100 Days of Pop: Episode 30 Heidi Klum & Clockwork
In this episode of the Pop100 we are talking about the power of CLOCKWORK in the Pop-Marketer’s toolset.
and we're doing that through 19 years of Heidi Klum Halloween Costumes!
Yes, I'm aware we're a week into November, and yes I'm fully cognizant of my inability to let go of my favorite holiday of the year, but hear me out.
Clockwork is a brand's ability to use repetition of key moments of the calendar to create cultural relevance or attention to themselves.
and it just so happens Heidi Klum's Halloween costume game is a master class in how potent the use of "clockwork" can be for a brand.
Sure, there's a ton of celebrities or influencers that get a bit of play with their costume but it doesn't hold a candle to the amount of earned media and attention the reigning queen of Halloween, Heidi Klum gets on a yearly basis...it's like clockwork.
How did Heidi become synonymous w/ over the top Halloween costumes?
CONSISTENCY
SPECTACLE
POPULAR CULTURE
It all began in 2000 when Heidi threw her first star-studded Halloween bash. Sure the dominatrix outfit is neither original nor that noteworthy, but the first of anything rarely is.
In 2001 ups her game and learns the importance of SPECTACLE, riding in on a horse as Lady Godiva and then follows it up in 2003 w/ her first mixture of pop culture with Betty Boop.
2003, 2004, 2005...Consistency. They really weren't special, but now she's consistently getting attention and building the connection.
2006 Is Heidi's, Sgt Pepper! She innovates by flipping the cliche "sexy" outfit with a very non-sexy metaphor for women's sexuality with the serpent and apple costume doing her very best fruit of a loom impression.
2007, 2008 spectacle! 2009 well, again we don't remember the misses, only the hits. 2010, 2011, 2012 Consistency and building more and more association and then there's 2013 where she goes back to the Spectacle and unexpected by going as herself 30 years older.
2014, 2015- Popular Culture- Jessica Rabbit, 2016 now she's playing with it and goes as multiple versions of herself. This blows up online
2017- she continues to play w/ Popular culture with a spot-on Michael Jackson Thriller
2018- Fiona
2019- It's all spectacle mixing the macabre and grotesque into the sexy thing in a highly detailed costume that not only took 10 hours to get into, but each of those hours were documented in social media and the press once again covered it because now it's just muscle memory.
Commitment & Consistency marketers it's all Clockwork! Heidi's career, her celebrity had nothing to do with Halloween, it was something she wanted to build into her brand, something she wanted to be known for so she leveraged her authority in fashion just enough to begin this consistent rhythm.
But think about how rare these 2 things are in the marketing world right now. CMOs and agencies come and go and everyone is so obsessed with novelty and the new that they forget to build memory, to build equity in a time or place or action.
earned media, publicity and PR are the power thrusters of pop-marketing and it's important for us to understand the rhythm of the daily, weekly and yearly news cycles because though some may see the daily news cycle as an endless possibility for attention, I see it as a finite resource. We only have 365 days on the calendar. There's only room for so much to break through and I'm surprised at how few brands don't take advantage of clockwork.
Not every year was a winner for Heidi, but popular culture doesn't think or care about those years, they remember the winners and that creates anticipation which is core engine of attention.
What's the one time of the year that you can guarantee that you get press? Where are you building equity and building memory? Big retailers have Black Friday and REI has anti-Black Friday, Coca-Cola has Santa Clause, Apple has keynotes, Star Wars has May the 4th- So what will you do this year- Follow along w/ the other lemmings thinking of your killer April Fools Photoshopped Facebook post or will you strategically be creating a memory around an event or holiday like the Queen of Halloween, Heidi Klum?
I'm Joe Cox, the Pop Marketer and this has been the Pop100, If you want to learn more about the principles, methods, and tactics that popular culture utilizes to capture and hold attention, than signup to my email newsletter at pop-marketer.com or don't and just be the person in the office that has to google "Wrangler on my Booty", next time it comes up in daily conversation.