Musings — Musings — Andrea Curry

I recently spent a week in Maui (celebrating a belated honeymoon) and decided to go device-free for a week. It just so happened my phone service was ending, so I opted not to renew. I uninstalled all my social media apps so I wouldn’t be tempted to jump on the WiFi and scroll through Twitter.

It was a glorious week.

But when I re-emerged from my cocoon, everyone was abuzz about the Fyre Festival documentaries on Hulu and Netflix.

I watched both, because, #obsessed.

Each documentary had its own feel. Personally, I enjoyed the Hulu documentary “Fyre Fraud” better because I thought it did a thorough job of outlining the criminal charges (plus, they had an interview with the festival founder-slash-criminal Billy McFarland). The Netflix documentary “Fyre” did an effective job showing how thousands of local workers were bilked out of $100,000s by not being paid for materials and labor. Ugh.

I won’t re-hash the story because I feel like a quick Google search could do a better job in less time, but it did get my wheels turning about marketing and social responsibility.

On the surface, the Fyre Festival is a good marketing idea. Really good. McFarland and his team decided to sponsor a music festival to promote the launch of their app “Fyre.” The app was a way people could directly book talent (whether it be musicians, athletes, models) without having to go through an agency. For example, if you wanted Ja Rule at your birthday party, you’d log into the app, find Ja Rule, and submit your offer and negotiate, all in one place.

The Fyre Festival had promise: If the festival was done on a smaller scale (it was scheduled to be a 2-weekend event on an island once owned by Pablo Escobar), it would have been achievable and set the foundation for a successful app launch.

The festival itself may have crashed and burned, but it’s digital marketing strategy was effective. They got 400 social media influencers, 8 super models and Kendall Jenner to promote the festival, and in turn selling out the event (where tickets cost $4,000 MINIMUM!)

Within 48 hours of posting on social media, the Fyre Festival generated 300 million impressions.

The documentaries serve as a reminder of how powerful social media and influencer marketing is, and it got me to think about the social responsibility of marketers. The No. 1 takeaway is how it’s absolutely imperative for the marketing team to be aligned with other business goals. Marketing a product that is not achievable delivers bad customer service and will kill your brand.

The Fyre Festival also exposed the dark side of influencer marketing. The influencers in the campaign didn’t disclose that their posts were #ads or #sponsored. Jenner was reportedly paid $250,000 for a single post announcing the headliner. This is in violation for the FTC standards (where you must disclose if you are getting paid to recommend a product). But these violations are so rampant, it’s impossible to get a handle on them. And even if each post said #ad, would have that deterred sales? I don’t think so (not that I’m letting anyone off the hook).

When I talk to people about how much data marketers have at their fingerprints, they are shocked. I’ve shown friends how I can use Facebook to target niche groups (e.g., new moms between the ages of 25-35 who live within 5 miles of a certain zip code with an affinity toward health and organic products).

This data helps marketers deliver more personalized ads and content. Marketers can tailor information and coordinate with other departments to deliver a personalized experience. Consumers value “authenticity,” and feel connected to brands who deliver on this.

The Fyre Festival is a reminder of how powerful social media marketing is — it was built and torn down by Instagram posts and tweets. In the Hulu documentary, the social media manager said that they deleted negative comments and then disabled them all together as the festival was approaching. No, no, no.

It’s easy to be a Monday morning quarterback, but any marketer worth her salt should know if a brand/company messes up, you should never shy away from the conversation. You have to be forthcoming, own it, and conduct damage control.

So here are my questions …

As a marketer, how do you make sure your client or company can deliver the product you are promoting?
To what extent should influencers disclose their relationship with a company?
What would you have done if you realized the festival you were promoting was not going to happen? In the documentary, one social media manager said he had 70% of his pay hanging over his head and couldn’t walk away. Maybe there’s a lesson about contract negotiation too..