How brands and marketers are cashing in on the biggest event of the year
By, Kerry Ruffle
Last weekend marked a monumental date in American history.
And no, I’m not talking Independence Day nor the fact that this year commemorated the 250th anniversary of the founding of the modern United States.
I’m talking about, what has been dubbed the American Royal Wedding, betweenTaylor Swift and Travis Kelce. On July 3rd, the fairy tale romance between the global starlet and the American football hero came to its highly anticipated conclusion as the pair tied the knot.
The wedding has been the best worst kept secret of the year. Unlike Tom Holland and Zendaya quietly exchanging their vows before appearing at their latest press tour with new jewellery to tip off the press, the union of T&T has been a noisy affair made lounder by mass rumour and speculation.
The venue? The very un-subtle Madison Square Garden. The guest list? A veritable 1,000 strong who’s who of the global celeb elite (all of whom were, reportedly, required to sign NDAs with their RSVPs) as well as friends and family. An army of caterers, designers, staging crew and entertainers all collaborating to pull off one of the biggest events the city has ever seen, and all without letting the cat out of the bag.
The few leaks that have bled out since the ceremony took place have revealed expectedly lavish details; for example the ceremony was officiated Hollywood actor Adam Sandler, the Bride wore a custom-made Dior gown, and Paul McCartney performed Beatles classic “I Want To Hold your Hand” for the newlyweds’ first dance.
But there have been some incredibly outlandish details too; such as Taylor and Travis building a replica castle inside the stadium to go along with their secret garden theme, holding a raffle at their reception, giving away prizes such as a 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle and a Cartier watch, and that the top of the Empire State Building was specifically lit to become Taylor’s “something blue” for the event.
Welcome to New York indeed.
Weddings are big business
Of course, whilst the newly minted Mr & Mrs Kelce? (Swift?? Kelce-Swift???) likely planned their dream wedding down to the very last napkin ring and chose their brand partners and suppliers carefully, that hasn’t stopped a number of other companies trying to muscle in on the action, a bit like a newly minted mother-in-law, despite having no official role.
Uber, for example, in celebration of the big day, turned its taxis in the city pink, offering free ride shares to customers named Taylor or Travis, and even threw a singles party all in the name of finding true love. Tarte cosmetics sent their mascot to hang around outside the venue with a gift for the happy couple, Funko created an image of custom wedding models of the pair, shoe brand TOMS posted a love heart image made of a gym trainer and a cute pink slipper to their Instagram (plus a pun about finding your “sole mate”… get it?) to offer their congratulations.
Such gimmicks might have spurred a flurry of likes, but what actual benefit do they provide? The post by TOMS, a company with over nine thousand followers, generated just 10 comments – one of which was from TOMS offering a string of Taylor-related hashtags.
Similarly, not everyone has been appreciative of such bandwaggoning. Funko’s post may have generated more reaction than TOMS’ efforts did, but these ranged from eye-roll gifs to snarky comments about how fast Funko might produce divorce era dolls, and a huge amount of “who cares?”
Basing your marketing strategy around the actions of individuals can be a dangerous game, especially if popular opinion begins to shift.
For all of the hysteria that Taylor and Travis’ wedding has provided, there has been a growing voice of backlash across social media platforms – from catty commentators sharing how generally tacky they feel the scale of the event has been to the more pointed jabs made about the couple’s apparent disregard of the “little people” as ensuring the event’s security and privacy resulted in several road closures around the venue, impacting local residents and reportedly hindering local businesses, and all over a busy holiday weekend.
Even the reported $26M in charity donations the couple distributed in the lead up to their big day hasn’t helped to sway a narrative of extreme entitlement in some circles.
The importance of matchmaking
How can brands avoid getting tarred with the same brush when they choose to tie themselves to people whose reputations begin to slip? A good starting point, research sensibly suggests, is to take a moment to consider the move before you make it.
Crucially, rather than seeking to swiftly latch on to individuals for the sake of their popularity alone, brands should first consider if they are genuinely a good fit for what their product offers and the ethos behind it.
Marketing Professor B.Zafer Erdogan shares in his research paper “Celebrity Endorsement: A Literature Review” that whilst the use of a celebrity is a common tactic in modern marketing practice, in instances where a celebrity’s qualities are deemed inappropriate, irrelevant or undesirable to the product or campaign they’re linked to by audiences, this risks damage to the brand’s image and perception.
Customers are shrewd observers. In instances where a celebrity link seems disingenuous, customer buy-in can be limited. The same argument is commonly made in the rising backlash against social media influencers for taking paid promos for products that customers do not view as relevant to their typical interests or values. Research from emlyon business school delves into this challenge, exploring what prompts consumers’ trust to slip when increasing numbers of influencers are advocating for more and more products, and how to regain it.
The advice provided by Professor Karine Raies, Mariem El Euch Maalej and Marielle Salvador is for brands and influencers to be less-intense and more human-focused in their social media strategy – dropping the hashtags in favour of explanation and personal connection.
Erdogan’s work sets out the core standards brands should use when vetting their potential celebrity partners; their credibility, their attractiveness (to the product), whether their image fits the reality of the brand’s, and the meaning their partnership may generate with audiences. In instances where these boxes have been ticked, there is much to be gained.
This is especially true when brands use popular figures to introduce unfamiliar things.
Research conducted by faculty at the University of Würzburg in Germany explored how celebrity endorsements for new technological innovations such as electric vehicles, testing to see if familiar faces paired with unfamiliar ideas or offerings could enhance consumer buy-in.
The results indicated that celebrity endorsements could be a powerful tool to leverage. Specifically, their credibility rather than their attractiveness can significantly enhance technology acceptance with audiences.
Piggybacking events is bad business
But what about when brands – like Funko, Uber and countless others – don’t have a genuine connection to leverage? Uber may have put a lot of time and effort into providing pink cars, advertising free services to the Taylors and Travis’ of the world, and hosting matchmaking events, and splashing their activity all over their socials, but how much did the company actually profit from doing so?
A study from academics at Brock University explored the concept of “newsjacking” – where a brand or organisation publicly latches on to big discussions and events in order to promote themselves – in relation to the brands and organisations attempting to gain a benefit from engaging with 2018’s Winter Olympic Games in PyeongChang.
The researchers analysed Twitter data to record how brands without official ties to the Games or the competing teams (the non-sponsors) used official promotional event hashtags to effectively piggyback the Olympic Games and tie themselves to the discussions around it, and the reach and the impact those posts had.
Whilst such practice is very common, the researchers found that the return on investment was rather limited. Brands, they noted, were largely just adding to the noise around the event, rather than gaining any meaningful attention, reaction or business value.
A study carried out by faculty at HU University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands echoed similar sentiments. In testing the value to be gained from “real-time” marketing, they found that social content built around unpredictable events such as breaking news generated significantly more response and engagement from audiences, whereas activity around predictable events; whether planned holidays and calendar dates, or scheduled occasions (like a giant celebrity wedding) attracted far less attention and response.
Pink Ubers might look cute on socials, but that’s likely the only benefit they’ve provided so far.
There are also, the researchers highlighted, a number of risks that come with such blatant attempts to appear that you’re invited to the party. There may be legal restrictions around how non-sponsors can use such events to their advantage (official sponsors, after all, pay for their right to tie themselves to events such as the Olympics) and there may even be backlash from a brand’s existing audiences and customers as a result of their disingenuity.
The lesson to be learned is a simple one – if your name’s not on the list, don’t try to get in, or pretend that you did.
Quiet dignity
It is notable that the majority of the noise surrounding Swift and Kelce’s nuptials seems to be coming from those unattached to the event. This, of course, could be due to Swift’s reputation for ensuring control over her own public narrative. Much like how she sought to take direct and damning corrective action when record executive Scooter Braun purchased her early music by tirelessly recording her own “Taylor’s version” of each album that no longer belonged to her and encouraging fans to cut ties with her older recordings.
Taylor has reportedly sought to keep the wedding as private as possible, despite its scale. From stringent security, NDAs and seizing guests’ phones upon entry to even reportedly individually marking each guests invite so that any leaks could be directly traced back to their source.
But for those brands that were afforded the opportunity to play a role in the wedding of the year, there may be a power to be found in saying absolutely nothing and allowing Swift to run the show.
As fans worldwide continue to obsess over the maybes and might-have-beens from the big day, and the possibility of a Disney+ tell-all release, the only official word so far has come from Taylor’s publicist, which provided sparse details on the designers of the dress, suits, shoes and jewellery worn by the wedding party.
Until now, that is. Late yesterday an announcement was made on Instagram that Taylor herself will be sharing the wedding pictures herself, like any bride, on her own personal Instagram account.
For the brands invited to the party there’s no need for big online campaigns to advertise the fact that they were there. All they need to do is sit back, wait and watch the world go crazy.
As BlueSky Thinking is made up of a team of devout Swifties – none of whom were invited to the wedding (we were there in spirit!) we’ll be waiting alongside them.
Kerry Ruffle
Kerry Ruffle covers business and higher education, careers and the changing world of work, as well as academic research and its impact upon the world we live in.
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