The Britney Spears Universe: Social Media and Viral Marketing at Its Best

Home , Hold It Against Me, Larry Rudolph, Perez Hilton

Business Horizons (2012) 55, 27—31

Available online at www.sciencedirect.com

www.elsevier.com/locate/bushor

The Britney Spears universe: Social media and viral

marketing at its best

Andreas M. Kaplan *, Michael Haenlein

ESCP Europe, 79 Avenue de la Re´publique, F-75011 Paris, France

KEYWORDS Abstract Britney Spears is one of the most successful female recording artists in

Social media; contemporary music, world-wide. Herein, we analyze how Britney Spears and her

User-generated team of employees rely on social media applications to communicate around this pop

content; icon, and create and maintain her celebrity brand image. Speciﬁcally, we look at the

Web 2.0; use of social media during the launch of her single ‘Hold It Against Me’ and

Viral marketing; the associated album Femme Fatale in early 2011. The interplay of postings on

New product launch; Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook–—combined with comments on her webpage,

Contemporary pop BritneySpears.com–—can be seen as a prime example of social media usage to support

music; new product introductions.

1. YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter: pop charts globally. In 2010, Britney Spears was the

ﬁrst Twitter account holder to exceed 5 million

The world of Britney Spears

followers, placing her far ahead of actor Ashton

Kutcher and in the same ranks as fellow pop stars

When you think of contemporary music–—and, more

Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga. (Don’t feel bad if these

speciﬁcally, edgier dance pop–—what comes to mind?

names don’t ring a bell, either)

For some, the answer might well be ‘nothing.’ For

Besides her artistic achievements, what makes

others, however, these music styles likely conjure

Britney Spears so outstanding is the near-perfect

up the image of 29-year-old U.S. singer, entertainer,

way in which she and her employees rely on social

and pop icon Britney Spears. Since launching her

media to build and strengthen her celebrity brand

debut album–—Baby One More Time–—in 1999, Brit-

image. Miss Spears maintains her own webpage/blog

ney Spears has hardly been off the musical radar.

(www.BritneySpears.com), two YouTube channels

With over 100 million units sold world-wide, Britney

(Britney Spears and Britney TV), a Twitter account,

Spears is the best-selling U.S. female artist of the

and a Facebook proﬁle. These contact channels

last decade and her songs have become ﬁxtures on

have been built up over the course of several years

starting with the two YouTube channels in October

2005 and December 2006, the Twitter and

* Corresponding author.

Facebook accounts in August 2008, and–—ﬁnally–—

E-mail addresses: [email protected] (A.M. Kaplan),

[email protected] (M. Haenlein). BritneySpears.com in October 2008; the latter

28 A.M. Kaplan, M. Haenlein

replaced a more traditional version of the webpage. Twitter alone, this post received 1,052 replies and

Today, these channels’ usage numbers speak for 666 re-tweets from 1,516 users. In addition to Brit-

themselves: at the beginning of 2001, Britney Spears ney Spears’ 7 million followers, these messages

had around 100,000 subscribers on YouTube, 7 mil- were read by about 500,000 people. In total,

lion followers on Twitter, and 8 million ‘likes’ on 43,000 people clicked on the link and used the

Facebook. Putting these ﬁgures into perspective, ‘crystal ball’ application on Facebook.

Coca-Cola–—the most popular brand on Facebook–— But for Britney Spears, integration does not stop

has 22 million likes, but only 200,000 Twitter fol- at sites under direct control of the social media

lowers and 22,000 YouTube subscribers. In addition team; rather, it also extends to fan pages managed

to these primary activities, Britney Spears also by third parties which are independent from the pop

maintains a proﬁle on MySpace (created in October star. One example of this is the team’s collaboration

2003) and has recently launched an iPhone applica- with BreatheHeavy.com, the biggest fan-crafted

tion–—‘It’s Britney’–—which provides ofﬁcial news blog devoted to Britney Spears, maintained by

and exclusive messages, and allows users to assem- 22-year-old journalism and media studies college

ble digital images of Britney and themselves. student Jordan Miller. Although the site is complete-

These platforms allow Miss Spears and her em- ly independent from Britney Spears, Miss Spears’

ployees to be in close touch with her fan base and to social media manager Lauren Kozak works

interact with her target group on a daily basis. closely with Jordan Miller to ensure that postings

Instead of giving interviews to mainstream media, on BreatheHeavy.com are consistent with other

Britney Spears communicates important messages messages transmitted through the ‘ofﬁcial’ chan-

through the social media applications she utilizes; nels. Whether you’re personally a fan of Britney

reporters must rely on these for press announce- Spears–—or, even know about her–—these examples

ments. This generates a feeling of privilege and illustrate that your business can probably learn a lot

appreciation among loyal fans, many of whom fol- about using social media from her and her team.

low Britney Spears in real-time, since they receive

information as soon as–—or, even before–—ofﬁcial

press representatives. Together with her managers 2. The launch of ‘Hold It Against Me’

Adam Leber and Larry Rudolph, her social media

manager Lauren Kozak, and her team of employees, A particularly outstanding example of Britney Spears’

Britney also responds to some of the questions her social media and viral marketing strategy is the

fans ask on these channels. In doing so, the Britney launch of her single ‘Hold It Against Me’ (HIAM). Hold

Spears team pays close attention to ensuring that it It Against Me was ﬁrst played ofﬁcially on January 10,

makes absolutely clear who is providing the re- 2011 during the nationally-syndicated Top 40 radio

sponses. Postings made by Britney Spears, herself, program On Air with Ryan Seacrest. Four days prior to

are marked using the ‘Brit’ signature. Given that this ofﬁcial release, on January 6, a demo tape of the

Miss Spears travels much of the time, such posts single ‘leaked’ and was available via YouTube. On the

are typically sent to Lauren Kozak, who then same day, Britney Spears posted on Twitter:

copies them verbatim to Twitter, Facebook, or

Heard an early demo of my new single leaked. If

BritneySpears.com.

u think that’s good, wait til you hear the real

Although each application (i.e., webpage/blog,

one Tuesday. Brit

YouTube, Twitter, Facebook) serves a speciﬁc pur-

pose in the overall social media strategy, the Spears This posting, combined with the demo tape, re-

team tries to integrate them as closely as possible. sulted in substantial press coverage of the single

For example, 2 weeks prior to the launch of her new even before its premier. For example, Mario

‘Radiance’ fragrance, Britney Spears posted on her Armando Lavandeira–—better known as gossip col-

webpage, Facebook, and Twitter: ‘‘Happy Friday umnist Perez Hilton–—posted on his celebrity

people! Am I part of your future?’’ This post was blog, PerezHilton.com, on January 6:

followed by a link to the Britney Spears Facebook

With her vocals on that it’s going to be an

presence, via which readers could launch an appli-

undeniable, sureﬁre hit. I loved it. My own

cation related to the Radiance advertising spot. The

critique is that the demo sounds a little too

app used the main theme of the advertising spot, a

much like Ke$ha. I hope that the ﬁnished song

fortune teller, and showed users different pictures

feels like a Britney song. Beside that it’s still to

of themselves and their friends in the form of a

me a hit song.

crystal ball. These pictures, captured from the

respective user’s Facebook photo albums, were fol- A similar strategy was used to launch the Hold It

lowed by a video of the Radiance spot itself. On Against Me video. Historically, music videos were ISI Articles مرجع مقاالت تخصصی ایران

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