Brown Marttila Moore Walker Taylor Swift’s …cryptic video of a snake slithering (Kelly, 2017)....

TaylorSwiftCaseAnalysis

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Taylor Swift’s Reputation Case Analysis

Emily Walker, Tracy Moore, Susannah Marttila and Carter Brown

Auburn University


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Over the years, Taylor Swift has become a global music icon, earning millions of album

sales and acquiring 104 million Instagram followers, all at the young age of 27. Born and raised

on a Christmas tree farm in Pennsylvania, Swift began singing at a young age, following in the

shadow of her grandmother, who was an opera singer. She learned to write her own songs and

play guitar when she was 12 years old. After visiting several times, Swift’s family moved to

Tennessee to pursue her music career. She would later sign to Scott Borchetta’s Big Machine

Records as a country artist, becoming an instant sensation (Taylor Swift, 2017). Swift has

dabbled in different genres of music, debuting as a country artist and later switching to pop after

her fourth studio album. Given the change in genre and the evident growth that comes with

aging, she went from the innocent, country girl to a grown woman with a more electric, mature

sound.

This change did not come without some resistance, and Swift quickly gained the attention

of the public. After her latest world tour, Swift took a social media hiatus, deleting her accounts

and remaining inactive. To announce she was back, Swift released a music video for her song

“Look What You Made Me Do,” where she makes fun of several stereotypes critics have created

for her, and pokes fun at her old characters claiming that the “old Taylor” is “dead”. The video

gained immediate attention when it premiered on the MTV Video Music Awards and was

immediately available on YouTube. She released promotional teaser videos before the reveal,

and then posted the music video on her social media platforms afterwards. Many would deem her

rebranding attempt as a success. This case study is important to the public relations profession,

with a particular emphasis on the consumer relations and entertainment leisure side, because it

shows how the industry is changing. In order to remain relevant in the industry, one cannot rely

solely on talent or product anymore. Taylor Swift’s situation shows that in order to build hype


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around something, a person in particular, they have to do something out of the ordinary in order

to gain attention. Pop culture plays a big role in the lives of consumers today, so attaching one’s

personal drama to their professional life can help to increase the popularity of their work, much

like this case with Swift.

We conducted formative research about Swift’s rebranding by examining her changing

reputation, analyzing her audience before and after the rebrand, and researching how media

coverage impacted her brand. Taylor Swift’s key publics during her rebrand are her fans and

other celebrities such as Katy Perry and Kim Kardashian west, who have contributed to her

“bad” reputation. The only key message, to date, that Swift has employed to promote her rebrand

is through a post on Instagram with the caption, “There will be no further explanation. There will

just be reputation” (Yahr, 2017). Her key message essentially means that she will allow her

reputation to do the talking for her, and that she will no longer explain herself to anyone. Before

the launch of her new single and rebranding, Swift was considered America’s sweetheart because

of her upbeat country music style and wholesome image; however, drama among other

celebrities eventually took a toll on her good girl image. Her most noteworthy feud was between

Kanye West and Kim Kardashian-West, where Swift has been called a “snake” and told that she

was “playing the victim” (Woodward, 2017). The Kardashian-West and Swift media presence

influenced the press and audiences to pick a side in the feud, which caused further damage to

Swift’s reputation. Throughout Swift’s career she has been involved in many feuds which caused

her fans to distrust her, making them unwilling to defend her because she refused ownership for

her part in the controversies (Phull, 2016). However, Swift’s new image has attracted the

attention of new and old fans alike because she admits to her role in the feuds, establishes that

she defines her reputation by taking ownership of these criticisms, and proves that she is trying


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to be a “new” Taylor. In her new single “Look What You Made Me Do,” Swift admits that she

received her karma and soon her enemies will all get theirs.

In the age of social media, it is

becoming harder and harder for promotional

efforts to receive any attention. Knowing

this to be true, Swift’s team made the bold

decision to create their rebranding campaign

entirely based off of Taylor’s personal

experiences. Typically, when an album is

released, the promotional team attempts to

create buzz by creating new imagery and

using typical social media platforms such as

Twitter to get the word out. However,

instead of creating things that were new,

Swift’s team transformed the old, hyped up

the drama of her personal life, and used the

influence of pop culture to let the story

advertise the album. While this strategy may

seem risky, there could be no better celebrity

to give it a shot than Taylor Swift. She lives

a highly public life, and does not shy away

from controversy, particularly when she

feels that she has been wronged. The drama


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seems to revolve around Taylor Swift, whether she likes it or not. Therefore, instead of letting

the drama and rumors define her, through this rebranding effort, she took ownership of

everything that had ever been said about her, and used it for her own personal gain. By

referencing the most memorable moments from Taylor’s career in both her new song and music

video, the promotional team was able to see this strategy through flawlessly

This strategy was set in motion to accomplish a number of objectives. From an

informational standpoint, they wanted to make publics not only aware that new music was

coming out, but excited about it. Attitudinally, the team behind the album’s release wanted to

clearly demonstrate that Taylor was not taking her many criticisms harshly, but had decided not

to let those negative words define her. Behaviorally, it all boils down to sales. Her team wanted

the music video to go viral, the songs to climb the charts on streaming, and eventually, the album

to sell faster, and in higher quantities than ever.

Taylor Swift and her team used a myriad of creative tactics in order to ensure that this

strategy would be successful. For almost the entirety of Taylor’s career, she had practically

operated on a schedule of releasing an album every two years in the fall. This album however

established itself as different right off the bat when an autumn went by with no new music.

Taylor Swift fans started to realize that something was off, as posts on Taylor’s Instagram

became less frequent. In fact, Taylor did not even throw her usual Fourth of July party, sending

fans into frenzy (Heller, 2017). Whether this lack of posting was in an effort to keep her life

more private, or a tactical move, Taylor Swift spent the summer of 2017 highly off the radar.

Suddenly, on August 18th, 2017 her social media pages, including Twitter, Instagram, and

Facebook were wiped clean (Aswad, 2017). These accounts had amassed a combined 250

million followers, with Instagram as her most active platform, reaching 104 million followers.


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In this age when social media

seems practically impossible to live

without for some, this bold move had

shock value to say the least. After weeks

of inactivity, those who had yet to notice

the strange behavior tuned in,

realizing that this must mean

something. There was a combination

of positive and negative reactions on

social media, but discussion none the

less. The Swift team made the decision to attract more attention by doing the opposite of posting

something new that would simply get lost in a feed of information: they deleted everything.

A few days later on August 21st, the same accounts that had been wiped all posted a

cryptic video of a snake slithering (Kelly, 2017). The video seems to glitch and then fade to

black. This was the first of three videos that were posted on Instagram in the following days.

When shown next to one another, the three videos form the snake’s whole body. These cryptic

videos confirmed that the account had not been hacked, but instead strategically cleaned in order

to promote something new, and big. Fans immediately connected the dots, figuring out that the

snake imagery was a reference to the snake emojis that had appeared in Taylor’s Instagram

comments following her song-writing feud with ex-boyfriend Calvin Harris, and her released

phone call with Kanye West regarding his use of her name in a song (Holterman, 2017). If these

videos did not make enough of a statement on their own, along with the last one, Taylor

officially announced the album’s release and shared the cover art on August 23rd. The album


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cover features a starkly different looking Taylor surrounded by journalistic looking writing,

referencing her prevalence in the media (Yahr, 2017). The first single was released the next day,

and that is when the real fun began.

“Look What You Made Me Do,” which is also referenced as LWYMMD, was released

on August 24th, and according to some fans, “upstaged the eclipse” (Yahr, 2017). The dark tone

of the song immediately established this album as entirely different from anything fans had heard

from Taylor in the past. One line in particular directly acknowledges this rebrand; Taylor says, in

a voice effect mimicking the controversial phone call with Kanye West, “I’m sorry, the old

Taylor can’t come to the phone right now. Why? Oh, cause she’s dead.” The bold lyrics,

distinctly pop beat, and dark melody also serve as a tactic in continuing the interest in this release

and rebrand. The next day, Taylor Swift allowed Good Morning America to air a thirteen second

teaser of the LWYMMD music video (Heller, 2017). This decision could have been to widen the

reach of her audience, as Good Morning America would increase the buzz surrounding the song

release, the video release, and the album release to an audience that may not have typically seen

her social media announcements. Nothing about any of the tactics to this point remained constant

with her “usual” style of music release, and when her music video was released at the VMA’s the

following day, this remained true.

Her music video could be touted as the number one tactic used by her marketing team to

drum up attention, and completely establish that the Taylor Swift from this album was going to

be nothing like the Taylor Swift that had released the 5 predecessors. The video, which is longer

than the song itself, was premiered at the Video Music Awards and is filled with visual allusions

to Swift’s numerous controversies, and the opinions expressed about her in the media. She is

seen breaking into a music streaming company, as a reference to her widely known hatred of


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streaming services such as Spotify, ruling over an army of identical, plastic women, who

represent her highly criticized “squad,” lying in a bathtub of jewels with a single dollar bill as a

reference to her winnings from her sexual harassment court case, spends practically the entire

video surrounded by snakes for previously mentioned reasons, and more (Lang, 2017). As this

album release is structured to entirely re-brand the name of Taylor Swift, destroying the old

Taylor is essential. Therefore, nearing the end of the music video, the presumable “new Taylor”

stands on a mountain of “old Taylors,” dressed in the iconic clothes from her career, and

explodes that mountain to bits. There is not a single moment of this video that did not reference

either a negative impression of her that had been circulated by the media or a scandal she had

been known for or involved in. However, by using all of these moments, she took ownership of

her reputation back from the hands of her critics, and established that only she can define herself.

As strange as the music video may have seemed to many, it practically took over the internet for

the following days, receiving attention from both fans and critics everywhere (Bruner, 2017).


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Following something as well thought out as the LWYMMD video can be tricky, but

Taylor’s team was not done yet, as they worked to prepare for the release of the album on

November 10th. One of the more notable tactics beyond LWYMMD was her partnership with

ESPN in releasing her next single, “…Ready For It?” (Hookstead, 2017). This strategic move

exposed an additional 12 million viewers to her new music, who may not typically have been

attuned to updates from the previously more juvenile Taylor Swift. Swift released two more

singles in the remaining time before the album’s release, relying on more traditional means of

promotion, through Instagram and Twitter primarily. In the time leading up to these next two

singles, Taylor got in touch with “the old her” by releasing both pictures and videos of her

writing and singing, which highly contrasted the intense style of the first two singles. In the time

leading up to these next two singles, Taylor got in touch with “the old her” by releasing both

pictures and videos of her writing and singing, which highly contrasted the intense style of the

first two singles. Each followed a certain aesthetic on her Instagram, setting each single apart as

distinct from the next, conveying her multi faceted personality that cannot be defined by any one

“reputation” (Spanos, 2017).

The album’s release was one of the most notable tactics employed by the album’s team,

standing out from the rest as markedly “Taylor.” Although the first four singles were released on

streaming services such as Spotify, when November 10th finally rolled around, the album was

only available for purchase. By this point, fans of the new music craved the rest so badly, that it

broke records, that were in fact previously held by Swift herself, in sales, gaining up to 2 million

downloads and purchases in just a week (Nicolaou, 2017). Now that the album has been released,

Taylor has been engaging in more normal promotional tactics such as appearances on TV shows

and limited performances. In fact, Taylor has humanized herself following such bold tactics by


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surprising fans at Target. She tweeted a series of pictures with fans buying her music, in what

seemed like the down-to-earth, genuine Taylor that has always loved interacting with her fans

throughout her career. After the immense media attention this team was able to produce in such a

short amount of time leading up to this album, the fans and the music will take it from here.

The majority of these tactics were employed using uncontrolled media. When it came to

social media postings, Taylor was sparse with her words, allowing imagery and her fans’

imaginations to start discussions, creating more buzz, and activating more publics. She also

activated more publics by utilizing mediums like ESPN and GMA,that may not be home to her

typical fan base. The team behind the overall strategy of this rebranding album release wanted to

make it clear that this Taylor was totally new, and the world should pay attention. To accomplish

this goal, they primarily used the public information model of communication. There was little

interaction with the fans, who were asking numerous questions and thinking up elaborate

theories, and as previously mentioned, Taylor posted that there would be “no further explanation;

just reputation.” These tactics also applied the agenda building theory through the creative use of

social media that kept people talking about the new music, the wild music video, and all of the

expectations for this album. Although it did not take copious amounts of Instagram or Twitter

posts, this team struck the right balance that drummed up media attention, reinforced their main

messages, and primed listeners to ultimately make a purchase decision on November 10th.

In the end, Taylor Swift’s comeback could not have been pulled off any better. Her

public relations team used the best strategies and tactics to pull off such a big stunt. They

strategically did everything on purpose knowing perfectly who their crowd was and how they

would react. Our society today has become more obsessed with celebrity drama, news, and

appearances than ever before. Famous figures are always on the news and there have been


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instances where their stories have trumped world news, i.e. Kylie Jenner’s mystery pregnancy

was blasted everywhere and the hurricane that devastated Puerto Rico was covered less. This

shows how in touch our generation is with celebrities and their everyday life, especially their

drama. Using the snake emoji became popular because Kim Kardashian used it to call out Taylor

on something that she was lying about. Taylor then later using the snake emoji told fans that she

was ready to own up to her mistakes and call out the people who wronged her. This created such

buzz because our generation has invested in celebrity drama. The whole process of having

Taylor go off all social media platforms, not have her annual 4th of July party, and staying on the

down low helped her rebrand her image. Creating a “new” Taylor was the only way she could

make a successful comeback.

Taylor's team used both the agenda building theory and the public information model

while executing this comeback. The public information model is a type of one-way

communication that uses press releases and other types of one-way communication approaches

to give out information. They did this by using mainly Instagram, by revamping her account,

deleting all previous photos and only posting photos of snakes, herself and announcements of her

new single. They mainly did not use captions, nor did they respond to any comments made about

the post or on the posts. The agenda building theory is the process and tactics that people and

organizations use to catch the media’s attention. Swift’s team executed this by getting people

talking. As previously mentioned, Swift took a break from social media, which had people

talking in the beginning. Then when she didn't host her annual 4th of July bash more people

started to asking, “where is Taylor?” and started realizing that she had not been active anywhere.

Then to seal the deal of catching the media and fans attention, she revamped her media by

starting fresh and only posting photos of snakes, herself and announcements of her new single.


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Using these two tactics, Swift’s team knew that it would make a huge commotion. People who

loved or hated Taylor became so invested and interested in what everything meant. They all

waited to see what this new single and music video was going to be. It shocked the nation and

caught everyone's attention.

If our team was Taylor’s public relations team, I believe that we would have done it in a

very similar way. If we were to change anything, we would have used more social media

platforms like Snapchat. Many Snapchat users follow celebrities’ accounts that are available for

everyone to follow. On Snapchat you are able to send other users stories if they are on “public

mode”, which most celebrities are. In this case so many users would be sending their friends

Swift’s story, causing the news to spread even more. Another social media outlet is Facebook,

Facebook is a platform that Swift’s team used, however they could have taken more advantage of

it. Facebook, with permission of the owner, let's their users share videos, posts and photos that

other accounts have shared with their friends and or followers. With most celebrity pages,

everything is available to share. Using Facebook more would have helped with spreading the

word even faster, because it would have gone even more viral. Facebook has so many users, that

the amount it would have been shared, most users would have seen it. Other than that, Taylor

Swift’s team did a great job on her comeback and executed it perfectly.

Overall, Taylor Swift’s team could not have done a better job. They covered all the bases

that were necessary in this comeback. No matter one’s age, gender, or view of Swift, the team

got everyone excited for this release. It caught everyone’s attention and made everyone wonder

what was going to happen next. It not only furthered Swift’s career, it also helped her show the

public who she is and the person she wants to be. Taylor Swift’s public relations team deserves

recognition on this job well done. Like stated before, everything was executed perfectly.


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References

Aswad, J. (2017, August 18). Does Taylor Swift’s social-media blackout mean new music is

coming? Retrieved October 20, 2017, from http://variety.com/2017/music/news/does-

taylor-swifts-social-media-blackout-mean-new-music-is-coming-almost-definitely-

1202533265/

Bruner, R. (2017, August 28). Reactions to the Taylor Swift ‘Look What You Made Me Do’

Video. Retrieved December 07, 2017, from http://time.com/4917868/taylor-swift-video-

reactions/

Hautman, N. (2017, October 15). Taylor Swift is releasing new music this week: details!

Retrieved October 20, 2017, from

https://www.usmagazine.com/entertainment/news/taylor-swift-is-releasing-new-music-

this-week-details-w498806/

Heller, C. (2017, July 04). Taylor Swift skips annual 4th of July party? No sign of squad.

Retrieved December 07, 2017, from http://www.eonline.com/news/864917/taylor-swift-

skips-annual-4th-of-july-party-no-sign-of-squad

Heller, C. (2017, August 25). Taylor Swift teases new music video on GMA. Retrieved

December 07, 2017, from http://www.eonline.com/news/875692/taylor-swift-teases-look-

what-you-made-me-do-music-video-on-gma

Holterman, A. (2017, August 21) The history of Taylor Swift & the snake. (n.d.). Retrieved

December 07, 2017, from

https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/pop/7934297/taylor-swift-the-snake-history-

kim-kanye-instagram


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Hookstead, D. (2017, September 05). Why is ESPN using Taylor Swift music to hype college

football games? Retrieved December 07, 2017, from

http://dailycaller.com/2017/09/05/why-is-espn-using-taylor-swift-music-to-hype-college-

football-games/

Kelly, E. (2017, August 21). Taylor Swift breaks social media blackout with a cryptic snake

video. Retrieved October 20, 2017, from http://metro.co.uk/2017/08/21/taylor-swift-

breaks-social-media-blackout-with-a-cryptic-snake-video-6867841/

Lang, C. (2017, August 29). Taylor Swift Look What You Made Me Do Music Video

References. Retrieved December 07, 2017, from http://time.com/4918411/taylor-swift-

look-what-you-made-me-do-music-video-references/

Nicolaou, A. (2017). Taylor Swift’s ‘Reputation’ album sales defy streaming trend. Retrieved

December 7, 2017, from https://www.ft.com/content/e9458168-ce7a-11e7-b781-

794ce08b24dc

Phull, H. (2016, July 18). Why Taylor Swift needs to disappear for her own good. Retrieved

October 20, 2017, from http://nypost.com/2016/07/18/why-taylor-swift-needs-to-

disappear-for-her-own-good

Spanos, B. (2017, November 03). Hear Taylor Swift's new song 'Call It What You Want'.

Retrieved December 07, 2017, from http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/hear-

taylor-swifts-new-song-call-it-what-you-want-w510896

Taylor Swift. (2017, November 16). Retrieved December 07, 2017, from

https://www.biography.com/people/taylor-swift-369608

Woodward, E. (2017, January 31). How Taylor Swift played the victim for a decade and made

her entire career. Retrieved October 20, 2017, from


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https://www.buzzfeed.com/elliewoodward/how-taylor-swift-played-the-victim- and-

made-her-entire-caree?utm_term=.cpnLg2d9x#.tga49Xd30

Yahr, E. (2017, August 28). Taylor Swift knows you’ve been making fun of her. Here’s how her

new video responds. Retrieved December 05, 2017, from

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/arts-and-entertainment/wp/2017/08/28/taylor-

swift-knows-youve-been-making-fun-of-her-heres-how-her-new-video-

responds/?utm_term=.e70e41e1b532

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