Latest / The Marketing Funnel Podcast with Fexingo: Awareness, Interest, Decision, and Action Stages / How the Marketing Funnel Explains Taylor Swift
Transcript
- Lucas: So we're about six months into the Eras Tour, and I think it's fair to say that Taylor Swift has built one of the most effective marketing funnels of the decade — without running a single TV ad or buying a single billboard. Luna: That's a big claim. But honestly, when I look at how the tour has been marketed — from the initial announcement to the surprise drops — it does feel like a textbook AIDA funnel, just executed at a massive scale. Lucas: Exactly. And before we go deep, I want to mention something that's relevant here. If these marketing conversations have sparked something you've actually used in your own work or just made you see campaigns differently, a couple of dollars a month is genuinely what keeps these episodes ad-free and coming — buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. Luna: Yeah, it's a small thing that makes a real difference. And it keeps us free to drill into cases like this one. Lucas: Alright, so let's start at the top of the funnel — awareness. Swift's awareness engine has been running for years, but the Eras Tour kicked off with a very specific move: the announcement itself was an Easter egg. She posted a single image on social media that fans immediately decoded as a countdown to the tour announcement. Luna: And that's genius because the decoding process forces engagement. Fans aren't just receiving the message — they're working for it. That creates a sense of ownership before the tour is even announced. Lucas: Right. That's the interest stage built right into the awareness stage. The Easter eggs aren't just a gimmick — they're a filter. Only people who care enough to decode them stay in the funnel. And Swift has been planting these since the Reputation era, so the audience is trained. Luna: And it's not just one or two eggs. The whole Eras Tour rollout was a puzzle: the album covers in the announcement graphic matched the eras, the color schemes, the song references. Fans spent hours on Reddit and TikTok piecing it together. That's free, organic interest generation. Lucas: Let's talk about the decision stage, because this is where the funnel gets really interesting. Ticketmaster's Verified Fan system is basically a marketing funnel in itself. You register, you get a code, you're put in a queue — but the scarcity is manufactured. There's a limited number of codes, a limited time window to buy. Luna: And that creates urgency. People who might have been on the fence about spending two hundred dollars on a ticket suddenly feel like they have to act now or lose the chance. Plus, the process of registering and getting pre-approved adds friction, which ironically makes the purchase feel more valuable. Lucas: Exactly. Behavioral economics calls that the 'IKEA effect' — you value something more if you've put effort into getting it. Verified Fan is basically a loyalty loop disguised as a ticket sale. And for the fans who didn't get a code? They're pushed further down the funnel into resale or future on-sale dates. Luna: But the action stage doesn't end after the concert. Swift has turned the post-purchase experience into a marketing engine. The surprise songs, the friendship bracelets, the concert outfits — fans are generating content that becomes the awareness stage for the next city's show. Lucas: It's a flywheel. The action stage feeds back into awareness. Every fan who posts a video of the surprise song becomes a micro-influencer for the next tour date. And Swift's team encourages this by rotating the surprise songs so every city gets something unique — that scarcity drives even more content creation. Luna: Let's talk about the Reputation era specifically, because that's where the Easter egg strategy really crystallized. In 2017, Swift went silent for a year, then wiped her social media and started posting snake emojis. Fans went crazy trying to figure out what it meant. Lucas: That was a masterclass in interest stage marketing. The silence created a vacuum, and the snake emojis were ambiguous enough that everyone had a theory. The fan community essentially did the marketing for her — they kept the conversation going for months before any official announcement. Luna: And that's a pattern she's repeated: the album announcements, the music video teasers, even the Midnights Mayhem with Me series where she revealed song titles one by one. Each reveal is a mini awareness interest decision action loop within the larger funnel. Lucas: Let's zoom out. What can a B2B marketer or a small business owner learn from this? I think the biggest takeaway is the idea of building a 'decoder' community. You don't need a million fans — you need a hundred people who are willing to invest time in understanding your message. Luna: And that means your marketing has to have layers. If you just put everything on the surface, people consume it and move on. But if you hide a few things — if you create a puzzle — the people who solve it become your most loyal advocates. Lucas: Right. And the other lesson is that scarcity can be artificial but still effective. Ticketmaster's Verified Fan system is controversial — there were lawsuits, there was the whole Capitol Hill hearing — but from a pure funnel perspective, it shows how limiting supply at the decision stage can drive conversions. Luna: But you have to be careful not to alienate your audience. If the friction is too high, people drop out. The difference with Swift is that the brand loyalty is so strong that fans are willing to jump through hoops. Most brands don't have that luxury. Lucas: That's a great point. Swift's funnel works because she's spent fifteen years building trust and emotional connection. The Easter eggs aren't just marketing tricks — they're a language that fans have learned to speak. If you try to copy the tactic without the relationship, it falls flat. Luna: So let's talk about the metrics. How do you measure a funnel like this? It's not just ticket sales — you have to look at social media engagement, user-generated content, press coverage, brand sentiment. Swift's team is probably tracking everything from Reddit thread activity to TikTok hashtag growth. Lucas: And the beauty of the Easter egg strategy is that it generates data. Every fan theory, every decoded message tells you what your audience is paying attention to. That's a feedback loop that most traditional advertising can't match. Luna: I also want to bring up the role of surprise. Swift announced the Eras Tour in November 2022, but then she dropped the Midnights album in October, which was already a surprise. So the tour announcement rode the wave of that excitement. That's a classic marketing funnel move: never let the momentum die. Lucas: And she's done that throughout her career. Every album release is timed to maximize the funnel from the previous one. The Reputation tour was announced right after the album dropped, the Lover era came right after Reputation, and so on. There's no gap where the audience loses interest. Luna: I think one underappreciated aspect is the loyalty loop within the action stage. After the concert, fans get an email with a personalized video from Taylor thanking them. That's a small touch, but it reinforces the emotional connection and makes them more likely to buy merch or stream the music. Lucas: And the merch itself is part of the funnel. The tour t-shirts, the vinyl variants — they're not just products, they're status symbols. Wearing the shirt is a form of awareness generation for the brand. It's the ultimate action stage that feeds back into awareness. Luna: So if we were to map the entire Eras Tour marketing funnel, it would look like this: awareness through Easter eggs and social media buzz, interest through fan decoding and community discussion, decision through Verified Fan scarcity and limited-time offers, action through ticket purchase and concert attendance, and then the action stage generates new awareness via user-generated content and merch. Lucas: And that loop is repeatable. Swift can do this for every tour, every album, every era. She's essentially built a marketing machine that doesn't rely on external advertising — it's all community-powered. And I think that's the real lesson for marketers: if you can build a community that loves to decode your messages, you don't need to buy attention. Luna: But building that community takes years. Swift started planting Easter eggs in the Fearless era, way back in 2008. She played the long game. Lucas: Absolutely. And that's the hard part. Most brands want quick results, but the funnel Swift built is a decade in the making. The question for marketers is: are you willing to invest in the long-term relationship, or are you just looking for a quick conversion? Luna: I think that's a fair challenge to leave our listeners with. Thanks, Lucas. Lucas: Thanks, Luna. And as always, if this episode sparked an idea, you know where to find us.