Cannes Lions

Taylor Swift Vs. Treadmill

BLACK HAND CINEMA, Santa Monica / APPLE / 2016

Film

Overview

Entries

Credits

Overview

Description

The ad begins with a close-up shot of Taylor Swift in her home gym putting on a pair of wireless headphones. Having a conversation with herself, Taylor starts by saying, “man, I hate cardio.” While looking down to her iPhone to select the right playlist and music for her run, Taylor continues, “activity playlists, running, hashtag GYMFLOW, Drake & Future, alright…”. The aforementioned conversation that she’s having with herself also navigates her interaction with music streaming service Apple Music at that very moment. As her song selection of “Jumpman” by Drake & Future comes on, she begins stretching for a brief moment. As the first verse kicks in, Taylor begins rapping the lyrics to the noted song with impressive precision. Whilst midway through the song’s verse, her right foot clips the side of the treadmill and she takes an unexpected awful fall quickly being

Execution

The ad was rolled out online worldwide after its release on Swift’s Instagram account, which was coupled with a simultaneous debut on ABC’s Good Morning America. Shortly thereafter, the commercial became the most trending topic globally. And since its release five days ago, its been viewed 50 million times across YouTube, Facebook and Instagram alone. Its online impressions exceed 400 million.

Outcome

For Apple Music directly, it’s impact and engagement level was immediately felt with a surge in new activity for the service. (Apple historically does not disclose such specific numbers.) It also became the number one most viewed YouTube video of all-time for the streaming service, and the number one most commented post of all-time on their Instagram and Facebook accounts.

Lastly, the impact has also been sizable for the music featured in the spot. For instance, “Jumpman” has exploded worldwide 431% in sales since Friday, April 1st. In addition, the playlist for #GYMFLOW has also jumped 325% worldwide from complete obscurity the week prior.

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