Week 4: Proprietary Data Collection and Examining Swift's Impact on Philadelphia and Glendale

Welcome back! As Swifties (including myself) prepared for the release of Swift’s album The Tortured Poets Department, I centered my research on the local economies portion of my question, with a specific focus on Philadelphia as well as Glendale, Arizona. 

To begin, I finalized The Eras Tour Swiftie Survey which aims to collect quantitative data on the amount of money Eras Tour concertgoers spent attending shows on the U.S. leg of the tour. By collecting my own data, I can both add to the existing literature surrounding Swift and assess the data I have been relying on thus far, such as numbers The U.S. Travel Association has collected. I hypothesize that this survey will affirm the data I scraped last week from articles and other publications. However, it is possible that my data will not align with what other sites have released and/or present shortcomings with the large numbers that news outlets advertise. In a 1994 journal article, researchers from Texas A&M University presented a myriad of limitations that exist when measuring the economic impact of festivals and other similar events. Typically, individuals use the multiplier process for measuring the economic impact of events (see below). While this is an accurate depiction of the flow of money through parts of the economy, the analysis of factors such as sales vs. income multipliers, employment multipliers, local spectators vs. individuals traveling for a show, visitors who would have come to the city anyway, and displacement costs are often excluded from the larger claims of a billion-dollar musical event. Publications like The Washington Post benefit from presenting large, surprising numbers because it draws attention to their site. They likely do not mind if their calculations (or calculations they pulled from other sites) ignore crucial limitations. My proprietary research may highlight this shortcoming. As I distribute this survey throughout the city and via social media, I will allow it to collect data over the next few weeks, returning to it toward the end of my research for analysis.

Next, I examined how Philadelphia reacted to the Eras Tour in their city. As mentioned in my Week 3 post, the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia cited Swift’s tour as the primary reason for last May’s strong hotel revenue in their June 2023 Beige Book. To fully understand the significance of this, I first learned how the Federal Reserve Bank typically collects data and is prompted to make these claims. These district reports are published eight times a year, using statements from Bank and Branch directors and interviews/questionnaires with businesses,

community organizations, economists, market experts, and other reliable sources. Through qualitative analysis with a strategically diverse set of sources, aiming to obtain objective information about economic activity, the Philadelphia Fed is able to identify dynamics and trends in their district that may not be apparent simply from available quantitative data. Regional analysis can then be used for assessing the national economy as a whole. Thus, citing Swift as a primary reason for revenue growth is significant because it results from a consensus among local businesses and professionals in the field that music/concerts are viable reasons for economic growth. In the prior Beige Book (May 2023), the Philly Fed reported that post-pandemic growth and tourism were slowing. While this remained true for the most part when Swift visited, the Fed noted that areas of the economy important for attending the Eras Tour (e.g. hotels) grew. However, in the following Beige Book (August 2023), the Fed reported a decline overall in tourism. It seems as though concerts like Swift’s may provide strong short-term growth, but this economic boom caused by music cannot be sustained long term.

Despite the importance of short vs. long-term growth, local businesses know they can at least make some immediate profit by catering to the Swifties. That’s why Philadelphia’s Ripleighs Creamery made eight new ice cream flavors and shakes inspired by Taylor Swift songs available for Swift’s Philly weekend. When marketing, businesses typically follow three steps: segmentation, targeting, and positioning (STP). They divide their market into distinct types of customers, determine which customer group to focus marketing on, and create a product and marketing strategy that will appeal to them. Swift’s Eras Tour makes it easy for local businesses to do this – marketing to their target audience of Swifites and making significant profits doing so. This is why we see Susie Cakes in California selling $50,000 worth of Swift-theme cupcakes during her shows there, or Japonessa Sushi Cocina in Seattle selling $10,000 in “reputation”-themed sushi rolls and glitter cocktails. Inbound Brew Co. in Minneapolis even said that Swift’s visit, during which they hosted Eras Tour events and activities, was “bigger for [them] than when the Super Bowl came to town in 2018.” Businesses throughout Philadelphia did the same, strategically marketing to Swifties in town for Swift’s three shows at Lincoln Financial Field, with Visit Philadelphia even publishing an article on all of the Taylor Swift-related activities in the area. 

For my Glendale-specific analysis, I focused on a comparison with the 2023 Super Bowl, which came to Glendale, Arizona about a month before Taylor Swift did. According to The Arizona Super Bowl Host Committee, Super Bowl LVII generated about $1.3 billion in total economic activity/gross output, translating to a $726.1 million contribution to Arizona’s GDP. Calculations by Duke Professor Ed Tiryakian (who teaches a Business of Sport class) determined that, using a conservative estimate of 4 million tickets sold at $250 per ticket and an average of $1,300 spent by each fan in local economies, the Eras Tour generated approximately $55 billion. In order to arrive at this number, Tiryakian used an MPC of 0.9 (assuming people will spend on the experience rather than save their income) which translates to a multiplier of 10. Using this multiplier and conservative price estimates (many paid significantly more than $250 for their tickets), he arrived at his $55 billion estimate. Comparing this to the $1.3 billion estimated above, Swift’s tour is equivalent to about 42 Super Bowls throughout the

U.S. However, Tiryakian claims it is more like 55 Super Bowls, considering that, on average, the Super Bowl generates closer to $1 billion. The U.S. Travel Association agrees that Swifties’ spending is “on par with the Super Bowl.” The key difference is that, with the Eras Tour, “it happened on 53 different nights in 20 different locations over the course of five months.” Recently, it has also been interesting to watch these two economic forces driving much of the entertainment industry collide with Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s relationship. Professor Tiryakian is interested in this idea because Swift brings new audiences to the NFL, especially a female audience ages 18-49 that the NFL used to struggle to reach.

The numbers above are significant, especially when a survey by QuestionPro found that the Eras Tour achieved a 68 NPS. An NPS, or net promoter score, is a market research metric that asks survey respondents to rate the likelihood they would recommend a company, product, or service to a friend, with the average NPS falling between 25 and 33. The Eras Tour’s score of 68 puts Swift’s tour alongside the top three most admired brands including Costco, USAA, and Southwest Airlines. The President of QuestionPro Research and Insights, Dan Fleetwood, stated that if Swift’s tour was a corporation her NPS would make her the fourth most admired brand, tied with Apple and the Ritz Carlton. Fleetwood ultimately ties this back to her emphasis on the fan experience. Her success points to a key component of music as a vehicle for economic growth. Swift is setting an example for other musicians. In order to achieve this level of monetary success, to the point where a good portion of consumers would spend a fortune to attend her shows and recommend others do the same, artists must build a sense of community around their music and live experiences. They must cultivate a parasocial relationship that makes fans, or even casual listeners, want to be in this space with Swift and share what feels like an intimate moment with her and 70,000 other people. A music event is rarely as popular as the Super Bowl, but Swift is teaching economists and professionals in the concert industry that it is possible. 

As I examine these booms Swift brought to Philadelphia and Glendale, I am ultimately drawing conclusions regarding how this is not so Swift-specific. These are strategies, implemented by Swift’s team and local businesses, that make consumers want to travel to see the shows and participate in Super Bowl-level spending. I believe other musicians can and will replicate this in the future. I am looking forward to delving further into this idea in the coming weeks and beginning to explore Chartmetric and the opening act portion of my research question.