Swifties Takeover and Halloween Trends! | Weekly Digital Marketing Update 10/27

Joe and Kiersten are back in the studio! This week, they tackle the current worldwide phenomenons of Taylor Swift and TikTok. Is TikTok making its way to your local restaurant or sports bar? Taylor Swifts new movie releases as well as new music and fans are going WILD! Plus your favorite Halloween costumes and trends that you didn't know!

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
On today's episode of the of Recordpodcast, will it be kosher for women
to dress like Taylor Swift on Halloween? TikTok leaves the small screen and moves
on to big screens, and wetalk about the most popular costumes this year

(00:20):
on this week's of Record. OfRecord is a podcast focus on the marketing
and advertising industry from the perspective ofindustry expert Joe Clements. Joe Clements is
a co founder of Strategic Digital Services, a digital marketing firm based in Tallahassee,

(00:41):
Florida, and founded in twenty fourteen. Everybody, welcome back to another
episode of the of Record podcast.I'm your host, Joe here with Kirsten
once again, back and Alex Yes, sir, and we have, as

(01:06):
always, miscellaneous agglomeration of stories I'vepulled from the Internet minutes before this podcast.
So much is happening? Yeah,just kidding. I've actually had some
of these for a couple of weeks. So first story is, let's talk
a little bit about Halloween trends.Out of NPR. It's a pink Halloween.

(01:30):
Here are some of the most popularcostumes of twenty twenty three. Kirsten
Any guesses what's on top. BarbieBarbie. That's right, Bluie is big
this year. The h This isfrom the National Retail Federation, and of
course the staples remained popular, whichis vampires. The National Retail Federations has

(01:56):
five point eight million people are planningto dress like a witch and two point
four million people has a vampire spirit. Halloween says. The pop culture costumes
are Barbie is in the lead.A lot of Barbie is what we're seeing.
And when I say a lot ofBarbie, I actually mean a lot
of variants of Barbie's Western Barbie Skating, Barbie Skating Ken and not of course

(02:21):
from the Barbie movie. She's gota lot of outfits. Yeah, we
also have some Wednesday Atoms, TeenageMutant Ninja turtles for the kids, and
nineteen eighties costumes for eras. Costumesare in this year. As far as
people dressing as throwback things, Ithought you were meant eras like Taylor slip.

(02:42):
Oh yeah, we'll save that forthat would be a good transition if
I had hit that next with me. All right, any thoughts on the
costume madness. I think what we'reseeing is that the Barbie movie was so
so well planned in terms of itsmarketing, because you couldn't release that in

(03:04):
the summer and have the costumes readyby September August when they started coming out.
They had to have planned this earlylast year late last year, done
the merchandising deals in advance so thatthose costumes would be ready for this year.
And I think they've done a fantasticjob. We saw We've been saying
that about the Barbie movie for monthsnow, like the strategic like marketing of

(03:28):
that movie was insane and it stillcontinues to still be pretty insane. I
mean, like everything had a branddeal with Barbie, and if you didn't,
they were pretending like they would dolike the Pink Sale or something like
that. Like anything that was BarbieKore was like Barbikore. Like I said,
like Ruggable a rug company had aBarbie deal. But you can't forget

(03:49):
about the power of Margot Robbie either, Yeah, because when she was in
suicide Squad, everybody was Harley Quinn. Oh good point. Yeah, you're
right. The So some interesting otherstats on this is Halloween spending this year
nationally is going to be twelve pointtwo billion, which is up two billion
dollars from last year, which iskind of a nuts increase and a very

(04:12):
mature market like this. It's essentiallya twenty percent year over year increase,
and of course there was a littlebit of it was down over the pandemic.
But you know, even in twentynineteen, total spending was only eight
point eight billion on Halloweens. Solike, up, big, big,
big, big time since twenty nineteen. Yeah, that's a huge lift.

(04:33):
That's much more than any other holiday. I'm actually surprised by those numbers.
A lot of people, I meanI've said it before, have realized like
they maybe took it for granted beforeCOVID, like, you know, going
on, I don't really want togo out tonight. I was one of
those people. Now I'm like,any opportunity to go out, I'm like,
I'm not gonna miss this one becausethere might not be tomorrow. Yeah,

(04:56):
I'll tell you what it looks like. The growth is, so the
average person is spending one hundred andeight dollars and twenty four cents on Halloween.
Wow, that's up from one hundredand two dollars and seventy four cents
in twenty twenty one. What itappears to be happening the increase in that
spend. And I'll give you someoptions. Are people spending more on children's

(05:17):
costumes, adult costumes, or petcostumes. I was gonna say, oh,
it's probably kid costumes because all theCOVID babies are getting older. I'm
gonna say it's adult costumes. Yeah, same adults. It is. In
fact, you know, children area little bit up from say one point

(05:41):
two billion in twenty nineteen to onepoint four eight billion dollars in twenty twenty
three. Pets are up from ahalf billion dollars to roughly seven hundred million
dollars. But the big mover iscoming in adults, from one point five
billion to two billion dollars in onepoint five billion twenty nineteen to two billion

(06:02):
dollars this year. So it lookslike to me what people are doing is
they are significantly ramping up not justthe number of adults stressing up, but
the quality and sophistication of the costumes. Yeah, I agree. What do
you think is driving this? Thecostumes of the Halloween stores are just kind

(06:27):
of I don't know, you cansettle for like a lower quality version,
but a lot of people now Ithink they want to get like detailed the
upsell Yeah yeah, like they'll getindividuals for that Halloween yeah look better.
Yeah. I always fall for theupsell kit, like the Spirit Halloween Premium,
and I'm like, oh, well, there's the up cell on the
uh, you know whatever. Thethe helmet. I want that real helmet

(06:49):
or that real crown. I don'twant that foam one. Give me that
ten one or whatever it's made outof. But cycle like, why are
we seeing an increase in adults couldhave always been dressing up in elaborate Halloween
costumes. What has happened in thelast five years where like now everybody is

(07:12):
like couse playing super hard. We'rein an artistic renaissance. I think you
want to get into my astrology thing, I can save that for later.
Or a vast array of mental illnessand delusion the last conjunction with which artistic
renaissance really is mental illness and delusions. So we're in the same conjunction that

(07:32):
we were in during like the likeRenaissance period and other big art movements.
I think people are very creative now. I feel like that's the trend is
to be unique, It's to becolorful. I said this on a podcast
a while ago, that like thetrend of the like decor being very plain

(07:53):
is out, like the maximalism isbig, Like we've like entered a shift
of doing more, like have more, being extra, being dramatic, like
and I don't know, like II, yeah, I guess you could
have said that, like adults couldhave been dressing up this entire time.
I guess people just want to havemore fun now. Yeah, And I

(08:15):
kind of I kind of wonder ifthat's not do The rise isn't due entirely
to the number of adults who don'thave children. So it's like a it's
become a big like nightlife weekend.And it always had been previously, but

(08:35):
people with kids were like, hhome with kids, so you'd like half
ass here costume and the kids you'dbuy your kids their costume. But if
you don't have that expense and you'restill going out, it's almost it's almost
reminds me of it's becoming a littlebit of a carnival. Yeah, period.
It kind of is like we've likesaid, like you know, it's
the one time you can be somebodyelse and it is like socially okay to

(09:00):
be a power ranger for a wholeday. It's the most social night of
the year. It is in myopinion too. Yeah, people are much
more talkative, much more each other. You can approach anybody. Which is
this weird thing where is what's happening? Is it mirroring virtual life? Is
what goes on when people are dressedup and out for Halloween? Is that

(09:22):
a lot like the life people haveinside of video games? And so it
feels more comfortable. You're like,goodbye a week about my dream of being
a wizard to die I mean playingHarry Potter and everybody goes along with it.
Yeah, and people think you're cool. The more you get into it,
the more cool people think you are. Yeah. So if you are
like same in games, the moreelaborate or rare your skins are, the

(09:46):
higher your status is. Yeah,you're more serious you take you know,
you're probably a better player. Likethere's a lot of like boundaries. I
feel like that get put down also, like from a social perspective during Halloween
that like you're inviting people to talkto you and you're open to it,
and then like you also like areengaged and want to like you always have

(10:07):
like an icebreaker. I like yourcostume, I like your wig. Yeah,
like, oh you you watch thisTV show too? You saw that
movie too. It's like the easyIt's almost like at a wedding, like
everyone kind of has some Yeah,oh, how do you know the bride?
How do you know the group?Right? Where are you from?
In theory? And my guess wouldbe in the past and not so long

(10:28):
ago. In the past, everydaylife was like that, Oh that shirt
looks great, those are great shoes, that's great pants, like people would
say that. Now, I feellike there's some social block people have on
basic approaches like that, and sonow we need like this over the top
like a signaling thing to open thatdoor to where people are comfortable with it.

(10:52):
Yeah. So other than Barbie,are there any big, big costumes
you expect to see out Oppenheimer arewith a sig and a trench coat and
a hat Bobenheimer, Well, youknow, Oppenheimer, they didn't jump on
that trend as well as Barbie did. I don't think they are going to

(11:13):
be a lot of like home costumemade costumes. I guarantee we'll see some
Oppenheimer's running around. I guarantee wewill too. You know what else I
think we might see Taylor slifts.I think that that's going to be an
extremely popular couples costume with wearing aTravis Kelsey jersey. Yeah, and then

(11:35):
it can I just say one thingreal quick, Yeah, those couples.
And if you're listening and hear thosecouples, I'm giving you a fair warning.
You are in a toxic relationship.You may know it, you may
not, And you're gonna get marriedto this person. Absolutely hate this person.
You will get divorced. Just puttingit out there because she's gonna be

(11:56):
like even going to meet Travis today. I want to be Taylor. I
don't know, But which era ofTaylor. Oh, she is a lover
lover with the like the one shecomes out with, like the bejeweled like
Leo tar. This girl wants.This girl wants to wear bejeweled leotar.
Okay, well this was my otherquestion on the Taylor Swift. I can

(12:18):
see you can pull off anything ina couple's costume or a group costume because
it's not really a statement. It'slike a story. Yeah, can can
women dress has Taylor Swift and it'slike, Oh, that's a great tailor
Swift outfit, or does everybody kindof look askance at it, like like

(12:39):
meaning that like they're like, oh, that's not a really good tailor And
she thinks she looks like Taylor.Yes, I don't think so, okay,
because I know we talked about theimpersonator thing before. That's a different
scenario where she actually is pretending tobe Taylor Swift. Halloween, anyone has
the opportunity to be Taylor Swift,and I'm that same like threshold. It's

(13:01):
just some people are gonna do betterthan others. It's it's I think girls
are gonna love other girls that areOkay, I'm curious. I'm gonna asks
count count when we go out andsee who uh, who's who? Yeah,
but and what eras they're gonna be, which I think will be reputation

(13:22):
and lover and maybe, like tellyou what this makes me think of.
There needs to be like Halloween weekendbeing go oh I can make a car,
Yeah, that'd be great. Ican do that, yeah, sell
it on the internet. Uh.So I got my transition because another enlightening
story I found out of the Stateof the Screens newsletter is Taylor Swift did,

(13:46):
in fact hit her one billion dollartour, and some of the figures
on this are absolutely insane. Andspecifically, what I find me is not
as much the tour but the movieitself. So the movie did in its

(14:07):
first couple of weeks about one hundredmillion dollars in North America alone, thirty
million international totaled at about one hundredand thirty million dollars. That would make
it one of the top movies ofthe year. And it is only where
we're at here, and this isonly a few weeks in so to give

(14:28):
you an example, Barbie did onehundred and sixty two million dollars in the
opening weekend, and Taylor Swift didone hundred and thirty million dollars in the
opening weekend, Jesus, and itdid thirty million dollars in pre sales on
the first day, which is thenumber one pre sailing movie of all time,

(14:48):
Jesus. So I think what isinteresting is that it only costs sixteen
million dollars to produce is what it'sestimated, which means that it's already like
coming close to ten xing the ROIon just the movie that's actually really interesting
that it costs them sixteen million.It just goes into show, like how

(15:11):
much like video production technique went intorigging those cameras that spin and that are
wired up. Because think about it, I mean, like the tour itself,
it's like all the setup is done, Like they're just putting the sixteen
million to like the film would bejust editing it, recording it, the
sound, and that's pretty much likeit. What's interesting to me, And

(15:39):
it makes sense why those production costsare lower than like a Barbie movie it
you know, it's essentially adding amarginal cost onto the tour itself. Yeah,
the the tour was doing eighteen milliondollars a night approximately. Taylor Swift
keeps thirty five percent from tickets seventypercent for merchandise, which means that Taylor

(16:00):
Swift made about four hundred and fivemillion dollars on the tour. About eight
million per night is what Taylor Swifttook, which means that the margin on
the movie is much much much higher. She would almost be better off hour
for hour time wise making movies otherforms of media than the tour, right,

(16:22):
and the tour seems like this baselinething. I mean obviously it did
really well, but it's a lotof time to do that tour, and
like her margins on it were thirtyfive percent. Yeah, I think the
numbers would be different though, iflike she only did like a like a
on set tour thing. There wasno actual physical tour. It was just
like a recording of her performing onthe stage pretend like people wanted to go

(16:47):
see that movie because of the hypethe concert created, you know, when
it first started, people were like, oh my god, this is the
greatest thing to ever have happened onthe planet. I agree, But if
she had a more built out mediaapparatus where let's say she's not just doing
a movie about a tour, there'smovies she's producing, directing, putting her
name behind. There's a Taylor Swiftyou know, production house, a Taylor

(17:10):
Swift network. I think what yousee there is the type of brand power
similar to an Oprah, where shecan put her name on it, her
heft behind it, and then itbecomes very successful for her. I think
she totally should be doing that,like she would do great like Hallmark esque
kind of sort of movies. Shehas been in movies, and I don't
want to say, Kats is agood example, but she wasn't Kat.

(17:33):
Yeah. The movies she's been inhave flopped. Yeah, I think I
don't necessarily think she needs to bein the movie. She just needs to
like write it or produce it,or produce it, or be a part
of it, or do the musicor you know, have something like that
where she has a scalable media enterprise. I don't think people would be as
interested in something if she was notfeatured in it, Like her physically needs

(17:57):
to be a part of it.Like agree, some people like to watch
her, they don't like, Yeah, it's nice to listen to her.
I actually think more people like towatch her than even listen to her music
sometimes. That's an interesting limitation onher brand, which may be true,
is that it actually can't extend pasther, which means that she has to

(18:21):
constantly increase the price that she sellsfor Yeah, because it can't really scale
much more than it scaled, butit scaled pretty big. There's some other
stats I got here is that shegenerated more economic activity for her Glendale,
Arizona concert than the super Bowl.In February. She generated two point five

(18:44):
super bowls worth of economic activity everyweekend for twenty weeks, which means that
instead of your city trying to courtthe NFL, your city should probably court
Taylor Swift. You'd be better off, seriously, And like, we know
women are consumers, Like they buya lot of stuff and they're happy to
buy it. Her whole brand isfor women mostly, Like, so like

(19:08):
you're bringing girls out to Glendale,they're gonna be like, oh, we
got a brunch. Oh, wegotta take pictures here, we gotta get
drinks here, we got like likethey're gonna gotta get my outfits. They're
gonna have like six outphits, Likedudes, if they're going to the super
Bowl, Like, I'm gonna wearmy jersey, I'm gonna buy bro,
Yeah, a couple of my thirtydollars bud Lights and then that's probably maybe

(19:30):
the bros aren't drinking bud Lights anymore. Okay, sorry Midellas. So the
other thing they did with the movieis she cut her own distribution deal with
AMC theaters. I think that's crazyand really smart. And uh, she

(19:56):
already has a deal with Netflix wherethe film gets to go to net Flix
after thirteen weeks. B Uh.I in my Stalk World. I was
really hoping AMC would do a lotbetter. It did not. The Stalks
Stalks, It just did not moveAMC stalk and I was I mean,

(20:18):
I was about to like double downon some shit on that and now we're
explicit. Sorry, lost my trainof thought to deal with AMC. So
she distributed it directly, has thedeal with Netflix for streaming after thirteen weeks,
so man, which I think meansthat it comes out right around Christmas

(20:42):
on Netflix. Oh wonder if it'son the thirteenth of December. When did
when did the film release? Imean, we can do that math the
twenty let's ask the internet. Ithink it was like two Fridays ago.
Oh, it's longer than that TatorSwift movie. Really date October thirteenth,

(21:03):
it is, it's her birthday.So I mean, what's thirteen weeks from
October thirteenth? Oh wait, Oh, I can't do math. It might
be January. Ah yeah, Januarytwelfth. January twelfth, which is probably

(21:27):
just as valuable for Netflix because that'swhen they tried to get people back on
the platform. And so I thoughtthe Taylor Swift numbers, it may be
the most successful single series of eventsmedia wise ever done with the layering of

(21:48):
the tour and the layering of themovie and the merchandise. So then they
tucked Travis Kelce in there nicely,like yeah, to keep the to keep
the energy going around the film orat least time. Oh yeah, yeah,
And she's doing her album. She'sbeen re recording. She's about to
release nineteen eighty nine. Rerecorded Taylor'sversion, she did read, she did,

(22:15):
yeah, all them now she's alreadydone. Right, that was the
one that came out last week,right, I don't know the purple one.
Oh yeah, that's speak now.Yeah. So that's the Taylor Swift
update. Pretty incredible run, whichisn't over because the tour extends in the
next year. Yeah, go seeher worldwide. Oh no, yeah,

(22:38):
she's coming back here. Yeah,there's a whole you know, eighth city
American tour going on next year.One of the things I've seen is a
lot of the acts, the bigacts that were touring this last summer have
already scheduled tours for next summer,which which means that the expectation is that
they haven't exhausted the market yet.Yeah, but they're doing smaller cities in

(23:04):
general. So I don't have agood transition from Taylor Swift to this one.
But uh, there is news thatAmazon is considering offering veterinary telehealth as
it looks to compete with Walmart.Dude, I love this idea. I
didn't et Okay, first of all, I didn't even know you could do
that with Walmart. Yeah, Ididn't either. I also don't know how

(23:26):
pet telehealth works. Well look herethis now. I love telehealth for humans,
but this is even better for pets. Nobody wants to drag their mutt.
Yeah, nobody wants to corral theircat and they feel so bad for
them to go get poked and proddedif they have an like ear mites and
just need drops like everyone like it'sit's like when you have a sinus infection.

(23:51):
You know you have a sinus infection. I need to get mymoxacillant.
Like these are things that like donot require eating up like two hours hours
of a doctor's time, two hoursof your time, and like gas to
get there in emotional stress, likeI think it's so good for like please
like ear might and ear infection.Hold that camera up there, yeah yeah,

(24:15):
like just be like, look likethis is a picture of their eye.
They have an eye infection. Ohyeah, it's it's literally checking the
boxes. And I say that abouthuman things all the time too. I'm
like, there's no reason to like, it's just it's a waste of time.
Like I can get a prescription ifI'm sick through teledoc and two minutes
or less, and it is andthen it's getting filled at the pharmacy fifteen

(24:36):
minutes later. It's amazing. Soyou're a yes on the pet telehealth.
Yes, And then I don't Imean obviously like you can't administer a raby
shot, but like I don't know, it could just send you the box
of vaccines, like, hey,cham it right here. Yeah, there's
especially put on your ar goggles,put on your apple your Apple vision and

(25:00):
and they'll be an ar thing rightover your dog shows a tutorial right right
to jam the needle. Oh mygod, no, yeah, d iy.
But like especially for like especially earinfections and stuff like that, like
everyone like it's red. They're hangingtheir head to the side, they're flopping
their ear, their pawd at itlike it's and some dogs get them routinely
too, like if you have likea hound, they get them all the

(25:22):
time. But I just think thatlike for it just saves time and stress.
Like I hate taking pets in thevet so much so I could see
it you still have to do theyearly appointment to get the check up on
stuff. Yeah, I think itis notable to me that Amazon is starting

(25:45):
to It's so dominant in so manyareas, it's starting to push boundaries in
things like nobody really even thought toask for so veterinary telemedicine. Well,
I think they're even starting it forhumans too, because tell a doc now
you can do a prime care visitwith them. They will mail you a
blood pressure cuff that you can doon video in front of them. So

(26:07):
this is for somebody that's like obviouslynot getting like you know, like blood
drawn or like any like physical tests. If you're just there for like a
like a check in, you're like, I feel good, I don't have
any weird lumps like that. It'skind of I don't know. I think
it's helpful. Yeah, I meanI think it saves people times time most

(26:30):
of the time. Yeah, Solast story, TikTok bets people will watch
videos and ads on bigger screens,So they're getting into the out of home
offering on airplane TV screens, onbillboards, so billboards that play TikTok content
and ads and other screens. Thethird option will run TikTok content on screens

(26:55):
and bars, restaurants, airports,and other locations. So similar to the
CHIVETV atmosphere we've talked about how thatwould be good for them. Yeah,
our place is just gonna start installingvertical TVs. I don't know the answer.
That's interesting. They should because it'swonky having it on a horizontal They
should. And it doesn't take anythingbut to just configure the TV, like

(27:15):
I mean, it's not hard.So the TikTok content play outside of TV
make or outside the phone makes senseto me because we've talked about the people
who use TikTok. It's essentially replacingtelevision, so it makes sense that it
would go on to be on screensthat you would normally associate with just television.

(27:37):
Yeah, sometimes I do that.I'll like airplay it on my my
TV and just like scroll, especiallyif I'm watching with a bunch of friends,
like and we're just like hanging out, like bored. Well, everybody
group TikTok session together on my TV. I did that with some friends at
the pool. We were drinking andlike we had an outdoor TV and we
were just like swiping through. Werelike in tears with some of them,

(28:00):
Like it was it was some goodstuff. That's an interesting like turning into
a group phenomena, which is whatthe ones at the bars, restaurants,
hotels would do. M do youthink it's an advertiser? A placement in
that stream is valuable because you're notswiping and you can't swipe out of the

(28:21):
ad. Yeah, I guess itcould work. I was say first,
I was like no, because Ihave now like every time I see sponsored
or like it just starts to looklike an ad, I just swipe.
I don't even know what it is. I just like instinctively move on.
But because like you wouldn't be ableto got to get you with that stuff
that doesn't look like an ad.I mean I think ads like like if

(28:42):
you had Chive TV and like youwere watching ads, like I'm I watched
that at the bars probably more thananything else that's on the TV screen.
Yeah, I watch it too much. Is actually like pointless for me to
go out with people if that's on, because I can't stop looking at it.
But then it's fun because then likeeverybody's sitting there going, oh no,
I just ignore everybody like I can't. It is like the perfect timing

(29:04):
and content that I just lose trackof whatever's going on, devastating to my
social life. I just hope I'mnever at like an important business meeting and
it's onto the background. You're inlike a really nice debt restaurant, but
in the corner you could see ChiveTV on. You're like, yeah,
shit, that guy jumped out ofan airplane and his parachute didn't open.

(29:30):
That cow walked over that guy.All right, are we out of stories
in the queue? Any other storiesto cover before we close up? Wrap
up? Let me double check realquick. Nope, that's it. We're
good. That's all all right everybody. If you liked what you heard,

(29:51):
please leave us review on your podcastapp of choice. Until next time.
This has been the of Record.Podcast. Of Record is hosted by me
Joe Clements with the assistance of producerAlex Reinhard. Of Record is produced at
the Trailway Studio in Tallahassee, Florida. Our theme music is composed and performed
by Rob Goki Special thanks to ourentire team here at SDS. You can

(30:15):
see more information about the show onour website podcastirecord dot com. As always,
we'd appreciate your reviews and ratings inyour podcast app of choice. These
ratings and reviews help more people discoverthe show, which helps us keep delivering
quality content each week. Thanks forlistening.