 |
|
|
|||||
Here’s a mash-up you didn’t see coming: It turns out that LimeWire was the mystery buyer of the Fyre Festivals brand assets back in July, when it spent $245,300 to acquire the failed music festival’s trademarks, intellectual property, and social media off eBay. But branding doesn’t really follow mathematical logic: Does the combination of two failed but infamous brands equal a net positive? LimeWire’s betting on it. Fyre Fest’s new owner believes it can take the meme value of the failed festival to power something new that audiences will still find familiar. (Besides, it’s LimeWire. It can’t be too scared about Twitter dunks.) A test case for two wrongs making a right Anyway, neither company has had much success on its own. LimeWire is the Y2K-era peer-to-feer file-sharing service that in the early aughts offered internet users access to free, illegally downloadable music, all from the comfort of their home computers alongside competitors like Napster and Kazaa. LimeWire shut down in 2010, but Austrian brothers Julian and Paul Zehetmayr bought up the assets and relaunched it as an NFT platform in 2022. And the 2017 Fyre Fest was, of course, a flop. Billed artists like Blink-182 pulled out, and after festival organizers suffered severe logistical failures they stranded attendees on an island in the Bahamas eating cheese sandwiches out of Styrofoam containers. Never mind that those attendees spent thousands of dollars to attend. Accommodations included disaster relief tents. And founder Billy McFarland’s plans for a Fyre Fest II never got off the ground. But what Fyre Fest did do wellif by accidentwas establish real brand recognition by becoming something of a schadenfreude content factory, inspiring a pair of documentaries on both Netflix and Hulu. Ryan Reynolds also referenced it in a 2019 ad for his brand Aviation Gin, in which he detailed just how far he was willing to go for his company. “He gets it,” Fyre festival investor Andy King said in the ad. The name “Fyre Fest” itself has become a cautionary tale and pop cultural shorthand for hubris and failure. Reynolds and his production company Maximum Effort bid on Fyre Fest as well, though LimeWire outbid them. Maximum Effort then got in touch after the auction, Julian Zehetmayr tells Fast Company, and the two entities have already collaborated. Most immediately, the Fyre Fest brand appears briefly in a new ad Reynolds narrates for Visa that reimagines the company’s famous “It’s everywhere you want to be” slogan. Zehetmayr says they have other plans for the brand name, though he declines to share specifics. “Congrats to LimeWire for their winning bid for Fyre Fest,” Reynolds said in a statement. “I look forward to attending their first event but will be bringing my own palette of water.” LimeWire, Fyre Fest, and the trick to reviving zombie brands Zehetmayr says he learned from his experience with LimeWire what not to do when buying up a “zombie brand,” or a failed brand that’s worth something only because it’s well-known. (Napster and Enron, which have been repurposed by new buyers, offer additional examples.) The most important thing is sticking to what people know the brand name for. “One thing that we’ve learned with buying brands is that obviously you can’t go too far from the original concept,” Zehetmayr says. After the Zehetmayrs bought LimeWire, they turned it into an NFT platform. But in 2024 LimeWire added decentralized file sharing, once again making the site a file-sharing platform. This time, however, it’s for legal and encrypted files. Julian Zehetmayr says he and his brother are being intentional with the Fyre Fest brand, and “not trying to rush ourselves too much,” but they plan to make an announcement as soon as early next year about what they plan to do with it. Zehetmayr says they’re not bringing back the festivalor the cheese sandwichesbut they are bringing back the brand and meme through experiences. “We’ve got quite a few concepts,” he adds. The value of the Fyre Fest brand, he says, is in the attention that it gets, but one thing he says they won’t do is take it too seriously. “I think we’ll do the whole thing with a lot of self-awareness and humor, so we’re not pretending that we are buying a premium brand,” he says. He also sees the LimeWire and Fyre Fest brands as complementary. “The brands kind of match,” Zehetmayr says. “Both very infamous and chaotic, both obviously very music and entertainment focused as well.” They also hit different age groups. While millennials might all know LimeWire, Fyre Fest “kind of also bridges the gap,” he says, for everyone under 28 who’s too young to remember the file-sharing era. Like buying restaurantsor even a gin brand or sports team, for that matterbuying up zombie brands can require a gentle touch. Stray too far from what the brand’s known for and you lose the power of the name ID that you bought in the first place. As Zehetmayr says: Stick to the core that the brand represents.
Category:
E-Commerce
Usually when a company recalls a food item, it’s because there is something wrong with the food itselfa bacterial contamination or an ingredient that isnt supposed to be there. But this week, Costco announced a recall for another reason: The product in question might explode. Heres what you need to know about Costcos recall of its Kirkland Signature Prosecco Valdobbiadene. Whats happened? This week, Costco began sending out letters to members who purchased the companys Kirkland Signature Prosecco Valdobbiadene, a brand of sparkling white wine. Kirkland Signature is Costcos private-label brand of products. Under that brand, Costco sells a Prosecco Valdobbiadene sparkling wine that it sources from wine producer Ethica Wines. Costcos letter, which it has published on its recalls page, states that unopened bottles of Kirkland Signature Prosecco Valdobbiadene with the Costco item number 1879870 are at risk of shattering, even if the bottle is still sitting on a shelf or counter. Right now, it is unknown how Costco found out about this bottle defect, as the companys letter does not state whether there have been any incidents of bottles exploding. The sparkling wines producer, Ethica Wines, does not appear to have any details about the recall posted on its website. Fast Company has reached out to Ethica Wines for comment. Given that the bottle can shatter even when not handled or in use, Costco’s warning is especially urgent, although it’s not the first time a retailer has warned about an apparently defective glass bottle in recent months. Back in March, Trader Joes issued an unrelated recall of 61,000 bottles of sparkling water due to a defect with the glass bottle that could cause it to crack, leading to a laceration hazard. What Prosecco is covered under the recall? Costcos letter shows that just one item is covered under the recall. That item is: Kirkland Signature Prosecco Valdobbiadene (item #1879870) When was the recalled item sold? The recalled item was sold between April 25 and August 26, 2025. Where was the recalled item sold? According to the notice, the recalled item was sold in the following states and regions: Iowa Illinois Indiana Kentucky Michigan Minnesota Missouri North Dakota New England Ohio South Dakota Wisconsin What should I do if I have the recalled Prosecco? In an unusual move for food recalls, Costco says those who have the recalled prosecco should not return it to a Costco store. This is likely due to the fact that handling and transportation may increase the risk of explosion. Costo says that you should not open the bottle but instead dispose of it immediately by wrapping the unopened bottle in paper towels and placing it in a plastic bag before placing it in the garbage to avoid risk from shattered glass. Costco says you can then bring the letter you received from the company regarding the recalled Prosecco into a Costco store to get your full purchase price refunded. If you have additional questions or concerns about the recalled Prosecco, Costco says you should contact Ethica Wines at (786) 810-7132 or email them at customercare@ethicawines.com.
Category:
E-Commerce
Enterprise technology company ServiceNow is expected to announce plans today to build an AI-focused office in West Palm Beach, Florida, as part of an expansion in the Southeast region. The Santa Clara, California-based company says it will become the anchor tenant in a new Related Ross office building, and that the space will serve as a hub for product innovation, enterprise AI development, and workforce education. Bill McDermott, chairman and CEO of ServiceNow, is calling the space an AI Institute, which will include a customer engagement center, access to a ServiceNow University for AI education and certification, and a startup accelerator for young businesses and innovators from all over the world who want to build software and rapidly prototype. The ServiceNow facility, which is expected to open in 2028, joins a growing number of corporations with offices in West Palm Beach, including BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, Point72, and Elliott Management. Cleveland Clinic recently announced plans to build a hospital in the city, and Vanderbilt University is developing a graduate education campus in West Palm Beach. We really concentrated on bringing schools, hospitals, recreational facilities to Florida and dealing with all the infrastructure and amenities needed for a place that’s growing,” says Stephen Ross, CEO and chairman of Related Ross, founder of Related Companies, and owner of the Miami Dolphins pro football team. Related Ross owns 3 million square feet of commercial and residential space in Palm Beach County, with another 3.5 million square feet in its pipeline. ServiceNow has committed to occupy up to 200,000 square feet. [Photo: Courtesy of ServiceNow] The state of Florida has contributed a $15 million development package to ServiceNow, and West Palm Beach offered the company a relocation and development assistance grant to match state funds up to $2 million. Your dollar goes a lot further Ross and McDermott credit Keith James, mayor of West Palm Beach, for collaborating with businesses such as theirs to bring educational and economic opportunity to the city. (ServiceNow says its West Palm Beach office will create some 850 new jobs through 2030; the company, which last year posted $10.97 billion in revenue, employs about 27,000 people worldwide.) James, meanwhile, highlighted the work of the Related Ross Foundation, which supports local programs and neighborhood improvements. The mayors office says the total taxable value of property in the city rose to $25.49 billion in 2025, up 87% from $13.61 billion in 2019. Employment last year was 80,237, up from 74,492 in 2019. I’m not looking for companies to build me pretty buildings, James says. I’m looking for companies to help me build a community. For McDermott, West Palm Beach offers something increasingly rare: a location where young tech talent can afford to live while building careers. “You can talk to a young innovator at a university and you say, Your dollar goes a lot further in West Palm than it will in San Francisco, he says. “That means a lot to young people.”
Category:
E-Commerce
All news |
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||