Olivia Rodrigo is doing social media marketing right
'vampire' and 'bad idea right?" promo materials are just the beginning of this pop star's strategy for success
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Bad idea? Nope. Olivia Rodrigo has the right idea. Across platforms, the young pop star is capitalizing on the casual finesse online audiences seem to crave.
“Gen Z values authenticity,” Julia Munslow wrote in a report for Neiman Lab in 2022. Although she was talking about the journalism industry, I believe the phrase rings true in the macrocosm.
In the off-sync TikTok below, Rodrigo uses her own song and the actresses from her music video, and yet, it barely feels staged. The pop star has kept herself at the forefront of trends and fashion, which ultimately helps her continue to feel relevant even when she’s been musically dormant since the release of her first album.
You see the “everything old is new again” attitude in her promotional materials. Think typewriters, Polaroids, and 90s chic. None of her content feels heavily produced. In other words, nothing feels fake.
Rationally, we know that can’t be true, and yet, Rodrigo does such a great job of utilizing the 1“Messy Girl” aesthetic and the 2“Gen Z shake” that we’re tricked into thinking otherwise. She’s mastered the art of 3photo dumps and overall, you can tell she’s figured out how she wants to portray herself online by her harmonious social media feeds.
Even her music video for “vampire” taps into this need to be real. In it, Rodrigo’s meticulous on-stage performance is shattered when she’s hit by a piece of lighting equipment. She precedes to escape from the theater, finding herself on a highway overpass, free.
I think Rodrigo’s consistent brand strategy is clever and timely, reflected in everything from the clothes she wears to her ‘GUTS’ album cover advertising. You can tell she and her team have put a lot of thought into it. On the flip side, the irony of her own messaging can’t be ignored. In the process of trying to seem real, is she actually being fake?
Rodrigo’s sophomore album dropped last night. If you’re taking notes, keep an eye out for what else the pop star does on social media to accompany it.
My weekly roundup:
🎶 What I’m Listening To: GUTS by Olivia Rodrigo 💅
🎞️ What I’m Watching: Gossip Girl, S3E15
🔎 What I’m Reading: ‘Gen Z’s Desire for DEI Focus Clashes With Reality of Culture Wars’ by Olivia Konotey-Ahulu for Bloomberg
📱 What I’m Scrolling: Joe Jonas and Sophie Turner’s breakup 💔
“Messy Girl” aesthetic: A casually cool, “I-just-rolled-out-of-bed-and-still-look-better-than-you” way of presenting oneself
The Gen Z shake: Picking up your phone at the start of filming, which gives it a shaky effect