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Taylor Swift posted an announcement of her engagement to Travis Kelce at around noon E.T. on August 26. By 12:30 p.m., Sour Patch Kids, Duolingo, and Buffalo Wild Wings had all tweeted about it. In todays era of reactive digital marketing, brands with wildly successful social media presences tend to echo the same mantra: Its all about speed. Companies like Duolingo, Amtrak, and Heinz have scored some of their most successful posts by chiming in on whatever discourse is currently dominating X feeds. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Taylor Swift (@taylorswift) Brands react to Taylor Swift’s engagement For most brands, X is the platform of choice for rolling out the quickest possible response to a piece of breaking news, given the low lift required. Today, brands from across a wide range of categories came out in droves on the platform to offer their two cents on the Swift and Kelce engagement. SUDDENLY I BELIEVE IN LOVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!, Sour Patch Kids wrote. but when will it be your spanish teacher's turn https://t.co/WGQpJig8oq— Duolingo (@duolingo) August 26, 2025 But when will it be your Spanish teacher’s turn, Duolingo quipped in response to Swifts Instagram caption, Your English teacher and your gym teacher are getting married. “WE WILL CATER THE WEDDING, Buffalo Wild Wings offered. It’s a love story, and baby she said yes, Crumbl cookies wrote above a pairing of cookies clearly meant to represent the future newlyweds. Local man and his new fiancée stun in engagement pics. pic.twitter.com/r5rauPDA8g— City of Cleveland (@CityofCleveland) August 26, 2025 Even the city of Cleveland couldnt pass up the opportunity to alert its followers to the news with a tweet thats already scored more than 20,000 likesa startling sum compared with the accounts usual posts, which tend to net less than 10 likes apiece. [Screenshot: courtesy of the author] Other brands tried different avenues to turn Swifts announcement into their own win, including GrubHub, which sent a push notification to customers reading: And we say yes to takeout. Order your favorites today. WE WILL CATER THE WEDDING— Buffalo Wild Wings (@BWWings) August 26, 2025 Why is Buffalo Wild Wings congratulating Taylor Swift? For many of these brands, this quick turnaround content geared toward Swifties is already taking off. Buffalo Wild Wings tweet, for example, is its second-most successful post of the monthbehind only its post celebrating Swifts upcoming album, The Life of a Showgirl. After Swift announced the new album on August 13, brands similarly used the news as fodder for their own posts, from Elmo to United Airlines and Tic Tac. On LinkedIn, the trend stirred up a discussion among marketers about whether reactive marketing is truly worthwhile. One post by social media strategist Kieran Hughes that called the strategy lazy marketing garnered nearly 2,000 reactions and 400 comments. Sesame Street, FedEx, Dunkin’, airlineseveryone jumping on the same bandwagon within hours. And I can’t help but think, when did we decide that being first to react was more important than being strategically relevant? Hughes wrote. This isn’t cultural marketing. It’s cultural desperation. Real cultural marketing means understanding why something matters, not just that it’s trending. On the one hand, Hughes is touching on a real concern for both social media users and brand managers. “Bandwagon” marketing has become an unavoidable trope over the last several years, and when it’s overplayed, it can easily come off as annoying, low effort, and even cringeworthy. But on the other hand, when done correctly, posts like these can drum up outsized engagement from larger fan bases that wouldn’t normally interact with a brand. In a direct response to Hughes, marketer Ashley Rutstein, who runs the account @stuffaboutadvertising, noted that many of the posts cited in his critique had outperformed those brands other recent content: Buffalo Wild Wings response on X notched 10,000 likes, compared with its average in the hundreds; Scrub Daddys Instagram post attracted nearly 100,000 likes; United Airlines Instagram post drew more than 500 comments; and FedExs tweet was its most-liked post all year. Brand posts appealing to the attention economy (especially when it comes to one of the internets most beloved pop stars) work, whether we like it or notand the immediate reaction to Swifts engagement is yet another data point to prove it. /p>
Category:
E-Commerce
Trump Media is making another crypto play. On Tuesday, Crypto.com and Trump Media & Technology Group, owner of President Donald Trumps Truth Social social media network, announced their intention “to launch a rewards system on the Truth Social and Truth+ platforms”using Crypto.com’s digital wallet and Cronos (CRO) digital currency as a utility token. The move marks yet another example of the president’s ties to the crypto industry, as Trump has created a crypto-friendly regulatory environment during his second term. The partnership follows the announcement of a $6.4 billion deal to create a new company, Trump Media Group CRO Strategy, via a merger with Yorkville Acquisition Corp, a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC), that will be listed on the Nasdaq under the “MCGA” symbol. The news sent shares of Trump Media & Technology Group (DJT) climbing in early morning trading on Tuesday. At the time of this writing, the stock was up over 5% in mid-day trading. Meanwhile, shares of Yorkville (YORK) were down about 1%. Trump Media by the numbers Trump Media & Technology Group reported its most recent quarterly results, covering the companys fiscal 2025 Q2, which ended on June 30. The company reported a net loss of $20 million for the quarter, and second-quarter revenue sank 30% to $836,900 from a year earlier. However, Trump’s Truth Social saw share prices rise, in part from its Bitcoin holdings, according to Fortune. In its earnings report, Trump Media and Technology Group disclosed it held $2 billion in bitcoin and bitcoin-related securities. The company had a market capitalization of $5.03 billion at the time of this writing.
Category:
E-Commerce
Apple will host its annual fall event on September 9, according to an invite on Tuesday, where the company is expected to unveil new iPhones, watches and other devices. The event will be held at the Steve Jobs Theater at Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino, California and serve as a showcase of the company’s efforts to integrate artificial intelligence into its devices. It will be closely watched by investors worried about the company ceding ground to faster-moving rivals in the race to deploy AI technology. Media reports have said Apple will also unveil a slimmer version of its latest iPhone, possibly branded as the iPhone Air, echoing its iPad Air and MacBook Air lines. The company is also expected to showcase new entry-level, high-end Apple Watches, upgraded iPad Pros and a faster version of the Vision Pro headset, Bloomberg News has reported recently. Under pressure from the Trump administration, Apple has boosted its already hefty investment in the U.S. to $600 billion over the next four years, creating jobs and shifting some work there in the hopes of sidestepping potential import duties. Apple faces pressure from tariffs imposed on U.S. imports from countries including its production hubs, China and India. In June, Apple announced a slew of AI and software features, along with an overhaul of its operating system redesigning its icons and menu to resemble what it calls “liquid glass.” However, Apple’s delay in embracing the AI market has left it trailing Big Tech stalwarts. Smartphone maker Samsung and Chinese firms Honor and Huawei have taken advantage of the gap Apple left in the industry, luring customers with their own AI offerings. Zaheer Kachwala, Reuters
Category:
E-Commerce
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