Not sure if you caught it, but global pop icon Taylor Swift and Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce are officially tying the knot. Like the rest of America, The Knot—the wedding planning platform—was waiting with bated breath. And when the celebrity couple did announce their engagement, the brand was ready to pounce with a campaign designed to cement its place as “engagement HQ.”
Campaign: 13 Ring Drop
Company: The Knot
Agency Partners: FGS Global
Dates: August 28-30, 2025
Strategy
The Knot wanted to do something connected to Swift and Kelce because “we are really working on trying to make sure that couples really think of us the moment they get engaged,” said Kiara Kempski, the brand’s VP of consumer marketing.
Swift is known for inserting Easter eggs, meaning hidden messages, into her lyrics, music videos and social media content.
As such, marketers at The Knot decided to create a scavenger hunt.
“We wanted to do something that was a little Taylor-coded, a little fan-coded, to make sure that it would land and that it would be really smart,” said Kempski.
Tactics
In staging the hunt, the creatives incorporated references to Swift. They hid 13 rings because that is Swift’s lucky number and did so at locations around New York that the singer has mentioned in her songs, like the Hotel Chelsea and the Central Park lake.
“Every location tied back to a song lyric, something meaningful that the Swifties would get,” said Kempski.
The Knot focused its social media efforts on Instagram and TikTok. After flooding its feeds with posts about the engagement—11 on Instagram in three days—the brand shifted to start promoting the hunt a day before the event.
“We're making the whole place shimmer in honour of Taylor and Travis' engagement with The Knot's 13 Ring Drop. Tomorrow at 11 am ET,” the brand posted on Instagram. “We're hiding 13 ring boxes around NYC: 12 ‘paper rings,’” as in the Swift song, “with something special and 1 real thing from @ringconcierge,” a jewellery company.
The Knot also hired influencers like Rachel Martino, who posts about fashion, interior design and beauty; Eli Rallo, the author of a book about a “quarter-life crisis”; and Haley Sacks, whose nickname is Mrs Dow Jones.
Rallo had recently participated in a Knot trip for influencers, so she “understood the brand” and had met with its marketing team, Kempski said.
“She is also a Taylor Swift Fan, so we knew that her followers in particular would be really excited about this, and she is local to New York,” said Kempski.
In an Instagram story, Rallo said, “Because we all deserve to celebrate the engagement that's been breaking the internet, The Knot, which is engagement HQ for all the girlies, is sending everybody in New York City on a 13 ring hunt.”
The Knot’s staff hid boxes containing paper rings around the city.
The brand then shared clues on Instagram and on a dedicated landing page on its website.
“A dive where she’s delicate, shy and new/ On the East Side a spot she’ll pursue/ Cocktails in hand, where lovers might play/ Find the place that echoes ‘where you at’ today,” one clue read.
The company also stationed employees at each site to give the winning sleuths a US$400 gift card to Ring Concierge.
One of the 13 rings was an actual diamond ring. The company hired Jason Tartick, a former contestant on The Bachelorette and host of the podcast Trading Secrets, to promote the hunt and then give away the ring at the High Line Park in Manhattan.
“We love everything he's done or is thinking about doing with The Bachelor franchise, and he also just was so relatable,” said Kempski of partnering with Tartick.
To generate earned media, the public relations team created a target list of local and national outlets and sent emails and made phone calls as early as 6 a.m. the day of the hunt, “making sure that we make it into the morning broadcasts,” said Melissa Bach, The Knot’s senior director of communications.
Results
The Knot’s Instagram posts about the Swift-Kelce engagement and the ring hunt generated more than 71,000 likes and 7.9 million views. The campaign received coverage from USA Today and PIX11.
