What Can The Eras Tour Teach Us About Arts Marketing?

13. Friendship bracelets. Red lipstick. New York City. Midnight.

These are all core components of one of the most successful arts marketing strategies of the century, and have been instrumental in defining one of the biggest pop stars of our time.

Here our Marketing Account Executive and one of our resident TS fans, Juliet, writes about the lessons that arts marketers can take from Taylor Swift's Eras Tour marketing.

Taylor Swift recently wrapped up the European leg of the Eras Tour, signing off with her record breaking 8th show at Wembley, having contributed almost £1 billion to the UK economy. Night after night, fans filled stadiums to the brim and belted songs from the past 18 years of Taylor’s discography. Whether you’re a Swiftie or not, it’s undeniable that this tour felt more significant than others, and if you’re not in the community of millions of people who shelled out to witness it for yourself, you’ve probably found yourself asking, “what’s the big deal?”

Whilst we love her for her authenticity and vulnerability in songwriting, Taylor’s brand image - the whole idea of ‘Taylor Swift’ as an artist - is one of the most elaborate and intricate marketing strategies out there. There’s not a move Taylor Swift makes that doesn’t have a team of decision makers behind it, and that’s great news for arts marketers. Everyone grab a pen and an old napkin - it’s time to take note of the lessons we can learn from Swift’s success.

Lesson 1 - it only works if you’re in their Top 5…

The first key thing that the Eras Tour proved to me is that audiences are willing to pay to see art that they love. Covid devastated ticket sales across the board, with many people still choosing not to prioritise attending events after the pandemic in favour of spending increasingly limited disposable income on other things. But, with each Swiftie estimated to have spent approximately £800 each on the Eras Tour experience, we should be careful not to conflate lack of prioritisation with lack of possibility. The question becomes how do we make the theatre experience worthwhile for audiences when we have more competition for customers’ money, time and attention? As the value of the ticket increases, so too must the value of the experience we’re offering people.

Taylor Swift doesn’t just sell songs - she sells catharsis, empathy, friendship, relatability, all the good stuff that people are really looking for when they engage with art. She packages all of that up in albums that are branded as Eras of their own, complete with their own colour, lyrical motifs, characters, narratives, hairstyles and fashion. And then she releases her music out to the world, for people to make the experience of an Era their own. So when we’re thinking of selling a show, it can pay to focus on what we’re selling beyond the show itself - the connection found in an audience of strangers, the exclusivity of the ticket, the fun of going somewhere new, the glamour of a night out - we can make a show into an Era of its own by focusing on everything surrounding the experience before and after the stage lights come up, just as Taylor focuses her marketing on the worldbuilding around her songs. Beyond just sitting in front of a performance, the theatre-going experience becomes valuable for everything that surrounds it, too.

Lesson 2 - I had the time of my life with you…

Community has proven to be a core part of the event experience as a whole. As the Eras Tour went on, fan trends emerged. Dressing up and trading friendship bracelets with other fans in the stadium was as much part of the audience experience as witnessing Taylor in the flesh was. These trends formed a micro-culture, something that attendees opted in to to bolster the experience of the gig itself. The reason we were all so willing to do so was less to do with Taylor herself so much as it was with connecting with one another.

The talk by Jo Taylor (Director, Fly A Kite) at this year’s AMA conference about fan culture was running through my head as I attended Wembley last month (dressed as Evermore). Among other things, Jo spoke about how being part of a fan community offers people a sense of participation, identity, belonging and escapism - it’s also a democratic leveller. Perhaps this is why the predominantly female Taylor Swift fandom is built upon rejecting the vehemently patriarchal standards of behaviour that crop up in every other area of life - at Taylor Swift’s concert you can wear extravagant outfits, yell cringey slogans and indulge in cute, juvenile gestures of friendship without judgement. You can be loud, dramatic and self-indulgent, because in Taylor Swift’s fandom you’re allowed to be. It’s like attending a gig in Barbieland. The Audience Agency has suggested that audiences are keen to support venues that share their same social values - something which hasn’t previously been such a key component in the decision-making stage. A purchase doesn’t just represent buying into a product - it represents an expression of your own beliefs and values, and the community with which you choose to align yourself. If you can take pride in that community and express your loyalty outwardly, you’re more likely to not only commit to a purchase but also recommend the brand to others. As a business, it benefits both the brand and the customer to brag about your key values and company mission, and enable others to support that in identifying as a fan.

If we focus on cultivating a fandom experience for shows we market by building a branded community, we can start to offer audiences the same experience of belonging and identity that attending the Eras Tour offered.

Lesson 3 - Lights, camera, bitch smile…

The value of User-Generated Content can’t be overstated when it comes to cultivating the Barbieland microculture of the Eras Tour. UGC maximises brand reach, centralises the customer experience and, best of all, comes from entirely authentic and trustworthy sources. Given that 92% of consumers are likely to look for recommendations before committing to purchases, apps such as TikTok and Instagram offer a world where marketers can by-step the usual barriers to purchase we face, often with a huge return on investment.

So, how did Taylor do it? Taylor Nation, the customer-facing branch of Taylor’s business, interacts with fans on social media and encourages trends, challenges and content creation focused on the Taylor Swift brand. The more Taylor-focused content a fan produces, the closer they can be to real-life Taylor through Taylor Nation. In the past, this has involved anything from being featured on an Instagram feed to being invited to Taylor’s house for Secret Sessions from the singer herself. The impact of encouraging and rewarding UGC from fans means that the content keeps on coming, in turn creating a huge, worldwide fanbase of online users who kept the Era’s Tour constantly in the forefront of pop culture throughout its two year run.
This formula isn’t only available to the most successful pop star of our time, but also to any business with an audience, big or small. By cultivating a sense of closeness between a brand and their audience through engagement on social media and appreciation for their UGC, we can build loyal customer bases that return more than what we invest in multitudes.

And so even as Taylor bids so long to London, she leaves a record-breaking imprint on the British arts scene of 2024. Whether you’re still listening to the set list on repeat or waiting for the day our social feeds fill up with something other than her iconic cat-like smile, there’s no denying that we can all learn from Taylor Swift, the marketing mastermind.

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