Cashing in on fame: Celebrity shoutout apps strike the right chord

The lockdown-induced boredom has worked in favour of this space that is hotting up in India

Imagine badminton star Saina Nehwal, singer Salim Merchant, actors Sanya Malhotra, Rajpal Yadav, Sharman Joshi, and even Prem Chopra sending personalised video greetings or getting on a video call for you, your friends or family to celebrate a special day. Yes, that is exactly what celebrity shoutout platforms facilitate.

Though interactions with numerous social media platforms movie or TV personalities, and sportspersons have increased like never before, fans still feel the disconnect. The lockdown-induced boredom has worked in favour of this space that is hotting up in India.

Tring, Wysh, and Unlu are some of the prominent celebrity shoutout apps. Personalised video messages, text-based messages from celebrities’ verified social media handles, and live interactive sessions are the primary models through which interactions happen.

Mahesh Gogineni, co-founder of Wysh, said: “We witnessed a need for two-way interactions from a fan's standpoint as their direct messages to stars on social media platforms almost always go unnoticed. From a celebrity standpoint, despite a strong social media presence, there are no monetisation avenues.”

The model has taken the West by storm. Cameo, a Us-based app launched in 2017, has roped in 30,000 celebrities. The apps have also created monetisation avenues for celebrities who had been off the limelight.

But, what is driving the demand in India? Akshay Saini, co-founder of Mumbai-based Tring, said: “Humans enjoy social validation — something that gives us the edge over our neighbours or friends. Celebrity engagement is a permanent memory. The video is stored in phones or hard drives forever."

Himanshu Periwal, co-founder of Unlu, said: "Fans give demigod status to celebrities. This could be the only access to celebrities and stardom in tier-2 and 3 cities and smaller towns, where even daily soap actors have huge following. Right now, the bookings share (of smaller cities) is about 50 per cent, but we expect it to go as high as 70 per cent."

Tring has onboarded over 2,000 celebrities. The offerings start at ~99 and go up to ~40,000. The company usually asks for a week to process a request.

Tring also claims to have two unique products — one-on-one Q&A, and live sessions where a celebrity can host a special session of 20-25 fans on a topic of their choice, like yoga or cooking. "We are also working with two other types of engagement products that will be rolled out in the coming weeks. With orders increasing each day, we work on a warfooting basis in this space," Saini said.

The company raised an undisclosed sum in May from a clutch of investors that included Flipkart's Kalyan Krishnamurthy and Unacademy's Gaurav Munjal.

Wysh, with over 600 stars, claims to be the oldest Indian player in space in India. It started test operations in April last year with a few Telugu celebrities. "South is definitely our strong point, as we have Telugu and Kannada stars, and we will launch Malayalam celebrities, too, this week," said Mahesh.

Unlu, meanwhile, went live in the first week of July. "We want to focus on A and A+ category celebrities, which is our unique selling point. The average followers of celebrities on our platform is 1 million. We have been doubling in terms of revenue every week since the launch," Periwal said.

Unlu has over 500 celebrities and around 100 celebrities for personal live video calling feature that it is going to be launched this week. Most of the celebrities charge ~4,000 to ~12,000 for interactions. Unlu claims that 99 per cent of its requests are catered within 24 hours.

Corporates and consumer facingbrands such as Bookmyshow and Flipkart, too, have joined hands with these celebrity shoutout platforms to either run digital campaigns on social media or to boost the morale of employees by indulging in live sessions.

Wysh has received 300-400 requests in the past couple of weeks from small and medium enterprises to endorse their textile shops and restaurants in smaller cities like Jabalpur and Jodhpur.

Periwal said at Unlu, the cost at their platform is “one-tenth” compared to what a normal brand endorsement or an ad shoot costs. “We have done digital promotions for local mom-and-pop stores to start-ups where businesses have become brands overnight,” Periwal said.