On Mondays in Aliett Buttelman’s house, she says, Monday Night Football is “unfortunately always on.” But one night in October, the co-founder of the beauty and skin-care brand Fazit Beauty found herself very grateful that her fiancé insists on watching the weekly programming.
“A content creator actually messaged us on the Fazit Beauty Instagram account and said, ‘I have a feeling that Taylor Swift is wearing glitter freckles to the Chiefs game. Are those your patches?’” Buttelman told us. “Immediately, every media outlet starts blowing it up, [Barstool Sports’s] Dave Portnoy tweets about it, and I start bawling.”
There’s nothing quite like the moment Taylor Swift wears your product. The pop star’s clothing and accessory choices often grab the eagle-eyed attention of style watchers like @TaylorSwiftStyled on Instagram, which identify and document the products she wears. When Swift’s style items of choice happen to come from small businesses, it can thrust brands like Fazit Beauty onto a national stage in front of dedicated Swifties, rushing to take inspiration from Swift’s style choices.
It has been referred to as the “Taylor Swift effect,” which can be both quick and disruptive, usually in a good way: businesses that have experienced it often report skyrocketing sales and near-instant brand visibility to a massive audience. While Swiftie attention delivers immediate eyeballs, business owners are focused on crafting the right responses during their moments in the spotlight to help their brands stay bejeweled.
My tears ricochet…into content
After Swift wore Fazit Beauty’s Gold Glitter Freckles Makeup Patches to the Chiefs-Saints game, Fazit’s co-founders jumped into action.
At the center of the brand’s social media response was Buttelman’s emotional reaction to finding out that Swift was wearing the brand’s product. After her fiancé filmed her happy tears, she posted the video on TikTok, and so far, it has racked up 8.5 million views. The video was part of what she and co-founder Nina LaBruna called a “founder-led” content strategy that helped drive additional attention for the brand.
“With Aliett’s video going viral, that’s creating a whole new buzz of articles coming out, not just about Fazit or the freckles Taylor was wearing, but now about the founders,” LaBruna told Marketing Brew. “So her action on her social media page, bringing herself into the story, and now me as well, is going to kind of catapult other stories, and a way to make this explosion go on a little longer.”
In the 12 hours after Swift was spotted sporting the freckles, Fazit saw a more than 1,000% increase in sales and web traffic, according to the company.
Fazit’s co-founders are hoping to continue connecting with customers and building community via social media—particularly through their own personal TikTok accounts, which have ballooned in follower counts. Buttelman said her TikTok went from having about 400 followers to 20,000 overnight at the time, and it’s continued to grow since then. LaBruna’s account currently sits at just around 9,500 followers. They’re also looking toward potential collaborations: Buttelman said some NFL and NBA teams reached out to inquire about partnerships after the Taylor moment.
Faster than the wind
Fast action is key to leveraging the moment, according to several businesses Marketing Brew spoke to. But that action can look different depending on the kind of business.
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Wove Jewelry had its moment earlier this year when Swift was spotted wearing one of its bracelets (a gift from her boyfriend, Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce) at the AFC Championship Game in January. The company’s founders told Fox43 at the time that the attention led to more than a 450% increase in jewelry sales and more than a 2,500% increase in web traffic.
Wove is a bespoke jewelry brand, and Swift’s diamond-encrusted bracelet costs $6,360—making it not exactly accessible for all potential customers. To meet the moment, the brand released two more affordable paper-clip versions, one made of sterling silver ($230) and another made of gold ($1,030), within four days, according to Simone Kendle, Wove’s CEO.
“We needed to be strategic around, ‘How do we meet this demand to make sure that we can have the biggest community moment, but also make sure that we’re being smart about product and pricing and availability of what we have?’” Kendle said.
The jewelry collection that Swift’s bracelet is a part of, which was designed by pro golfer Michelle Wie West and includes both the gold bracelet and the newer lower-priced versions, has brought in over $500,000 in sales, Kendle told us.
For EB and Co., a small Kansas City-based jewelry and fashion boutique whose Kansas City Chiefs #87 Tight End Jersey ring was also worn by Swift at the AFC Championship, the viral moment presented an opportunity for customer data collection. Owner and Creative Director Emily Bordner made sure that EB and Co.’s website featured pop-ups that promoted visitors to enter their emails and contact information so that it could keep the relationship going after the hype had passed.
“Now it’s not just people coming to the site and leaving, but now I know how to email you when you’re gone and say, ‘Hey, I saw that you were interested in this. It’s 20% off. Can we get you to purchase?’” Bordner told us.
Promise that you’ll never find another like me
While being worn by Swift can be a gift, some business owners told us they believe in the importance of not leaning in too much.
After Swift donned a green mini dress from the brand Little Lies while attending a dinner in New York in January, the brand used the moment to target some customers interested in the dress, but also looked to strike a careful balance, Owner and Creative Director Jade Robertson told us.
“We don’t want to compromise and kind of go too hard into it and then make our current customers feel like, ‘Well, wait. That’s not what you were about,’” she said.
Kendle, similarly, said she felt it was crucial that Wove not become “the Taylor Swift custom-jewelry business,” and Kendle said the brand hasn’t put paid media into promoting any campaigns around Swift. Instead, she said, “whenever [Swift] wears it, we highlight it on our socials.”
Ultimately, by taking a deep breath after the initial craze has passed, these brands also get to be fans. And what better way to connect with Swifties and non-Swifties alike than taking a second to celebrate a moment in the spotlight with all your customers?