We Fixed It, You're Welcome - Taylor Swift & The Orange Glitter Effect

Episode Date: September 2, 2025

In this episode, the team dives into the cultural phenomenon of Taylor Swift's latest album release and how brands are jumping on the orange wave. They discuss the concept of "cultural currency" and how companies are navigating the challenge of joining in on viral trends. From the challenges of brand authenticity to the importance of a rapid response team, the conversation explores how brands can make smart, timely decisions that resonate with their audience while avoiding the pitfalls of inauthenticity. Key Takeaways: *Cultural Currency: In today’s fast-moving market, brands need to build cultural currency by staying relevant in the cultural conversation. Participating in viral moments can connect brands with their audiences in a more authentic way. *The Double-Edged Sword: While it’s essential for brands to join viral moments, there is a risk of appearing inauthentic if they don’t align with the moment properly. Brands must ask themselves: "Does this moment align with our values?" *Playbook for Brand Participation: Having a pre-established playbook for trend participation allows brands to act quickly while maintaining authenticity. This includes a rapid response team and guidelines for what is on-brand. *Timeliness is Key: Viral moments are fleeting, and brands need to respond fast. Delayed reactions can render a brand irrelevant in the eyes of their audience. *Risk Management: There’s inherent risk in participating in viral moments. Brands need to carefully weigh the benefits against the potential for public backlash or alienating segments of their audience. *Examples of Successful Brand Participation: Brands like Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts, and Duolingo nailed the Taylor Swift trend by integrating it seamlessly into their marketing strategies without losing their brand identity. https://wefixeditpod.com/ A quick disclaimer. We are going into this somewhat cold and nothing we say should be construed as legal advice, financial advice or anything that would get us in trouble. These are our views and opinions. We're here to ask the kinds of questions everyone's thinking. Have an engaging conversation and maybe come to some conclusions that we feel are worth exploring. By the end, if we fixed it, you're welcome. All trademarks, IP and brand elements discussed are property of their respective owners. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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You're in the zeitguise of this. What do you think about it? I would think about these moments as like almost building cultural currency, you know, with an audience. And I think especially in this day and age, companies need all the currency that they can get, right, with an audience, with a customer, with the consumer. I think my gut reaction was I loved it. I loved celebrating that moment because it was something that was important to me, you know, as a Swifty.

But I also think, to your point, it's interesting to see the play. And I was also thinking about it from a business perspective as well. Welcome to We Fix It. You're welcome. The show where we take over companies, you come along for the ride. We try to put them back better than we found them. It's not Halloween yet, but we've been seeing a lot of orange everywhere, specifically a certain sparkly type of orangey color. And there's one person to thank for that, Taylor Swift.

When she announced her 12th album and associated it with the color orange, brands could not contain themselves. Since the color orange is essentially free, brands started tripping over themselves to drench themselves in orange as fast as they could. We don't even know if this album's any good yet, but come on, it probably is. So Swifties, we're not here to hate on anything. we're just trying to figure this phenomenon out. And we're here to fix whether it's fair play to ride Taylor's wave, whether it's all too much, and whether a brand should join in on an already saturated trend or just sit it out and wait. Melissa, enlighten us. Tell us more.

Hi, I am a resident Swifty, so I'm just going to say that. I'd love to talk a little bit about acknowledging that Taylor Swift is the goat when it comes to PR and marketing. This isn't luck. It's a masterclass in building a universe. It's started with Easter eggs, secret clues and lyrics, videos, and even her outfits that turn fans into detectives in creating endless free content and theories. And you've seen it all over TikTok, all over X, it's everywhere. And this has been going on for years. Hence, her appearance on Jimmy Fallon a couple years ago. And when she asked, when is it too far in advance to drop an Easter egg? This three years. too far. And that's what she was doing already. And then also comes to the business side, all the re-recordings, a billion-dollar lemonade out of lemons move. She didn't just re-release old music. She made it an event. From the vault tracks, she added new album art and giving fans a moral mission to support her version, which had been sold from beneath her. She has now bought all those versions back, so she owns all her music, and she announced that on the podcast of her boyfriend.

and his brother, New Heights from the Kelsey brothers. It's genius. When everyone told her it was a bad idea, she knew it was going to be how she got her music back. And then we can't forget the personal text. Commenting on her fan posts, sending them gifts, making them feel seen and heard. She didn't just build a fan base. She built a militia of devoted Swifties, myself included, who will move mountains and algorithms, for that matter, just for her. So pop-up listening parties at her own home where she actually baked cookies that she made so that fans could listen to her songs.

And she picked those fans specifically from following them on social media and hearing what they were saying. She didn't pick me. So I'm waiting for the next release. So by the time life of a showgirl, actually, in its signature orange glitter aesthetic, drops this last week, the machine was already primed. She didn't have to say a word. she just posted an orange glittery square with a lock on it and the countdown. And the internet did the rest. Just crazy amount.

Currently, the podcast and views on YouTube has broken the internet. It's over 18 million as of yesterday, which is beyond any other podcast. The countdown clock, she's showing different versions. And the fact that everyone knows her PR guru, Tree Payne, says a lot. So who did it well? What notable brands leveraged that orange glitter trend? There were a lot of companies, including United Airlines, Olive Garden, Shake Shack, FedEx, Buffalo Wild Wings, Walmart, Netflix, several NHL teams. They all use that glittery orange to kind of create visuals for user searches on Taylor Swift, getting millions of views reinforcing platform-wide engagement,

hoping to bring their brand up in the algorithm. Universe. Duncan added orange glitter overlays with witty captions. Starbucks included their own swift-inspired coffee posts. These are all examples of showcasing how blending that that cultural moment with authentic brand elements can drive significant attention. Then there were less effective, you know, attempts, which is just throwing orange on your brand without connecting a message. And it kind of feels flat, alls flat,

and it also emphasized the need for more thoughtful integration. So for true cautionary tale about trying to jump on the bang wagon and this kind of thing, I'd like to talk about Blackout Tuesday, hashtag Blackout Tuesday. After George Floyd's murder, this was meant to be a day of reflection. And what happened was Moe-Meaning brands and people, you know, posted black squares. But that accidentally flooded the social media algorithms and silenced the activist hashtags. And so really, they jumped on the bandwagon without understanding the destination.

So it was really a lesson in the perils of not doing your homework. So those are one that's kind of wrapping that into like, do you want to jump on the bandwagon or do you not? And are you doing something at the detriment of your brand? So she has created this masterfully crafted marketing universe. So the problem we're trying to fix today is that gut punch moment when the entire internet is screaming about one thing. And your brand's social feed is just not crickets. So when brands fail to listen and adapt quickly enough to integrate into these cultural moments, they miss chances to visibly connect with these energized audiences.

So it's more than just FOMO, its relevancy. and how do you stop watching from the sidelines and actually jump into that conversation without really creating a disaster for yourself? So let's go ahead and fix it. Anyone, Erin, Hedero, you want to jump in with you? Well, with your. Let's start with this situation and we'll extrapolate it out to other ones. It's a double-edged sword, right? So if you have a natural affinity, you've shown your Taylor Love as a brand for years.

Of course you're going to play, right? That's a signal to you. Go ahead and be part of this. You're in the cultural conversation. You're in the zeitgeist of this. What do you think about it? If you are some of the ones you meant, Olive Garden, FedEx, do we really know that they've had this tailor alignment for all this time?

And do we care what they think? They got the lift from it. They got a ride out of it. But are they, you know, do we care that they're playing along? That's the double-edged sword is if you have, well, I guess the straight shot is if you've been tried and true for all these years, go for it. If you are sitting on the sidelines and you see a moment, the double-edged sword is if you play too far into it and it's not, has no connection or bearing to what you're all about, that's a problem. And if you sit it out and do nothing and everyone else is around you, part of this moment of significance for whatever reason, it's culturally significant right now. and you're just watching and doing nothing and, you know, posting Happy Tuesday, that's a problem too.

So that's a double-ed sword in this situation. And of course, you got into already larger and even, I'd say, more societally important situations, too, that brands have had navigated well and also had missteps. Yeah. And I also, I would think about these moments as like, almost, building cultural currency, you know, with an audience. And I think especially in this day and age, companies need all the currency that they can get, right, with an audience, with the customer, with the consumer. Because I think what it really signals is like, it's not that a company is just pushing their product, buy our coffee, buy our candy, buy our car, whatever. It's when they participate in these moments, it's saying, like, we're a part of the world you're living in as well. We're here right along with you, right?

And so, you know, I think it comes down to like, to your point, Aaron as well, like this double-edged sword, having to decide if you're going to participate in the moment, right? And if you choose to ignore it, maybe it doesn't align with your value. Maybe it doesn't align with your brand. Maybe it just feels inauthentic. It, you know, you run the risk still of just kind of looking culturally ignorant, if you will. But I think relying on, you know, these violence. moments just for the sake of going viral, that's also not a strategy, right? So I just want to be clear about that as well. Like going viral isn't a strategy in itself. I think there's nuance.

And again, I think it's not just about like hopping on every trend. It's really about how can we as a company, how can we as a brand translate, you know, what is happening in this moment to really speak in our unique voice, our unique perspective to our audience. And Melissa, So you called out. You know, I was watching as well, some of the companies that did it really, like, well, right? Like Starbucks, I thought was great. Eminem was, like, cute and perfect, right? Duncan Donuts was great.

Like, they all did a great job of, like, leveraging the moment, but they made it their own. And it was really seamless. It was like, yeah, I get that. An orange Eminem, of course, right? Like, of course you're going to have, you know, an orange square behind you. I think the other thing here is timeliness. and just knowing that time is of the essence in these moments, right? So it's, you know, these moments happen and then they're gone.

They are no longer relevant. When we talk about relevancy, the audience has moved on. We live in a day of social media folks. You know, our attention spans are like 15 seconds long. And so I think the other thing here is just a brand's ability, of course, to make sure that it integrates well, but also to be able to adapt very, very quickly. If you wait too long on this moment, it's gone. We're on to the next thing.

Well, okay, they're on that. I mean, the problem wasn't that M&M, there's a few brands that caught onto it and did something authentic and clever. This came out on October 13th. There's a great article in Adweek that as of October, or sorry, August 13th, as of August 19th, there were 2,600 posts by brands. We'll call it cashing in. cashing in on the moment. So it wasn't five brands that articulated something well and had it well orchestrated and, you know, all the 2,600 posts from different brands. Some of them had no business being there. But yet they said, yeah, count us in. We want in on that. Yeah,

exactly. Right. Yeah. I mean, think it's a, you know, it also goes into the question of now the creative context and content and the social media manager. role in a company and in the marketing team and says something maybe Aaron you could speak to more. But like in the past, I've, you know, I've worked at large corporations where the social media was actually kind of a firefighter, the social media manager, right? So they're also like looking at social media. So like are we getting like dinged on LinkedIn because we had an issue, an outage, for example. I'm just making that up. But like, you know, you'll see that like now people have gone to social media to like also raise complaints right so like that was

one role of social media managers was like like looking to see making sure that their brand wasn't getting slammed by like an united airlines is a perfect example that you can talk about like you know they used the orange clear background had a plane they had a little thing on theirs but like they're also social media manager is also the one who's constantly on twitter and constantly constantly on threads looking at all the people complaining about like delays in Newark and blah blah blah blah blah and like I you know I the bathroom wasn't working whatever it might be and you'll see all of this stuff going on so like what is that role of that social media manager and and their ability to like address this trend like as you said like so quickly and turn

something around like are you allowing those people? in your organization to have the autonomy to make some of these calls because, Erin, you know, a marketing campaign usually doesn't take 12 hours. You know, there's like all these hoops you have to go through. You've got to go through legal. You've got to go through the design team because they're like, oh, that's not the right color or that's the wrong thought, you know, blah, blah, blah, blah. What are you trying to say?

So like this is really kind of an interesting idea. Like you know, when you think about like all of the different brands, dual lingo, like all these brands that we've actually talked about and companies that we've talked about, Starbucks, you know, all of them. Dunkin Donuts. Like they're all jumping in on this. But like to be able to do that, you have to like pivot so quickly. And that's a different type of marketing. You know, it's kind of like ninja marketing. It's not like the same kind of thing, a well-thought-out program.

Well, Melissa, put your, put your Swifty hat on for a second, or keep it on throughout the episode. It's up to you. But got check it. All the brands that you saw, you know, you saw all the social, you saw all the reactions. Did that seem like a celebratory moment to you? Like, good, every brand I know and interface with is as excited as I am for this cultural moment we're building toward? or did it feel inauthentic? Like, what was your just got reaction to it?

I think my gut reaction was, I loved it. I loved celebrating that moment because it was something that was important to me, you know, as a Swifty. But I also think, to your point, it's interesting to see the play. And I was also thinking about it from a business perspective as well,

like, oh, that is an interesting thing. Like, you know, Olive Garden, dressing up their breadstick, life of a breadstick, you know, like hide up, play on the thing, you know, it was kind of hilarious. I was like, funny. And then Elmo, you know, Sesame Street got in on it, you know, all the things. I mean, there's certain brands that you would automatically think we're going to jump in on it. Like I wasn't surprised by Starbucks, of course.

They've done a whole, you know, swiftly fall thing, whatever. I wasn't surprised because the Empire State Building has been amazing about her and her release of albums. They've always like painted the building purple, orange, whatever the colors were. They've always done that and they've and then they have some cute you know little tweet that they put out.

So there are certain brands that I was like of course expecting that and I feel like that was just in line exactly. I think that being more surprised by other brands that like did something and you're like Okay, that just felt, yeah, it did feel inauthentic. Like, for some of them, putting, like, the color orange on their page or the background of their, it doesn't feel, you know, I'd like it to be like a little more witty. So, like, you know, I like those kinds of, you know, capturing the moment, but also tying it back to what they are.

So if it's Duncan, tying it back to coffee or donuts or whatever, you know what I mean? Or she, for the love of that, she has so many songs. Like, so I loved, like, seeing when people put a song in there and said, oh, you know, and then that actually tied into maybe whatever their brand actually is. Yeah. And it's clearly not costing them hardly anything to put it out there. I mean, I get the cost is to their culture brand, right? Like, yeah.

Got to be careful. Yeah. Right. But even if I, you know, build out a little bit, I mean, even Melissa, as you're talking, you know, about what felt authentic, you know, more so than others. I mean, again, just thinking about that the teams internally, right, that are responsible for this. And as you were talking, I was kind of laughing to myself because, you know, I think we all have been a part of those teams and companies where, like you said, it takes six weeks, you know, to build out one thing. And you've got to align with 500 people in the company.

And look, processes and approvals are there for so many reasons, right? Good reasons. Typically, they are put into place to protect the company. So great. right but again you have to typically jump through so many hoops just to get something approved or move something along And, you know, as I was saying earlier, I think time is of the essence with these types of moments. Again, you may not, you're not going to have six weeks to hop on something like this. You're going to have two hours, right? Taylor, posted something.

We've got to make the decision over the next couple of hours what's going to be cool. And so I, you know, I think about for sure, like, how do you empower and or train that social media person to make sure that, you know, they understand that they're brand stewards. They understand cultural nuance, right? So they're not just kind of carrying the water, but they are actually empowered to do their jobs. I mean, I shout out a company like Wendy's. Whoever is running their platforms and needs a raise, right? Because I have seen a couple of posts where a customer might have a question or kind of like a snarky complaint or they'll get tagged in something. And they have the funniest comebacks.

If I were a betting woman, I am betting that they are not running that up the chain with 25 people. before they post. Now, there's probably guardrails in place to make sure that everybody's good with it, but like it's on brand as well, right? And the snarkiness is like, I live for it. Love it. Them trolling McDonald's ice cream machine, how it never is up and running. Like, I love that. That is the most hilarious thing in that, like, that's like a common answer that Wendy's will use to a question. If it's not working, they'll be like, oh, like McDonald's ice cream machine. machine, you know, whatever. And it had, with like Wendy's. It's like talking about a computer being broken or your phone on. Exactly. Exactly. Right. And so again, like, you know, just if I were

thinking about internally, okay, so what does that look like? How did they get there? I mean, obviously, it's on brand for them. It's how they want to push the envelope. It's how they kind of want to show up as a company. And so, you know, I would always encourage companies to kind of think about who are you? Before these viral moments happen, who are you anyway? Right. I'm also the queen of a playbook. I have written many in my career. I will forever love them because I think playbooks also help you in, you know, whether that's blue sky or again outside of these moments.

It gives people freedom within a framework to operate. Right. Right. So what's the tone? What's our humor? How much are we going to push? What are, you know, the brand voice, all those things. I also think, you know, in these moments, it's okay to say, okay, we're going to establish

these teens or huddles or pods. these 10 key stakeholders. And in the event that we need to stand something up within a couple of hours, we're going to pull folks together for 15, 30 minutes on a quick call, on a quick cuddle, it's all hands on deck. We need to get some approvals, make some decisions. We're going to make sure we align with the playbook. Y'all all good?

We good? Okay, go, right? Versus again how we know that typically it can take, you know, months to put some sort of campaign together. So, and then, you know, lastly, I would just say, like, it is in these moments where you have to normalize risk taking. Again, if you don't say anything, you potentially are running the risk of that going really badly

with customers and employees, et cetera. If you do say something, you know, there's a risk there as well. But I think just from like a people side, when I think about your, you know, a company's employees, you have to kind of build that psychological safety, whether it's with the social media manager who's going to be putting together those posts and kind of managing it on the front lines

or even your employees being comfortable enough to kind of raise it up the flagpole to say, hey, how are we responding to this thing that all these other companies are responding to? So, yeah. Yeah, I love what you said about the playbook because to me, what I think is really important is they need to have this strategy now, because this is definitely something that's happening more often than not. And it's not just a Swifty thing. It's, well, she's huge. But it's happening in other environments, too.

We talk about the American Eagle snap food, right, with the ad. And then people's responses to that, you know, those are the kinds of things that need to happen. So I love that idea of having, like, a rapid response team, right? Kind of like you have for disaster recovery. You have this for a lot of different things in corporations. And have a templated, like, rapid response FAQ kit or something that can be quickly adapted. So, you know, you already got like levels of approvals that have already been kind of taken down because you just need three signatures at the top. And if they're not available, you know, one will do, right?

Whatever. And kind of creating like the green light test, right, in the list that is like pre-approved list of different types of ideas and like where, how far can you go, right? Like in terms of the brand value, tone, safe topics. if it's a trend that you know fits that list, then like give them pre-rain to your point, right? Permission to create the content. And then maybe even, like, I don't know that, you know, I don't know. Aaron, you could talk to this.

I don't know how much it costs for them to like take a picture and, you know, do all the things that they did to it and then posted on social media. But like just establishing even like a little kitty of monies, that's like kind of a small, no questions asked budget, you know, will help to capitalize on these trends and that, you know, like, it could be like the kind of thing that we're talking about, Kudera, with the Wendy's, you know, viral. Like, you know, if that person had, and I used to do this in customer service, so in call centers, right? Like, each individual rep had X amount of dollars that they could credit a customer based on some escalated issue, whatever.

it might be, that's the kind of thing that helps people buy into it and actually get something out of it. Because I do think, you know, one of the things that we have to be aware of is just slapping the color orange on your brand. You're not, what are you driving? You're driving attention, but are you actually driving business? And I think that's what people want to do. So maybe also having kind of like that true pronged approach of like, we're going to reward your endorphins by. giving you the orange glitter thing. And then we're going to slide in a little bit later with, oh, we have a swiftly code.

By using the swiftly code, you can come to Starbucks and you can get a 13 cent, because 13's her number or whatever, 13 cent drink or something like that, right? You know what I mean? Try to live something out of it versus just putting it out. I like what you're both saying about having a play or almost like crisis management, but flip it, it's like trend management. So you have a triage team or a playbook or a protocol for what happens when something drops culturally.

How do we play? How do we play? And you have a way of, you know, like a decision matrix and a team that's ready to react quickly. To be fair, to brands, not all that were official tie-ins. I don't know how many are sanctioned brand partnerships. That really hasn't come to light yet, if any. She may not have needed it this time around, but some of these brands were pretty well orchestrated in and premeditated in this moment.

So Panera, for example, they have 72 and Sunny is their creative agency of record as of January. And they have been building toward moments like this and how do we react to it. They did a meal tie-in and they got 500 million impressions and over half a million organizations. views in 72 hours from tying into the moment. So they had a creative agency that doesn't mess around. They knew what they were doing and they timed it well. It was more than an orange square. So there are brands that are pretty meticulous about this type of thing.

And then brands too, like I said, that just kind of threw something up and said, yeah, look at us. Yeah. And I think, you know, as companies are, you know, if they take idea and hopefully they will of building out of playbook. because I think that's definitely one of our really good ideas here is, you know, when you're building out that framework, one of the first questions is like, not should we join in, but it's more around what do we authentically have to say here, right? So as Melissa, Aaron, both of you have already said, and I think we keep saying it because it's like the stamp is like, does it align with our identity? Does it align with our brand? Does it align with our values? where's the natural fit here? Because again, the audience is smart. We know the audience is smart.

Companies, you will get canceled. You'll be accused of being tone deaf. You'll have the audience scratching your head if things just don't make sense. And again, there's a risk here regardless. There's a risk of participating. There's a risk of not participating. But if you are measuring against these calculated risks, and again, kind of building out that framework

And starting with that initial question, you've got a little bit of a better chance of it actually working in your favor, I think. Well, you've said also is really about linking that viral moment and to something that's very authentic to the brand, which will then actually end up hopefully in conversion to the business side, right, so that it will actually provide this thematic and seamless integration. weaving that trend into the existing product or services that that company provides and making it less of a hard sell, right? Right. And then all of a sudden, you know, if your Panera, I'm just making this up, Panera already did something, but like if you're Taco Bell, you might say, oh, we are going to have a new orange flavored drink. That or 13 cents. It's called The Showgirl and it goes with every taco you purchase or whatever, whatever, whatever.

So you're just integrating it and the trend is actually driving traffic to your site. And you can see some on brand business outcome, which I think is really the thing that like, you know, you can see when somebody is just slapping it and not really thinking about it. And then others that are kind of thinking more about it, like really trying to get their brand in there. right like with all the gardening dressing up a breadstick right it's not just about like you know oh we're going to have orange spaghetti that's not going to happen right that's not what they're doing so i think that um i do think and i think there's certain things that like yeah certain brands it's a lot it may be easier to do something like that but like we've seen this happen time and time again that

there's these cultural events throughout that you know really we need to talk about and like think about like how do we allow the company to have an integrated experience that is so of the moment that also kind of ties back to Dura to like what the business is really all about in its core. Yeah, absolutely. Yep.

Well, what I've been wondering is so you have this, and this is kind of unprecedented brand participation, but like when the Barbie movie came out, it didn't hurt for a brand to be pink for a day, right? and the Smurse movie kind of came and went, but brands were blue. And then Taylor Swift has a moment, and brands were orange. And we just see this mass participation.

But when then something comes out that is political or has, you know, more nuanced cultural conversation and brands partake there, does it take the wind out of the sales of things like that when there's such a rush for participation for things like this? Like, does the, you know, does it lose effectiveness? That's what I'm wondering. I think I want to hear what you think about that. I was going to say that one of the things that was interesting that you saw a lot of people commenting on was taking back the color orange and having it be seen as a positive, uplifting, something we are excited for versus the color orange being maybe aligned with politics and the president. And so I thought that was interesting because I thought, wow, this is bold.

she's going with orange where orange right now is not really the color anybody wants to be associated with and you know and to see like you know people commenting not just with these right now you're talking about commentary across like news field you know all all areas and they're all saying look she took back the color orange which was you know important and i think that's an interesting point you have because like what if what happens when it's associated with something that's not as positive, right? That's, that's a risk. And so that's ultimately where, you know, Kadira having a playbook, like the green light template, like these are the things that are okay. These things we might need to have a level of approval that we just, you know, just because we don't want to get caught up

in something is really important. But I personally, you know, I think that you have to be careful and balance the risk of making a bad decision and maybe pissing off an entire segment of audience versus missing out. Like, again, that is definitely one of the things that I feel like this, whoever is in charge of that social media account or whatever, that's a real, it's a hard balance. Yeah. And I think, you know, again, in the playbook, right, as you're building out that framework, it is really asking those kind of key questions of like, again, who are we as a company?

I mean, Melissa, like your point about orange and kind of flipping it on its head and taking the power bag, I mean, phenomenal. But if you're a company that's maybe been, you know, aligning in a certain direction, you may have folks on your team or powers that be that may have recognized that and called it out and said, yep, we're not leaning into this. We're not going that direction, right? And so again, you know, I always say like in the blue sky, that's where you want to have these conversations. And again, you're not going to be able to kind of predict. There's no way to predict or determine what is going to become a moment or a viral moment that, you know, you're going to participate in and you're going to plan for it again for six months out. But again, in that blue sky, asking yourself around the table, whether it's the social media team, marketing team, HR, whoever is responsible within that company should be kind of asking questions as they're building out this playbook. of like, who are we? Who, you know, how do we lean? What are our current policies? Are we reactive and safe?

Are we responsive and bold? Are we a company that tends to lean this way politically? Do we want to play it safe on these types of issues, et cetera? Because the risk is going to be there regardless. It's just a question of like, what risk do you want to lean toward? Yeah. Well, totally, Kudera. And will there be blowback too?

Like, let's say something, you know, comes out and it's take a, take a stance, it's one way or another, what are you going to say as a brand and they say something? And maybe it's true and authentic to who they are. Maybe it's performative. Is there going to be a pushback to say, wait a minute, you were all in for Taylor Swift. Why are you being so cautious right now or why are you not saying anything in the moment? That's right. I think that that's so true.

It's like understanding, ultimately it's understanding the core of what you are all about as a company. Because this can either help or hurt. hurt your business. It helps when it's done, like we've been saying over and over again, with the operational alignment, with the employee alignment, with the cultural alignment of the company. It signals relevance, authentic, authenticity, building connections with a new and expanded audience. And it can drive business and revenue, right, if it's done correctly. But only if from start to finish, everyone buys in on it, right? And is prepared to deliver on that. It hurts when it's, and I think Erin, you mentioned this earlier, when it's a little lazy, it's off brand,

it's operationally blind, it's culturally blind, right? Kadira, when you're not thinking about, like, wait, what did you just say when that's not what we're all about, right? So jumping on a sensitive trend or creating demand, you can't fulfill. All. also leads to public backlash, customer distrust, and a reputation of being kind of desperate instead of being clever, right? And so those are the things that you really have to be careful about because it really could hurt you. Yeah. And let's not forget Taylor Swift is eventually here to sell a product, right? It's impending. And if she loses control of this conversation, a brand takes a giant misstep. And then all of a sudden that becomes a center of the story.

You know, she's, it could, or it gets too overblown and people are just fatigued by the time the album drops. That could have the opposite effect. So I don't think it will. I think she's going to ride the wave on this. But there are dangers in letting brands participate however they want. And then, you know, sitting back and waiting, I think it's all very calculated. I think it's all going to go well. But the ultimate test is does her product sell better because of this participation?

I don't know that she's really concerned about that at this point. Yeah. She's record record. This is album 12. She's done this before. But I agree that like she's made this engaged. So it becomes like this treasure hunt, right, for the audience. Like every, you know, we're constantly perusing her website.

So now since August 13, she has now dropped, you know, variations of the vinyl. And so every day, everybody's going to her website because now you'll see a different color, like yesterday was like purple and black or blue and black and something like that and a countdown, right? And then out comes a new vinyl variation. So I think that like, again, it's very, from her perspective, it's very calculated. She's been laying these Easter eggs since three years ago. outfits she wore during the heirs tours on specific dates, you know, that then tie in to August 13th, tie in to 10-3 when she's releasing the album, which is Boyfriends Day, National Boyfriends Day, and National Plaid Day. So people were wondering, because after the heirs were, every night she was photographed going to dinner with Travis in New York City, she was wearing plaid. And people were like, what's up with the plaid?

like, you know? Okay, National Cloud Day, October 3rd. National Boyfriend Day. Right. You know, and so she's, you know, showing all of these different types of things. And so for her, the calculation is amazing. But I do think that for the brands, I think that there's a lot of love for the brands that made it feel like they were part of it as well. And they're starting that. I do think for us, when we think about how do you fix it if you were a brand that missed out on it or you fell flat is really Kadira what kind of what you shared which is you know having some sort of playbook you know green light red light you know all the things that can happen maybe having some sort of what what did you call it like a quick group huddle to yeah like a huddle a

Like an approval umbrella that's really quick. And I think the most important thing that you've shared that I think is really important to operationally as well as culturally is like making sure that it ties in to the soul of the company, right? That's right. Because otherwise it's not really necessary. And then I think from a marketing perspective, it's about like how are you thinking bigger about these types of viral cultural moments and how are you utilizing your social media team to end

error that you have the time and bandwidth to jump on that on jump on those things because like I said you know our use of social media teams was a lot of times was trying to put out fires right yeah you know it used to be where you didn't have social media where you know you you had a bad experience with somebody and you just kind of told your neighbors yeah Now you tweet it out. And within seconds, millions of people either know it's good or bad, right? And so, you know, to me, I feel like there's a lot of work that can be done. And I would love to like to, you know, a panel with like the Wendy's social media account.

You know, all the what are like killing it. Dual lingo, right? You know, they talked about like they did a great job of like integrating the whole Taylor Swift moment, but also not losing their kind of shtip and who they are, right? And so that's, again, those are the kinds of things that you're trying to find. I wonder if we're going to see more brand Easter eggs come out of this too. You know, because the audience just love playing all. You look at the Instagram or TikTok decoding videos and people love this stuff.

They love playing along the, and I wonder if brands are going to say, look, we put out this thing two years ago. You liked it. Now we waited two years to tell you, and here it is. and boom, you know, we haven't seen a lot of that. So I wonder if they're going to pick up on this as a marketing strategy too. Possibly. Yep. Could be. We are getting our fix timer.

Kadira, I think you fixed it for us halfway through, which I really appreciate it. I think if you're a brand sitting on the sidelines wondering, do I take part? Instead of rushing in or sitting out, you have a framework. You have a playbook. You have a specialty team that makes those types of things. decisions for you. Maybe you loop in your agency. Maybe you just have someone that's got carte blanche and has great instincts. But if you put in the right decision making criteria and you know how you play, whether it's this type of moment or any type of cultural moment. And if it's right,

you do it. If not, you don't add to that. But would that fix it for you, Kedera? I think that's perfect. And just as Melissa said, right, like, who are we as a company? What do we stand for as a company outside of this moment? Start there. Again, not asking should we participate, but how does this resonate very authentically with us as a company? Definitely. What about you, Melissa? I love it. I think that, like you mentioned, the viral kit, you know, the template, love that. I think, Kadira, what you just said is what I would call the so what test, like, so what, why does it matter? Will it really affect us if we don't participate? And, you know, are we just doing it to be opportunistic?

or are we thinking about how we can integrate it into who we are as a brand? And then empowerment. You know, it's about empowering your team. And I love the idea that, like, there are people on the team that may not be the CMO, may not be, you know, all of those people that are able to spot some of these trends and really kind of create something that is really authentic and really witty and just really fun and kind of get a whole new audience to open up to whatever brand that might be. So love it.

Love it. I think that was one of our most concise fixes yet. Well, that's going to do it. Easter eggs. Maybe there's some Easter eggs here in our episode. You guys will see. I have a Taylor Swift cup. Mind me.

Yeah. Nice. Welcome. Where are you going to wrap up our Taylor-centric episode of We Fix It. You're Welcome. Melissa, besides the cup, what's your favorite Taylor Swift album? Do you have one? Oh, that is a really hard question. I think that I love, love folklore. I love reputation. Do you already have one? I don't. No. I don't.

Hard thing. That's like so. I know. It's like a personality test. You know, like one era versus another era. Like red is an incredible era too. You know, there. I'll go with midnight. I'll go with midnights. Yeah. Keep that one. Keep that one going. Yeah. She's just awesome. I saw her actually. It comes back right at comes right back at you. I actually saw her at a rally actually. She just, she puts on an amazing show. So she was, it was great.

Yeah. Very cool. It's hard to choose. Nice. All right. Well, we're going to ride the wave to you. Taylor, we just fixed a bunch of stuff for you. So if you start making the podcast rounds, be sure to stop by and see us.

All right. And for everyone who's not Taylor Swift, if you're caught up on our show, we'll be back with more season two next week. If you're new to our show and you want to tour our eras, you see what I did there? You can go all the way back to the start of season one at we fixeditpod.com. We are your fearless fixers with expertise across operations, customer experience, corporate responsibility, social impact, branding and marketing. And you can reach out to us there to we fixeditpod.com.

If your own company breaks and you don't call us, you're on your own, kid. So don't let that happen. We will see you next time. We hope you enjoyed this episode of We Fix It. You're welcome. We go into every episode somewhat cold, and nothing we say should be construed as legal advice, financial advice, or anything that would get us in trouble. All trademarks, IP, and brand elements remain property of their respective owners.