The 'BRAT' Effect

On creating content people will create content about

It seems we have an early contender for marketing campaign of the year: Charli xcx’s brat album rollout. I could probably write an essay about the rollout and the myriad IRL and digital touchpoints that have swirled together to energize the fan base.
As Grace Gordon pointed out in The Sociology of Business, “Charli and her collaborators have built a universe and lifestyle around being a clubrat / party girl, which offers a rich platform for fan expression and participation.”
That last part about creating a platform for fan expression is the biggest takeaway for brands from the launch: Create content fans will want to create content about.

🟢 The album and its art, with its shocking acid-green backdrop and deliberately lo-res font, has spawned countless viral memes from fans, who have adopted the iconic colour and built their own “BRATWEEK” language around it. It's deliberately minimal and almost intentionally ugly. But also deliberately thumb-stopping.
It’s a beautifully simple content ecosystem and a blank canvas for fans to create their own content, merging pop culture with the album’s themes and songs. The team even created a “Brat Generator” for fans to remix their BRAT art.
💡 The lesson for brands: Let consumers co-create with you, and you will build a community of engaged fans for life.

Nikita Walia of the fantastic thinking out loud substack got the inside scoop on the Brat brand identity, and it’s definitely worth a read.