The Taylor Swift PR Phenomenon

It’s 2023, and Taylor Swift reigns supreme as a PR expert.?

Nowadays, whatever the singer gets associated with reaches millions of people and breaks records.?

Let’s take a closer look at Taylor Swift’s mastery of PR, the overwhelming success of her Eras Tour and a recent dating gossip with an NFL player that drove more than just conversations.

The Era of Taylornomics

Swift’s Eras Tour isn’t just a concert series; it’s a global phenomenon with far-reaching economic implications. Projections say it will gross an astonishing $1 billion next March , making it the most financially successful tour in music history. If these forecasts are accurate, Taylor will surpass Elton John’s farewell tour, which concluded at $939 million in earnings.

Fans, known as Swifties, are pouring thousands of dollars into hotels, restaurants, costumes, merchandise, and local transportation - given rise to a phenomenon dubbed “Taylornomics” by The Wall Street Journal. It is estimated that the tour could boost the worldwide economy by a staggering $5 billion.

Breaking records is not new to Taylor. Eras opening night in Glendale, Arizona, shattered Madonna’s record for the highest-attended concert by a female artist. She became the first woman to headline Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas a week later.

A cinematic sensation

If Taylor knows anything, it’s how to capitalize on her success. Thus, she announced a three-hour-long concert film set to premiere on October 13th.?

The buzz around this cinematic experience has already shattered box-office records, with Cinemark reporting that ticket presales for the film are “setting domestic records” and demand is “10 times higher” than any other film in the company’s history.

How far does it go

And just how strong her star power is… well let’s look at the most recent news and how it affected everyone included.

It all started with a rumor about her dating Kansas City Chiefs star Travis Kelce. Rather innocent, when you think about it. But when she appeared at a Kansas City Chiefs game last weekend it created a real PR avalanche.

It was the most-watched NFL telecast from any network the past week, Kansas City Chiefs experienced a 3X increase in home game tickets, Travis Kelce jersey sales increased by 400%, his podcast rose to number one on Apple and he got 600K followers on Instagram.

When we look at all conversations taking part around NFL in the past week Taylor Swift is out there back to back with anything sports-related.

But it’s not only NFL riding the Swift’s star wave. Many brands are jumping on the bandwagon of capitalizing on the popular singer and her newest beau.?

Some clothing companies, like Charlie Hustle, are already releasing new products that reference the Chiefs and Swift, and sports merchandise company BreakingT is selling a shirt that says “karma is my tight end.”?

KidSuper Studios, brand that produced a blue-and-white denim set that Kelce wore while walking out of the stadium with Swift, also seized the moment by renaming the print from “The Bedroom Painting” to “The 1989 Bedroom Painting.” The jacket has since sold out.

And this tweet made all the difference for a whole new set of brands:

It’s a picture of Taylor Swift and a fan, sitting at the table eating chicken and posing. The caption said "Taylor Swift was eating a piece of chicken with ketchup and seemingly ranch!"

It went viral almost instantly and “seemingly ranch” became a meme, reaching the Empire State Building:

As well as many brands, one of them being Heinz. They’ve decided to release a limited amount of Ketchup and Seemingly Ranch bottles and it was a win since the wider public is obviously loving it.

Coincidence?

With all the hype following literally everything even remotely related? to Swift and her work, some have already started speculating if this revelation of her private affairs was maybe planned to give an additional boost to her ongoing tour. But even if it’s true - nobody seems to care about that.?

One thing is sure. Anything this girls touches turns into gold. Or anyone, for that matter.

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*All metric screenshots are taken directly from Determ, a media monitoring tool. If you want to know more how Determ works, book a demo call with one of our experts.