A Chicago-based startup, Cameo, is offering customers personalised video messages from a suite of 1400 athletes, reality stars and YouTube talent. For a fee, customers can choose a familiar face from Cameo’s roster to deliver birthday wishes or congratulations to their friends and family. An iOS app is launching April 27.
Celebrities choose their own prices, starting at $US20 ($26) and going up to $US200 ($257). The highest star? Basketball star and unofficial North Korean ambassador Dennis Rodman.
“Marc and Megan, heard you guys were getting married,” Rodman snarls in one of the videos. “If so, congratulations. Where’s my invite? Where’s my invite, shit!”
Clearly worth the money. They aren’t all perfect, however. One client, for example, booked a Real Housewife star to send well wishes to a friend beginning chemotherapy treatments. “Very bummed,” the review read. “It was very generic and didn’t even use her name. I feel like she could use this for anyone going through breast cancer.”
According to The Chicago Tribune, Cameo takes a 25 per cent cut. Since launching last February, Cameo says it has sold 26,000 shout outs, all catered to people excited about familiar (and affordable) faces sending their best.
“Our goal is really to help the 99 per cent of talent monetise,” founder Steven Galanis told the Tribune. “We think the Kardashians and the Drakes of the world, they have so many outlets to make money and to engage with their fans, that this is just a great outlet for everybody else to boost their reach.”
[Tube Filter via Chicago Tribune]