Marketing I’m Obsessed With: Daisy Jones & The Six

Often, when people joke about corporate America and how horrible it can be, we joke about jargon: quarterly reports, net-new, to ping someone, and synergy—it’s so bad project management software company Asana even published a cheat sheet. But I’m here to tell you that when synergy works, it’s a beautiful thing, and all products end up cross marketing each other

The epitome of this? Production company Hello Sunshine and its new hit show Daisy Jones and The Six.

​Hello Sunshine is Reese Witherspoon’s media company (there’s plenty to love right there), home to her eponymous book club and a myriad of other Reese-branded products and companies. The beauty of this? Every single book featured in the book club, the company also buys the rights to adapt to film and TV. They’ve already done this successfully many times over with shows like Big Little Lies, From Scratch, Little Fires Everywhere, The Home Edit (they actually own that company now!), and many upcoming titles.

Yet, they’ve never accomplished this as beautifully as what they did for Taylor Jenkins Reid’s hit book, Daisy Jones and the Six. It chronicles the rise and fall of the band, Daisy Jones and The Six, as they record and tour for their only album in a rockumentary format. And as we all can guess, a whole lot more goes down than making an album.

Not only is there a truly compelling story (who doesn’t want to see behind the scenes of an iconic rock band, even if it is a fictional one) and outstanding acting, they’ve also made an effort to build out the world of the show. (I know this because I’m their target audience and have gotten so much advertising for it. And fell for it all. Sometimes, we know what is happening to us and we let it happen anyways.)

Since the show is about a fictional band, the creators knew the audience needed fictional music. But, they didn’t have to go this hard: They brought on multiple Grammy-winning artists including Marcus Mumford, Phoebe Bridgers, Taylor Goldsmith of Dawes, and others to create the music for the show. They also sent the actors to band camp, which accomplished two things: the performances in the show were earned and (here’s the kicker) made sure they could make good on the success of the show by sending the band on tour if they want to (they ensured the actors would be willing to do this before they signed on).

It all makes for capitalism gold (I’ve decided to accept and lean in on this front) and a show that has actual texture and saleable assets beyond the show itself. This counts as marketing because it all can stand on its own. The music from the series charted to No.1 on Billboard and iTunes, a momentous occasion because they were the first-ever fictional band to do so. This means people can come to the music on its own and then learn about the show. Now, there’s at least three different entry points established: the music, the book, the top charting TV show. To put icing on the cake, even the vinyl topped music charts!

But wait, there’s more!

On social media, the show has multiple promotional assets: Amazon money, Reese Witherspoon herself, her book club, the author, and actors with already established fan bases—all who were willing to use their platforms to promote the show. This is catnip for digital marketers. Media-savvy leads are everything in a world where you need to blow your horn loud to be heard.

Finally, Amazon found a way to bring the show to its marketplace. You can find looks inspired by the (very fashionable) characters from the show, buy band merch, shop the show-inspired collection from Levi’s, browse the book, and choose a color from a co-branded line with nail polish juggernaut Essie. All of this lives on a neat landing page with great photography. As much as you may hate Amazon, and trust me, I try hard not to give Bezos my money, you have to admire it. They were going to support this show in every avenue possible.

There are more rabbit holes to go down here (ask me about Silver Springs, Free People, Maren Morris, and TikTok), but I’ll stop rambling.

And that, my friends, is what I call synergy. Each arm works in concert toward one goal, and rising tides lift all boats. Now, if only I could stop listening to Honeycomb.

Lesson Learned: Synergy done right is magical. Capitalism can be bad, but it can also be fun.