The power of community building in content creation(Taylors' Version)

Every content producer should be working on community building from the moment they start thinking on creating an IP. ?

Meet Taylor Swift, the perfect example of the power of community building, something she did from the early beginnings of her career.

Let’s go back to October 2006, the first (country) album of Taylor is launched at Big Machine records. It’s not an instant hit, but as a youngster Taylor knows how important it is to keep track with her fans. From the very beginning she invested a lot of time in building a loyal community on social platforms like Tumbler. She asks for feedback, get in touch with her fans and is responding to messages on a personal level.

The deep and honest connection she is establishing here will not only help her grown, but safe her career and future multiple times. The swifties, like the fans of the superstar call themselves, are the foundation of her success and until now the cornerstone of everything she does. She knows her fans that well, that she could take the risk to move away from a career as a successful country artist, towards the worldwide pop artist she is these days.

Let’s dive a bit deeper into the power of her community with some examples.

June 2019, Scooter Brown is buying the rights on the master tapes of the first six albums from Big Machine Records. The fight that follows with Taylor, who was already trying for years to buy back those rights, will show the power of the Swifties. Scooter forbit Taylor to sing a medley of her songs on the American Music Awards. In a twitter message she reaches out to her fans, who will force Scooter to change his mind and let Taylor perform her songs. The first time we could see the real power of this community.?

Taylors' version

In April 2021 we could witness the full power with the first re-recording of one of the original Taylor albums ‘Fearless’. She is calling the albums ‘Taylors Version’ to distingue them from the albums still owned by Scooter. And her fans just love it. It’s the first time in history a re-recording is reaching a bigger audience than the original album.

Every time a situation pops-up, Taylor can count on her community. Not only on the music side of things but also to put pressure on Ticketmaster, who screwed up the sales of the Eras Tour in the beginning. The outrace was so big that even in American congress questions were asked (and still are) on the position of Ticketmaster in the American market.

You're not only bring the artist but also the community to the table, that's the real power!

Armed with a loyal force that big, a deal with Taylor not only brings the artist, but also the community to the table. That shows once again when she decides to record her own tour and distribute it directly to the theatres, without a major studio involved. The result was the highest grossing concert movie of all times (+$261M) and even put her in the Guinness book of world records.

Not only she is boosting her own career, but throughout overnight local spendings she and her fans are also responsible for a one-Billion-dollar economy boost in the UK alone as a result of the 15 performances she has on the continent. And to even top that, only to show up at her friends’ football games (Kansas City Star Travice Kelse), she added a calculated added brand value of $331M for the club and is drawing young girls towards the games. Even the impact on local American households, were fathers start watching games with their daughters, is measurable.

The power and impact of a strong community can never be underestimated. What Taylor is understanding and leveraging very well is the value of those fans. If you are getting the artist involved, you know the fans and community will follow.

We have to offer more than a show or series to a broadcaster

As it is becoming increasingly more difficult to sell your IP or content to a platform or broadcaster, as a producer, you should ask yourself how you could bring more value to the table. Let’s be honest, there are thousands of impressive shows and ideas out there. One of the questions I got more often during the last year from buyers is ‘how this show is going to bring me more subscribers. In one way it’s going back to basics: if the content is coming from a successful book, the changes are bigger it’s getting sold to a broadcaster. And of course it’s not about the book, it could be anything, if there is a proven strong community behind it.

So, like Taylor, the moment we launch the verry first idea, we should start building and maintaining the community that will support it. You cannot do that with only a series or a show, but you must start your development process with a great story world and strong characters. Only than you can start telling stories, on all levels, within this world and keep people interested in the brand you are creating. Even if the start is small, on a local broadcaster with little audience, keep going to build that community. It will not only learn you a lot about the target audience, but persistence will give you the power of the community at the end.