitment to his go-to-market strategy, or how he managed to win the hearts of aspiring Gen Zers, the real proof is in the desserts and the results. Thanks to this performance, within days, Taylor Swift became the first musician to have a full Top 10 hit on the Billboard Hot 100. Talk about brand enhancement.
How?
Ecosystems must tell a story. The launch of this campaign was a carefully designed ecosystem. The singer-songwriter teased an entire week on the course before releasing Midnight's album. Each channel had a clear role and purpose in creating the campaign. Therefore, every activity of the channel is made perfect. Swift teased the launch with a series of TikTok videos where she posted the names of 13 songs one by one through a bingo game. Then next week's edition was a full program of Instagram fan introductions. Finally, the album was released on Spotify, which almost blew up the internet. Additionally, Swift has renamed all of the Spotify videos she's discovered to play the "Midnight" video. But that's not the interesting part. The beginning tells a story. The campaign has a beginning, middle and end. Marketers can take note of ways to move away from "getting as many eyeballs as possible first" to create a more poetic journey for consumers to experience their brand. While it does the cover job, it's missing an important part that makes Swift feel like she's landing so well.
Dilute your brand Swiftie . Brands are so business-driven that they often ignore the audience that loves them. Are you wondering who our Swifties are? How can you reward them and promote your brand? Leading up to the album's release and building anticipation for the release, he knew that Swifties would increase the rhetoric and popularity of the album and later gain audience attention.
Build a fan base on fame. Fandom does this for the consumer. Fame does it for the brand. Taylor Swift has nurtured her love for the flagship brand for years. Every detail of this show creates an experience for its fans. The Atlantic reports: "Emily Yahr of The Washington Post says Swift left riddles and cryptic messages for her fans more than 15 years ago, including album liner notes, music videos and social media posts." to some fans it seemed a direct response to fans' love for her "core" releases. Taylor Swift listens obsessively to her fans and does everything marketers need to ask themselves if my campaign is really consumer-centric and how can we really build a fan base around our brands?
My typical source of inspiration comes from marketers and thought leaders. However, for the cultural strategist, the release of this album was necessary.
Here I present my marketing name to Taylor Swift.

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