The Mail is desperate to convince us that Brand Sussex is on the decline

At the end of the day, I don’t think the end of the Sussexes’ Spotify contract was good news or bad news, it was just news. You know? Archetypes was successful and popular and it would have been great if Spotify had continued to prioritize that podcast, but, on the other side, it was a successful and popular podcast and some other platform will pick it up. I’m hopeful that the Sussexes will find a different platform, just as I’m hopeful that they’ll change their strategy when it comes to their podcasting and producing projects, meaning: work faster and smarter, and reimagine their promotion and social media footprint. It’s pretty wild to watch the British media obsess over the story though, and treat the Spotify move like “the end is nigh” for H&M in America. The Mail got some of their best know-nothing hacks to Britsplain why the Sussexes are in big trouble – as always, you should keep in mind that this is solely for a domestic British audience which is primed to believe the worst of Harry & Meghan.

Spotify’s decision to cut their losses and scrap their deal with Meghan and Harry could cost the couple $10million and does not bode well for their fading hope of becoming a $1billion brand, experts told MailOnline today.

PR guru Mark Borkowski told MailOnline that it is very bad news for Meghan and Harry’s brand and a sign ‘their star is really falling’. He estimated that the failure could cost them up to $10million. He said: ‘They didn’t get the quality of the product right and the gooey front of their new reality faded. The air is going out of their much hyped balloon and these little things begin to erode that juggernaut of hype that they delivered when they broke away from the Royal Family. If no one is interested in anything they have to say about mental health or the Royal Family then their star is really falling. It is not a good day for the long term brand of Meghan and Harry’, he added. Mr Borkowski said that he believes that they could lose up to 40 per cent of the $25million deal after it ended, which would be around $10million.

Brand and culture expert Nick Ede told MailOnline today that Spotify will have pulled the plug and it is a sign that the post-Megxit wave the couple were riding is crashing. He predicts more brands will dump them amid rumours Netflix are also unhappy.

‘It looks like Meghan’s brand isn’t such a box office winner and I can see a lot of other businesses following suit’, he said. Mr Ede said that Meghan’s relauch of her blog, The Tig, is near-certain, as her options become more limited. He believes that the couple will have lost ‘many millions’ from the dead Spotify deal.

Mr Ede said: ‘I think that this is optically a really negative position for Meghan and her brand to be in. With this news, and the news that Netflix are not happy with the output from the Archewell team, either she is set to lose millions from these deals. It also shows that these huge brands have not as much confidence in Meghan and Harry and that the halo effect they were riding on post-Megxit is now beginning to fade. Brands need to make money . They pay for talent not because of emotions but because of economy. I think that Meghan will build her own community and brand like Kourtney Kardashian and Poosh or Gwyneth Paltrow with Goop. So I think The Tig will probably have an audio arm where she can produce and play Archetypes and it will be available on all platforms, not just Spotify’.

[From The Daily Mail]

I’m sure that if you live inside the Deranger bunker and see the Sussexes siloed from every business trend, you probably believe this. I actually think a compelling case could be made that the Sussexes’ brand-management has faltered a bit, and that they should have done more with Spotify and Netflix a lot sooner. That being said, Spotify’s business model absolutely seems to be fluctuating – they lost the Obamas as well, and the Obamas went to Audible and Acast. Which is probably the model for what the Sussexes do next. The elephant in the room of all of the British commentary is that Meghan, in particular, seems to understand that she needed to do more to build her brand as a content-creator and producer, which is why she signed with WME less than two months ago. Despite all of the claims from Salt Island, it’s clear that WME still believes in Brand Sussex, and still believes that there’s money to be made.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid.

** RIGHTS: ONLY UNITED STATES, CANADA ** Sydney, AUSTRALIA – The Duke of Sussex and Duchess of Sussex watch the wheelchair basketball final, the last event at the Invictus Games 2018 in Sydney. Pictured: Meghan Markle BACKGRID USA 26 OCTOBER 2018 BYLINE MUST READ: Vantagenews / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / UK: +44 208 344 2007 / *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*

** RIGHTS: ONLY UNITED STATES, CANADA ** Wellington, NEW ZEALAND – The Duke of Sussex and Duchess of Sussex visit the Pukeahu National War Memorial Park in Wellington, New Zealand. Pictured: Duke of Sussex, Duchess of Sussex BACKGRID USA 27 OCTOBER 2018 BYLINE MUST READ: Vantagenews / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / UK: +44 208 344 2007 / *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*

** RIGHTS: ONLY UNITED STATES, CANADA ** Rotorua, NEW ZEALAND – The Duke of Sussex and Duchess of Sussex visit the Redwoods Treewalk in Rotorua, New Zealand. The Duke and Duchess spoke to members of the local mountain biking community on the final engagement of their autumn tour of Australia, Fiji, Tonga and New Zealand. 31 October 2018. Please byline: Vantagenews.com Pictured: Duke of Sussex, Duchess of Sussex BACKGRID USA 30 OCTOBER 2018 BYLINE MUST READ: Vantagenews / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / UK: +44 208 344 2007 / *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*

** RIGHTS: WORLDWIDE EXCEPT IN NETHERLANDS ** London, UNITED KINGDOM – Prince Harry and Meghan, Duke and Duchess of Sussex arrive at the Natural History Museum gala performance of ‘The Wider Earth’ in support of The Queen’s Commonwealth Trust and The Queen’s Commonwealth Canopy. Pictured: Prince Harry and Meghan, Duke and Duchess of Sussex BACKGRID USA 12 FEBRUARY 2019 USA: +1 310 798 9111 / UK: +44 208 344 2007 / *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*

Queens, NY – Meghan, Duchess of Sussex takes in the Serena Williams vs Bianca Andreescu women’s final tennis match at the US Open. Pictured: Meghan, Duchess of Sussex BACKGRID USA 7 SEPTEMBER 2019 USA: +1 310 798 9111 / UK: +44 208 344 2007 / *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*

** RIGHTS: WORLDWIDE EXCEPT IN NETHERLANDS ** Cape Town, SOUTH AFRICA – Prince Harry Duke of Sussex and Meghan Duchess of Sussex meet Coastguard trained by Royal Marines at Kalk Bay, Cape Town. Pictured: Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex BACKGRID USA 24 SEPTEMBER 2019 USA: +1 310 798 9111 / UK: +44 208 344 2007 / *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*

** RIGHTS: WORLDWIDE EXCEPT IN NETHERLANDS ** Cape Town, SOUTH AFRICA – Meghan Markle visits the mothers2mothers (m2m) charity in Cape Town, South Africa. Pictured: Meghan Markle BACKGRID USA 25 SEPTEMBER 2019 USA: +1 310 798 9111 / UK: +44 208 344 2007 / *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*

** RIGHTS: WORLDWIDE EXCEPT IN NETHERLANDS ** Johannesburg, SOUTH AFRICA – Meghan Markle The Duchess of Sussex is seen during a visit to the University of Johannesburg, South Africa, part of the Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU), of which she was announced as Patron in January 2019. Pictured: Meghan Markle BACKGRID USA 1 OCTOBER 2019 USA: +1 310 798 9111 / UK: +44 208 344 2007 / *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*

** RIGHTS: WORLDWIDE EXCEPT IN NETHERLANDS ** Johannesburg, SOUTH AFRICA – Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, Duke and Duchess of Sussex are seen during a visit to a township to learn about Youth Employment Services (YES), which aims to tackle the critical issue of youth unemployment in South Africa by creating one million new work opportunities in the next three years. Pictured: Prince Harry, Meghan Markle BACKGRID USA 2 OCTOBER 2019 USA: +1 310 798 9111 / UK: +44 208 344 2007 / *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*