Fyre Festival was supposed to be the next best thing.
How did it all go wrong?
Fyre Festival:
A Fantasy that Ended Up in Flames
“It’s gonna be the biggest event in a decade. I promise you.”
– Billy McFarland, Fyre co-founder
What Was Fyre Festival?
Fyre did not start out as a festival. It was originally a talent booking marketplace created by Billy McFarland and Ja Rule. The festival purely promote the start-up, which was described as the “Uber of Booking Talent”. The festival quickly went from being promotional to being the hallmark of the company.
McFarland and Ja Rule attended 2016 Web Summit to announce Fyre Festival and soon thereafter, promotion began.
The
Marketing Strategy
Fyre hired acclaimed videographers to film some of the world’s top supermodels having the time of their lives on a Bahaman island, Norman’s Cay. McFarland chose to buy some props for the videos; nothing special, just a few jet skis and boats.
The objective of videos were to create an illusion of perfection and offer this concept to anyone willing to purchase a ticket. They employed the best of the best for the campaign, except internally. McFarland hired Grant Margolin as Chief Management Officer, who oversaw the marketing while having no prior experience in promoting events or festivals.
“We are selling a pipe dream to your average loser.”
– Billy McFarland, Fyre Co-Founder
If only the promotional shoot was Fyre Festival itself, they would have held the best “event in a decade”. Not only were some of the biggest supermodels in attendance, they had a free bar and treated the entire project as a party. The models uploaded several posts of them on the Bahaman island, which garnered waves of media attention.
12 December 2016
Launch Day
At 17:00 on 12/12/2016, Fyre paid 400 people with huge social media followings from around the world to post an Orange Tile, in a bid to achieve the “best coordinated social influencer campaign ever”, see left for Bella Hadid’s (Source: Sage Journals). Kendall Jenner was also hired to promote the festival, earning $250,000 to do so.
The Packages
There were many packages on offer, ranging from ‘The Duo’ package ($3,000), see right [Source: SHW], to a $250,000 Private Yacht package with a private Chef on board. Fyre sold out 95% of packages within 48 hours of celebrities posting the Orange Tile.
The
Red Flags
The festival was not feasible and here’s why:
Norman’s Cay island was not big enough for the 6,000 ticket purchasers. There was also little infrastructure on the island for basic amenities, like toilets.
Event specialists estimate that at least 12 months planning is required to organise a festival the size of Fyre Festival. The Fyre team had 6-8 weeks to organise it.
The owner of Norman’s Cay had one request for McFarland when selling the island – to avoid mentioning previous owner Pablo Escobar, to revamp the island’s reputation. Fyre’s first promotional video included:
As a result of this, Fyre were kicked off Norman’s Cay. They found Great Exuma after a lengthy search process, where they had to restart planning.
The festival clashed with Great Exuma’s busiest weekend, so finding villas to fulfil packages for influencers, who were each promised 1-bed villas for 3 guests for free, was near impossible, as most accommodation had been booked months in advance.
The dome tents were far from the ‘glamping’ experience promised. They were leftover tents from Hurricane Matthew.
Attendees were informed about Fyre Band weeks before the festival, advising them to lodge $3,000 and much more to pay for perks across the weekend, as it would be the only form of payment accepted. This form of contactless, band payment had never been tried and tested before.
What we can learn from the fiasco
The event was an epic failure. Tents were soaked from a rainstorm the night before the event started, Starr Catering pulled out days before because their $6 million bill could not be paid and conditions were scary (from no lighting at night to a clamber for toilet roll).
Broken promises were being uploaded on social media, like the infamous cheese sandwich, see left [Source: FlipKick], in place of the promised Sushi and Indian cuisine.
The organisers were forced to cancel after day one, something they tried to avoid given their lack of festival insurance. The illusion they paid millions to create had been found out and Fyre were faced with a $100 million Class Action Lawsuit, amongst other lawsuits.
Some argue that Fyre were successful marketers because the event sold out. But was it a successful campaign or over-advertising?
They spent millions promoting the festival, wiping out the budget that was needed to actually live up to the expectations they had set. Hiring the biggest celebrities and offering yachts as accommodation, shot them in the foot.
The influencers did not disclose the posts as advertisements, e.g. including “#ad”. Most, excluding Emily Ratajkowski, were sued for breaching Federal State Rules.
Others argue that Fyre were successful in pinpointing their target market – wealthy millennials – which is somewhat true. But what use is identifying a target market when you cannot cater to them?
The consequences of McFarland and Ja Rule’s negligence meant that no workers got paid and McFarland was sentenced to 6 years in prison. Their sole task to avoid such consequences was plan. Their estimated budget of $38 million was largely spent on marketing and talent. With proper budgeting, they could have sold a viable dream.
Fyre never stood a chance with the scarce planning time they gave themselves. After all, Rome wasn’t built in a day.
What Fyre succeeded in doing was selling a feeling. They were story-tellers, not ticket-sellers. They wrote a bestseller that never made it inside a bookstore.
The Fyre Festival case proves the power of Digital Marketing.
To learn more about Fyre Festival, watch documentaries on Netflix and Hulu.
