Our #PopChat discussion this week talked about Taylor Swift’s evermore, KFC + Lifetime, Crocs + Post Malone, Selena, TikTok, Tiffany Haddish, and more!
All questions were based on these pop culture highlights:
- Taylor Swift Dropping Second Surprise Album: ‘We Just Couldn’t Stop Writing Songs’
- Post Malone Crocs Sell Out Within Hours of Becoming Available
- A Marketer’s Review of ‘Recipe for Seduction’
- Selena Quintanilla’s Family, Netflix Sued for $1M over New Series About Late Singer’s Life
- Broadway Is Closed, But Ratatouille The Musical is Cooking on TikTok
- The GRAMMYs Really Asked Tiffany Haddish to Work for Free
#PopChat Questions
Everyone who participates in #PopChat is just brilliant! Below, I’ve compiled a few answers to each question. To view the full chat, check out this Twitter moment!
Q1: Taylor Swift surprised her fans with the release of her second album, evermore, last night. It’s her second album in 5 months. When it comes to content creation, what is the difference between consistency vs. volume?
A1a.
Consistency: delivering on expectations, which can mean frequency, type, or quality of content.
Volume: giving people as much content as possible, which can sometimes cause quality to suffer.#PopChat
— Christine Gritmon #ChatAboutBrand ❤️ (@cgritmon) December 11, 2020
A1: (As I learned from you Brianne) Consistency creates an expectation from your audience and when you meet it, you begin to form trust. When you are consistently adding value to someone’s feed, they trust you to be there and that your content is worth it. #PopChat
— Stephanie Brint (@StephanieBrint) December 11, 2020
A1: For me the difference is restraint and knowing what your audience wants and needs from you.
Taylor was able to marry both. She was able to create volume because she embraced the journey of Folklore and knew that her audience needed as much as she did. #PopChat
— Christina Garnett (@ThatChristinaG) December 11, 2020
Q2: “Evermore” is considered the sister-album to Taylor Swift’s folklore album. The branding and cover art are similar. How do you determine when to continue a brand story or start a whole new campaign?
Q2: Branding is all about the creative interpretation of the objective you need to support.
Look at the big picture, see if there’s a theme that lends itself well to multiple iterations. Some work well with seasonality, some to support the overall brand story.#PopChat
— nis like nice 🇫🇷 (@EuniceCancino) December 11, 2020
A2: Brands need to be aware of how culture is evolving and this will help them assess whether their narratives are still relevant.
Cultural insight and consumer research!#PopChat
— Gaëlle Siourakan (@GSiourakan) December 11, 2020
A2: Pixar has nailed this – they’re able to continue some stories (Toy Story) but still have movies (Coco) without continuity that resonates. Comes down to how your audience is evolving – even each Toy Story led with new arc; people embrace nostalgia but want novelty. #PopChat
— Kushaan Shah (@kushaanshah) December 11, 2020
Q3: Crocs partnered with rapper Post Malone on their fifth special edition shoe, which sold out. When do you know if a partnership makes sense?
A3: You know a partnership makes sense with values align! Crocs are “come as you are” and so is Post Malone. Crocs and Post Malone cover anywhere from a more blue collar audience to fashion focused audience. #PopChat
— Karalyn Arnett (@KarArnett) December 11, 2020
A3: Why does it need to make sense?
I’ve said this before, but things can be fun and unexpected and weird. Collabs are usually short and temporary, so why not get out of the box.
Even the ones that flop still get you noticed.#PopChat pic.twitter.com/UinVOzjEa6
— JZ 💛 Jake Zachariah (@jzjakez) December 11, 2020
A3. When you partner with a celebrity, it’s easier to say when it doesn’t make sense than when it does. Otherwise, just because it hasn’t been done before doesn’t mean it won’t be a hit. Even the biggest brands out there must test to see the public’s reaction. #PopChat
— Teodora Ema Pirciu (@emapirciu) December 11, 2020
Q4: Lifetime announced an original mini-movie, ‘A Recipe for Seduction’. One of the characters is KFC’s Colonel Sanders, played by Mario Lopez. What should brands keep in mind when playing jokes on their audiences?
A4: Honestly, I feel like we will all be hate-watching, so maybe it’s still good for the brand?
I think it’s important to make sure no part of your audience is the butt of the joke. #Popchat
— Alexis Whitted (@alexis_whitted) December 11, 2020
A4: *sigh* I might get hate for this, but I’m honestly tired of brand twitter™ trying too hard to be cool + relatable + funny. Just talk about your products and the people who love them?
This seems better suited to april fools. #PopChat pic.twitter.com/w7vBvbDRP9
— Claire Kennedy she/hers (@claireakennedy_) December 11, 2020
#popchat A4: Bring them in on the joke, absolutely, make the graphics a bit rubbish, title it something cheesy and people will feel the ‘wink, wink’ coming from the brand
— Rob Cursons (@robot_unit) December 11, 2020
Q5: The producer of the 1997 biopic, Selena, is suing Selena’s family over their involvement in the new Netflix bioseries about her life. He claims he “owns the rights to her life story.” As content creators, do you understand his side?
A5. Nope. As a creator, this stands for everything I hate about creating work for profit. #PopChat
— Azad Yakatally (@AYakatally) December 11, 2020
A5: When creators choose money over integrity or value, they already know they’ve lost.
Reminds me of a certain 6-second-looping video app’s downfall 🧐 #PopChat
— falalalalalalalexandria 🎄☃️ (@notheckingheck) December 11, 2020
A5)
He’s an idiot. If anything the series would bring more people to his movie.#Popchat
— Trenton Burke (@Trenton_H_Burke) December 11, 2020
Q6: Musical theater fans on TikTok started a viral trend about the Disney/Pixar film, Ratatouille. Broadway’s production company noticed and is now turning it into a real musical. What is a lesson from this?
A6: Share your voice if you want to be heard. On the flip side, pay attention to what’s being shared. #PopChat
— Kelsey Christine Anderson (@brandsnboybands) December 11, 2020
A6: Viral Collaboration/Trends are one of the biggest opportunities on social media today.
Why? The biggest pain point of social media is not knowing what to create/share.
Trends make it easy for others to participate and create and that’s why they go viral.#popchat
— Lucas O’Keefe (@TheLucasOKeefe) December 11, 2020
A6: As we saw with Sonic as well, fans coming together have immense power.#PopChat pic.twitter.com/cuBx4z3oL7
— Dakota Snow ☃️❄️🎄🎅🦌 (@DaksAhoy) December 11, 2020
Q7:
Is working for exposure ever reasonable?
A7: Working for exposure is not reasonable when you’re as rad as Tiffany Haddish.
The ONLY times I think working for exposure is ok:
– offering your time to a nonprofit
– partnering with someone who is paying you in trade
– you’re looking to explore a new skill #PopChat— Rachel Wendte (@rkwendte) December 11, 2020
A7: My first internship was an unpaid summer gig with a tech startup. I was able to WFH and it was the first step I needed to get into the industry.
But I was 19—by virtually all measures, not very experienced. And not Tiffany Haddish. This isn’t it #PopChat
— Anya Bali (@anya_bali) December 11, 2020
Q7: Sometimes, yes. But it is always reasonable to say “no” if you think you deserve compensation #PopChat
— Matthew Kobach (@mkobach) December 11, 2020
Did you miss out on #PopChat this week? Join us every Friday at 1 p.m. ET! Follow me on Twitter at @brianne2k.
