As we know, Taylor Swift is currently re-recording music from her first six albums to degrade the value of her masters, which she does not own, but she’s tried to own. There is so much anticipation about this project, these projects, because of course Taylor is one of the biggest recording artists in the business, if not the biggest if we’re measuring purely on sales and charting, and because of the very public fight over this issue, and also… well… this potentially has a multi-million dollar impact, considering how much her original work is worth and, most interestingly, how much she stands to make on her new-but-old work.
Think about it: a Taylor Swift album always hits the one million copy mark. Imagine if she hits it by releasing a new album with old songs re-recorded the exact same way? It would be the ultimate f-ck you, the ultimate flex of her power. I’m actually a little scared about the potential of that power. Especially when you consider that she’s an excellent salesperson. And so is her friend, Ryan Reynolds.
Ryan, as we’ve seen over the last couple of years, has really emerged as a business and marketing leader. He uses social media to its full potential, and it has enhanced and expanded his brand. He isn’t just an actor now. He’s not an actor-producer either. He’s a full package entrepreneur with all his business streams engaging with each other pretty organically.
Maximum Effort is Ryan’s production company and marketing agency; he’s in-sourcing the marketing and promotion for his own projects – like Aviation Gin, Deadpool, etc – and Maximum Effort is also outsourcing its services to other companies, like Match.
This is Show Your Work porn.
Usually when a company works with a celebrity, it’s the company paying the celebrity to be in their commercial and endorse their product. Ryan Reynolds is a celebrity. He’s not IN the Match commercial though…HE MADE THE MATCH COMMERCIAL.
The difference makes all the difference. It’s next level celebrity creative control and creative community too. Because if Ryan was just a face in a brand’s commercial, he’d be the only one who profits from it. In this new model though, the brand is still leveraging his celebrity… but he’s able to generate work not only for himself but also for the creatives in his company. Maximum Effort, and its team of artists and consultants, are the ones benefiting from Match money.
And Match also gets the bonus of being able to say that, since they decided to do business with Ryan, they’re the company that landed an almost impossible exclusive: Taylor Swift’s music.
Okay so while my new re-records are NOT done, my friend @VancityReynolds asked me if he could use a snippet of one for a LOLsome commercial he wrote so...here’s a sneak peak of Love Story! Working hard to get the music to you soon!! https://t.co/0vBFXxaRXR
— Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) December 2, 2020
What a payoff for all parties. Match, as we’ve just established, just got the best commercial they could possibly have hoped for. Ryan Reynold’s company, Maximum Effort, just threw down a ballsy challenge to other marketing and production firms in the same space, competing for the same clientele. If you’re a company with a product or service to sell, aren’t you looking much closer now at Maximum Effort?
And then there’s Taylor. We’ve now heard a “snippet” of the “new” version of one of her most well-known songs, “Love Story”. Taylor and Ryan were smart to choose this one because it’s so familiar. Many, many people know how this song goes. Or how it used to go.
Or how it still goes?
BECAUSE IT SOUNDS EXACTLY THE SAME.
That was the idea all along. She’ll do it exactly the same. She’s teasing how exactly the same it is. And it fits in perfectly with the ad. This is such great Show Your Work I wish we could nominate it for something.
