Taylor Swift is a PR mastermind.
For years Taylor has cleverly crafted a public persona designed to make you love her. Whether it be her infectiously catchy lyrics, her army of supermodel best friends or paying off her fans student loans just because she can, when it comes to cultivating an ultra-polished reputation she is the master and she knows it.
So it was no surprise last month when the leggy music heavyweight decided to take on one of the world’s biggest brands. Taylor used her star power to do good and posted an open letter to Apple on her (link: http://taylorswift.tumblr.com/post/122071902085/to-apple-love-taylor text: Tumblr) page criticising the tech giant’s decision to not compensate artists during a three-month trial for its new streaming service, Apple Music.
Taylor’s high profile meant everyone paid attention to the slick move and it was hard to ignore the amount of column inches dedicated to one simple yet effective Tumblr post.
So what does this mean for PR? Note there wasn’t a press conference or press release in sight. It’s no longer about mass distribution or seeing how many journalists you can call in one day, instead the money making machine that is Tay Tay simply created a perfectly executed social media post that instantly scrolled in front of 60 million avid followers around the world.
She understands her audience and knows how to relate to her legions of fans with 72 per cent of all internet users now active on social media, 89 per cent of these are 18-29 year olds.
The world of PR is changing and it’s changing fast. We’ve heard it all before, but as the lines between PR and social media continue to blur collaboration between the two services is becoming key.
This isn’t the first time Taylor’s had a run-in with a streaming service. Last November, she announced she was pulling her entire back catalogue of music from Spotify amid concerns over its royalty payments and fears it could hurt music sales.
Far from creating bad blood with Apple though, the company quickly backtracked on its decision and will now pay artists $0.0002 per stream during the free trial period. Apple’s retreat may have looked like a defeat but a second look proves that it was actually a PR victory for both sides.
Not only did it raise awareness of Apple Music even more but Apple relished in its new “good guy comes to his senses” appearance who care about artists’ welfare. Taylor once again remained the hero for emerging artists struggling to make a dollar.
Not everybody likes Taylor Swift but you can’t ignore her impeccable skills in image management and self-promotion. We can learn a lot from the pop starlet, when she does get any negative publicity, well, she shakes it off.