pitch unfairly

Fyre Festival Sponsorship Prospectus (2017)

A private island, as promised. A cheese sandwich, as delivered. Sponsorship prospectus, 2017, rebuilt as a live deck you can play and steal. More in Templates, sales.

Fyre Festival deck, first slide Play the deck
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  • 9 slides
  • 400+ paid posts
  • ~5,000 tickets sold
  • 6 years for the founder

Steal the sponsorship prospectus structure

9 slides, one job each, in this order. Swap in your story and keep the order.

  1. 01
    Theme and datesThe event, the place and the dates in one line, with a footnote on anything a guest could check.
  2. 02
    At a glanceWhere, when, how people get there and who is on the bill, each line a claim the sponsor can verify.
  3. 03
    The audienceWho comes and how many, every number footnoted with its source, and "attendance is not guaranteed" in writing.
  4. 04
    Why sponsorReach next to attendance: impressions are what you sell, the room is what they pay for.
  5. 05
    Tier matrixTiers across the top with price and "X available", benefits down the side, an audited report in every tier.
  6. 06
    ActivationsWhere the sponsor's name lives on site, by place: stay, food, payments, stage.
  7. 07
    The fine printVenue, talent, attendance, cancellation and paid-post disclosure, printed at reading size.
  8. 08
    Past resultsLast event's numbers or the organizers' record, from sources the sponsor can look up.
  9. 09
    Deadline and contactDated steps with owners on both sides, the commitment deadline, the conditions to check, and who to call.
What good sales do, and where they fail
  • Open on a big shift in the buyer's world, not on your company (Raskin's strategic narrative).
  • On discovery calls, slides cost follow-ups: Gong found reps who used them were 17% less likely to book the next meeting. Ask, then show.
  • Winners spend less time on the deck (9.1 vs 11.4 minutes in intro calls) and 39% less on features (Gong).
  • Use proof from customers like the buyer; generic logos and ROI claims hurt (Gong).
  • End on a mutual action plan with dates and owners on both sides, never "Thank you".
  • Starting with the company history
  • A feature tour
  • Logos from the wrong industry
  • No next step with a date

The deck, slide by slide

Each one opens the live deck at that slide.

  1. Fyre Festival deck, slide 1: Two weekends on a private island, and every feed you follow. 01Two weekends on a private island, and every feed you follow.
  2. Fyre Festival deck, slide 2: Two weekends, one island, thirty-three acts on the bill. 02Two weekends, one island, thirty-three acts on the bill.
  3. Fyre Festival deck, slide 3: Who comes, with a footnote on every number. 03Who comes, with a footnote on every number.
  4. Fyre Festival deck, slide 4: Four hundred posts sold the island. Reach is not the room. 04Four hundred posts sold the island. Reach is not the room.
  5. Fyre Festival deck, slide 5: Three tiers, a few of each, and they go fast. 05Three tiers, a few of each, and they go fast.
  6. Fyre Festival deck, slide 6: Every activation is a promise. Check what guests found. 06Every activation is a promise. Check what guests found.
  7. Fyre Festival deck, slide 7: The fine print is where an honest prospectus lives. 07The fine print is where an honest prospectus lives.
  8. Fyre Festival deck, slide 8: Every prospectus shows last year's results. Here are 2017's. 08Every prospectus shows last year's results. Here are 2017's.
  9. Fyre Festival deck, slide 9: Commit by the deadline, on terms a guest could check. 09Commit by the deadline, on terms a guest could check.
What really happened, and what the 2026 rebuild changes

What really happened, 2017

  1. December 12, 2016: models and influencers post the same promo at once, an orange square
  2. A lawsuit later alleges more than 400 personalities were paid to promote it
  3. Sold as a luxury festival on a private island in the Exumas, once "owned by Pablo Escobar"
  4. Day passes $500 to $1,500; VIP packages with airfare and lodging $12,000
  5. 33 acts advertised; Blink-182 and nearly all the rest pull out
  6. April 2017: guests fly in from Miami to Rokers Point on Great Exuma, not a private island
  7. They find wet disaster-relief tents and cheese sandwiches in foam boxes
  8. Weekend one is postponed before dawn on April 28 and cancelled; weekend two never happens
  9. March 2018: Billy McFarland pleads guilty to two counts of wire fraud
  10. October 2018: sentenced to six years in prison and $26 million in forfeiture
  11. January 2019: Hulu's Fyre Fraud and Netflix's FYRE

Read the real story the story, via Wikipedia

What the rebuild changes

  • Promised or Delivered. Every claim has a switch. Flip it and the private island is struck through, with "a site at Rokers Point" written in the margin; the chef's cloche becomes the sandwich.
  • Footnotes that open. Click any audience number to read its source. The fourth stat is "No guarantee of attendance": the line the best prospectuses print and this one didn't.
  • Reach meets the room. Four hundred launch-day tiles fill in one by one, then the ledger counts what showed up: about 5,000 tickets, about 500 people on site, zero headliners.
  • Tiers that sell out. Reserve a tier and its seats run out until the Sold out stamp lands. Then the commitment form won't let you sign until you've walked the site and seen the talent contracts.

Make yours in ChatGPT

Type your site. We'll write the prompt with Fyre Festival's structure and your brand.