What Happened?
What was supposed to be the next “it” music luxury festival ended in catastrophe. Fyre Festival, a supposed 2-weekend long “transformative” and “immersive” musical experience on a private island, left festival goers with barely necessities for survival. Promotional videos for the festival promised celebrities, yachts, and glamorous accommodations; but when guests arrived, all they found were disaster-relief tents and mediocre (at best) sandwiches.
The Role of Influencers
In December, the Fyre Festival Instagram started promoting the event with videos featuring models such as Bella Hadid and Hailey Baldwin. Celebrities, including Kendall Jenner and Emily Ratajkowski, were given free access to the festival in exchange for promoting it on social media. Fyre Festival employed more than 400 influencers a.k.a. “Fyre Starters” to promote the event, many of whom later removed their promotions and issued apologies. While the festival was disastrous for obvious reasons, we are still left to wonder exactly how influential the role of influencers was in this event. They certainly created enormous hype around Fyre Festival, but for what reasons?
Endorsement Lacking Passion
Pay and incentives were clearly the only driver behind celebrity endorsements of the festival. This was made obvious when many issued apologies and made immediate attempts to cut ties with the tainted Fyre Festival image. After news of the catastrophic festival, Bella Hadid tweeted, “Even though this was not my project what so ever, nor was I informed about the production or process of the festival in any shape or form…I agreed to do one promotion…not knowing about the disaster that was to come.” If Bella had no information about the details of the festival and she (obviously) was not enthusiastic about it, the motivation for her promotion came solely from compensation. Why would she agree to support Fyre Festival without any information or interest in the event? Like Bella, as soon as the festival’s influencers smelled controversy, they ran and made attempts to separate themselves from the trouble. The lack of passion and commitment to the event among the 400 influencers was clear, only contributing to the widely unpopular (yet, extremely well deserved) public opinion of the festival.
The Responsibility of Influencers
Influencers have a unique ability to, well, influence large amounts of people, particularly those people in a product’s target market. Their image and opinion can be vital or detrimental to a brand’s success. For this reason, employing influencers with commitment for the product is critical for generating positive results. While the “Fyre Starters” may have been in it for the money and image, there are plenty of examples of celebrity influencers who endorse brands they believe in whole heartedly. Here’s some of our favorite examples of influencers whose genuine passion shines through.
Ellie Goulding
Bobbi Brown
Shay Mitchell, Sklyer Samuels and Jesse Tyler Ferguson
Lessons Learned
While the disaster that was Fyre Festival went up in flames, halfhearted influencers retracting endorsements and issuing apologies only added fuel to the fire. Though the event was clearly a bust, it proves to show the power that influencers have over a brand and how their changing opinions can be fatal to a company. For this reason, influencers should be informed before endorsing a brand and should only promote those they are passionate about and committed to.
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