Brand influencers are a popular marketing tool because of their niche focus on a specific digital area. They include models, sports heroes, foodies, experts and all kinds of other bloggers. Companies use people (like me) to effectively increase their brand awareness because of our experience and online followings.
After being heavily promoted by brand influencers on Instagram, the Fyre Festival failed spectacularly in spring of 2017. In addition, after watching the Netflix documentary, “Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened”, I had to start thinking about what role brand influencers play in the success or failure of these types of events and for the companies that run them.
The Fyre Festival was supposed to be an immersive event of “the best of food, music, art, and adventure”. It was advertised by a video filmed on a remote private island in the Bahamas.
The less than two minute experience on Instagram was filled with images of super models in bikinis on the beach, in the surf and on huge yachts.
It showed partying with rap stars like Ja Rule and private jets. To add to the mystery, they even mention that the island was owned by Columbian drug icon, Pablo Escobar. After seeing the promotion, I think it’s one of the slickest and most seductive two minutes of marketing I have ever seen.
The viral video worked! Unfortunately, when over 400 attendees arrived paying as much as $12,000 each, they were met with half-built survival tents to sleep in and cold cheese sandwiches to eat. Billy McFarland, the CEO of the festival, was sentenced to six years in prison for the debacle. But do the brand influencers involved in this disaster like rapper Ja Rule or models like Kendall Jenner, Emily Ratajkowski, and Bella Hadid bear any responsibility?
One of the biggest problems with using these brand influencers for the Fyre Festival was they were not really influencers; These people were paid to attend a photo shoot at a promotion party on a beach and post their involvement on Instagram. This was simply a paid transaction for limited participation and there is nothing wrong with it. Where it got fuzzy was the suggestion through their posts that these influencers would be participating at the festival. (They were nowhere to be found.) While this looked like an influencer campaign, it really was just paid advertisement.
This is not the way that brand influencers should be used. It should be a partnership where the influencer gets immersed and endorses the brand. They should use and support what the brand is offering.
When I am approached to be a brand influencer, I ask the following questions:
- Is this a high-quality product or service?
- Does it solve a problem that my followers can really use?
- Is it a trustworthy brand that I am proud to be associated with?
Posts should also either have a note that this has been paid for or be clearly labeled as #ad or #sponsored so the financial relationship is disclosed. Many influencers are wary of doing this, but I think followers expect when you become involved in a brand, there is many times some form of financial compensation for it.
I believe that companies should find brand influencers that have the experience to embrace their company, use their product or service and represent their values.
Has your company used brand influencers or have you been a brand influencer for another business? Tell us more.
