Boots has proved the power of reactive marketing by quickly greenlighting a creator’s idea to invite 22 fans to the closing night of Ariana Grande’s The Eternal Sunshine Tour in London.
Over the weekend, pop culture and concert creator Sasha Ridge turned to TikTok to take a chance and see whether any brands were interested in spending nearly £10,000 on a suite at the O2 for Grande’s tour. Within three hours, Boots replied: “Girl we’re IN. Let’s do this”.
@sasharidge I fear the idea is too last minute 😂 #arianagrande #closingnight #eternalsunshinetour #london #londonn10 @The O2 @arianagrande @r.e.m. beauty @Boots UK @Swarovski @milly
The idea was conceived between Ridge and Milly (xemilyamelia), who decided on the plan 12 hours before the video was posted on Saturday morning. As Ridge said in her video, “I was like ‘girl, you’re crazy. No brand is gonna do that’ – but they might”. The lesson? You don’t ask, you don’t get.
The original video has 324,800 views, 31,700 likes and 785 comments, and her TikTok reacting to Boots’ comment has 108,200 views. Cumulatively, Milly and Ridge’s videos about manifesting the suite into existence have more than 793,000 views.
The creator told her LinkedIn audience: “No campaign brief. No weeks of planning. Just an idea, an incredibly engaged community, and a brand willing to move quickly and say yes.”
Boots’ head of social Emily Bell also explained the decision on LinkedIn: “No planning or lengthy briefing and approval process, just brilliant instinct from the team, a creator with an idea her community wanted to get behind, and a brand willing to move at the speed of social. THIS is what being truly social-first looks like – building the confidence, relationships and ways of working that allow you to react when the right moment appears.”
The high demand for Grande’s The Eternal Sunshine Tour has meant many fans missed out on seeing the artist perform live in the UK for the first time in seven years. London has been the final leg of the tour, with Grande playing ten nights at the O2 until 1 September. Then she is not on the road again for a “long, long, long, long time”. Closing night isn’t just the finale of Grande’s time in London – it’s the end of a huge chapter and every Arianator wants to be there.
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The fact that Boots is willing to take real fans is driving positive sentiment for the brand. Concert creator Suzanne Stewart praised the company and said: “I already have much stronger association of Boots because they’re actually gonna give the chance to fans for once. And as a brand, the type of content you’ll get from taking real fans to a show, who have the passion [and] know every single song, it just makes you look so much more culturally relevant.” Meanwhile, pop culture commentator Dan Cash commented on Ridge’s post: “This is such a great idea!! I always think brands should buy boxes and fill them with real fans.”
@suzannestewart_ the start of a movement! go on girls!! @Sasha Ridge @Boots UK @milly 🩷🕺🏽🪩😍 #fangirls #fangirl #arianagrande #boots
There is a rise in influencer fatigue over creators being invited to high-demand tours or sent on lavish brand trips. In the past, brands have been criticised for inviting influencers who are not genuine fans of an artist to a show, as seen with the backlash about creators at The Eras Tour. Instead, creators like Sophia Tuxford and Cinzia Baylis-Zullo, and Amelia Olivia, Channon Mooney and Grace Alexandra have been praised for taking their followers to shows like Harry Styles’ Together, Together tour and Olivia Dean’s The Art of Loving Live. It’s real-world community building.
Boots’ reactive strategy shows that it is not only invested in Ridge and the Ariana Grande fandom but is an active participant in cultural events. The way Boots quickly jumped on the opportunity proves it has an always-on social team that’s willing to invest in creators, their audiences and their ideas.
By Caroline Edwards, trends editor at CORQ.
