Cameo has built its business around connecting celebrities with their fans. And in the process of making fan/celebrity interactions more accessible, it's generated hundreds of millions in sales and a $1 billion valuation.
But its lesser-known B2B unit that helps brands find celebrities to use in digital advertising could soon rival its fan video marketplace.
Officially launched in 2020, the Chicago startup's Cameo for Business division provides companies with thousands of celebrities and influencers to use in ad campaigns. The B2B business was born out of an inbound request by a Wisconsin car dealership to use Brett Favre in a Facebook ad touting its Labor Day sale. Cameo quickly added a "bookable for a brand or business" button to Favre's Cameo profile, and the brand requests continued to come in.
The startup eventually made more of its talent eligible for brand bookings, and in 2021 Cameo for Business worked with more than 12,000 companies that tapped thousands of celebrities on Cameo's platform to serve as spokespeople. Its B2B unit has grown so quickly that Cameo believes it can become a $100 million business by the end of this year or early 2023, Cameo President Arthur Leopold told Chicago Inno.
"We broke down the traditional Hollywood institutional barriers in connecting talent directly to their fans," said Leopold, who was Cameo's first employee and COO before being promoted to president this week. "Prior to Cameo you had to be at the Beverly Hills Hotel or Soho House to run into a celebrity. We realized we could enable that same access on the brand side."
After what was initially an internal team of four people working on Cameo for Business, the division now has nearly 50 dedicated employees, Leopold said, with plans to continue adding to the team.
Brands like EA Sports, FanDuel and Bud Light have turned to Cameo to find talent for its Facebook, Snap, TikTok and other digital ads. Infiniti worked with Cameo celebrities like gymnast Gabby Douglas and sports commentator Erin Andrews on its QX60 campaign, and LinkedIn worked with Cameo to create celebrity-themed out-of-office video messages to encourage people to take time off during the holidays.
Leopold said Cameo is simplifying the process of finding a brand celebrity spokesperson, while also making pricing more transparent. Celebrities typically charge seven to eight times as much for a branded video as they charge for a fan video, Leopold said. Some of the post popular Cameo for Business celebrities are Kenny G, Cedric the Entertainer, Steve Harvey and Lindsay Lohan, said Leopold, who added that its top celebs on the B2B side are earning as much or more revenue from brands than from fan videos.
The turnaround time for a Cameo for Business ad is another differentiator for the startup, Leopold said, as videos are done in as quick as a week compared to months for a traditional ad campaign. It's advantageous for brands that are looking to feature a celebrity that's generating buzz in real time thanks to a show or TV series that's going viral.
"That level of speed is unheard of in the industry," he said. "Typically there’s so many middlemen involved and everybody’s looking for a bite at the apple. It slows down the process."
Brands are also using Cameo as a sort of celebrity trial run for larger campaigns, Leopold said. Infiniti, for example, worked with several celebrities on Cameo before deciding to tap Erin Andrews to be the face of its QX60 campaign. Similarly, Busch Light's Super Bowl ad starring Kenny G began with the beer maker connecting with the musician on Cameo.
Cameo for Business isn't the only way the startup is trying to diversify its revenue. Last year it made its first acquisition in a deal for Represent, an L.A. startup that sells T-shirts and other merchandise from celebrities. It will allow Cameo to offer gift bundles with shoutout videos and merchandise from celebrities. It's also experimenting with NFTs, launching a product earlier this month that offered limited-release NFTs from digital artists.
