TAYLOR’S AMAZONIAN TACTICS DO MORE THAN YOU THINK

In a time when streaming rules all, Taylor Swift’s marketing campaigns are not overtly turning into the skid. She’s not throwing all her eggs into the Spotify and Apple Music baskets, which may be the more obvious (and arguably lazier) route. But just because the star—whose original audience is now paying rent and handling their own bills—isn’t doing that doesn’t mean she’s ignoring millennials and Gen Zers.

Sure, she’s got the fans who’ve grown up with her covered with upper-demo initiatives like what she’s doing with Capital One and Target. And while she might not be jamming the streaming agenda into consumers’ heads, she’s still reaching those younger demos—just in different ways. Perhaps what’s most compelling is the Amazon box.

Ahead of the release of Lover, Taylor-branded packaging has begun to arrive at the doorsteps of Amazon patrons. It doesn’t matter if what you’re ordering is Taylor-related (or even music-related, for that matter); you could be stocking up on hand soap or toilet paper. Either way, Taylor Swift’s face and album title are front and center.

The streaming generation is also the Amazon-ordering generation. To them, brick and mortar is a thing of the past. They don’t want to go to stores; they’re used to instant gratification. They want what they want immediately and with little fuss; hence Amazon Prime’s rise to omnipresence.

With the branded box, she’s thinking outside the box, so to speak. She’s finding new ways to target the same type of consumer everyone else is trying to get the attention of. She’s hitting your stoop whether you asked for it or not. And she’ll sit in your living room, staring at you with her cardboard eyes, until you finally get to your unboxing, which may not be ‘til days after arrival. And her subtle invasion of your personal space may just inspire you to pop open the laptop and stream some Tay.

It’s worth noting the struggle of grabbing the focus of a consumer that doesn’t experience typical advertising anymore. Unless they’re sports fans, many millennials and Gen Zers avoid commercials all together in their replacement of TV for ad-free, subscription-based platforms like Netflix.

At the end of the day, though, you can’t avoid the box. And the mercantile weaponization of that reality is actually quite brilliant.