10 Marketing Lessons you can learn from Fyre Festival

NOTE: These are my personal notes from Digital Summit 2019 in Phoenix. They contain no copyrighted material or links to any copyrighted material offered during the session.

SPEAKER: Brian Fanzo (@iSocialFanz)

1)    Nobody wants another app – Consumers crave UNIQUE EXCLUSIVE EXPERIENCES

2)    The genius was not focusing on the app that they were trying to promote – they promoted THE EXPERIENCE instead – and the app would come secondarily.

3)    Go to Where your Customers are – Give them what they want, How they want it!

4)    Hire the BEST – But let them do what you hired them for. Do not micro-manage creativity. If you want to do something innovative – bring in people who KNOW HOW TO DO THAT. It’s good to outsource – but let them do what they do.

5)    VIDEO VIDEO VIDEO – Tell a story! Develop a narrative. And then document the experience. 2 Types of video you should be creating: 1) That is Planned and presents the polished image and 2) A behind the scenes that shows authenticity.

6)    Make it EXTREMELY simple for the consumer to activate your CTA. Drive everything back to the ONE THING YOU WANT PEOPLE TO DO.

7)    Go Big or Go Home! (Make it Emotional) Use the FEAR OF MISSING OUT to your customers. Make them feel like I “Emotionally Must Take Part in This”. BUT – Use “Fear” sparingly. Don’t make everything “This is your last chance” or your will dilute your ability to use it. Be strategic in your FOMO.

8)    Leverage Influencers with DIVERSE AUDIENCES – This will allow you to saturate a market from multiple angles. Keep your Influencer Content Strategic and Organic. (e.g. Fyre Fest getting people to post the orange tile at the exact same moment – this was fascinating and strategic). You can turn your CUSTOMERS into influencers. You can turn your EMPLOYEES into influencers. And KEEP it simple.

9)    Social Media has the AMAZING power to AMPLIFY... but AMPLIFY the good AND the bad. If you promise and do not deliver... you will hear about it... PUBLICLY.

10) EVERY Business is in the business of TRUST. Trust through Collaboration and Influencers enables Scale. It takes TIME to develop trust. It is almost impossible to BUY trust. Customers TRUST the relationship from whom they are getting the message.... or they don’t. You need to have honesty and authenticity. Customers demand transparency. It is easy to put up a “front” on social media, but you can and will be found out eventually.

Do your best to use social media to promote the AMAZING and GREAT things going on.