Did Taylor Swift's "Bad Blood" fulfill its hype?

Whether you’re a “Swiftie” or not, there is no denying that Taylor Swift dominated the Billboard Music Awards last Sunday, where she received eight awards.  However, most of the buzz on social media did not pertain to her wins.  Instead, people were raving about the premiere of Swift’s music video for her song “Bad Blood.”

Before the music video made its debut during the award show, Swift was able to create suspense with her brilliant social media marketing plan.  Promotions began on her Twitter and Instagram accounts 10 days prior to the release date on May 7.  Swift first posted an edgy, cinematic picture of herself that revealed her role as “Catastrophe” in her music video.

Meet Catastrophe. #BadBloodMusicVideo pic.twitter.com/q9P7JJoWld

— Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) May 7, 2015

Leading up to the release, the pop-singer also reveled several other celebrities who would appear in the “Bad Blood” video including: Kendrick Lamar, Lily Aldridge, Zendaya, Hayley Williams, Gigi Hadid, Ellie Goulding, Haliee Steinfeld, Lena Dunham, Karlie Kloss, Cara Delevingne, Serayah Love, Jessica Alba, Martha Hunt, Ellen Pompeo, Mariska Hargitay, Selena Gomez, and Cindy Crawford. Each day, Swift posted pictures of the various actresses, singers, and supermodels as their heroic alter egos.  Over 100 million people viewed the promotional media on Twitter, but the edgy theme and large amount of celebrity cameos made the video highly anticipated.

Luckily, “Bad Blood” was able to exceed its expectations after the premiere.  According to Billboard, Swift was mentioned 149,000 times during the Billboard Music Awards, and the hashtag, #BadBloodMusicVideo, was used over 112,176 times on Twitter.  The social media platform even gave Swift a customized “Bad Blood” emoji to go along with the hashtag.

Source: USA Today

Overall, more than 7 million tweets were posted about Swift and “Bad Blood” since the announcement on May 7.  Swift proved to be a savvy social media user, as well as a fearless and powerful young woman.

This guest blog post was written by PRowl staff member Kimberly Leung.