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5 marketing lessons from Taylor Swift’s 2020 album drops
I think all marketers can learn from the way Taylor Swift used social media to promote her surprise albums in 2020
Note: A version of this was originally published in my newsletter for social media marketers.
2020 was a big year for Taylor Swift. Not only did she write, record, and release two studio albums during quarantine (in addition to filming a Disney+ documentary and re-recording all of her old masters)— she also gave us a masterclass in marketing.
Since traditional album promotion methods were cancelled or severely limited in 2020 (touring, talk show performances, music videos), artists really only had one option to promote new albums — the internet. And Swift did it in a way that I think musicians and marketers can learn from.
1) Surprise Drops > Long Promotional Periods?
When Swift released folklore, I wondered about the impact of doing a surprise album drop vs. a traditional album promotion. Her strategy was pretty simple: simultaneous posts announcing folklore across her social media accounts, less than 24 hours before the album’s release at midnight. So, would album sales/streams be higher due to the added excitement from fan…
