EP 14 Influencers @ Coachella and the REVOLVE Effect
Harley and Sonia tackle the concept of influencers attending music festivals, is it worth it? We specifically dive in on the drama with REVOLVE Festival this year and how influencers can avoid getting sucked in to the pressure of attending major events.
Krystal Bick:
@krystal_bick
Blaire Eadie:
@blaireadiebee
Timestamps:
[1:31] Revolve Festival and their controversial deal with influencers.
[7:39] They charge brands for exposure.
[8:17] Revolve did not create a safe environment.
[10:34] The "exposure" is not worth it.
[12:47] The fashion influencer marketing world.
[15:45] Is the age of fashion influencer marketing on decline?
[20:04] Is it worth it for influencers to show up at big events like Coachella?
--
LINKS:
Find Harley:
IG: @theharleyjordan
Website: https://www.theharleyjordan.com/
Find Sonia:
IG: @Sonia.elyss
Website: https://www.soniaelyss.com/
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00:00
We are brought to you by upstart our podcast network, a podcast production company that manages all aspects of your podcast completely virtually. They can help anyone anywhere turn their passion into a podcast. If you're interested in learning more check out upstart pods.com or upstart or pods on Instagram. Welcome to brand meet Creator Podcast with me Harley Jordan and Sonia Elise,
0:24
a place where we pull back the curtain and the trashy filters on the influencer marketing industry. So pull up a chair and grab a notebook it's time to shed some light on the ever changing it's diverse
0:41
you guys, it is a special season in the world right now after festival season is back. And no matter how you feel about it positive or negative, Coachella hit the scene hard recently. And with every Coachella comes influencer drama, and a lot of discussions about just influencers at Coachella in general. So, and I think this applies to every music festival. It's not just Coachella. Soon we'll be at stagecoach and then we'll be at what is it fine, not fire festival. Firefly festival. I don't know I'm clearly not a festivals person. But I have been to Coachella like five times. And I will tell you it's not all it's hyped up to be so the big news out of Coachella recently is revolve if you are on Tik Tok, or Instagram or following influencer marketing whatsoever, you know that revolve was the center of major drama.
1:47
Well, you also have probably seen revolve over all of your favorite influencers. It's it's a revolve lifestyle.
1:56
Absolutely. We have revolved around the world revolve trips and now revolve is back at Coachella with revolve festival and this year, they had some major drama. So the background is that revolve hosts their own off site music festival experience that they invite influencers, celebrities, VIPs, press etc to it is literally on its own grounds, massive. It has its own carnival rides, food, alcohol pool, multiple DJs. And they always have incredible live performances, because clearly they have a massive budget massive, massive. What is interesting and has been happening to them for many years is that they cast 1000s of influencers within their influencer marketing campaign. And 95% of those influencers go unpaid. And the content that they're asked to create, is it purely in exchange for products off of the revolve site, not only any product that you would like, but it has to be product selected from a very specific amount that they all asked,
3:10
let's lay out these deliverables. So number one, they made creator sign a W nine, it was $2,000 and clothing, credit and free tickets to the festival for influencers that they sent the personal invites to. And here are the deliverables that they wanted for free. Seven IG posts and seven IG stories, five frames per story with their links they want for IG reels. And for tech talks. I'm baffled. I'm like just reading those over like I've seen this list that clearly has a script have this screenshot, but I'm just I'm blown off the face of
3:52
the earth. It's truly insane. And just to back up when Harley said that they asked for W nine that means that they will be taxing the creators that took the $2,000 worth of free clothes, you're getting taxed on those free clothes. And when she's
4:07
our kicker here's another kicker. It was a two week turnaround for all of these deliverables.
4:14
Oh my goodness. And when she says that they get tickets to the festival that is tickets to revolves festival not to the music festival Coachella as a whole. In addition, just to give you some more context because I have been multiple times. Being at Coachella during this time is exorbitantly expensive. Every hotel is about five times the usual rate. Every air b&b is going for 1000s of dollars a night. Most people are sleeping in their car or staying in towns that are over an hour drive away. Ubers are 345 X surge throughout the entire day and that's just like the bare minimum you want
5:00
I'm not even talking food, alcohol, the works. And this is
5:03
based in California where you guys are hitting what, six something a gallon to drive out there. So if most of those people are based in Los Angeles, that's a three hour drive during these peak times of going out there. So this adds up quickly.
5:18
For me, it just doesn't make sense. Unless you're from LA, like, unless you're from LA San Diego, like, I can't imagine paying for a ticket to go to this festival that cost what $400.
5:33
I mean, it can cost more than that. I think the very entry level starts at around 500. But it completely depends on how many days you want to go and what type of experience you want. While you're there, right.
5:43
So bare minimum, we're talking a flight plus $400 plus your stay plus all of your like food and festival festival, food is expensive, like your drink is gonna be what 12 bucks like, absolutely crazy. And then the outfits like,
6:00
Oh, my God, don't even get me started on the outfits. So what this really boils down to is that people did accept this deal, which is a problem in itself. Because revolve has essentially built such a huge entity that they can manipulate others to be involved in this what I would really classify as a scam. Yeah, without even thinking they have paid some of the most top tier the most iconic influencers out there, and they pay them very well. And they do this because they know that micro influencers and influencers just starting to get established and wanting to be of that elite nature one day will say yes
6:44
to the steel. We're not talking micro as in 3k. We're talking micro as in 50k.
6:50
Yeah, exactly. And they know that there is a chance that the content that they've created this laundry list of items that Harley has said will land them on the revolve account, which has millions of followers, it will somehow put them on the revolve influencer group's radar to eventually be paid. And when I tell you it's a cattle call, it's a cattle call. So the real drama. I mean, we're already into the real drama, right? The real drama is that I mean,
7:21
you know how much I hate fast fashion in the influencer marketing world, like it's just such trash. If you don't want to work for them, someone else will because it's free clothing. That's exactly. It's unacceptable.
7:33
It's free clothing. And it's an association with a brand that has really helped put influencers on the map. But on top of that people accepted this deal. They showed up thinking that they were going to get into this festival. Correct. There was an off site bus location that you had to show up to first in order to get a shuttle to the revolve festival. Now I've been to revolve festival a few times and they never had that system. When I went, you took the Uber to the front gate, and then you checked in there. That's how it's always happened. I think because they went all out this year and probably spent so much money and invited way too many people that they did not have capacity for they had to create this shuttle system so that people didn't bombard the event. Apparently what happened and I was not there. And I've heard mixed reviews. But the most popular review is that revolve did not create a safe environment for the people that they invited. That's like the overarching statement. Not only was this deal, just poopoo it was also an incredibly dangerous situation. If you've never been to Coachella before it quickly hits the hundreds in the middle of the desert in the middle of the day. And so people were waiting in line outside, some shaded some unshaded some others,
8:53
you walk away with like black lung after, after a weekend,
8:58
you're blowing your nose and there's dirt in your nose all the time. No food provided and no information or insight as to when they would get on the bus, how much longer two more buses would be sent. And this is an all day event. So most people are not showing up in the morning trying to get in there showing up in the mid afternoon or later, because they want to get there for the prime talent which goes on in the evening. And it seems like the lack of communication, the lack of taking care of the talent that they invited whether they were paid or not. And just these hazardous conditions essentially created a storm of backlash on tick tock and I've seen multiple business outlets post about this since then. Quoting how much revolve makes off of influencer marketing and how unsafe the conditions were how there have been previous examples of this mistreatment at revolve around the World and some of their other events. And it's just shocking to me that people see this. And number one, they continue to buy from this retailer, they keep buying. And number two, the influencers keep taking the deal. Yeah, keep doing it. Yeah. And it just makes me really sad to see that people are getting taken advantage of from a business that has money to pay. Yes, they can pay these people. And at very least, if they're not going to be paying people, they should be taking good care of them when they show up at their event, and making sure that they're well accommodated for,
10:34
for me, it comes down to the exposure involved, like that is not going to get you anywhere, that's not going to kickstart your business from nothing to millions, ever. I doubt that a tag on the revolve page is ever going to happen if we're being real. And I just think it's ludicrous.
10:55
I think so too. I think years ago, when they first started this phenomenon, there was a time where people could get discovered and the association with them would want would make them appropriate for other brands, they would see oh, she was at this Revolv event. Like there must be something cool going on here. She's the type of girl that we want. But I think current influencer marketing and current digital marketing in general is going in such a different direction that it shocks me that this is still a system and strategy that works for anybody. Now, I think people are really looking for influencers who have a story to tell influencers who have personality and background and want to be ambassadors for the long run. Yeah, and this just really takes me back to 2015 2016 influencer marketing tactics, which was mass, push, push, push where all these outfits trashed them the next day, we don't care who you are. We don't care to know anything about you just post this stuff and tag us. And it's sad to see that revolve is not evolving in that way. It's really sad. I mean, I've seen them evolve in terms of the diversity of the influencers that they cast. But it's still like very bleak. It's very big for a company that really helped put influencer marketing on the map. It's sad to see that they're not evolving their practices.
12:33
I'm just surprised that nothing has there been a public statement about this.
12:28
I have not seen a public statement thus far. And I think it's because they haven't at this time of recording. They haven't made it through weekend to have Coachella yet.
12:39
So they do better. Yeah,
12:40
hopefully they do better. But yeah, I don't know. I haven't seen a public statement yet. And who knows if there will be one.
12:47
How do you feel about the fashion influencer marketing world in general,
12:52
as someone who started on that side, I think it had so much waste associated with it that I saw that it was like very sad. There was a girl on Tik Tok, who was a revolve plus one and she documented her time at Coachella as the plus one of two of her friends who are bigger influencers. And she showed the behind the scenes of the revolve gifting suite. Yeah, and people taking like 13 to 15 bags of just stuff. Like, who knows what it is, but it's like makeup and products and this and waters and whatever else. And it's just like, more stuff that you don't need, and that will never even be promoted outside. So I think a just horrible
13:40
networking used net will never be used in your house. I there was a phase how many followers that I have. It was two summers ago, when I had just started, I had just started doing the like, actual collaboration thing. And I was doing a lot of gifting collabs and I remember my whole dining room table was like full of projects was full of like boxes of stuff that I was supposed to take pictures with and post. And I think I was doing it as like, here's all of my to do less. But after a while, it was like, hold up, hold up. This is actually just so wasteful. Because as much as like, for me this is like work. And I'm trying to like make money and like, you know, move forward in this world. I just remember my husband being like, can you get this off the counter? Like why is there so much stuff? Like, are you ever going to use this? Can I throw this away? And I was like, yeah, yeah, you can. I'll try to give it to someone like or it's so wasteful in general. Yeah,
14:42
I mean, I think the influencer marketing industry has come a long way in terms of how wasteful it has been in the past, but it still continues to be quite wasteful. And that's across all industries, not just fashion like they just give, give, give and it can be really out of control. I think when it comes to fashion specifically, I think influencer marketing has become more difficult than ever. Because consumers are so inundated with recommendation of clothing products, and you just don't know how it's going to fit. And for the last two years, it probably did pretty well because we weren't in person shopping. So the only way to discover something new or to see how it would look on someone who looked a little bit more likely was through influencers. But now people are going back into shops, they want to try on they want that experience in store again. And I think that the influencer marketing industry for fashion specifically will suffer, it will definitely take a bit of a hit in terms of spend.
15:44
So this is a super gray area. And I know there is not a black or white answer to this. But the age of the fashion influencer in general, is that on decline, because I would kind of go as far as to say, I think it is because you have these girls that talk about other things that have some kind of other story that are we I mean, we just saw a ton of girls work with Abercrombie for their kerf love campaign recently. Are all those fashion girls. No, they're not.
16:16
Yeah, I would agree the singular fashion girl on Instagram. I don't think or as a blogger, I would say quote unquote, so you could have any platform you like, I just don't think that people can have that singularity of fashion only anymore. It just isn't broad enough. And while we always tell people to niche down it's that niche.
16:40
I think you can always be wearing a cute outfit. You can always be wearing a cute outfit and baking you can always be wearing a cute outfit and telling me about something else. Like I think unless you are a like really specific specialty, then I don't think it's an option. Like the couple of people that I follow in the fashion world are like this wildly. I don't even know how to edgy New York girl that's like 19 years old and I'm obsessed with all of her stuff. Would I ever wear her like short skirts and like borderline golf attire? Never Never be me? No, but I love the way she does it. I love the way she creates. So I follow along. I there's like a curvy girl that dresses super colourful. That is the same thing. But I don't think I follow anyone that's just fashion.
17:32
Yeah, I would I would agree. I would say the people that I follow who are really just fashion have evolved, or they're so original to the time that they'll never fade. So someone who has evolved who I follow who I love is like a crystal Bic who if you're into fashion influencers you should definitely know her. She's always been a fashion influencer. But now she's really a fashion storyteller. And she merges this like extreme creativity, and whimsy with storytelling of a lot of vintage concepts and movies. And she does it in a way that is so beautiful and creative and curated. It's almost like a magazine come to life. What is this username, Crystal K, R EY S T, A L, BEC B IC K. And, you know, I've known her for years, and she's a lovely human. And her writing is also extremely intelligent. She used to work at Google. And the way that she writes is very beautiful. And I think that she's an original
18:35
thing. You
18:36
have a thing or like a Blair Blair ad like no one will ever replace Blair at Atlantic Pacific, like she will always be a core fashion person. She only posts herself in outfits. She does not really reveal anything about her personal life but she's been on the platform for so long and styles in such a way that people see as aspirational and so interesting that I don't know that she'll ever lose her following but again, this is like 1% of like a fashion influencers there's not that many people out there that can really do this. So I think the new fashion influencer has to be multi dimensional, absolutely affordable fashion.
19:17
Mm hmm. Amazon fat like I'm I don't think there's space. No, and I'm not one to say that I'm not one to say the markets too saturated. But I just don't think that's the path.
19:30
Agreed. Because, again, your chef can talk about how she gets her affordable fashion from Amazon or a mom blogger can talk about the best picks from Old Navy and yeah, it's not special anymore. What's special are these people who are true storytellers, and talking about the real craft of fashion, which is not as accessible as everything else. But I just want to bring it back to Coachella really quickly, which is very relevant to fashion influencers because I think that's who has really saturated that market from the very beginning, also of the revolve off of everything else, do you think it's worth it for influencers to save up and show up at these major events where they know the content is going to be, you know, very widely seen and probably iconic for some of the people that are maybe not iconic, but aspirational for some of the people who follow them? Who know they'll never show up at Coachella or stagecoach or some of these bigger festivals? Do you think it's worth it for them? If they're not sponsored by a brand to go,
20:36
Okay, so here's, here's where my brain goes immediately. When you go to these big events as an influencer, as a creator, what you do before is you scout out all of the brands, you contact all these brands, and you say, Hey, I'm going to create some specialty content, I'm going to Coachella, I'm going to wherever, but it doesn't need to be that it can be I'm going to Puerto Rico, like, what can I promote? Well, I'm on vacation, I'm going to Florida, I'm going to whatever, I'm going to be on a boat, you know. So for me, I think the smarter version is go on a trip like, I don't think you're I don't think you need to go to Coachella for it to be this like big, bold capital statement. There's so much money involved that this maybe this is just the introvert and me where I'm like, I want to live away from here. People don't talk to me.
21:31
I mean, it can be very fun. And I will say I kind of agree with you. Like, do you need to save up to go if it's not like in your wheelhouse to go and have fun with a group of friends? No, like, I don't think that you know, similar to like New York Fashion Week where everyone wants to be shot at New York Fashion Week, everyone wants to say that they're somehow involved. It just doesn't carry the same weight that it used to. And I actually think it kind of does the opposite to the modern consumer. Now. I'm like swiping through the Coachella like okay, passed, it passed it passed it like what else are people doing? And I think it's the same thing with like other massive events where everyone is showing up. Yeah, I mean, I think overarching This leads us to two things really one, the revolve concept, influencers. If you're listening, please don't think that success means that you have to what is it like hitching a ride to somebody else's pony. You don't have to be involved with revolve, or with another major name. If it means selling your soul in content for $2,000 worth of clothes or something less, you'll find success in your own way. Even though it seems like oh, I want to hang out with the cool girls, I want to be at the cool place. Right? It's not going to pay off in the end, especially as we saw with this specific experience. And too when it comes to these major events. Also don't feel pressured to spend your money and be there just to be relevant. You could be doing your own cool thing and an off time so you know Coachella is always in April. You could choose June or may or another month to plan a big trip and do something really cool. And there is
23:19
so many there's so many cute Airbnb is that are so cheap in India, if you go in March, yeah. I had my bachelorette party there in June and it was like 100 degrees. The house is so cute. Like, there are so many content like maybe we're talking about content opportunities like we can pretend to be bougie other ways. Come on.
23:44
Wait, I'm going to leave and close this episode with this hack that I just thought of. If you wish that you were at Coachella this weekend, but you know you can't afford it or you weren't invited by a brand. Here's here's my hot tip. Everyone gets photographed at the Ace Hotel there. It's the one that has the light of sign that says yeah, it's really cool on the inside. Everybody goes there book a weekend there literally any other time of the year that is sunny, dress up in your best Coachella gear show up, do your photo shoot and release it on the same first weekend of Coachella so no one will know the difference. You will still have a tan in the summer because it is always hot there and you will have the content that mimics exactly what everybody else has when they're there. So if you really feel like you need it, that is the way to achieve it without bankrupting yourself.
24:35
So Sonia is just better than the top there. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of brand new creator. You know where to find us on the Instagram at the Harley Jordan at Sonya dot Elise. Catch