The Marketing Bestie Podcast with zoeunlimited - the step by step rebrand of Addison Rae

Episode Date: August 25, 2025

how did Addison Rae go from cringey tiktoker to a new icon "saving pop"?✄Block ads, get PAID👉🏻Go to https://pie.org/zoeunlimited and install today✨Start your dream brand TODAY with a FREE shopify trial https://tapthe.link/zoeunlimitedshopify👉🏻CHOOSE future topics https://tapthe.link/WDLnjLJy1 the marketing psychology behind *cringe pretty * business case study, brand marketing, digital advertising, e-commerce strategy, luxury business, beauty business

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please contact Connects Ontario at 1-866-531-2,600 to speak to an advisor. Free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with Eye Gaming Ontario. Is it cringe or is it? art. How did Addison Ray, a forgotten TikToker you haven't seen since 2020, go from cringy TikToker to a new icon, saving pop? That Dixie, Charlie Demalio, Bellaporte, and even Joja Siwa tried, but ultimately failed. We're not dissing Addison, are you? We love Addison. We literally just want to know.

If there was one person born on the wrong side of the algorithm, it must be Addison Ray. Despite having over 100 million followers across social, every single thing she did was left at. A beauty line cancelled by Sephora, a Tring Rec reality TV show, a below-mid movie, a clothing line, a fragrance line, and of course, her TikTok dances. Okay, we can take a photo. Is being cancelled a fear of yours? I'm ashamed. Somehow, the harder that Addison Ray tried, the less she was taken seriously. After flops after flops after flops, everything Addison Ray did confirmed that she was talentless,

annoying, and was only famous because of pretty privileged? But was that really the case? Because as a shocker to the world, Addison Ray 2.0 has just achieved something that Charlie and Dixie, Demaila, Bellaporte, and even Jojo Siwa want to be seen as a serious artist. So how in the world did Addison Ray change her brand from the cringy TikToker you forgot about to achieve icon status with Charlie XX and Lana Del Rey? Get over 40 million streams on her new song, make it to Billboard, and is now seen as the TikTok Britney Spears of the era.

Nothing is a coincidence. It is all marketing. As you're marketing, Busty, who graduated top 1% UCLA business economics with a background in marketing, We're going to explore how pretty privilege failed Addison Ray, but a rebrand saved her life. You haven't seen the video, you should see it, but... Yeah, it's lots of feed and with cream. And by brand, I don't just mean slapping your name on a discontinued lip oil. Branding is about how your future college, future boss, future boyfriend sees you.

And yes, you have one. I'm creating this series to analyze pop culture girl icons from a marketing perspective, because many of whom do not recognize the power of influence they have over a generation of young girls. If Addison Ray has the potential to come back from being one of the most disliked TikToker to a serious artist, you yourself can create a killer brand. Starting with a counter example, Addison Ray 1.0. Addison Ray's growth on TikTok came as a complete shock to her. Although initially embarrassed, she blew up on the app,

dropped out of college, moved to the high-pouse, and became the fifth most followed individual on TikTok. But with this massive attention also came one problem. While the attention came quickly, Addison Ray lacked one thing, a distinguishable brand. With other teenage dance and lip-sync TikTokers all going viral around the same time, such as Charlie Demalio, there was really no clear way to see Addison Ray as unique, especially given how all her content revolved around the quick but easily forgotten trends that everyone else was doing. On top of which, to gain more attention, Addison Ray was putting a lot of effort in all the wrong areas. And that got tiring and annoying very quickly.

They were over exposing herself online and in public. Who's the most annoying celebrity? I'm gonna say Addison Ray. her name was Addison Ray. Everything she worked on only made her less and less likable, let alone aspirational. But 80 million fans means you can do whatever you want and create a successful business, right?

And so Addison Ray decided to test it out with an impressive list of ventures. A clothing line, a makeup line, a fragrance line, a movie, a TV show was on a calendar, which you guessed it, only made her less likable. before building a community of trust. Addison Ray's team, similar to Charlie's, rushed. Okay, when I sell my business, I want the best tax and investment advice.

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Learn more at tellus.com slash online security. No one can prevent all cybercrime or identity theft. Conditions apply. To capitalize on the attention. Someone please check on Charlie DeMilleo and Addison Ray. Who is managing them? Who is advising them? They went through back-to-back-to-back flopped brand launches.

Where yes, some of the projects are actually on brand. But without an audience who wants to buy from someone, they would respect, nothing really sells. At least with Charlie, being the number one follow person on TikTok, helped give her brand a unique halo. Addison Ray ran into a crisis where she had this massive, massive following without real influence. With each flop, such as her beauty brand being pulled by Sephora,

it further loses her respect and any relevance that she previously gained. The curse of being famous before being ready. So you guys didn't want to tell me that you invited Addison for lunch? Addison Ray unfortunately experienced the opposite of the Halo effect, aka the horn effect. A cognitive bias that causes a person's perception of another to be influenced by a single negative trait. Where because she was seen as untalented and a joke, I do. We do like him. With everything she touches on, including the music that she is now known for,

she was brutally laughed at. Until Addison 2.0. Addison Ray's rebrand is the gift that keeps on giving. We've seen Addison Ray go from Cringy TikTok dancer to actual It Girl celebrity. How does cringe become iconic? Billboard is here at the 2024, VMA's red carpet, but V1 and only.

Addison Ray did it in three main ways. First, mystique. There's just something so cool and mysterious about her. In simple psychological terms, attraction works in push-pull dynamics. When old Addison was overexposing herself, without bringing any specific unique value, she was deemed as annoying and was never appreciated for her presence.

Until, Addison Ray finally understood the dynamics between supply and demand, and almost stopped posting entirely. But then something really interesting happened. People started wondering, where is Addison Ray? This is scarcity marketing at play for the product of personal IP, which is a strategy that aims to increase a product's perceived value, by limiting its supply, aka why limited edition bags or cars can sell for 10 times or higher than the usual price.

For Addison Ray, she stopped chasing trends. She stopped being like every other unmemorable TikTok dancer, stopped regularly posting on social media, and even went as far as to delete her entire Instagram feed. Girl was serious about a total rebrand. While we might hear everyone saying that posting consistently is the key to success on social media, it is to a certain degree. If Addison Ray wants to remain just another unmemorable influencer,

she can keep on overexposing herself to be an influencer. However, she made a very smart decision to rebrand to a celebrity route, which needs that distance with her fans, to create an allure of mystique and an elevated brand. Another really good example of this is Emma Chamberlain. From burping on the internet and sharing everything in her life, Emma stopped frequently posting about her life in the same unfiltered

and raw way, which makes her lose quite a bit of relatability, but nevertheless, shaped her path to the celebrity route to host a carpet at MetGala, work with top-tier couture Couture brands. Obviously, just posting less does not create the elevated mystique. People will literally forget about you, which is why the second factor, associations, is so important. What is the brand, you guys? It is everything and anything that something is associated with, which is why Nike only works with elite athletes and not comedians. Now, if Addison Ray wants to rebrand from cringe to respected artist,

who does she need to be associated with, respected artists? No more David Dobrick and TikTokers. Hence, the golden repackaging of Charlie X-AX and Lana Daray begins. First of all, we need to understand Addison Ray's audiences, and targeted demo. Although being constantly cloned on by internet trolls, Addison Ray's former content appealed to young teenage girls who can probably relate to her and see parts of this pretty girl as aspirational, as we see in her prior-brand partnerships with American Eagle, Pandora, and Hollister that cater to the young female demographic.

This is very key because guess who the young female demographic already love and look up to? Charlie X-A-X and Lana D'Rae. The audience overlap is purported. Charlie X-A-X represents this youthful party vibe of girlhood, while Lana Dara Ray has this perfect, elusive, and mysterious brand, which Addison Ray blended in a perfect balance. Not only that, by not just hanging out, but actually creating music with notable artists like Charlie XEX, such as the iconic scream in Von Dutch. The old cringe TikTokar image begins to fade out, and is replaced by this kind of mysterious new artist, who seems good enough to be collaborating with the trending artist of the Brat Summer. And then the way she dropped her hits and old Diet Pepsi, tying the song name, the lyrics, the visual brand,

and even the somewhat soft ethereal tones inspired by Lana Daray's style of music, replaces the crunch cookie cutter TikToker with this elusive woman, an artist. In addition, Addison Ray constantly hangs out with Courtney Kardashian. Her appearances with established artists and celebrities gives her borrowed credibility and pushes her further towards the celebrity route. On top of which, Addison Ray is now tying her partnerships strategically with her new brand, a being an artist. The Sonos headphones ad was beautifully shot. paired with her Diet Pepsi song as if it was a music video. This Lula Lemon ad paste perfectly to her Von Dutch scream

shows the perfect contrast between Brat Addison Ray and the ethereal Addison. And even this nerd candy ad. Just showing Addison Ray with a burst of energy somehow didn't seem off-brand, which is a testament to how Addison Ray is truly on the right path to the aspirational route, where her personal charm is enough to make a product appealing compared to the past. It's probably gonna sound really out there. But the moment I got here, I just knew. Cut!

That was great, let's move on. Awesome. Download, we're the vision's fine. Final Fantasy, Brave Xpheus and check out my character. Quote, this is so random. Quote, use me as a WTF button. But I also really like that she still shows rare moments of relatability, such as her Ilya Beauty video,

where she's giving you the rare access to a bare face down to earth her not covering up her acne. That's my makeup. Thank you for watching. Which makes her all the more likable. Lastly, no rebranding could ever succeed without the most important factor. Third, consistency. Not meaning no change. In fact, in constantly changing and keep people on their toes and guessing what's next.

And being able to keep it a secret to keep the mystique. Something Jojo Siwa can learn. I'm talking about something very special. I'm talking about something very, very special. Quote, Jojo take notes. This is how you rebrand. It is a consistency of a new visual brand. this very mysterious, cool, tumbler-esque, semi-nostogic yet indie brand

that completely wipes out the cringy TikTok dance girl with Sheehan quality. Addison Ray was chasing after attention in circles before realizing that instead of chasing after it, she can just become worthy of it. By no longer being just another somewhat famous but a memorable influencer, she decided to create her own trend, her own aesthetic, gets the people talking and kept on refining her music until all of a sudden the people who were laughing stopped and listened and maybe from an artist's standpoint cringe has always been part of the process

if the past was not cringe you're not growing enough a feeling i get every time i look back at my cringy old videos it just takes the right amount of courage to own it embrace it because eventually they will become the building blocks to something more worth remember I knew I was going to make it happen no matter what. I'm not afraid to continue making mistakes or eras as long as I'm learning from it and then changing and growing from that. So I feel like it's just a part of it. I would say with the rebrand of Addison Ray, the early brand flops of her makeup and fragrance line actually have the potential to revive. As her personal brand has this newly added glow of mystique and artistry, my suggestion will be to reformulate and repackage.

From this kind of cheap-looking Bath & Body Works-esque branding to something. that matches her new visual identity. And a small note from the cautionary tale of Jocewa is to avoid over-promoting her songs on TikTok. Which don't get me wrong, each does have its own unique taste. But as we know, the biggest selling point in Addison Ray's new brand is her newly constructed elusiveness. So less than seven or eight of the back-to-back-to-back-to-back song promotions would be ideal. With that, I admire Addison Ray's clarity in the brand that she's, she wants to build and her ability to follow through despite initial struggles.

But let me know if you think Addison Ray's rebrand was a success. This is your marketing bestie Zoe Unlimited. Comment which pop culture girl icon we should analyze next through our marketing lens. Episodes are now available on all podcast networks, Apple, Spotify, YouTube. Rate and share this episode with someone you love and I'll see you next week. Showtime. Let's play. Feel the fun with Play-O-Joe, the online casino with all the latest slot and live casino games. What you win is yours to keep with no wagering requirements, instant payouts, and no minimum

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