How brands rushed to get in on Taylor Swift’s album announcement

All Taylor Swift had to do was show off some orange, sparkly text on a podcast preview clip, and the brands ran like the wind.

Swifties far and wide rejoiced when the singer-songwriter herself graced the New Heights podcast with her presence, joining hosts and NFL stars Jason and Travis Kelce (the latter of whom Swift is famously dating) to not only make her podcast debut, but to exclusively announce her 12th studio album, The Life of a Showgirl. The episode ultimately brought in more than 1.3 million livestream viewers and 13 million views on YouTube in the first 24 hours, per Variety.

The day before the episode officially dropped on August 13, the show posted a short clip showing Swift with a briefcase emblazoned with “T.S.” in orange, glittery font, where she pulled out the new album cover (which was blurred out to keep the suspense high). That’s all it took for brands to get involved on social media, where it suddenly felt like a race to incorporate the new Taylor lore into posts and branding.

Tarte Cosmetics imagined its products front and center on the forthcoming album cover. Dunkin’s already orange logo got the glitter treatment, while McLaren also leaned into its existing orange branding. Wheel of Fortune showed off its own showgirl, longtime presenter Vanna White, in various orange outfits from over the years. Petco reminded pet parents that cats can be Swifties, too.

Applebee’s posted a screenshot of a Swift-inspired menu playlist, and Crumbl made a mood board. Instacart took a relatable route, posting as a fan waiting for the podcast drop (and ordering snacks). Reese’s, which is a partner on New Heights, turned around a Taylor-coded campaign in 24 hours.

Douglas Brundage, CEO and founder of brand studio Kingsland, told us that “brands are a lot freer with their identities these days,” which can give brand marketers space to react and get in on things like the TS12 hype swiftly.

With that said, just because brands can react quickly to a pop culture moment doesn’t always mean it will have tangible, positive effects.

“For a while, just the social proof of, ‘Look, we’re online too, we’ve also reacted to this,’ was all that it took for people to kind of react and [think], ‘Oh, wow, you’re cool, you get it,’” Brundage said. “I don’t think that’s really it anymore. I think you should react to social moments or cultural moments when they make sense for your brand.”

Though the barrage of Taylor-related posts may have led to temporary excitement around participating brands, Brundage believes that kind of engagement isn’t really worth much. Instead, he said that when brands take a day or two to think about what they can add to a cultural moment rather than rushing to react, content is more likely to break through the noise.

And even better? Have a tailored game plan for how to interact with big pop culture moments, he advised.

“You need a playbook about how you handle cultural moments as a brand, and what kind of moments you get involved with, why and how,” Brundage said. “The ‘how’ is actually the most important.”