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How This Digital Agency Is Cashing In on a New Kind of Celebrity Endorsement TheAudience is connecting brands and customers across social media platforms via influencers.

By Jason Ankeny

This story appears in the April 2015 issue of Entrepreneur. Subscribe »

Photography by Marc Royce
Making branding magic: Just another day at the office for Oliver Luckett (center) and theAudience crew.

Three days after time expired on Super Bowl XLIX, Oliver Luckett still can't wrap his head around how badly they blew it. His frustration has nothing to do with the Seattle Seahawks snatching defeat from the jaws of victory and everything to do with halftime-show headliner Katy Perry's failure to exploit her moment in the spotlight to connect with fans via social media.

In the hours leading up to her performance, which drew a record 118.5 million U.S. viewers, Perry tweeted only three times to her 65 million Twitter followers. Other social platforms got no love at all.

This, Luckett contends, is heresy. "Shame on her. Look at her Facebook page—not one mention of the Super Bowl! It's unbelievable," he says, shaking his head as he scrolls the MacBook screen in front of him. "The night of the Super Bowl, I sent her page to the execs at Universal [Music Group, Perry's record company] and said, "Guys, y'all need to be fired. You're embarrassing yourselves.' Her fans wanted to interact with her. Where are the Instagram photos? Show me her inspirations. Show me something. Get people excited."