ABOUT

THE BRIEF
Following Meta’s controversial decision to ban social media accounts ‘pretending to be someone famous’, meant tribute acts and impersonators' Facebook pages were being deleted in a devastating blow to the entertainment industry.

The ruling effectively barred these artists from using Facebook and Instagram to promote their acts – both vital channels for the acts to promote their work, build their fanbase and make industry contacts.

Among the many affected was Kelly O’Brien – an internationally-renowned, and award-winning Dolly Parton tribute whose act has been endorsed by Dolly Parton herself. Kelly’s act aka, ‘The Dolly Show’ had thousands of followers across both Facebook and Instagram, where she sells most of her tickets, engages with fans and raises awareness of her shows.

Hard Numbers was approached by Kelly O’Brien’s agent for pro-bono support to help raise awareness of the devastating effect Meta's new community standards has had on her career on the careers of fellow tribute artists.

The initial brief was to approach top tier print and digital media outlets to tell Kelly’s story and share the plight of the many other tribute acts and impersonators affected by Meta’s new community standards. In doing so, we wanted to help Kelly to engage with Meta, to appeal their decision and to reinstate her Facebook page.

THE RESULTS
Not only were we able to get Kelly to finally speak to someone at Meta about the issues, we achieved our goal of securing broadcast coverage in addition to print and online. The campaign generated over 38 pieces of coverage across national TV, radio, print and digital media and further syndications. Notable coverage includes features in The Times, Daily Mail and Metro. Radio coverage including BBC Radio 5 Live, Times Radio and BBC Three Counties (Kelly’s local radio station) and TV coverage including ITV News National, Channel 5 News and Sky News. The hero coverage however, came from our exclusive offer of a live performance which was snapped up by ITV’s This Morning and included Kelly O’Brien and two other tributes act performing live on the show.

Meta has now been in contact with Kelly to speak to her with an ‘on the record statement’ about what they are doing to rectify the situation regarding their community guidelines and how they can work together with her moving forward.

Social media platforms provide tribute acts with powerful promotional tools to showcase their work. This campaign has given a voice to tribute acts who would otherwise have no way of gaining Meta’s attention or to challenge their new community guidelines.