What could Revolve Festival mean for the brand’s influencer relationships?

ICYMI, influencers took to social media over the weekend and in contrast Revolve Pageant to the ill-fated 2017 Fyre Pageant. However what does the dangerous press imply for the clothes model’s influencer advertising and marketing technique—an engine that, as of 2018, drove virtually 70% of its gross sales?

In case you actually missed it, Revolve Pageant is a two-day Coachella-adjacent occasion for celebrities and influencers that’s gone off with out a hitch for years now. It’s an unique affair the place, based on Joseph Yomtoubian, an influencer who attended this yr’s occasion, you “must know somebody to get invited.” This yr, the occasion—which hospitality firm h.wooden Group ran—featured a Venmo-sponsored carnival swing experience, performances from Willow Smith and Publish Malone, and, after all, just a few sad influencers.

So what had been they upset about? One influencer submit principally sums it up: a TikTok from Averie Bishop, which grew to become the most-shared piece of social media content material in April 2022 mentioning Revolve, based on information from influencer advertising and marketing platform Traackr that was shared with Advertising Brew.

Within the video, Bishop complains about ready in line for 2 hours for the Revolve-sponsored transportation to the occasion, in addition to pushing and shoving occurring in line. Some by no means obtained on the bus to the competition in any respect. The road “Fyre Pageant 2.0” was talked about in her video, and the occasion has since made headlines. Revolve has publicly apologized.

Regardless of the drama, Evy Lyons, CMO at influencer-marketing platform Traackr, informed Advertising Brew she doesn’t suppose Revolve will probably be impacted long-term. “I don’t suppose Revolve goes wherever,” she stated.

However she famous different manufacturers ought to take Revolve’s expertise as a warning. “This can be a house—influencer advertising and marketing, style—that adjustments in a short time. And the opinions of only a few individuals can actually sway the opinions of the lots,” Lyons defined. “It’s worthwhile to make it possible for, should you’re going to ask influencers to a particular expertise, you could ship.”

Influencers who had a unfavorable expertise with Revolve could be extra open to partnering with its rivals, Lyons defined, suggesting that this expertise might maybe present a possibility for Revolve’s competitors to slip into scorned competition attendees’ DMs providing some TLC.

Whereas some influencers obtained the invite from Revolve in alternate for posts, others needed to really pay for a ticket simply to get in.

“Many of the influencers impacted have much less followers than the VIP influencers,” Lyons stated. However she added, “At this time’s micro-influencers are the long run macros, and types ought to wish to develop their relationships with them over the long run. I feel Revolve could lose market share if different manufacturers soar in and begin constructing that model affinity with these influencers, and [then] these influencers develop their following.”

However Yomtoubian, who attended Revolve Pageant and informed us he has 10 million followers throughout his a number of social media accounts (like @thetinderblog, as an example), doesn’t essentially see it that manner.

He informed us he’s by no means finished an influencer take care of Revolve (though he was invited to the competition together with a few of his buddies by h.wooden Group), however that he’d “completely” be all the way down to work with the model after this occasion.

Yomtoubian already does influencer work with considered one of Revolve’s rivals, Trend Nova. “If I went to a Trend Nova occasion, and this occurred…I’d be like, ‘Okay, no massive deal. It occurred,’” including that he doesn’t suppose influencers would work with Revolve’s rivals solely due to a foul expertise with the model.

“Individuals work with rivals in the event that they’re going to get extra money,” he stated.

Plus, Yomtoubian didn’t suppose what occurred at Revolve Fest was as dangerous because the influencers who took to social media to bad-mouth it—and the ensuing press across the occasion—made it out to be. He stated he waited round 45 minutes to an hour for a bus, however famous that the warmth wasn’t notably dangerous and shade was obtainable. “I’m not simply saying this—it was a extremely good occasion. They’d nice activations, a variety of enjoyable. It was most likely one of many higher Coachella occasions, to be trustworthy.”

However blogger Elise Purdon had one other tackle why influencers could be annoyed. In BuzzFeed senior tradition author Stephanie McNeal’s e-newsletter Facet Chat, she identified that Purdon stated, “The true drawback is that Revolve has such an influence over the trade that individuals are keen to combat and shove and stand all day within the desert to try to get on a bus to get into this factor the place they aren’t even getting paid to create free promoting.”

Moreover, McNeal wrote, Revolve Pageant is an important networking occasion for influencers, so a few of the influencer angst was “seemingly pushed by profession anxiousness of lacking the competition and, thus, an enormous alternative, relatively than being sweaty and bored.”