Feature
The good,
the bad and
the selfie
Instagram has enormous potential for
marketing, but brands need to play by
the rules if they want a slice of the pie,
says EN’s Stuart Wood
N
etflix’s recent documentary, Fyre Festival:
The Greatest Party that Never Happened,
has put a spotlight on the phenomenon of the
‘influencer’.
It’s a concept that has only entered public
consciousness within the last few years, as
social media increasingly pervades every
aspect of our lives.
Individuals (or groups) that have a large
social media following are now able to leverage
their popularity for the sake of brands and
corporations. And, yes – exhibitions.
In particular, brands that are aimed at
teenagers and young adults are beginning to
realise the enormous potential that influencers
have for marketing.
In an age where even children are used to
being advertised to on a daily basis, seeing
a celebrity we admire endorsing a product
in a – seemingly – natural way can be very
persuasive.
Going down in flames
But it’s that ‘seemingly’ that is the problem.
While many celebrity product endorsements
on Instagram can appear to be spontaneous,
the reality is often quite different.
That was certainly the case for Fyre Festival,
an event which was sold off the back of a
clever marketing campaign featuring some
of Instagram’s most prestigious influencers,
including Kendall Jenner and Bella Hadid.
The influencers were paid to fly out to the
island on which Fyre was set to take place,
where they took some pouty, bikini-clad selfies
and tagged the upcoming festival. As a result,
28 — March
Top: Fyre founders BIlly
McFarland and Ja Rule
Centre: Great Hall, Hampton
Court Palace
Above: Milan Thakrar of HRP
tickets quickly sold out – even those priced as
high as $12,000.
But Fyre, as anyone who has seen the
documentary will know, wasn’t able to deliver
on any of its grandiose promises.
The organisers sold a fraudulent pipe dream,
with almost no ability to deliver the event they
had advertised. CEO and Fyre Festival founder
Billy McFarland has since been sentenced to six
years in jail for his efforts.
Of course, marketing on Instagram isn’t all
so insidious. So long as sponsored posts are
clearly marked as such, and audiences know
when they are being advertised to, it can be a
platform with enormous potential.
Historic Royal Palaces, a charitable
organisation which runs several historic events
venues, has made use of Instagram influencers
in the past, and knows the great potential that
it holds for spreading the word around an