Her debut album catapulted her to stardom at 16. Since then, she has become an unstoppable force in the music industry – commanding charts with hit after hit, captivating her audience with exhilarating performances and jaw-dropping concert productions.
And just when you thought the incredible Taylor Swift could not set the bar any higher, here she is-shattering records, AGAIN.
The whole world was taken by storm as the global superstar launched her Eras Tour, her 6th concert to date which is running from March 2023 to August 2024. After the unfortunate cancellation of her two-city Lover Fest in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, she is now reclaiming the stage and bringing on the much-anticipated Swift Show to 131 events across five continents with a 44-song setlist pulled from all ten of her studio albums. It is foreseen to be her most expensive one and in fact, the Wall Street Journal broke down that it could be the world’s first 1$ billion tour.
Taylor Swift selected Singapore as the sole destination for her Eras Tour in Southeast Asia, highlighting the strong demand from her fans. Due to the overwhelming response to her first performance in the Lion City since 2015, she extended her shows from three to six, taking place on March 2-4 and 7-9, 2024. All tickets for the six shows were sold out within eight hours of going on sale on July 7th.
The whole world was taken by storm as the global superstar launched her Eras Tour, her 6th concert to date which is running from March 2023 to August 2024. After the unfortunate cancellation of her two-city Lover Fest in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, she is now reclaiming the stage and bringing on the much-anticipated Swift Show to 131 events across five continents with a 44-song setlist pulled from all ten of her studio albums. It is foreseen to be her most expansive one and in fact, Wall Street Journal broke down that it could be the world’s first 1$ billion tour.
Taylor Swift chose Singapore as the sole destination for her Eras Tour in Southeast Asia in a resounding display of the insatiable demand from her fans. With the overwhelming enthusiasm for her 1st performance in the Lion City since 2015, she astoundingly extended her shows from three shows to six, dating March 2-4 and 7-9, 2024. Swifties were a voracious horde, and all the tickets for all six shows were sold out a little over eight hours after they went on sale last July 7th.
On the same day, the popstar dropped one of her highly-awaited re-recorded albums, Speak Now (Taylor’s Version). This was Swift’s self-written album that was originally released in 2010. The album included 14 beloved classic tracks, two songs from the deluxe edition, and six brand-new songs from the vault.
From the B2B (business-to-business) marketing perspective, Swift’s career and persona have reached their peak and her ingenious business strategies keep marketing aficionados abuzz. How does this young superstar, with nearly two decades of a musical career, continue to sell out tickets and pack stadiums with her legion of adoring fans?
Read on as we dissect the brilliance of this marketing mastermind and uncover the secrets that can inspire you to steal her style. Succeed in the digital era with this not-so-long list of marketing strategies.:
Secrets to marketing success: From the vault
It’s a brand story…
Source: Album cover of Taylor Swift’s “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)”
Swift identifies herself as a songwriter before anything else and has been praised for her ability to craft compelling narratives and tell stories throughout her career. When you buy her songs, you also invest in the stories she shares. Her songs often incorporate stories about her romance, friends, family, fictional characters, other people’s lives, or personal experiences. These relatable elements are what make her tracks endearing, creating emotional connections that make her music irresistible.
From the B2B perspective:
In B2B marketing, relatable storytelling conveys the same importance in your brand story and case studies as they help establish a strong connection with your audience. Taking the singer’s example, you can also leverage the power of storytelling in crafting a compelling brand story to align with your customer’s values and stand out in the market.
Sharing case studies, on the other hand, reinforces this narrative by providing true-to-life examples of how your brand’s products and services positively impacted other businesses. These serve as powerful testimonials that show your brand’s problem-solving capacities and the benefits you bring to the table.
Explore our Case Studies: Callbox Customer Success Stories
Just like the superstar captivates her audience with stories interwoven with music, you too can generate quality B2B leads by inserting storytelling elements that humanize your brand. Highlighting relatable experiences, like transforming brand operations and overcoming business-related challenges, enables you to establish credibility and persuade your clients to transact with you.
Content is queen
As previously cited, Swift takes pride in herself as a storyteller. Her exceptional songwriting and content marketing skills are a powerful glue that holds her queendom together.
Her unique and intimate attack at storytelling incorporates intricate storylines that complement the messages and themes in her songs (You know James, Betty, and Augustine’s story, right?), music videos, and behind-the-scenes footage of the creative process behind her music.
These visual narratives give life to her music and pique the attention and imagination of her audience. Beyond music and videos, Swift’s marketing campaigns showcase cleverly crafted content. Her documentary, Miss Americana, offers an intimate look at her personal life. She also has a strong social media presence, tweeting updates and personal insights, responding to fan videos on TikTok, and posting reels and photos on Instagram.
Fans also have the opportunity to fearlessly express their connection and support to the artist through a range of merchandise offerings including accessories, clothing, collectibles, and other exclusive items. Moreover, VIP tickets for her most recent tour come with merch packages that add value and excitement to the buyers.
These various forms of content hugely impact Taylor Swift’s branding and help her establish a strong bond with her fanbase. Her secret? She makes her fans feel like every day is the best day to be a Swiftie.
From the B2B perspective:
B2B companies can explore different forms of content to engage with their audience such as conducting webinars and trade shows, creating blog posts, publishing case studies, developing calculators and interactive tools, and offering access to exclusive industry events or insights.
Moreover, businesses can offer branded merchandise such as clothing, promotional items, office supplies, and customized items that resonate with their brand identity. These can be given to customers, employees, and business partners as a physical representation of their brand association. These products can boost brand loyalty, create a lasting impression, and establish a strong sense of community.
Invest in digital and event marketing experiences
Taylor Swift’s concerts are known for their high production value, immersive experiences, fan involvement, surprise guests and song numbers, and visually stunning stage designs (Who can forget the inflatable snake, Karyn, from the Reputation Tour?)
The global phenomenon that she is, Swift raised the standard of how concerts are done- avid fans know all too well the quality she delivers in every show she puts on. She also does strategic ticketing and promotion and uses her strong social media presence to tease upcoming events, build up expectations, and make major announcements.
Swift is also fond of surprise releases and exclusive listening parties called secret sessions. These are fan-only listening parties where she previews her new album for some personally selected fans weeks before the official release.
In addition, she is also known to strategically insert cryptic clues and easter eggs in her music videos, tease snippets of her upcoming releases and music videos, and count down to important dates. Her impressive event marketing skills are evident as it‘s nothing new for her to sell out concert tickets in advance, even for events scheduled in 2024.
As for ticketing, Swift has worked closely with Ticketmaster for her Reputation Stadium Tour, the canceled Lover Fest, and now, for her Eras Tour. Together, they build an entire fan verification and a Taylor Swift-branded ticketing platform.
Taylor Swift’s concert film, “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour,” breaks barriers and offers an inclusive experience for fans who couldn’t attend live performances due to limited availability, high prices, and technical difficulties.
The film’s $92.8 million opening weekend box office reflects the unwavering devotion of Swift’s fanbase and showcases the power of her music to transcend boundaries. It sets a new standard for concert films, demonstrating the potential of digital experiences to connect artists and fans in innovative and inclusive ways.
This marketing mastermind, all in all, understands that the key to event marketing success is to inject elements of surprise, originality, product value, and anticipation, and partnering with trusted third parties that have an in-depth understanding of her brand.
From the B2B perspective:
Events, unfortunately, don’t sell themselves. To sell tickets, you need to arm yourself with the right event marketing strategy that effectively promotes the event you’re hosting to your target audience. In the B2B setting, you need the right strategy to generate quality leads.
Taking inspiration from the popstar, B2B businesses can create a winning event marketing strategy by employing tactics that resonate with your target audience, contain an element of surprise and excitement, and consider outsourcing to a third party that understands your brand and what your customers need and want.
Unveiling new offerings or product features unexpectedly can generate excitement and curiosity, drawing more attention from potential partners or clients. Hosting exclusive events and webinars that are specifically tailored to your target audience can help provide valuable insights on industry trends and exclusive expert access. Partnering with a reliable lead generation provider like Callbox helps ensure that your efforts are directed toward your business goals.
Doing so can help generate interest and foster engagement, enabling you to expand your reach and attract more attendees.
Explore our Services: Event Marketing Solutions in Singapore and APAC
Meet your audience where they are
One remarkable thing about Swift’s marketing style is that she meets you where you are and shows you incredible things.
The pop superstar announced the release of her “Midnights” tracklist on TikTok, adapting to the social consumption trends of her 2022 audience. If it was the 2009s, she could have used Facebook and YouTube instead.
However, being observant of her audiences’ behavior and preferences, she opted to use a series of 13 individual short-form videos to reveal her tracklist. And clearly, her strategy worked, garnering an impressive 74 million views. This demonstrates the artist’s ability to leverage different platforms and channels for maximum audience engagement and impact.
Taylor Swift’s surprise album announcement during her acceptance speech at the 2024 Grammy Awards showcased her ability to captivate and engage her audience strategically. Unveiling her upcoming album, titled “The Tortured Poets Department,” at this highly anticipated event allowed Swift to leverage the Grammys’ massive platform and reach a wide audience.
The announcement, coinciding with her 13th Grammy Award and her lucky number, adds an extra layer of excitement and significance. Fans can look forward to the release of the said album on April 19th.
Choosing her acceptance speech to reveal the news showcased Swift’s ability to adapt to the changing dynamics of the music industry. By leveraging the captive attention of millions of Grammy viewers, she created a shared moment of excitement and surprise, rather than relying solely on traditional album release strategies. This also demonstrated her understanding of the importance of impactful and unexpected communication.
Reach your target audience when they are most likely to buy with strategic leadgen
From the B2B perspective:
Savvy marketers should ensure that they reach the right people at the most opportune time. From the B2B viewpoint, this means focusing on the relevant channels and being present in the platforms where your clients are.
Identifying their preferred social media platforms and channels holds utmost importance since it serves as the foundation for the type of content you create. By understanding where your customers spend their time most, you can optimize your efforts and make sure that your marketing messages reach the right audience. This boosts the chances of generating quality B2B leads and reaching your objectives.
Marketers in this highly digital era realize the importance of reaching the right people at the right moment. This emphasizes the essence of choosing a lead generation services provider that has a multi-channel approach like Callbox.
Explore our Multi-Channel Approach: Callbox Multi-Touch Multi-Channel Marketing
Recognize the power of dynamic collaborations
Throughout her music career, Swift has collaborated with fellow artists from different music genres and numerous brands. Partnering with other artists, whose musical genre differs from hers sometimes, enabled her to explore new styles and appeal to diverse audiences. Working together with various brands paved the way for her unique branding and self-expression, also allowing her to offer a wide range of products and experiences for her equally diverse fanbase.
Swift usually collaborates with producers and fellow songwriters during her songwriting process. Some of the resounding names she partnered with are Jack Antonoff and Aaron Dessner. Also, she has worked together with singers like Tim McGraw, Ed Sheeran, and Brendon Urie.
Some other artists she featured in her music videos include Sadie Sink and Dylan O’Brien in the All Too Well short movie in 2021 and Katy Perry in You Need to Calm Down (2019). Her other remarkable collaborations include Miss Americana, a Netflix documentary, and folklore: the long pond studio sessions, a documentary concert for Disney+.
Her record-breaking Eras Tour movie is expected to stream exclusively on Disney+ on March 15th. Aside from the songs she performed in the three Los Angeles tour dates filmed at SoFi Stadium, it will include her performance of “cardigan” along with 4 additional acoustic surprise songs, “Death by a Thousand Cuts”, Maroon, “You Are In Love”, and “I Can See You”.
From the B2B perspective:
Partnerships, in the B2B setting, much like Swift’s approach, can have a profoundly beneficial impact on businesses especially in terms of lead generation. This opens new growth opportunities, expands their reach and customer base, taps into different networks, increases visibility, and drives sustainable growth.
When two or more brands join forces, their collective reputation solidifies, making a clear sign that they are trustworthy and reliable. The key to success is to find the ones who share the same goals and values, not to mention their expertise that aligns with yours.
Forging meaningful connections with trusted AI-powered lead generation partners like Callbox can help your brand maximize its potential to shine and stand out from the competition, just like how valuable collaborations gave Swift an extra boost to success.
The end game…
Over her many eras, Taylor Swift has successfully sustained her career – not just as a pop sensation but as a brand herself. B2B marketers have a lot to learn from this marketing genius, from creating a compelling brand story, investing in highly relatable and engaging content, investing in immersive digital and event marketing experiences, meeting and being with your audience at the perfect moment, and recognizing the immense power of partnerships for your brand’s success.
Her remarkable journey teaches marketers the power that authenticity, creativity, genuine connection, and innovation hold in marketing. Looking ahead to the future, her success is a reminder of the importance of evolution and adaptation. By staying attuned to the ever-changing trends, embracing modern tools and technology, and constantly striving for excellence, B2B marketers can leave an indelible mark in the sector, just like Taylor Swift has done in the music industry and beyond.
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