2020-03-01_Fast_Company

FOR PROVIDING FANS THE THRILL

OF A LIFETIME

For anyone who has ever

dreamed of getting birthday

wishes from Snoop Dogg, Gil-

bert Gottfried, or even Stormy

Daniels, there’s Cameo. The three-year-old

platform leverages fan culture and nostal-

gia to create a new kind of social experience:

Users purchase personalized video shout-

outs from celebrities and influencers for

anywhere between $2 and $2,500. Cameo,

which takes a 25% cut, is able to solve one

of the conundrums of the social media age

by delivering satisfying, personal interac-

tions between celebrities and their fans.

On top of that, the famous people are paid

for their talents, and fans get a shareable

piece of content—the perfect viral market-

ing tool to expose more people to Cameo.

Last year, the platform grew its talent ros-

ter from 5,000 people to more than 20,000

and facilitated the creation of more than

400,000 videos (up from 100,000 in 2018),

which included pep talks, internet parody

videos, and Sugar Ray front man Mark

McGrath doing someone’s dirty work in a

breakup (“You mean the world to her. But

she says she’s having difficulty staying in

this long-distance relationship”). “Every

day, we’re talking to our customers, finding

out who they want that we don’t have, and

then trying to get them on,” says cofounder

and CEO Steven Galanis. The company has

also begun experimenting with brand part-

nerships: The Kool-Aid Man became a free

bookable celebrity for a short period last

summer. Oh yeah!

that marry a high-demand item

(a Sprinter Van) with a cause that

resonates among entrants (con-

servation organization Access

Fund). Omaze’s 34-person mar-

keting team produces videos to

showcase the charity and con-

nects with influencers who will

help promote them. Seventy per-

cent of a non-celeb-driven

sweepstake’s total goes to prod-

uct and marketing costs; Omaze

and the charity split the rest,

which can often be transforma-

tive. (Access Fund’s 2019 windfall

funded 2,000 hours of conserva-

tion work.) “The whole point is

making it as easy as possible for

the charities so they are literally

just receiving funds,” says

cofounder and CEO Matt Pohlson.

Last year, $7 million of Omaze’s

total charity giving of $25 million

stemmed from these non-celeb-

driven sweepstakes, which

accounted for more than 60%

of the company’s $45 million

in revenue.

MARCH/APRIL 2020

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