Out of Scope Issue 87: Kanye & Taylor
Plus: The Smiths launch Semafor and Shein launches resale.
Pop culture has offered us a number of valuable lessons in reputation lately. This week we took a look at Kanye West’s wayward behavior and its widespread impact on the various brands associated with him. Then we contrasted that behavior with the mindful marketing tactics of Taylor Swift, the singer-songwriter who once gave us a whole album titled Reputation. Each artist can teach us something about how (and how not) to manage your brand. In other news, Semafor launched, women leaning out of work, and new developments in mobile shopping. Read on:
💡ON OUR MINDS: The nuclear-grade reputational fallout around Kanye West
Following several weeks of tumultuous news, rapper and entrepreneur Kanye West made headlines again this week with the announcement of his intent to buy Parler, the alt-right social media platform that positions itself as a cancellation-free alternative to Twitter. West’s acquisition plans come hot on the heels of Twitter’s decision to remove him from their platform over anti-Semitic tweets.
West’s recent statements and behavior are unworthy of being repeated here. But the nuclear fallout impacting the various stakeholders in his various business enterprises offer an interesting object lesson in reputation and crisis management. West’s professional connections range across entertainment, fashion, and tech, and they’ve all had to react to the celebrity’s chaotic, troubling behavior.
Much of the reputational hazard centers on Yeezy, West’s incredibly successful sneaker line carried by Adidas. Yeezy generates $2 billion in sales for Adidas annually, potentially as much as 10% of the business’s total revenue. This week the ADL issued a statement urging Adidas to cut ties with the celebrity. Meanwhile, JP Morgan formally ended its relationship with Yeezy LLC this week.
The damage extends well beyond Yeezy and West’s most immediate business interests. Balenciaga and their creative director Demna Gvasalia have closely collaborated with West for years, but the fashion house formally ended their relationship with the artist today. GAP formally ended its partnership with West before this most recent controversy, but the brand still appears in conversation with it due to its high-profile partnership with the artist earlier this year. LeBron James’s “The Shop” had to pull an episode featuring West from its production schedule.
The scandal is a strong reminder of an important rule for reputation management—don’t take undue risk with your partnerships. The higher the profile of a spokesperson or stakeholder, the more damage they can unleash upon your brand. Parler is almost certainly getting more than they bargained for.
🏆BRAND WIN OF THE WEEK: Taylor Swift
Midnights is upon us. The latest LP from pop juggernaut Taylor Swift arrived with a bang — and a handy lesson in cross-platform marketing. The inescapable concept album crashed Spotify, dominated Twitter, and tempted even government officials to try to ride the wave of her popularity into a viral moment.
So how does a singer-songwriter well into the second decade of her career maintain this level of ubiquity? With a dizzying list of promotions and partnerships that leaves no audience unaccounted for. There’s the Thursday Night Football teaser for the sports fans, network and cable TV spots for the Luddites, TikTok tracklist reveals for the chronically online, and cryptic billboards lest anyone slip through the cracks.
Swift’s ability to continue to dominate the cultural conversation at this point in her trajectory is striking. Midnights marks her fourth new release in under five years (not to mention the Taylor’s Version re-recordings), but it’s clear she’s yet to wear out her welcome. Legacy brands looking to walk the line between omnipresence and overexposure can learn a thing or two from the multi-pronged approach of music’s reigning marketing queen.
📡 ON OUR RADAR
The fast fashion global brand Shein may be doing too little too late for its reputation by offering a resale option on its mobile app. Announcement of the effort to address its unsustainable production came just days before the UK’s Channel 4 and The i newspaper released the details of an undercover investigation into Shein supplier factories. According to comments to Insider, Shein will terminate contracts with suppliers who don’t uphold its code of conduct. Despite ongoing reputational issues, the $100 billion company continues to captivate its TikTok-obsessed Gen Z target audience. Many brands are taking notice and leaning into the influential power of creators: buy now pay later brand Klarna just launched a new app geared towards creators.
Marketers may have a new best friend. Uber announced plans to introduce ads within its ride-hailing app in select regions, allowing brands to target their audiences more precisely by destination and travel history. While the tech giant is seeing dollar signs, there’s reason for skepticism: data privacy experts suggest this new level of geotargeting could lead to legal woes. We’ll be keeping an eye on whether the new functionality benefits Uber, marketers, and riders — or turns out to be more trouble than it’s worth.
Semafor, the buzzy news startup founded by Justin Smith (formerly Bloomberg Media’s CEO) and Ben Smith (formerly The New York Times’ media reporter and editor-in-chief of BuzzFeed), launched this week. Heavily influenced by the bullet point style of news reporting popularized by Axios, the new outlet publishes stories by breaking them down into five parts: news, analysis, counterargument, other perspectives, and further reading. Is Semafor the future of news? The Smiths certainly hope so, but we’ll have to wait to see if this new approach (which is heavily indebted to Axios) takes off.
🥊QUICK HITS:
In case you missed these stories this week.
UK regulators block Meta x Giphy deal.
We enjoyed this profile of Catilin Covington and the ‘Christian Girl Autumn’ phenomenon, via New York Times.
Netflix got 2.4 million more subscribers last quarter and will add a more affordable subscription supported by ads.
We’ll see you here next week! 👋
HL
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This week’s newsletter is brought to you by a tweet for the chronically online.