Seafood, Swifties, and Vegan Shrimp

The Eras Tour just wrapped after 2 years, 149 shows, 10.1 million attendees, 3 romantic beginnings and/or endings, and deposited into the world 1 freshly bejeweled billionaire. Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve at least heard about it and the ceiling shattering stats attached to its social and economic impact. Destination Toronto estimated that her six sold-out shows would bring $282 million into the city’s local economy in 2024, and the same has been experienced in cities around the world.

We’ve seen a ton of marketers dissecting the phenomenon, and we can all agree that the riotous success of the Taylor Swift brand isn’t just about the music. It’s good. It’s not mind blowing good from an audio perspective, but the writing, we would argue, IS that good. (‘A red rose grew up out of ice frozen ground, with no one around to tweet it’ - The Lakes, Evermore. Kill us dead 💀).

We love a skin rippling piece of poetry as much as the next forlorn human facing the terrors of our modern age, but the relatability of that messaging is the root. I see you, I hear you, I am you. Who knows the high-school feeling of a budding relationship at any age, or has felt your stomach drop through the floor after getting a ‘we need to talk’ text? This is exactly what Taylor’s songs are about - connecting to that part of us that feels, and letting all 10.1 million+ of us know we’re not alone.

Of course, behind the scenes, there are some top tier marketing geniuses at work. The Taylor Swift brand has risen to unseen heights by following a few core marketing truths -  powerfully aligned storytelling, anticipation, relatability, engagement, and a sense of belonging.

While capitalizing on love and heartbreak might not be the tact that the seafood industry should take, we can absolutely reframe some hot tips from her all encompassing brand.

Magnetic Messaging

This is the big tuna right here (and why we’ve devoted such a slab of this article to it). Taylor Swift’s storytelling is a masterclass in alignment—every element of her brand reinforces her narratives. For example, each aspect of the campaigns for the re-releases of her past albums, from the music videos to social media posts, serve a cohesive purpose: reclaiming her artistic legacy.

For Seafood Brands - Her strategic approach is a rich lesson in how to own your narrative and create consistency across your platforms. If your driver is classic seafood recipes or traditions, emphasize that and align it with interactive elements such as recipe challenges. If your core is sustainability, highlight efforts to protect heritage fisheries and slide in behind-the-scenes looks at fishing communities. Build campaigns that tie directly into relatable emotions, like comfort (family meals), adventure (on-deck and site BTS), or pride (local sourcing and purpose). Every product, visual, and event should be telling the same story.

Stoking Anticipation

Tickets to the Eras Tour were highly sought after. Actually, everything she creates becomes highly sought after, and she manages to accomplish the feat of creating a sense of exclusivity and FOMO, while also making everyone feel included. Whether you could land a coveted ticket or not, there were still multiple levels of opportunity to engage, like the Tayl-gate parties and exclusive videos and merch available to registered fans. At every point in her story, she always gives her people something to look forward to.

For Seafood Brands - Anticipation and FOMO go hand in hand. Market limited-space seafood events, launch a countdown for seasonal catches, or get a hot campaign waitlist going to limited-time specialty products. You can exercise scarcity without making people feel excluded by creating different spaces so that everyone has something about your products to look forward to.

Make Seafood Fun

As fans know, a big part of Taylor's charm is her relatability not only in her lyrics, but also in her personality - she’s a bona fide silly goose. And like her storytelling, it’s magnetic. People are drawn to people who make them laugh and feel good. It’s pretty simple (well, most people unless it’s the ‘misery loves company’ crew). She’s not fake about it, and openly admits the struggle that comes with being one of the most public facing people on the planet (I Can Do It With A Broken Heart, anyone?), but she laughs at herself, lets her fans in on the joke, and gives them a good time.

For Seafood Brands - HAVE SOME FUN. Consumers want to enjoy the thing, not be lectured about it 24/7. We all know sustainability is at the forefront of priority, and we’re ready to face those realities and questions head on - but for a hot minute let’s just give the people a good time. Make it fun, make it silly, seafood is ripe with opportunity for humor and delight. Create or take part in events and activations that focus on the seafood 100% and remind consumers that food is a joyful thing and an opportunity for an awesome shared experience.

We All Want to Belong -

Taylor has made her fans feel like they are part of a community, weaving her past stories into her modern narrative, dropping easter eggs (hints) throughout her videos and social media, and creating little experiences that fans can share with each other. Did anyone see friendship bracelets somehow rising from early 90s childhood nostalgia to captivate a global fan base? We didn’t. Even if you didn’t have tickets to the show, the audience antics outside of the venues was a spectacle all its own. The desire to belong is in our bones, and the community she’s created has taken on a life of its own because of it.

For Seafood Brands - We all have to eat. It binds us together, and seafood should be making it known that it has something for everyone. Do we think it will reach TSwift level hysteria? Not likely. But we all get hungry, and we all like to eat good food. Create opportunities for consumers to feel like they’re part of your “seafood family.” Online campaigns could invite people to share their favorite seafood dishes tied to personal memories, and partnering with influencers who have already built communities can help create buzz around your story.

Ride the Wave

If you can’t beat em, join em. A tide raises all ships and products that made their way in front of these audiences have felt those bottom line benefits. In our research for this article, we discovered that a company producing plant-based shrimp and salmon products slid into stadiums in the US for a handful of her shows. Where were we, guys? This was a monumental opportunity that, once again, seafood slept on. If there isn’t the capacity to launch your own world tour (fair), get seafood influencers into the mix, get activations going at events, get your products in front of consumers where they are already having a good time and your products will become associated with that good time.

This tour showed the power of connection to bring millions of souls together in a collectively joyful experience of mutual understanding. We all crave belonging, and she not only has created a wildly loyal fan base on the airwaves and online - she’s brought people together in person in a way we’ve never seen. Even without a ticket, you are still a welcomed part of the community.

Taylor’s aligned storytelling demonstrates the power of intentionality with every touchpoint connected back to the brand’s core narrative. The seafood industry might not be hitting stadiums around the globe any time soon, but we can help you borrow from her playbook to develop your own unshakeable narrative and create events and activations that bring people together under banners that will stoke excitement, fun, and belonging.

Tis’ the damn season, after all.