12: Celebrity Culture, Platform Brands and Parasocial Relationships

When Steven Galanis and his cofounders launched Cameo in 2016, they noticed two things happening in the celebrity landscape: 1) fame itself has blown up, with more celebrities existing than in any other time in history, and 2) that these celebrities collectively enjoy more fame than their counterparts in the past. The overall mass of celebrity is increasing, and Cameo was built as a marketplace to give that celebrity mass more efficiency in reaching its fan base, and of course, monetizing it. 

As Cameo approaches its millionth video made, the company has unlocked an enormous well of unmet demand, and become one of the fastest growing marketplaces in the US.

In this episode, we speak with Cameo’s cofounder Steven Galanis about the cultural drivers that make a company like this possible during a time like now, and how he made some very specific decisions in positioning and branding that have started to pay off.

We also speak with sociologist and author Chris Rojek about how the nature of celebrity culture has changed over recent years, spawning the modern lifestyle influencer and a culture of self-disclosure that provides this new figure with their audience. 

We also discuss Rojek’s research on parasocial relationships and “presumed intimacy” in order to understand what is happening in the space and the emotional layer of celebrity-fan relationships that drives our behavior. 

Links to interesting things mentioned in this episode and further reading:

• How Cameo Turned D-List Celebs Into a Monetization Machine (Marker) 
• Cameo Is Weirder Than Anyone Expected (The Atlantic)
• Fame Attack (Chris Rojek)
• The Belle Gibson scandal: The rise of lifestyle gurus as micro-celebrities in low-trust societies (CityLibrary, University of London)
• Miquela, the Uncanny CGI Virtual Influencer, Signs With CAA (Variety)
• The a16z Maretplace 100 (Andreessen Horowitz)

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