Apple Music’s recent ad “Taylor vs. Treadmill” features Taylor Swift working out while jamming to Drake and Future’s song “Jumpman.” Unfortunately for Taylor, Apple Music is “distractingly good” and she gets so involved in her rapping that she faceplants off the treadmill. This 1-minute video had over ten million of its views come in the first four days. Swift’s Instagram post with the video has over 155k comments and 1.5 million likes.
Apple Music was wise to partner with Taylor Swift, practically ensuring that their video would be seen by a large audience. “With an artist that’s got 73 million followers on Instagram, that’s bigger than NBC, CBS and Fox and the viewership of primetime combined,” said Apple Music’s Head of Content Larry Jackson. The video was first released on Instagram, before making its way to Facebook, Twitter, and eventually traditional ad spots on television.
Running on Content Marketing
Content marketing can be thought of as advertising that doesn’t feel like its trying to sell you a product, and this video is another great example of that. It doesn’t focus on the features of Apple Music, or why you should use Apple Music instead of Spotify. Instead, it shows a quick, funny scene with a clear message: Apply Music is distractingly good. By watching this ad, we then know about Apple Music’s playlist features, easy to use inter-face, and library of hit songs, even though known of these things were directly told to us in the video.
Whether or not you are interesting in buying a subscription to Apple Music, it’s a funny video you might watch to get a laugh. No one wants to watch an ad for a product they have no interest in buying… but everyone like funny videos! By aiming to create an enjoyable video, Apple Music is prioritizing great content, which will likely earn them more viewers than a traditional ad would have. Apple Music is also reaching out specifically to Taylor Swift fans initially, showing a key understanding of its target demographic.
Taylor’s Workout Earned Those Gains
If you weren’t a Swiftie before, it’s unlikely this video suddenly turned you into a total fan of Taylor Swift. But what about Apple Music? Well, Apple hasn’t released any data about if there has been an increase in subscriptions. But we do know the playlist in the commercial, “#Gymflow,” has seen an over 300% increase in plays, and that sales of Drake’s song Jumpman have increased over 400% percent during the first week after this ad hit airwaves. So, it’s not just that a lot of people have been watching this video… this advertisement has been causing people to act, whether that means subscribing to Apple Music, listening to Drake, or even just sharing the video.
Fans loved seeing Taylor one-track mind.
Apply took some risks with this advertisement, especially releasing it using Instagram’s new one-minute video feature. However, as we see advertisers moving away from traditional television spots, we can expect to see many more ads like this (including a few more from Taylor and Apple Music!). It’s another sign that content marketing is becoming more important to both brands and consumers.
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