I paid an athlete $ 120 to send me a personalized video

Some cheaper names include retired Tegan Philip Tegan Philip ($ 22), Australian NFL Punter Arryn Siport ($ 28) and Melbourne Storm Player Nick Meaney ($ 55). Roth says that Swysh staff work with a celebrity to find the rate that best suits them.

“In the end it depends on talent (how much they load),” says Roth. “To be honest, when we started, we were absolutely guessing what the market would pay … in the end we understood where some profiles of the athletes had to sit on the basis of the question and offer.”

The athletes get 50 % of the video tax, while at least 10 % are donated to one of the company’s charms of chosen organizations. After taking into account the costs, Swysh collects about 30 %.

The former AFL Trent Cotchin player, who led Richmond to three Premiership trophies, was on the platform since September 2021 and recorded almost 500 cries. Call Swysh a great commercial opportunity for players, providing some a flow of extra income, despite being able to return charity donations.

While the growth of social media has allowed fans to keep up to date with their favorite players, personalized videos bring a new level of intimacy, says Cotchin.

“People really thrive on that feeling of personal connection, which you often can’t experience so much.”

Gayle Stever, professor of psychology at the Empire State College in New York, specializes in this interaction between celebrities and fans. He says that the videos sent by celebrities are an example of a parasocial relationship, in which someone is familiar with a person who does not know them.

Compare the feeling of watching a late night talk show on television. “(The guest) is talking to people as if they were interacting. Except that they are not. He doesn’t really know they are at home watching. He’s talking to the public, but I personalize him psychologically,” he says.

Just like interactive social media such as Twitter or Facebook allowed fans to connect with their idols in the mid -2000s, personalized video services created a new form of interaction.

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“It is really exciting for a minute that you just received this video, and it is this person whose work admires, or that it is famous you like … it’s a bit of a buzz,” says Stever.

Perhaps for this reason, there is a global market for personalized celebrity videos. International companies include Memmo and Hi-Ya, while the Australian Business Pickstar also offers “screaming video” from celebrities.

But the largest name in the sector is the cameo of the American company. CEO and co-founder Steven Galanis says that the company began in 2017 with the idea that “Selfie was the new autograph”.

“We wanted to find that thing that could be that magical moment … basically to make the memorabilia even more experiential,” says Galanis.

Although they are not the first people to try to build a business around the idea, Galanis attributes the success of his team to the rise of a new type of celebrity: people who “were more famous than rich”.

“No brand (were) giving them business. (They weren’t) able to make money,” says Galanis. “We have always thought that direct monetization to the fan would be the way to go to solve this problem … and (the personalized videos) required the least possible time of time of talent.”

Nikki Blonsky, who played the main character in the famous music film of 2007, HairsprayHe is experiencing a viral moment after some of his video cameo messages have been shared on social media.

Providing the fans with a way to connect with their favorite famous people has proved to be a profitable company.

Or as Galanis says: “They listen to someone who have always admired and loved, and it is literally the greatest moment of their lives … it is basically so that our affairs have arrived”.

Once a cameo was considered a unicorn start-up in the US market-a private company worth more than $ 1 billion-nourished by the pandemic popularity of Covid-19 and an influx of stars that join the platform.

But the excessive and expansion troubles led to a slowdown in income. In July 2024, he found the office of the State Prosecutor General of New York Cameo was unable to implement the measures To ensure that the videos of the celebrities have been correctly disclosed as paid sponsorships. They were fined of $ 159,000.

When the cameo began, the talent could join the platform only after an invitation from the staff, a postponement of another celebrity or through an application. It was a monitored process that included a mandatory presence on social media (those with less than 25,000 followers could not register, says Galanis).

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But now many names on the cameo are not familiar. The group is an exclusive time to be enlarged to take into account successful stories during the night, such as people who become virals online or get popularity in a new reality-TV show.

“There were over 100,000 people who had applied to unite that we had not let it enter … We realized that it was really missing talent at the beginning of their growth trajectory. And about 18 months ago, we opened it widely, so now anyone in the world can have a cameo account”, says Galanis.

Cameo has a global presence and claims to have sold videos in 235 different countries (an impressive number, considering that the United Nations recognizes only 195). But Swysh’s Roth has no global expansion ambitions that he would compete with Galanis.

“I saw a part of that trip and I saw what it takes to make a beast of a company like that … (the founders of Afterpay) have really lived and breathed that company. They really tried to always do things in the right way, despite being aggressive in their approach,” says Roth.

“In Swysh, we work hard and the small victories still motivate us … it is not the money or a potential exit that pushes me day after day.”

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He sees the strength of the company as his ability to connect Australian Fans with their favorite athletes, while supporting important beneficial organizations. Since 2019 they have given over $ 1.3 million to partners including Movember and the Starlight Children’s Foundation.

“In the end, we are an activity of gifts with over 90 % of our purchases purchased for other people. So you don’t have to be a sports lover … You just have to know one,” says Roth.

“I felt as if I knew what it would have worked for the fan because I am one … it is authentic. There is no artificial intelligence. It’s real.”

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