Can social media data be used to predict the perfect night out? According to the London-based “experience economy” company Fever, the answer is yes.
The company started life as a marketing and booking site, linking those seeking urban novelties with one-of-a-kind events through its social media network. It runs pages including Secret London and Secret NYC, and says roughly a quarter of people in the UK capital interact with its content every month.
Now, it is expanding, creating its own events and using three years of social media data to try to perfectly hone the experiences to match what people searching for secret or unique nights out actually want.
In New York, for instance, “we tested different themes, different venues and different settings. What the data showed us was that the most popular theme was Alice in Wonderland, the setting was a double-decker ‘English cottage’-themed bus” – a stationary red bus with a thatched roof – “and the location was Brooklyn,” says Fever’s chief executive, Ignacio Bachiller. So, the company put together the “Madhatter G&T party” – and before an single image of the experience was produced, it had more than 12,000 people on the waiting list.
In London, the same data-led approach saw Fever start the “bottomless bubbly barge”, a 90-minute prosecco-drinking tour of the Regent’s canal. But it also threw up some surprises, Bachiller says, including “a series of classical candlelit concerts held in beautiful churches and cathedrals across London, which were unexpectedly popular among millennials”.
In Madrid, Fever used the same approach to create an entire festival. “We’re able to use data to see which singers and performers are going to drive the highest intent to conversion … So for the festival, the best one was an art and music mix, an alternative feel.” The festival ended up being themed around the Hieronymus Bosch painting The Garden of Earthly Delights.
As for whether or not this may harm the company’s ability to pitch to a generation obsessed with pursuing “authentic” experiences, Bachiller is confident. “We’re combining human insights and data, so it’s not trendy because thought leaders and so on say so. It’s trendy because the data says so.”
Even so, for those of us constantly seeking new experiences, spending our hard-earned money on avocado toast in an ersatz hot-air balloon rather than saving for a deposit for a house, it can already be hard enough to live in the moment. Can we really withstand the full assault of a data-driven, stage-managed attempt to build the perfect Instagram-friendly experience? Or will we just float from event to event, getting admittedly great pictures for our Stories, but never really enjoying any of it?
• The subheading of this article was amended on 29 August 2018 because Fever analyses, rather than harvests, information.
