WEBVTT - How Cameo Cashed in on Celebrity Videos 0:00:00.080 --> 0:00:13.160 Ye. Welcome to another episode of Strictly Business, Varieties podcast 0:00:13.320 --> 0:00:17.599 featuring conversations with industry leaders about the business of media 0:00:17.720 --> 0:00:22.120 and entertainment. I'm Todd Spangler with Variety Today. Our guest 0:00:22.280 --> 0:00:25.800 is Stephen Galanis, co founder and CEO of Cameo, which 0:00:25.840 --> 0:00:29.680 has made a booming business of selling personalized video shout 0:00:29.680 --> 0:00:33.560 outs from celebrities. The company is just shy of four 0:00:33.640 --> 0:00:38.120 years old and last year they pulled in gross revenue 0:00:38.200 --> 0:00:41.280 of a hundred million dollars, four and a half times 0:00:41.320 --> 0:00:44.839 from the previous year. It's coming up today on Strictly Business. 0:00:45.320 --> 0:00:56.640 Stay tuned, Welcome back to Strictly Business. Here's Cameo CEO 0:00:56.760 --> 0:01:00.920 Stephen galanis so seven maybe you can start, uh, just 0:01:00.960 --> 0:01:03.560 tell us sing your own words. What what is Cameo? 0:01:03.880 --> 0:01:07.720 What's what's the mission? The mission of Cameo is to 0:01:07.720 --> 0:01:12.160 create the most personalized and authentic fan connections on Earth today. 0:01:12.280 --> 0:01:16.960 We primarily do this by selling personalized video shoutouts from 0:01:16.959 --> 0:01:21.200 tens of thousands of different athletes, actors or celebrities. And 0:01:21.319 --> 0:01:24.520 that's not the That's not the end of the business model, right, 0:01:25.800 --> 0:01:27.600 we hope it's just the beginning. We believe we're in 0:01:27.640 --> 0:01:30.720 the top of the second ending with cameo and the 0:01:30.840 --> 0:01:35.000 larger vision of cameos to build the marketplace for people's 0:01:35.040 --> 0:01:37.720 time for x amount of money you as a fan 0:01:37.800 --> 0:01:40.480 should be able to pay to do. Why activity was 0:01:40.680 --> 0:01:43.960 the person that you love? And UM right now we're 0:01:43.959 --> 0:01:48.160 focused primarily on one y activity, the personalized video shout out, 0:01:48.240 --> 0:01:51.440 the core cameo, which you know, I think we become 0:01:51.480 --> 0:01:54.440 synonymous with. But again, this is just the first of 0:01:54.440 --> 0:01:57.960 many things that we hope to delight fans with. Okay, 0:01:58.200 --> 0:01:59.720 we'll get some more of that later, I think. But 0:02:00.280 --> 0:02:04.040 so far to date you've delivered how many cameos to date, 0:02:04.120 --> 0:02:07.000 it's a it's more than a million now. I think 0:02:07.040 --> 0:02:11.000 we've done one point six million now since we started. UM. 0:02:11.040 --> 0:02:14.200 You know, last year we crossed the millionth mark at 0:02:14.200 --> 0:02:16.640 the beginning of the summer, which was a really exciting 0:02:16.680 --> 0:02:20.120 milestone for the company and UH and we ended up 0:02:20.160 --> 0:02:24.280 doing one point three million just in which was four 0:02:24.360 --> 0:02:27.000 times more than we've ever done in a year. So 0:02:27.120 --> 0:02:30.200 most cameos that have ever been done have happened in 0:02:30.240 --> 0:02:33.760 the last twelve months. UM, and we're excited to just 0:02:33.960 --> 0:02:38.440 continue to accelerate and create more magical moments for fans 0:02:38.480 --> 0:02:41.880 around the world. So what what made you hit the 0:02:41.880 --> 0:02:46.520 hockey stick? Was it the coronavirus pandemic really gave you 0:02:46.560 --> 0:02:51.000 guys a lift? Or what happened? Cameo was the fastest 0:02:51.000 --> 0:02:56.760 growing consumer marketplace on Earth coming into so the business 0:02:56.760 --> 0:03:00.760 had been growing very rapidly. Um. But again, you know, 0:03:00.800 --> 0:03:04.080 I think very relevant to your listeners. I don't have 0:03:04.160 --> 0:03:07.520 to tell any of them that all live sports, all 0:03:07.560 --> 0:03:10.560 live entertainment, all live music shut down for a big 0:03:10.639 --> 0:03:16.600 part of and um, you know, artists were suddenly finding 0:03:16.639 --> 0:03:20.480 themselves without any of their normal income streams. They're missing 0:03:20.520 --> 0:03:22.799 the hell out of their fans. And you know, a 0:03:22.960 --> 0:03:27.400 CAMEO we provided, UH during a really tough time for them, 0:03:27.400 --> 0:03:30.120 an opportunity for talent to connect with the people that 0:03:30.240 --> 0:03:33.640 keep them going, their their die hard fans and UH 0:03:33.680 --> 0:03:35.600 and and make money at a time where nothing was 0:03:35.640 --> 0:03:39.080 coming in. And if you think about, you know, or 0:03:39.280 --> 0:03:43.000 or prior to the number one and number two reasons 0:03:43.000 --> 0:03:46.080 that talent wouldn't join Cameo were you know, I'm making 0:03:46.120 --> 0:03:48.760 too much money doing everything else that I do, or 0:03:48.800 --> 0:03:52.040 I don't have time. So in a year where people 0:03:52.080 --> 0:03:55.080 suddenly weren't making money, and they had more time than ever. 0:03:55.520 --> 0:03:57.600 They gave us a shot. And the thing that's been 0:03:57.640 --> 0:04:02.000 really awesome to see is, you know, everything's come back 0:04:02.080 --> 0:04:04.400 really at this point except for live music. You know, 0:04:04.440 --> 0:04:08.160 movies are filming again, televisions filming again, sports, you know, 0:04:08.200 --> 0:04:11.360 the super Bowl just happened, so everybody's back to work. 0:04:11.680 --> 0:04:13.480 And the thing that was really cool to see is 0:04:13.520 --> 0:04:15.800 that they came on. They gave us a shop during 0:04:15.840 --> 0:04:18.400 a time where nothing else was going on. But now 0:04:18.440 --> 0:04:22.839 that life has returned to normal, cameos and interacting with 0:04:22.880 --> 0:04:26.040 their fans this way has become part of their their 0:04:26.120 --> 0:04:28.919 stack as creators. It's it's become just as important to 0:04:28.960 --> 0:04:32.040 them as their Instagram, their Twitter. There there anything else 0:04:32.760 --> 0:04:35.520 well for for some of them. I mean, I mean 0:04:35.560 --> 0:04:38.400 it takes a special kind of or a special kind 0:04:38.400 --> 0:04:40.480 of interest in this, right, I mean to open up 0:04:40.480 --> 0:04:44.000 to two individual fans like that. I mean, there are 0:04:44.040 --> 0:04:46.960 some people who are unwilling to do this. I'm assuming 0:04:47.640 --> 0:04:50.680 there's some people unwilling to be on Instagram or Twitter, right, 0:04:50.720 --> 0:04:54.680 So there are people that don't like interacting with their fans. 0:04:55.160 --> 0:04:58.920 We haven't found black market for those people in general. 0:04:59.279 --> 0:05:01.120 One of the things that I've learned in the last 0:05:01.160 --> 0:05:04.480 four years is that talent, no matter if they're musicians 0:05:04.560 --> 0:05:09.640 or actors or athletes, are primarily driven by three main things. Uh, 0:05:09.680 --> 0:05:12.159 they want to make more money, they want to become 0:05:12.160 --> 0:05:15.480 more famous, and they want to become more beloved. So money, fame, 0:05:15.560 --> 0:05:18.280 love is a framework that we think about. And yeah, 0:05:18.320 --> 0:05:21.000 you're right if you're If you're somebody who doesn't need 0:05:21.080 --> 0:05:23.480 more fame or doesn't need more money, or doesn't need 0:05:23.520 --> 0:05:25.720 more love, Kenyo is not a great place for you, 0:05:25.800 --> 0:05:30.359 and that's fine, um, But fortunately for us, most people 0:05:30.400 --> 0:05:32.960 in the entertainment industry are looking to increase all three 0:05:32.960 --> 0:05:35.760 of those things. And you know, the core value prop 0:05:35.880 --> 0:05:39.839 for cameo is that in cameo, we're paying the talent 0:05:39.880 --> 0:05:42.680 to become more famous and more beloved, and we helped 0:05:42.720 --> 0:05:46.640 them turn their casual fans into super fans by creating 0:05:46.680 --> 0:05:50.400 magical moments for them. So what is the price range 0:05:50.640 --> 0:05:54.320 of an individual cameo and who sets that pricing? Is 0:05:54.320 --> 0:05:58.159 that a negotiation with the talent. The talent have always 0:05:58.200 --> 0:06:03.240 controlled their price. Is always important to us that nobody 0:06:03.320 --> 0:06:07.360 ever felt that this wasn't worth their time. So by definition, 0:06:07.480 --> 0:06:09.839 if they're setting their own price, like they're saying that 0:06:10.080 --> 0:06:13.880 this is worth my time. As we've matured as a business, 0:06:15.000 --> 0:06:18.520 we've been able to use our proprietary data to show, 0:06:18.920 --> 0:06:21.120 you know, talent at different price points. Here's how you're 0:06:21.160 --> 0:06:26.479 converting at fifty dollars versus seventy five vere. Here's how 0:06:26.520 --> 0:06:29.960 you're you're doing in comparison to other people who are similar, 0:06:30.000 --> 0:06:33.479 maybe other characters on the same show, or you know, 0:06:33.520 --> 0:06:36.400 if you're the star quarterback in one city, here's how 0:06:36.400 --> 0:06:39.200 the star quarterbacks in another city is doing. So in 0:06:39.240 --> 0:06:42.360 many ways, like our marketplace is starting to mature, and 0:06:42.360 --> 0:06:45.440 it's it's almost becoming like a zillo, right, It's almost 0:06:45.480 --> 0:06:48.120 becoming a place where people are coming on and looking 0:06:48.160 --> 0:06:51.640 for relative value. So they'll they'll they'll look for a 0:06:51.720 --> 0:06:54.039 group of people and they'll find the one that they 0:06:54.080 --> 0:06:56.839 perceive has the best value as opposed to you're just 0:06:56.920 --> 0:07:00.040 going for one person. So like I'm worth more in 0:07:00.160 --> 0:07:04.440 Lindsay Lohan or something, a really good example. I'm a 0:07:04.520 --> 0:07:07.360 I'm a die hard Chicago Bears fan and two of 0:07:07.400 --> 0:07:10.200 my favorite all time Bears players or Lance Spriggs and 0:07:10.240 --> 0:07:14.720 Brian or Lacker, they were almost equal players. They're both 0:07:14.840 --> 0:07:17.920 you know, star star linebackers for the Bears one War 0:07:18.200 --> 0:07:21.960 number fifty five, one War War number fifty four. Lance 0:07:21.960 --> 0:07:25.840 Spriggs is fifty five dollars. Brian or Lacker is five dollars. 0:07:26.080 --> 0:07:29.080 You must really love Brian er Lacker to justify thing 0:07:29.360 --> 0:07:31.720 ten x uh, you know, for his for his rate. 0:07:32.360 --> 0:07:34.600 But but that just gives you a sense of of 0:07:34.600 --> 0:07:40.120 how our consumers shop and what the psychology is behind it. Interesting. Okay, 0:07:40.160 --> 0:07:42.800 So this range is from maybe five to ten bucks 0:07:42.880 --> 0:07:45.720 for some people, all the way up to couple of 0:07:45.720 --> 0:07:49.760 thousand or what is the range exactly? Yeah, the at 0:07:49.760 --> 0:07:51.800 the low and people are free, I mean there there 0:07:51.840 --> 0:07:54.880 are some people on cameo that are zero dollars um. 0:07:55.160 --> 0:07:59.160 At the high end, the most expensive can be you know, 0:07:59.280 --> 0:08:03.240 multiple thousands of dollars um. Today, the average price of 0:08:03.320 --> 0:08:06.120 cameos is seventy dollars. So it's actually a lot more 0:08:06.160 --> 0:08:09.280 affordable than most people would expect. And that's and that 0:08:09.400 --> 0:08:13.600 increased last year by about I think yeah, And and frankly, 0:08:13.640 --> 0:08:16.240 we've seen it increase, you know, year over year by 0:08:16.240 --> 0:08:20.120 a similar range. Since we started in seventeen, which is 0:08:20.160 --> 0:08:22.760 our first year in business. The average price was twenty bucks, 0:08:23.040 --> 0:08:26.080 it was forty bucks and eighteen, it was sixty bucks 0:08:26.080 --> 0:08:28.520 in nineteen and you know, in an increase to seventy 0:08:28.560 --> 0:08:31.800 bucks last year. Part of it, again, this was a 0:08:31.840 --> 0:08:34.960 completely new marketplace, so nobody knew what something like this 0:08:35.000 --> 0:08:37.840 should cost. When we launched, we were selling videos for 0:08:37.920 --> 0:08:40.720 one dollar or two dollars, three dollars, and at that price, 0:08:40.760 --> 0:08:42.760 people are saying, this was the best dollar I've I've 0:08:42.800 --> 0:08:44.959 ever spent, and this was the best two dollars I've 0:08:44.960 --> 0:08:47.840 ever spent. And then as you know, Cameo has become 0:08:48.520 --> 0:08:52.360 you know, more widely known, and you know, more talent 0:08:52.440 --> 0:08:54.400 er on it of a higher caliber that the price 0:08:54.440 --> 0:08:57.760 has naturally gone up because consumers understand what they're getting 0:08:57.760 --> 0:08:59.920 and have a good idea of what the value is. 0:09:00.040 --> 0:09:01.880 Fees to be some other things that they could get 0:09:01.920 --> 0:09:05.800 from talent. Okay, so how do you look at the 0:09:05.840 --> 0:09:10.320 competitive landscape here, Stephen? I mean, there's nobody that quite 0:09:10.320 --> 0:09:12.360 does what you do. But I mean, are you competing 0:09:12.400 --> 0:09:17.720 with you know, Twitter, Instagram? Are you competing with only fans? 0:09:17.800 --> 0:09:20.640 I'm kind of joking about that, but how do you 0:09:20.679 --> 0:09:25.679 see other people responding to you know, your audio marketplace. 0:09:27.440 --> 0:09:30.920 One of the things that um I've been thinking a 0:09:30.960 --> 0:09:34.800 lot about over the past four years is this widening 0:09:34.840 --> 0:09:37.920 gap that's happening in all forms of the entertainment world 0:09:38.000 --> 0:09:41.880 between fame and monetization. So today there are more famous 0:09:41.880 --> 0:09:44.559 people on Earth now than there ever had been because 0:09:44.559 --> 0:09:48.120 of social media, because Netflix is putting twenty billion dollars 0:09:48.120 --> 0:09:50.440 in content a year. And you know, if we had 0:09:50.440 --> 0:09:52.719 had this interview a week a year ago, none of 0:09:52.760 --> 0:09:56.120 us would have known who Carol Baskin is andresotic and 0:09:56.160 --> 0:09:58.960 now you know, everyone on Earth knows who they are. Right. 0:09:58.960 --> 0:10:02.240 There's Carol bask and was like the sixth most popular 0:10:02.360 --> 0:10:05.960 talent on Cameo last year, right, Right, So again we 0:10:06.000 --> 0:10:08.080 have tens of thousands of talent and a year ago 0:10:08.120 --> 0:10:10.640 nobody knew who she was, and today you know, she's 0:10:10.640 --> 0:10:13.000 a top ten person in the world on Cameo. Right. 0:10:13.040 --> 0:10:15.680 So the whole point is that the amount of fame 0:10:15.760 --> 0:10:19.359 on Earth is exponentially increasing, but the business model supporting 0:10:19.440 --> 0:10:22.880 fame is growing linearly. So what's happening is for the 0:10:22.920 --> 0:10:26.760 average talent, there's a widening gap between fame and monetization, 0:10:27.120 --> 0:10:30.200 and the underlying business models are only working for the 0:10:30.200 --> 0:10:33.640 top like you know, point zero zero one percent, you know, 0:10:33.720 --> 0:10:37.280 the true A plus listers. So if you look at YouTube, 0:10:37.280 --> 0:10:40.480 the top three percent of creators make percent of all 0:10:40.520 --> 0:10:43.360 the ad revenue. There's people with tens of millions of 0:10:43.400 --> 0:10:46.440 followers who you know, your kids love or your nephews 0:10:46.480 --> 0:10:49.600 love that, uh that you know you've never heard of, 0:10:49.679 --> 0:10:52.280 but like, they make no money on YouTube. Essentially they 0:10:52.280 --> 0:10:55.800 have to monetize otherwise. Uh. If you're talking about sports, 0:10:55.840 --> 0:10:59.560 the top two percent athletes make of all the endorsement 0:11:00.040 --> 0:11:02.719 the new And there was a documentary ESPN did a 0:11:02.800 --> 0:11:06.439 couple of years called Broke that said of NFL players 0:11:06.480 --> 0:11:10.040 go broke five years after playing their last game. For Spotify, 0:11:10.120 --> 0:11:14.439 the top one percent of artists make of all the 0:11:14.480 --> 0:11:17.560 streaming revenues. So artists are having to sell merch, they're 0:11:17.559 --> 0:11:20.000 having to do meeting greets when they're touring, they're having 0:11:20.000 --> 0:11:22.720 to go on tour um and you know, in in 0:11:22.800 --> 0:11:25.679 the Screen Actors Guild in the best of times, one 0:11:25.679 --> 0:11:28.319 of the oldest memes of Hollywood is the outer work 0:11:28.360 --> 0:11:32.400 actress or actor who's bartending or waiting tables between getting 0:11:32.440 --> 0:11:35.360 casted in something. But those people can now go on YouTube, 0:11:35.400 --> 0:11:37.840 they can go on TikTok, and you know, those that 0:11:37.920 --> 0:11:40.840 have great talent can actually go and find ways to 0:11:40.880 --> 0:11:43.760 blow up without being cast in anything. So when you're 0:11:43.800 --> 0:11:46.360 looking at this, there's now fifty million people on Earth 0:11:46.400 --> 0:11:49.960 who consider themselves creators and the pipeline is big. One 0:11:49.960 --> 0:11:52.719 third of American teens hope to be an influencer when 0:11:52.760 --> 0:11:56.000 they grow up. So there's continued stress on this. And 0:11:56.360 --> 0:11:59.880 when you look at the legacy business models and music 0:12:00.040 --> 0:12:03.600 and entertainment, the solution here is not coming from the 0:12:03.600 --> 0:12:06.960 record labels. It's not coming from the movie studios. Everybody 0:12:07.040 --> 0:12:09.720 is under siege. You think about sports um, you know 0:12:10.000 --> 0:12:13.400 ESPN struggling because people are cutting cable and when you 0:12:13.400 --> 0:12:16.840 when you think about all these things, the only solution 0:12:16.960 --> 0:12:20.200 to fixing this long term, a world where there's more 0:12:20.240 --> 0:12:22.760 famous people, people are more famous than they are rich, 0:12:22.920 --> 0:12:26.960 is by going direct to fan for monetization. So I 0:12:27.000 --> 0:12:31.440 think Cameo is the leader in direct to fan monetization. Uh, 0:12:31.520 --> 0:12:34.360 this space is white hot, it's a huge space. There 0:12:34.400 --> 0:12:37.640 will be many big companies Cameo included, that are built 0:12:37.640 --> 0:12:40.200 out of this um. And you know, you you talked 0:12:40.240 --> 0:12:43.400 about business like only fans that's helping go direct to 0:12:43.440 --> 0:12:47.080 fan monetization for the adult sector. Uh, there's businesses like 0:12:47.120 --> 0:12:52.280 Patreon who are doing direct to fan monetization for artists 0:12:52.280 --> 0:12:56.120 and podcasters. Sub Stack is doing this for journalists. Right, 0:12:56.160 --> 0:12:59.400 So there's a variety of companies in this space and 0:12:59.440 --> 0:13:02.440 it's extreme, really interesting and we've never looked at Twitter 0:13:02.679 --> 0:13:06.880 or Instagram or snapchatter or clubhouse or anything is competitive 0:13:07.280 --> 0:13:11.880 because ultimately talent get famous on those platforms and it's 0:13:11.880 --> 0:13:14.959 on Cameo that they come to get paid to become 0:13:15.000 --> 0:13:17.640 more famous and more beloved. So in many ways, the 0:13:17.679 --> 0:13:21.120 other platforms are the farm system for Cameo. And you 0:13:21.160 --> 0:13:24.240 know we you know we benefit from a system where 0:13:24.240 --> 0:13:27.560 more people, more famous people are being created every day. 0:13:28.080 --> 0:13:32.440 So what share? What is the revenue share that you 0:13:33.120 --> 0:13:35.600 provide with the talent? Does it depend? Is it arrange? 0:13:36.400 --> 0:13:39.720 Every single talent is on the exact same financial split. 0:13:40.280 --> 0:13:45.520 It's a split talents way. Um, every person is on 0:13:45.559 --> 0:13:49.400 the same deal. We've never deviated for anybody. Um, we've 0:13:49.400 --> 0:13:52.320 never given a minimum guarantee, we've never paid anyone to 0:13:52.320 --> 0:13:54.880 come on Cameo, and we've never given equity for anyone 0:13:54.960 --> 0:13:57.640 to join the platform. So everyone's on the same deal. 0:13:58.040 --> 0:14:00.439 And we think that's uh, that was a huge part 0:14:00.480 --> 0:14:05.240 of building a fair ubiquitous platform. Oah uh, So let's 0:14:05.320 --> 0:14:11.240 talk about who are the successful people on cameo really 0:14:11.280 --> 0:14:14.360 making making a mid here, you know, and I've got 0:14:14.400 --> 0:14:18.640 the top ten list of top performing talent of number 0:14:18.640 --> 0:14:24.360 one Brian Brian bowmen Garten, sorry, Brian bowen Gardner, who 0:14:24.400 --> 0:14:29.080 was Kevin from the Office, right, Yeah, then you've bred Farve, 0:14:29.840 --> 0:14:35.680 uh Snoop Doug, Gilbert Gottfried, Chris Harrison of The Bachelor, um, 0:14:35.800 --> 0:14:40.720 and the aforementioned Carol Baskin from Tiger King. What's common 0:14:41.360 --> 0:14:44.280 among the people who perform really well? Besides you know, 0:14:44.760 --> 0:14:50.080 they're hard working and put in put in the elbow grease. Here. 0:14:51.080 --> 0:14:55.600 The the thing that characterizes talent who are really successful 0:14:55.640 --> 0:14:59.840 on cameo, I think is a couple of things. Number One, 0:15:00.200 --> 0:15:04.080 they have to have a big, authentic personality. So if 0:15:04.080 --> 0:15:07.040 you're looking at someone like uh, you know, Big Ed 0:15:07.200 --> 0:15:10.160 from ninety Day Fiance, who is one of the top 0:15:10.200 --> 0:15:15.000 ten cameo talent this year, or um, someone like Gilbert 0:15:15.000 --> 0:15:18.280 God for your Snoop dog like, these are big personalities 0:15:18.360 --> 0:15:21.000 who um you know, tend to be really funny. We 0:15:21.040 --> 0:15:24.280 find that people that are funny tend to be the 0:15:24.320 --> 0:15:27.200 best people who are great at ad living um. And 0:15:27.280 --> 0:15:29.240 the thing that's interesting, if you look at our top 0:15:29.320 --> 0:15:33.280 ten most you know booked people on cameo, it is 0:15:33.320 --> 0:15:36.080 not a representation of the top ten most famous people 0:15:36.080 --> 0:15:40.400 on cameo. So it's interesting. Just like Snapchat, you know, 0:15:40.440 --> 0:15:43.400 made DJ Khalid kind of this huge star, but you know, 0:15:43.440 --> 0:15:45.760 he's not the biggest person in the world on Instagram 0:15:46.080 --> 0:15:48.880 or on Instagram. You know, Kylie Jenner and and Kim 0:15:48.960 --> 0:15:51.240 Kardashian are like the biggest people on earth, but they're 0:15:51.240 --> 0:15:54.080 not the biggest people on Twitter. That was Ashton Kutcher 0:15:54.080 --> 0:15:57.920 and shocked back in the day. Every platform has their 0:15:58.000 --> 0:16:01.760 stars that are become emerge and breakout stars. They're all famous, 0:16:01.800 --> 0:16:05.320 but it takes something special, uh, you know, for them 0:16:05.320 --> 0:16:08.200 and and and for us, it's people who are authentic, 0:16:08.520 --> 0:16:12.080 people who really love their fans, people who make pretty 0:16:12.080 --> 0:16:15.080 funny videos. That that's that tends to be what we 0:16:15.240 --> 0:16:19.600 found makes people most successful in CanYa. Okay, so you 0:16:19.680 --> 0:16:22.360 probably have some whales that you'd like to get here, right, Like, 0:16:22.400 --> 0:16:28.280 I mean, Taylor Swift, I don't know um, Frank Ocean 0:16:28.320 --> 0:16:32.280 people like that. Right, There are five million people on 0:16:32.320 --> 0:16:33.840 Earth we think can be on this, and we have 0:16:33.880 --> 0:16:36.800 tens of thousands, so you know, we we could spend 0:16:36.840 --> 0:16:40.040 like the entire UH podcast talking about all the people 0:16:40.080 --> 0:16:42.200 we want to get on Cameo, and it's really not 0:16:42.240 --> 0:16:44.320 even that we want them. We want to make our 0:16:44.320 --> 0:16:47.000 fans happy. So we know every day who people are 0:16:47.000 --> 0:16:50.360 searching for, and our team, you know, has been working 0:16:50.440 --> 0:16:52.920 hard over the last four years to take a look 0:16:52.920 --> 0:16:56.560 at the aggregate search results and get people on that 0:16:56.160 --> 0:16:59.560 UM that the fans are demanding. And that's that's that's 0:16:59.560 --> 0:17:02.200 why we exist to to do, you know, to get 0:17:02.200 --> 0:17:05.000 these people on the platform so we can make people smile, 0:17:05.080 --> 0:17:10.600 laugh and cry. We need to take a quick break, 0:17:10.680 --> 0:17:20.399 but we'll have more with Stephen right after this, and 0:17:20.480 --> 0:17:24.040 we're back with CAMEO CEO Stephen Glennis, let's back up 0:17:24.040 --> 0:17:26.719 a second. Let's go back if if you will, Stephen 0:17:26.800 --> 0:17:29.320 and give us kind of the short version of the 0:17:29.359 --> 0:17:33.720 origin story. How did this start? So? UM? My co 0:17:33.840 --> 0:17:37.080 founder Martin Uh, someone I've known for a while. We 0:17:37.080 --> 0:17:41.199 were producing movies and television shows together and UH and 0:17:41.200 --> 0:17:43.760 then I went to go work at LinkedIn um he 0:17:43.840 --> 0:17:46.040 went to go and be an NFL agent. We didn't 0:17:46.040 --> 0:17:47.760 see each other for a couple of years. He then 0:17:47.800 --> 0:17:51.439 flew into Chicago for my grandmother's funeral, and as I 0:17:51.520 --> 0:17:53.840 was driving him back to the airport, he was telling 0:17:53.840 --> 0:17:56.040 me about a problem he was having as an NFL 0:17:56.080 --> 0:17:58.280 agent who was wrapping one person who was in a 0:17:58.359 --> 0:18:02.399 superstar the player his name was Cassius Marsha the Seattle Seahawks. 0:18:02.760 --> 0:18:06.040 Martin had high conviction because the guy had a big personality, 0:18:06.119 --> 0:18:09.000 that maybe this guy could become the next rock, you know, 0:18:09.080 --> 0:18:11.919 Let's get him in television shows, Let's get him in movies, 0:18:12.200 --> 0:18:14.760 Let's get him endorsement deals. And I had never heard 0:18:14.800 --> 0:18:17.040 of him, and I asked Martin, like, show me who 0:18:17.080 --> 0:18:18.520 he is. And he pulled out his phone and he 0:18:18.680 --> 0:18:21.199 played a video that today we called the first Cameo. 0:18:21.560 --> 0:18:26.239 And in the video, Martin had Cassius marsh congratulate his 0:18:26.240 --> 0:18:28.439 good buddy Brandon, who at the time was working at 0:18:28.520 --> 0:18:31.480 Nike with a lot of big famous athletes, but loves 0:18:31.480 --> 0:18:35.800 the Seattle Seahawks. And he congratulated Brandon. I'm becoming a father, 0:18:36.320 --> 0:18:39.399 so he hits play. Cassius is not wearing a shirt. 0:18:39.440 --> 0:18:42.440 He's in southern California. He's all tatted up, he's got 0:18:42.440 --> 0:18:45.320 a flat brimmed tat on and he's making the video 0:18:45.320 --> 0:18:49.320 while driving and he goes, you know, he goes, hey, Brandon, 0:18:49.320 --> 0:18:53.760 it's Cassius marsh from the Seahawks. Heard about your son, Maverick. Congratulations. 0:18:53.800 --> 0:18:56.159 If he gets your athletic ability, he'll be playing for 0:18:56.160 --> 0:18:59.080 the Seahawks one day. Go Hawks. It was like a 0:18:59.200 --> 0:19:01.959 five you know, I have six second video, but it 0:19:02.040 --> 0:19:04.679 was so striking and immediately as he showed it to me, 0:19:05.040 --> 0:19:09.280 the lightbulb moment, you know, hit and and I was like, Martin, 0:19:09.359 --> 0:19:11.440 we need we need to sell that, Like I feel 0:19:11.440 --> 0:19:14.680 like people would want that. So immediately we had pretty 0:19:14.720 --> 0:19:18.240 high conviction that people would want this if talent were 0:19:18.280 --> 0:19:20.520 willing to do them at scale. And that was the 0:19:20.520 --> 0:19:23.520 big question. And as we started to talk to you know, 0:19:23.600 --> 0:19:26.480 pro athletes we knew, or actors we knew, we kept 0:19:26.480 --> 0:19:28.400 hearing that like, oh, yeah, I did one of these 0:19:28.440 --> 0:19:32.080 for my agents. You know son's bar Mitzvah right, or uh, 0:19:32.320 --> 0:19:34.080 you know I did one of these for to pump 0:19:34.200 --> 0:19:37.040 up my the football team in my old high school. 0:19:37.200 --> 0:19:41.480 So we are for people who were kind of in 0:19:41.520 --> 0:19:44.600 the inner circle. And we really felt like if we 0:19:44.680 --> 0:19:47.720 created a marketplace that was lifting the red velvet rope 0:19:47.760 --> 0:19:50.840 and and bringing people in, talent would be able to 0:19:50.880 --> 0:19:53.399 engage with way more of their fans than they do today. 0:19:53.440 --> 0:19:56.760 Because you know, in many worlds, like in this world 0:19:56.840 --> 0:20:00.240 of social uh, everyone wants to engage with their fans more, 0:20:00.280 --> 0:20:02.639 but you know, it can be really dangerous letting you know, 0:20:02.680 --> 0:20:07.080 people into closely. So this gave talent the opportunity to 0:20:07.119 --> 0:20:10.200 come and, you know, and delight their fans on their 0:20:10.200 --> 0:20:13.040 own schedule. And for the fans side, I mean, you've 0:20:13.040 --> 0:20:15.560 seen many famous people, I'm sure with your job, and 0:20:15.600 --> 0:20:17.520 how often are you in a restaurant and you see 0:20:17.520 --> 0:20:20.159 someone you really admire and you're like nervous to go 0:20:20.280 --> 0:20:22.280 up to them, right and and if you do, they 0:20:22.359 --> 0:20:25.280 might be mean to you. So like this actually or 0:20:25.480 --> 0:20:26.800 or when you do talk to them, a lot of 0:20:26.800 --> 0:20:30.280 times people get starstruck, they fumble their words. So this actually, 0:20:30.280 --> 0:20:33.280 on the fans side, is a more safe and enjoyable 0:20:33.720 --> 0:20:36.280 way to interact with the talent because that nervous factors 0:20:36.320 --> 0:20:38.360 out as well. So we just found it worked really 0:20:38.400 --> 0:20:42.440 well on both sides. That's an interesting psychological sort of 0:20:42.520 --> 0:20:47.360 human nature porn. UM. I have to ask you this, right. 0:20:47.400 --> 0:20:52.200 You recently had a story Lindsay Lohan asked UH, a 0:20:52.200 --> 0:20:55.720 fan who had ordered a video from her to take 0:20:55.760 --> 0:21:00.760 it down, UM from social media? How does that happen? 0:21:00.800 --> 0:21:04.720 And UM, you know, is this just a UM, you know, 0:21:04.760 --> 0:21:08.399 an attribute of UM you know, people getting used to 0:21:08.440 --> 0:21:12.520 this whole concept or I mean again, we've done one 0:21:12.600 --> 0:21:17.320 point six million cameos since we started. I don't I 0:21:17.320 --> 0:21:19.119 don't even think I could count on one hand the 0:21:19.119 --> 0:21:21.919 amount of times that we've you know, we've seen that 0:21:22.240 --> 0:21:24.960 typically it's not because the video is inappropriate, like in 0:21:25.000 --> 0:21:28.520 this case, it wasn't. UM. I I believe in this case, 0:21:29.119 --> 0:21:32.400 Lindsay was giving this this girl motivation to come out 0:21:32.440 --> 0:21:35.400 to her parents. UM. And you know, then she made 0:21:35.400 --> 0:21:37.879 a TikTok compilation of it, and you know, and it 0:21:38.240 --> 0:21:40.320 went viral. It was a great moment. And I'm sure 0:21:40.359 --> 0:21:43.399 in Lindsay's mind this was something that was probably like 0:21:43.520 --> 0:21:46.560 best for the person that it was intended to, and 0:21:46.560 --> 0:21:49.080 and and people in the immediate factor. But you know, 0:21:49.119 --> 0:21:52.080 it went on TikTok, it went hyper viral, which look 0:21:52.760 --> 0:21:54.600 percent of the time, like the talent love when the 0:21:54.680 --> 0:21:57.800 videos go viral, UM, and and the fans love it too. 0:21:58.000 --> 0:21:59.560 So this was just a case where I think she 0:21:59.680 --> 0:22:02.560 felt this was like a very personal moment and UM 0:22:02.560 --> 0:22:04.520 and it went out. But this has not been a 0:22:04.560 --> 0:22:08.119 problem at any type of scale for us. Okay, UM, 0:22:08.240 --> 0:22:11.359 now you you mentioned, uh were you alluded to some 0:22:11.400 --> 0:22:14.480 newer products that are coming in. You've got something called 0:22:14.520 --> 0:22:22.560 Cameo Direct let's you chat directly with UM your favorite celebrity. UM. 0:22:22.640 --> 0:22:27.440 And you've got Cameo Live, which is like a fifteen 0:22:27.440 --> 0:22:32.240 minute zoom call. What what's been the traction there and 0:22:33.160 --> 0:22:35.760 what do you need UM to do on that front 0:22:35.760 --> 0:22:41.280 too to get that into you know, the mainstream product pipeline. Yeah, 0:22:41.280 --> 0:22:43.639 so both of these were new products that we launched 0:22:43.760 --> 0:22:47.080 last year. UM. You know, messaging is something that we 0:22:47.119 --> 0:22:50.080 think is really important to the future of Cameo when 0:22:50.080 --> 0:22:53.199 you look at other social networks, whether it's Instagram or 0:22:53.200 --> 0:22:56.639 Twitter or LinkedIn, where I used to work, UM, you know, 0:22:56.680 --> 0:22:58.760