Marketing Minute — August 2025
The end of summer is near, but the marketing world isn’t cooling down any time soon. August closed out the season with major headlines — from Taylor Swift’s major album announcement and Instagram’s newest feature rollout to high-profile rebrands that missed the mark.
Check out August’s Marketing Minute.
Swifties Rejoice! TS 12 Is Coming
The news of Taylor Swift’s upcoming 12th album made waves in the CTP office. While we’re excited to dance to and dissect this album, it’s worth pausing to discuss the strategy behind this announcement. Swift decided to share this news on the New Heights podcast, hosted by her fiancé, Travis Kelce, alongside his brother, Jason. This move accomplished three strategic wins in one fell swoop:
- Shaping the narrative. Any PR professional knows that fielding a reporter’s questions and controlling the direction of a story isn’t always feasible. By joining New Heights, Swift placed herself in a comfortable environment where she trusted the hosts and could set the tone of the conversation. This allowed her to highlight the key points she wanted to hit and ensure her announcement was released on her own terms.
- Expanding her reach. New Heights is primarily a sports podcast with a deeply loyal following that doesn’t necessarily overlap with the core Swiftie fanbase. By joining the podcast, Swift facilitated crossover exposure to broaden her visibility to new audiences, but that of Travis and Jason Kelce as well.
- Leveraging the visibility of her relationship. Her romance with Travis Kelce has been one of the most heavily covered storylines both in entertainment and sports media. Rather than shy away from that spotlight, she used it to her benefit. The relationship coverage wasn’t just about gossip but an intentional collaboration.
Beyond the podcast episode, brands like Olipop, Dunkin’ and Scrubdaddy all joined the conversation, showcasing their love for Swift and understanding of how to trendjack strategically.
Instagram Introduces Reposts
Instagram debuted a few new features, most notable being the ability to repost Reels and grid posts from other accounts. Taking a page out of TikTok’s playbook, reposts will now be sprinkled within the content you see on your main feed. While the shift is small, it has the potential to impact how you reach an audience. Before reposts, the best way to share other users’ content with your followers was through an Instagram Story, but that’s now set to change. With this new feature in play, social media teams should consider if and how reposts could benefit their clients’ social strategies.
Rebrand Rejection
Rebrands are a risky business. This month, both MSNBC and Cracker Barrel learned that the hard way. MSNBC announced it will transition to MS NOW — My Source News Opinion World — dropping the “NBC” entirely. Big picture, this shift signals MSNBC’s move from NBCUniversal to a spin-off company called VERSANT. But the name is clunky, confusing and lacks the recognition the brand carries.
Cracker Barrel, meanwhile, unveiled a pared-down, modernized logo. Some critics complained it is too “woke,” others as too simple. What’s clear is that customers didn’t embrace the change, and neither did investors — shares fell 7.2% two days after the reveal.
The main issue with both rebrands? They alienate existing customers by veering too far from what made the brands recognizable in the first place. In order to be successful, you have to have buy-in from your customers. They want something that still feels like the brand they love. Here’s our take on how these brands could have done their rebrand right.
Chat to you in September.
