The 21st century equivalent may be the Taylor Swifty, named for Taylor Swift, the young singer and songwriter whose relationships have become fodder for comedians online and offline.
Magazines including Life Style, Time and The Week have mocked Ms. Swift’s proclivity for writing songs about her ex-boyfriends. And during the Golden Globes, as Sam Fox, the 23-year-old son of Michael J. Fox, helped present the awards, Tina Fey pretended to warn Ms. Swift against dating him.
As Taylor Swifties proliferate in the media, the Keds line of footwear is preparing to introduce a campaign featuring Ms. Swift that delivers a strongly social message to the brand’s young, female target audience. The campaign, scheduled to begin in print, online and in social media on Thursday, appeals to “brave girls” and “bravehearts” and offers Ms. Swift as a role model.
“If you’re lucky enough to be different from everyone else,” Ms. Swift is quoted as saying in one ad, “don’t change to be the same.”
Another ad offers advice like this: “Try things. Say hi already. Laugh a lot. Mess up. Apologize. Mess up again. Hug people. Take chances. Trust yourself.” The litany ends, “Be brave and you’ll have the time of your life.”
A special Web site, bravehearts.com, and a section of the Keds Web site, keds.com, are to be devoted to the campaign’s theme, carrying encouraging words like “Welcome, brave girl, keep your head high and your heart open” and “Don’t you dream impossible things?”
The campaign, with a budget estimated at $20 million, is being handled by Toth Company, for the creative aspects; the ShopPR division of Lippe Taylor, for the digital and social media elements; and PGR Media, for the media duties.
The campaign builds on a relationship between Keds and Ms. Swift that started in October, when Keds sold red sneakers inspired by her new album, “Red.” Now, Ms. Swift becomes the face of the Keds brand, which since May has been owned by another familiar name in footwear, Wolverine Worldwide.
Ms. Swift’s growing relationship with Keds comes as her marketing presence has increased. For instance, she worked with the Walgreens and Duane Reade units of the Walgreen Company to sell merchandise bearing her name, which included T-shirts, posters and calendars, in an effort that began in October and continued through the Christmas shopping season.
“She’s a classic in the mold of the great country singers with wide appeal” like Garth Brooks, said Ira Mayer, publisher and executive editor at The Licensing Letter, a newsletter in New York, part of Business Valuation Resources. “Even people who don’t like country music like her.”
Mr. Mayer said he did not believe that the jokes about Ms. Swift would detract from her appeal as an endorser.
Although “no one wants his or her love life hung out on the line to dry,” he said, such “gossip is part of what celebrities have to cope with nowadays.”
The jests about Ms. Swift, who is 23, have not affected her image, according to widely followed measurements of celebrity popularity known as Q scores. “She’s been remarkable in her ability to retain her above-average appeal,” said Henry Schafer, executive vice president at the Q Scores Company in Manhasset, N.Y.
Ms. Swift’s Q score is 24, Mr. Schafer said, compared with 17 for the average celebrity and 16 for the average female singer. And with females age 13 to 24 — the intended audience for the Keds campaign — her Q score is 26, he said.
“Her emotional connection with that demographic is very strong,” Mr. Schafer said, so for Keds “she looks like a good choice.”
Among children ages 6 to 12, he added, Ms. Swift’s Q score is 45.
The campaign represents a significant increase in ad spending in major media for Keds. According to the Kantar Media unit of WPP, spending totaled $1.7 million in 2010, $1.1 million in 2011 and $363,000 in the first nine months of last year.
“We started doing a lot of consumer insight work,” said Rick Blackshaw, president for Keds in Lexington, Mass., and found that “heroes are important” to the brand’s target audience.
“We thought about who would be Brave Girl No. 1,” he said, and came up with Ms. Swift, who “at 14 convinced her family to move to Nashville so she could pursue her musical career.”
As for the Taylor Swifties, “it’s nothing we’re going to comment on,” Mr. Blackshaw said. “We think she is a fantastic role model, an incredible talent and really meaningful to our girl.”
That was echoed by Bob Fouhy, president at Toth in Cambridge, Mass., who praised Ms. Swift because “she so strongly embodies what the Keds brand is about: being eternally optimistic and confident.”
“The world says what the world says about celebrities these days,” he added. “We’ve worked with lots of celebrities, and she was remarkably down to earth, considering her ‘superstarness.’ ”
There are plans for the campaign to include other elements like scholarships and mentorships.
Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/24/business/media/keds-campaign-features-taylor-swift.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
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