PlayAbly Podcast Episode 1: Taylor Swift and the Gamification of Friendship Bracelets

In our debut episode, we explore the gamified world of Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour TikTok challenge, where fans completed weekly missions to earn friendship bracelets representing different eras of her career. We discuss the campaign's strengths and areas for improvement, from collectible digital rewards to the potential for more impactful incentives, and how gamification transforms passive fans into active participants.

Tune in as we examine how Taylor’s challenge reflects broader trends in marketing and customer engagement. Learn more about gamification at Playably.ai.

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Transcript

[00:00:00] 

Kajal: Welcome to the first episode of the PlayAbly podcast where we explore how gamification transforms online experience. . So today we're diving into Taylor, Swift's recent Tiktok challenge for her era's tour. With Angelo Ferro, who isPlayAbly's head of BD, as well as all things, data now. 

Angelo: Friendship bracelets. 

Kajal: speaking about, gamification being everywhere, our favorite artist, writer, director, performer, Taylor Swift, had a TikTok activation 

Angelo: that you 

Kajal: participated in. I 

Angelo: did participate in it was on TikTok and the challenge was 

she didn't promote it as heavily as, I thought she would. remember when Midnights. Mayhem. she was doing the TikTok videos. And would release a new song every time.

I think that was a very simple activation. I don't know how I saw it. I think it showed on my FYP, but I didn't see a lot of the actual posts. So the [00:01:00] idea was that every week there's a challenge and I think it was a 13 week countdown. every week was a different era.

so I'm looking at the task for the lover bead, which is like, lover heart and you have to share the page, with a friend, watch the video, add music to the app, and then you had to create a post using, in this case , post a video screaming the bridge of Cruel Summer, then include the Cruel Summer song and the hashtag TSArrowsTour on TikTok.

Kajal: So they had weekly challenges for all the different eras for the Eras Tour. 

Angelo: it was a 13 week countdown and then she did it in reverse order so it started with like ttpd and then it would count down so it was ttpd then midnights and then evermore all the way down to debut each week you would get a bead branded for that specific era.

at the end, if you did the whole challenge and you got this, frame, which had a, it's supposed to be, in TikTok, you can have on top of your, profile picture. you had to post or check back every week.

if you completed it, [00:02:00] you got the swifty frame and a message from Taylor I think I sent it to you, but when would that end?

Taylor didn't really promote it that much. And, I, cause I follow some, creators on Tik TOK who are like super crazy and they are the ones that I keep track of, all the dresses she's wearing and come up with conspiracy theories. they would post about it.

there wasn't really, they're like, Oh, it's a countdown and something's going to happen at the end. cause we're counting back, but then nothing really happened. Like you got the note and then, I guess if you completed the full challenge, Taylor nation would reach out and gift you a ticket, but that wasn't advertised until the challenge was over.

Kajal: Got it. So it was mostly social clout, a reward where you were able to have the frame and say, I did the challenge. I'm a Taylor fan. 

Angelo: But I think most people on TikTok, don't really post they're there to consume. And so I did it because I was like, in case there was something, cause I remember people had posted How this challenge is really similar to the [00:03:00] reputation challenge, 

Kajal: which you did 

Angelo: I remember working on the weekend at the uni office and watching Look What You Made Me Do a thousand times so that we could get, the points I thought it'd be something similar, so I participated in it just in case there was early access to, or access to tickets.

There was no access to tickets. I guess they were just random, 10 Nationals gifting tickets. 

Kajal: We did get floor seats though. That was totally worth it. Yes, 

Angelo: that was the best. I remember that concert I thought it would be something like that where you could earn points and then you'd be rewarded but there wasn't really the and the content i'm just gonna show I can show you the content, but it was not very it's basically, you know post a video with the song and then one time they had oh make your own friendship bead But the quality of the bead was like really shitty it just didn't feel like, Sure. and I also, because I think most people on TikTok don't post, not a lot of people posted. I didn't really see any, of the posted content on my FYP. 

Kajal: and you consume a lot of Taylor Swift content, so you should have seen it. I consume a 

Angelo: lot of Taylor Swift content, so it should have [00:04:00] shown up for me.

But even when I look at my views, like the most views I got was like 900.

And then how many 

Kajal: do you normally have? 

Angelo: I only started posting because of this. the worst performing one was 222 views and the best one was 902 views, all of the stuff that I posted was just for, the eras tour just for this challenge. 

Kajal: I know that for TTPD, she also did the shorts.

challenge. That was the fortnight challenge, which we didn't see a lot of postings for either, or at least I didn't see them. 

Angelo: I saw a couple, but, I wonder if that has to do with, I guess most people go to tick tock to consume. So they're not really posting. There's a lot of, and you have to leave it to the creators to post.

So maybe it wasn't the right medium to repost because people don't really post. I did see some content about millennials posting for the first time because they want to get their beads or they're earning their beads every week. but the, so I did it cause I [00:05:00] wanted to keep the streak and I'm a diehard Swiftie.

So I wanted to, in case there was a reward. But there really wasn't a reward. my interpretation of it was I didn't see a lot of people do it, even other friends, so even a lot of the diehards didn't post. I don't think it was a super successful activation.

Kajal: Got it. So what would you do if you were on Taylor's marketing team to improve this, knowing about gamification and activations to get people to participate? 

Angelo: Yeah, I think, Taylor wasn't really involved in it. she definitely didn't post anything on TikTok.

I don't know if she posted anything on Instagram about the challenge. it felt like she wasn't marketing, the, challenge to her fan base. because I'm a super fan, the TikTok algorithm found me to do the challenge, but it didn't feel like she was pushing it at all.

so then it wasn't clear, to me, is this something that her team is actually involved in? and also the way that you discovered the game was you had to go on TikTok and search the error store. And then there had a banner. [00:06:00] on the search bar where then you could go to the tour and see what the challenge was.

Kajal: Got it. So if you weren't searching for Eros Tour on TikTok, then you never would have been served up there. 

Angelo: I think there's just not a lot of discoveries. I don't know if a lot of people knew it because like it didn't show up on my FYP, or maybe it showed up when the challenge first started, but then I didn't see a lot of subsequent reminders.

I didn't see reminders of the next week's challenge. Because like people like I do that right people enough people are posting so that they know oh, it's week three Make sure you it's like reputation week. Make sure you post you get the reputation beat. I didn't see that So like I was like proactively going let me just check to make sure I kept going because I already started it and it's pretty low effort to post the content I wanted to complete the streak just in case there was a reward at the end.

I think most people just dropped off. I imagine the completion rates weren't that high. Jessica given like how big her fan base is 

Kajal: right and it didn't span a good number of weeks Yeah, 

Angelo: but it just didn't feel like there was And the reward [00:07:00] each week was like, you collect a bead and at the end you get a digital friendship bracelet.

the reward for each week was a personalized frame. So it'd be like a lover theme frame, evermore theme frame, whatever. but like that, I don't even I don't think I even saw other creators actually use the frame.

So I think it's a combination of not seeing people post and the reward, which is like this, personalized frame, people aren't seeing that either. I felt it was not the best, activation for Taylor.

Kajal: Oh, that makes sense. 

Angelo: Yeah.

We still love her. 

Kajal: Of course. I think the only challenge I did was the, it's me. Hi, I'm, the problem. Yeah. Use Lando, my son for that. 

Angelo: But I remember seeing that people like that was engaging and people actually posted. Yeah. Yeah. so I could see that on my feed, but I think it's the way that they posted it.

It was just like, okay, the poster just has to use this song it's like the TSA errors tomorrow on TikTok. it had a list 

Kajal: of things every week that you had to do It wasn't [00:08:00] just one thing. 

Angelo: It was a big commitment.

And I think with the, I don't remember the challenge, Oh, hi, it's me. Hi, I'm the problem. It's me. that's catchy because part of it also is probably the song, right? that went viral. So then you could easily just like lipstick that and then that content could go.

I think they picked a song from each album, except for Reputation and the ones they didn't have. you didn't have to post those because, Scooter Sill or whoever has the rights to those. So except the non TV version, you didn't have to post any, music content for it.

You didn't have to create a post for it. Yeah, 

Kajal: we're seeing this in a trend of sort of TikTok leaning towards more of a focus to music and I know that they've been done a lot with their licensing, but I'm wondering how much of the choice of the medium had to do with the lack of participation, just because Millennials are not on TikTok as much.

Anyone older than Millennials are definitely not on TikTok as much and Gen Z prefers things to be more authentic and more. Yeah. I'm sorry. I wonder if it was a Instagram challenge, Instagram reels, like it would have [00:09:00] performed better, which I think is important to knowing your audience and being able to speak to them on the mediums of which they are.

Angelo: What I have seen a lot on TikTok and iBookMarket is basically it's like a filter. where you can play the game. So the creators are recording themselves playing this game. And, I can send you an example, but basically like the creator talking, there's this one where it's a Sonic game.

So like there, or, actually they have one where it's you have to sing Dora, me, whatever, and then match the, I can't, I don't sing, but the note for the key, then you're able to progress to the next stage. So I have seen a lot of those games where you're watching the creator play the game and then you can play the game.

Cause the game is basically just like a filter. I have seen different brands doing it like, inside out, had a couple of games and then, there was Sonic, I'm assuming these are branded games. when it shows up on my FYP, those are like really high engagement and there's in like the, 50, 000 plus views.

Kajal: what do you think makes those [00:10:00] Activations more successful. 

Angelo: I think it's for well, part of it. Sometimes I wonder, the creator has an audience race. So like they have a built in audience already, so they have followers. And then you're watching them play the game.

I think some creators like purposely trying to suck at the game. cause I was like, this game is super easy. they're very simple games, but sometimes I wonder are there's a person just like trying to not trying as hard. So so it's frustrating. So then like you end up commenting and that increases the engagement.

Which we 

Kajal: saw a lot of in unity ads, somebody would suck at playing the game so you wanted to download the game to play it better. 

Angelo: part of that is like, this person sucks at this game. It's frustrating and then you're watching it. And then like people comment, happy to be so bad at the game.

And then Oh, I can play the game and I can do it better. So then they, play the game. But then I think most good because of Tik TOK is you consume, you don't really post. So in that case, know that I would actually post me playing the game.

Yeah. But I think that's engaging. Cause if Taylor was posting, like if she had posted on her Tik TOK, each of the challenges, [00:11:00] that would have each of the beats that would have a much different impact because she did it she's busy two 

Kajal: years of touring all the new albums maybe hinting at album TS 12 coming out with her necklace going out with Gigi the other day.

Angelo: The other thing you missed you think about gamification if you think about it Taylor's Created a cinematic universe and I think like the way that she's gave me it is with these easter eggs Right where she's like dropping heads and she's getting like her audience like be involved and engaged really good games are like storytelling and I view the easter eggs as her way of like dropping hints and participation like any sort of engagement was What you know good communication provides and I think the missed thing with the Eric, the beads project is there weren't any easter eggs sprinkled in It was just like, okay, this week it's reputation week.

And it follows the same formula of watch this video, share this post, create a [00:12:00] post, and then that was it. But there wasn't like any Easter eggs in the challenges themselves. But I think even how, devoted, how on it, the Swifties are. I think if there was like hints in this week times you had to do this or If there was some Easter egging embedded into that process itself, that would have probably increased the engagement.

Kajal: It did feel really different from her normal marketing task. I mean her entire Relationship with her fans the easter eggs is an entire marketing tactic of gamification It keeps people guessing it keeps people talking about her constantly even when there are no easter eggs people will find them.

they're all clowning hard for reputation tv to come 

Angelo: out october 4th, right? That's 

Kajal: October 4th the next date. So dust off our clown hats and throw them on. 

Angelo: I think I did it because I'm interested in it.

I wanted to see it through, but it's sad I could see how, with some tweaks if she was [00:13:00] posting, Or they tweaked they didn't make each week. So cookie cutter and they gave people a compelling reason to come back.

It could have been a very successful activation, but my guess is inch up and my FYP, and also if you search the hashtag, you can see how many people are posting. a very small percentage of her fan base participated in the challenge.

Even though it was like, I still did it. So I guess the lesson is like, even when you don't do gamification, she gamified it, I think there's a lot of things she could have done better, like having the Easter eggs and, posting it herself so that she could have recent engagement and gotten even more engagement.

People still did it. I think, that part of that was definitely like, I had started it. You just want to finish the streak. that was a big component of it. 

Kajal: once you get somebody hooked, it's easier to keep them going than it is to get them to start. 

Angelo: it'd be great to get the data on it, but I'm sure there's probably a drop off from people who did week two to week three or whatever.

But if you're on week four onward, then you definitely kept going. I'm going to go ahead and post and get my friendship bracelet. 

Kajal: I'm glad you got [00:14:00] your, bracelet. 

Angelo: Yeah, I've got to figure out how to find it on TikTok, but I got that note.

Taylor Nation did not contact me for, tickets though, They advertised them before, if they had been like, and if you complete the challenge, you'll get entered to a chance to 

Kajal: win Taylor tickets. 

Angelo: more people would have done it if they knew there was a chance to get tickets.

Kajal: I do wonder if the challenge actually was from her and her team versus, 

Angelo: the 

Kajal: idea from the record label or something to push. 

Angelo: Yeah. Or just Oh, hey, or TikTok was like, Oh, do this activation with us. And so it didn't feel having done like the other challenge, it didn't feel as, personalized or thoughtful as her other activations 

Kajal: when you're Taylor and you've established your brand of, thoughtfulness, being a mastermind, it needs to be present in everything you do.