Taylor Swift just remapped the customer journey
I grew up just as the golden age of vinyl records was ending, which meant that when a new album came out from your favorite artists, you trekked to the store to pick up a CD.
Sometimes, if they were a really popular artist, there might be a lineup to get your CD.
Radio stations sometimes commemorated a significant record release with an on-air listening party, where they played each track with a few commercials in between.
As fans took their CDs home and enjoyed them, some would save their money to buy a concert ticket to hear their favorite tracks in person. Then – and only in rare cases – a camera crew would film one of the stops on the artist’s tour to make a special to air on TV.
Taylor Swift and the team surrounding her probably knew this particular customer journey hasn’t changed much, even if most people now get new music from a streaming service instead of a store. That doesn’t mean she had any qualms about turning the entire process around.
Swiftly executed
As the entertainment industry magazine Deadline reported, ‘Taylor Swift: The Official Release Party of a Showgirl’ enjoyed a box office opening weekend of $33 million.
That money is almost beside the point, however. The real story is in how Swift has remapped the journey music fans take by front-loading it with a deeply immersive live event that may change the entire experience of appreciating her album.
The article on Deadline put Swift’s cinematic accomplishment in context:
Can you think of another music film or theatrical release that compares to this box office threshold, especially as an eleventh-hour stunt? It’s a feat to make any motion picture studio envious. Not even Disney in all its brand wattage has ever attempted to do a theatrical release on a big IP like this, with only two weeks of thrifty promotion.
This was a big bang approach to releasing an album compared to the traditional way in which music labels release one single at a time.
Instead, Swift not only invited fans to see her newest music video on the big screen, but also the behind-the-scenes process that went into making it.
This could only help enrich the connection with her fans, bringing them collectively together before a tour even begins.
The object lesson for CX pros
Obviously it helps to be a superstar with Swift’s nearly unprecedented appeal, but ‘The Official Release Party of a Showgirl’ should have customer experience (CX) leaders everywhere give their journey map a second look.
If you’re a B2B brand, for example, campaigns tend to start by publishing a press release and some blog posts, followed maybe by a webinar and eventually a large in-person customer event.
What might happen if the event came first, designed in such a way that customers felt almost obligated to attend? The resulting press release and other assets might resonate even stronger as they’re released afterwards.
Swift’s success is also based on a consistent track record of nurturing fan relationships, which brands should also do as they experiment with how their customer journey is laid out.
She may be much more than a showgirl, but Swift understands that, with a loyal audience at the ready, there’s more than one way to raise the curtain.
