It’d be hard to come by anyone these days who hasn’t heard of Taylor Swift. The country-turned-pop star, who wrapped up her record-breaking 2-year-long Eras Tour just a few short months ago and was named the 2023 Times Magazine Person of the Year, has solidified a spot as one of the most famous and influential artists of her time.
But it wasn’t always that way…
When Taylor Swift convinced her parents to move from their Christmas tree farm in rural Pennsylvania to the suburbs of Nashville so she could test her luck in the country music industry, she was just a 14-year-old girl with a dream and a guitar, far from the international sensation she is today.
And while Taylor’s mix of catchy radio hits and deep-cutting song-writing skills had her quickly scaling the charts, many have noted the influence of her incredibly effective (and profitable) marketing strategies over the years.
In fact, long before localization was a catchphrase and must-have service, Taylor and her PR team were busy executing a listener-centered global marketing campaign that would eventually gain her millions of loyal fans (aka Swifties) and have her selling out stadiums night after night in cities across the globe.
Taylor’s First Steps Towards Localization
To talk about Taylor Swift’s practices in localization, we need to first define the term. Localization refers to the process of taking a product and adapting it to the local market. In the translation industry, it involves not only translating that product to the local language, and sometimes regional dialect, but also ensuring that it is sensitive to cultural nuances and preferences.
When Taylor’s self-titled debut album dropped in 2006, one of the countries to surprisingly jump on the early Swiftie bandwagon was Brazil, a country with the largest population in South America and a booming local music industry that doesn’t leave much room for foreign artists to shine.
But Taylor didn’t take her early stardom for granted. In fact, she capitalized on it. In 2011, and in the midst of a global tour for her 3rd album, Speak Now, she and her team decided to take things a step further. They did their research and recognized that songs adapted to Brazil’s official language, Portuguese, were the fastest way to the Brazilian audience’s heart.
She teamed up with local singer-songwriter, Paula Fernandes, who wrote and sang Portuguese verses in Swift’s remix of her popular hit, “Long Live.” The song, which reached number five on the Brazil Hot 100 Airplay chart, was later used to promote the special Brazilian edition of her Speak Now World Tour Live album, designed specifically with her Brazilian fans in mind.
Localization in The Eras Tour
While there are countless stories of how Taylor Swift has leveraged knowledge of different languages and cultures to enamor crowds worldwide, her mastery in catering to local audiences has never been more apparent than in her recent Eras Tour, with shows in 21 countries across 5 continents.
When the 2023 U.S. leg of the tour wrapped up, and she landed in Mexico for her first international stop, audiences both in Mexico and on grainy live streams around the world, got an initial taste of the language and cultural adaptations she would make for global audiences, starting with her iconic “Welcome to the Eras Tour” message. Over the course of a year, Taylor would learn to say the phrase to greet her fans in Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, German, Dutch, Welsh, and other languages.
But her localization didn’t stop there. U.S. audiences had grown accustomed to hearing Taylor’s backup dancer, Kam, say the famous “like ever” line from her Red era hit, “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together.” So when on Mexico City N1, Kam surprised fans with the Spanglish “like nunca,” the crowd went wild.
Her next stop, however, this time in Buenos Aires, Argentina, set a precedent for the rest of the tour. While fans in the Spanish-speaking country were expecting another “like nunca,” Kam and Taylor proved themselves to be masters of localization, shocking the Porteño crowd with the very Argentinian saying “ni en pedo,” which loosely translates to “hell no.”
While some artists might be quick to group all Spanish-speaking countries together, this nod to the local culture represented an acknowledgement of the regional dialect and cultural differences between Mexico and Argentina. In fact, Buenos Aires N1 started a trend that would be maintained for the remainder of the tour, localizing the “like ever” phrase not only into different foreign languages but also tailored to the unique slang of English-speaking cities. So much so that audiences tuned into live streams just to hear what creative expression Kam would come up with each night, and were treated to local expressions such as “Naur” (Melbourne, Australia), “Jog on, lad” (Liverpool, England), and “Oh no bébé!” (New Orleans, USA).
And because localization isn’t just about adapting to the language but to other cultural differences as well, it’s worth noting how Taylor customized other components of her show as a nod to the uniqueness of each place she visited. Such differentiation can be seen in her choice of outfit colors to represent the flag of each host country, or the emblematic Mardi Gras colors (purple, green, and gold) while performing in New Orleans.
Even her surprise song set was often customized to the local audience. For example, Parisian crowds were serenaded by her songs “Paris” (for obvious reasons) and “Begin Again,” a song from her Red album whose music video was filmed in the City of Lights. Meanwhile, London fans were treated to “London Boy,” “So Long, London,” and “The Black Dog,” named after a local pub in South London.
The Importance of Localization
One of the reasons Taylor Swift is so vastly treasured by fans around the globe is that she makes an intentional effort to generate closeness with her followers. Part of this has to do with her song-writing; but as fans are listening and relating to her lyrics, she is also listening to them. She is researching their culture, learning their language, and understanding their unique preferences. She does not merely put out music and wait for crowds to come to her, but she is actively reaching out and meeting them where they are.
Global corporations can learn an immense amount from Taylor Swift and her marketing team. By tailoring their content to local languages and cultures, they make customers feel understood, seen, and respected. Brands that invest in localization services foster a sense of trust and build up loyalty, and that in turn improves their image and their sales. On the other hand, companies that overlook localization not only miss out on potentially profitable local markets but may also make the mistake of seeming insensitive to cultural nuances, turning customers away from their offers.
