Fyre Festival: The Biggest Marketing / PR Fail of the Year so Far…
30, Apr, 2017
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The phrase, “don’t believe the hype”, couldn’t have been more true for the thousands of would-be festival attendees and musical acts at this year’s biggest PR disaster, also known as Fyre Festival. Promoted with Instagram models and billed as a luxury music festival, filled with beautiful beaches, lavish amenities, and big headlining musical acts like Blink-182 and Major Lazer it was supposed to the THE music festival experience of the year. What was discovered in its place was an elaborate ruse that quickly crashed and burned in a blaze unimaginable glory.
Even though the event turned about to be a nightmare for everyone involved, it’s pretty amazing that the organizers behind it were not only able to keep up their ruse for so long, but were also able to attract many celebrities into promoting their brand while doing so. Branding elements were definitely posh and modern, with items such as a minimalist logo design and graphics paired with a deep, warm orange color palettes invoking hot summer festival excess for all to enjoy. This coupled with a constant media blitz on people’s Instagram feeds from the likes of influencers such as Kendall Jenner and Hailey Baldwin parading around in bikinis on white sand beaches in the Caribbean, expectations and hopes were definitely set high with all the buzz surrounding the festival. If it’s one thing the Fyre Festival organizers did well it was targeting and reaching their key demographic; millennial’s.
Unfortunately, when the attendees who payed thousands of dollars to attend the festival were met with disaster of now epic proportions. Several musical acts did not receive their contract payments as promised and headlining acts such as Blink-182 pulled out the day before saying they’re “not confident we would have what we need” to perform. Guests arrived to only find geodesic dome tents used for refugees as their lodgings, gravel lots, unfinished accommodations, barely edible food, and completely unorganized staff trying to contain the sense of panic and dread. Obviously the next step as an organizer, who isn’t even attending their own festival is to state it’s “NOT A SCAM”, as Ja Rule eloquently did on Twitter as the disaster unfolded.Who could really blame attendees from labeling it a scam when the Bahamas Ministry of Tourism call you out for inadvertently causing them a PR nightmare.
If their is one lesson to take away, is that image is not everything. Just because you can afford flashy HD promos, Instagram celebrities to promote your product, and project your brand image as all exclusive doesn’t mean anything unless you have the means, experience, confidence, and will to back it all up. Actions speak louder than words, and all the Facebook and Instagram posts in the world could not and still not can save Fyre Festival and its organizers from the fallout it has endured.