BRAT: Marketing Behind the Album that Saved Summer
- Hudson Smith
- Jan 28
- 5 min read
Everyone knows the saying 'Brat Summer' but do not know how it originated. Although this album has so many iconic songs and sayings, the marketing and promotion for this album goes so much deeper than just a saying. Brat was released in the early summer of 2024 and was an instant hit from the minute it dropped. However, one wonders, how did this hype build up? Why did everyone love the album? And finally, what made this album 'iconic'?
The Brat Wall
To begin the album promotion, a mysterious wall in Williamsburg, New York was painted a mysterious green color. This color soon became known as 'Brat Green' as the album was centered around this green. The wall started putting up letters which eventually spelled out brat. From this, everyone knew that Charli XCX was going to release a new album. At first, when the cover appeared on the website, many people thought that it was just a placeholder cover and that a photoshoot would soon follow. However, this album cover remained with the simplest outlining. From this, this developed the iconic album covers with words in the Brat format. The wall soon started spelling out different phrases that hinted of what was to come on the album. It also helped advertise her second counterpart to the album with three new tracks, almost seen as a deluxe version.
Remixes
Remixes are no strangers to albums with Dj's adding their own touch, singers adding new verses, and different elements that complete a remix. Charli, however, rolled a few remixes out at a time. On the Brat Wall, the letters 'L','O','R','D','E' appeared confirming a track with Lorde. Everyone had speculated the track 'Girl, So Confusing', which was the track Lorde was featured on. Many people were shocked and dumbfounded as Lorde and Charli were not friends at this point. This showed the beef had been squashed between the two through the song and had so many people anticipated for the release. The phrase 'Let's work it out on the remix' originated from Lorde's verse on the song and has been used as a sign for bringing friendships back. To appeal to the TikTok audience, Charli also remixed the song 'Von Dutch' with popular influencer Addison Rae. Addison Rae had been popular on TikTok since 2020 and had recently started her music career. With this remix, many people pointed out Addison Rae's scream at one point in the song and started using this scream for various videos. From this album alone, these remixes had hyped the rest of the remixes up and had people eager to see who else would be featured. When the full album of remixes was released, the sales were 35,949 between physical and digital copies. 6,905 vinyl sales had also happened contributing to the album being number one on the music charts.
The Green Cover and Color
This album cover has had such a cultural impact on the music industry as we know. Many other fans started using the album cover as a basis for their favorite artists. For example, Taylor Swift fans started using this format to do the same to her albums. This album cover was so innovative and new for its time as it was underwhelming yet perceived so well by the public. To get more engagement for the album's release, Charli also changed all of her album covers to be the same as the brat cover. From this, people started to get more obsessed with the album as they knew a hit album was about to be dropped. The cover alone was enough to get the album recognized by critics giving it such a high rating. Charli had explained she thought this album would do mediocre at best which is why she didn't bother with a photoshoot. This decision was an amazing choice, as seen, as no other album before had been this simplistic and done so well.
TikTok Dances and Popular Influencers/Artists
Troye Sivan and Charli XCX had been long friends before her album dropped. One day on TikTok, Kelley Heyer uploaded a video of her doing her dance to this song. Apple was a song that was critically underrated on Charli's album, and even Charli herself talked about scrapping the song from the album completely. However, this dance blew up on TikTok giving even more listeners to Brat. It got to the point where Charli herself made a video with her co-star Troye Sivan dancing to this song. This made Apple skyrocket to her second most popular song on Spotify and had everyone doing the dance. Many other dances and trends originated from her music as well with people dancing in the shower with the song 'Guess' blasting in the background. Although these were all lighthearted trends, they helped solidify Brat's impact on social media and life as we know. Between her promotion for the album and the relatable videos she made while preparing for her tour, she really had 'made it' with this album.
The Sweat Tour
Who would want to go to a tour named 'The Sweat Tour'? 300,000 people wanted to go to this tour and so many more who did not get tickets. This tour was a huge deal within the pop community as it was a dual tour between Charli XCX and Troye Sivan. This tour was seen as one of the most iconic tours of the 21st century as it switched genres so many times throughout the concert. The Brat Curtain Drop came from this tour when the curtain would drop to the song '365 remix with ShyGirl'. The tour was all over TikTok and social media with people live streaming the concert and posting about the concert in general. In total sales, the Sweat Tour grossed 28 million dollars. This tour did insanely well for how underground both artists were before it started. The concert went as far as being on the Meta Quest to give a virtual viewing to the fans who could not attend the concert. As someone who missed the concert, this live experience was exactly like the tour and felt as if you were there in the pit. Through the tour, many different big artists were brought out like Lorde, Tate McRae, and Billie Ellish. In the end, this tour was such a monumental step in both artists career and even boosted the streams of the Brat album.
Revenue
To finish this post off, let's talk about the revenue Brat brought. Brat was able to gain up to a 458.82% increase in consumption to 35,949 units. With these units being sold there were 10,962 CDs, 6,905 vinyl albums, 125 cassettes, 435 digital downloads and 17,522 sales-equivalent streams. With all the promotion she did, Charli was able to gain 10 million dollars alone from all the sales of the album. With the 28 million from the Sweat Tour, without costs being split, this brings the total to 38 million dollars off one album. Charli was truly able to bring back the club vibe throughout her various marketing tactics and different ways to stream her music. With this all happening, Brat will go down in history as the greatest club classics album in the 21st century.
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