Is Halsey's new album rollout the next Brat?
On vying for social media supremacy in the post-Brat era
YouTuber-turned-popstar Halsey has never really been on my radar, but a chance encounter with her Instagram page recently stopped me in my tracks. Halsey (who uses she/they pronouns) is in the midst of a very cool campaign to promote her new album, The Great Impersonator. They’re dropping new tracks from the album on the daily, inspired by some of the artist’s favourite pop icons spanning the decades. Along with the new songs, Halsey, channeling the character of a great magician from days of yore, has transformed into those icons, recreating famous visuals and album covers of musicians like PJ Harvey, Dolly Parton, Kate Bush, and David Bowie. It’s said to be Halsey’s longest and most confessional album ever, with a total of 18 tracks, and imagines what her life would be like had she been born in different eras.
As a story concept, it’s pretty brilliant, as it contemplates an age-old question among artists and their fans: How would their work have been different if they had been plunked into another, disparate time? And as a social marketing strategy, it’s smart: the striking images of Halsey cosplaying as their favourite artists from seminal moments in their careers - such as PJ Harvey in her “Joan Crawford on acid” era, complete with trademark blue eyeshadow - seems tailor-made for the visual-centric Instagram. Nods to artists and their different eras also deliver major nostalgia, which continues to enrapture audiences, especially Gen Z.
In the wake of Charli XCX’s masterful brat album rollout, the pressure is on musicians to push their music even further into the cultural conversation by way of weeks- and months-long campaigns. So you know there was a lot of marketing-thinking that went into Halsey’s new release.
The daily content drop, teasing new tracks with accompanying visuals, builds anticipation for the next drop, energizing fans eager to return for more. In the vein of partnership marketing strategy (although we don’t know if these artists have officially signed off on Halsey’s inspirational ode), the approach is designed to thrill existing fans while tapping into the fan bases of these pop icons. By tagging said artists, you get the potential of them blessing the music, as when Dolly Parton dropped a ❤️ on Halsey’s post posing as Dolly on the album cover for Rainbow. Is it a little bit camp? Hell, yes (especially Halsey-as-Dolly), but that’s part of the fun. After all, it’s Halloween month.
Thus far, Halsey has shown they have impeccable taste in music. She’s also chosen female musicians who are ferociously talented and have been masters at curating their public personas. By including David Bowie in the mix, Halsey has also (kind of?) demonstrated an effort to be inclusive. Based on Halsey’s selection of artists, I’m honestly psyched about seeing their next artist-as-muse selection - could we see Courtney Love, Joan Jett or Annie Lennox? (Btw, Lennox is a likely choice since some of the promos show what looks to be Halsey as the legendary Eurythmics singer).
But while I took the bait Halsey was dropping, as I dove further into this album release, I found that it highlights a bigger problem: All the artists thus far have been white. So, where are the black artists? Will Halsey attempt to include them? Leaving out black musicians would be a grave mistake: Black artists have contributed immensely to the overall music canon, have been notoriously marginalized, and deserve to get their flowers.
As a savvy commenter noted, Halsey herself is biracial (her mother is Italian and Hungarian, while her father is African American), adding another layer and potential challenge to navigate with this rollout. I’m curious to know how Halsey will tackle this. We are only eight days (as of 10/15/24) into what is likely to be a daily new song drop until October 25, so maybe they’ve already contemplated how black artists figure into the wider narrative.
Here’s what else I’m thinking about this week:
Are consumers the new influencers?
We’ve been seeing glimmers of brands including non-influencers/regular consumers in their marketing strategies - most notably with brands like Tarte including regular folks on their influencer trips (driven mainly by a backlash against the excess of said trips). Some brands, like Glow Recipe and
To build community and connect with fans, Glow Recipe has embarked on a cross-country, edutainment-style masterclass tour across the U.S., Canada and Europe. Spurred by customer demand, Glow Recipe is focusing on educating fans about their products (along with delivering perks like gift cards and swag bags). As a former beauty editor, I will tell you that product education - especially in the realm of skincare - is something that not enough brands do, or do very well.
With a sea of new product launches in the skincare category every day (the launch cycle has only sped up in the last few years, no doubt spurred by the social media marketing machine), consumers are barraged by choice and increasingly intricate, “science-backed” products with newfangled, cosmetic-chemist-level ingredients.
There’s a fundamental lack of skincare education, and thus, a white space for brands to deliver product knowledge and expertise that goes beyond a 60-second social post. Of how “hungry” the brand’s community is for product intel, Glow Recipe Co-CEO Sarah Lee told Glossy, “[They] just need the right guidance to understand ingredients, learn what their skin type is, even what their skin concern is.”
But education doesn’t have to be boring: the brand recreated an “apartment-style” set meant to evoke the space the founders, while “wearing sheet masks and drinking fine wine,” dreamed up the concept for Glow Recipe. As such, fans get to immerse themselves in the brand experience, sipping wine and self-masking, as they learn about skincare routines.
This approach has serious legs as a way to build elusive brand loyalty. Also, shout-out to brands like The Ordinary, which are involving their fans in the product development process. Co-creation with consumers of content and products is the way of the future.
Small Bites:
I love a good logo rebrand, and this new Mountain Dew logo, led by the amazing PepsiCo Chief Design Office Mauro Porcini, has an organic feel and retro vibes (plus, an actual mountain!). It is “chef’s kiss.” The new logo recalls the brand’s roots from 1943 as “a mixer for moonshine in the hills of Appalachia.” Gaze upon those “curves that flare the M in ‘Mountain’ like a classic boot-cut jean.” Fast Company
In what can only be called genius-level product placement for pimple patches, North West, child of Kim and Kanye, is on the cover of Interview Magazine. No mention of Starface in the credits, but it makes you wonder…
Lastly, Emma Chamberlain for Jean-Paul Gaultier in a very meta “Gaultier TV” social media campaign. I was waiting for a luxury fashion brand to snap her up for a big campaign, and it makes sense that it was Gaultier, a designer known for subversive appeal and also a brand that Chamberlain wore to the Met Gala earlier this year. I also love the gritty, surreal, Man Ray-inspired photography conceived by Jean Marques.
That’s it for now. Tell me your thoughts in the comments. And wishing a Happy Thanksgiving to my Canadian subscribers.
Ok this is going to sound very “old man yells at cloud” but it’s sad that album releases now have to be these multi-week and multimedia events. Exhausting
Halsey x Aaliyah just dropped--this article is the first thing i thought about! Reception seems mixed 🤷🏻♀️
https://x.com/PopBase/status/1847739706106400962