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Use Cameo for dev focused marketing

Recently, we used a Cameo for a developer focused announcement. If you are not familiar with this service, it lets you request a short video from an actor. You send the actor your idea, pay them, they send you the video, and you can use it for a limited number of purposes. If you, or someone you know, has a favorite actor, it can make for a real fun birthday message. But it also is fun for marketing messages and can help you stand out from the crowd.

My experience below is based on one business Cameo. We plan to do more, so there may be updates.

Why consider a Cameo

It is still relatively unique. I’ve seen a few celebrity endorsements of technical products via Cameo, but not that many. This means that it stands out in a fun way. Using Cameo also gets you easy access to a famous or semi-famous person. All you have to do is submit a form and pay some dollars. Compare this to any kind of commercial, which may involve a casting director, ad agency and other parties.

It also is relatively cheap. I looked at a few actors and none cost more than $2000 for commercial usage (more about that below). While this isn’t cheap, I also saw actors for a couple hundred bucks. We ended up choosing an actor who worked for $500.

Note that a Cameo is a pure brand marketing play. It is fun for shock or surprise value, rather than a CTA. It’s unlikely you’ll get deep technical analysis as well. This playful nature fit with our brand, but make sure it fits with yours.

How it works

You can check out the Cameo site FAQs, but here’s how the process worked for me.

  • Browse actors and come up with a shortlist.
  • Filter out actors who won’t do commercial messages. (Some actors won’t, so check before you get excited.)
  • Decide on a topic to be covered.
  • Review licensing terms for commercial use.
  • Sign up for an account.
  • Put in a credit card.
  • Submit a request on the website. This was limited to 250 characters. (Not 250 words. 250 characters. So the guidance was general.)
  • Install the application to get messaging. (The actor enabled free messaging so he could ask questions.)
  • Go back and forth with the actor and answer clarifying questions, maybe 2 rounds of qs. This had to be done on the Cameo app (boo!).
  • Accept the delivered video.
  • Promote and share it.

Note what wasn’t in there:

  • Any writing talent. I did talk to a number of writers and even selected one. However, after reviewing the constraints, we but mutually decided it didn’t make sense. There just isn’t a lot of room for a complex story line or even a funny line or two. That’s probably why Cameo has the limit.
  • A specific story line. I was able to convey one message to the actor, but otherwise it was in his hands.
  • A lot of back and forth or workshopping. I think I talked about this internally for maybe 15 or 30 minutes and definitely had a good idea of what we wanted to cover. But other than some questions, it wasn’t super collaborative. And, to be honest, that was fine. I believe any actor on Cameo is funnier and knows more about speaking to the camera than I do.

I do wonder whether all the actors would have the same devotion to detail. As mentioned above, the actor enabled free messaging and really dug into the topic. Everyone who watched the video was delighted.

After it is delivered

After it is delivered, it’s time to promote. At the time we bought the Cameo, you could put it on one social media platform or your website for 30 days. We chose Twitter. Then I realized that the actor had recorded 5+ minutes. You aren’t allowed to edit the videos, and the maximum length of a Twitter video is 2:20. So we posted it on an unlisted Youtube link and shared that. Check out the current terms (search for Business CAMEO Videos).

I submitted it to a few online communities, shared in social networks and basically did any other kind of promotion you’d do with an interesting video. It was shared to several email lists and slacks as well. We also bought some traffic.

It didn’t go viral, but it got ~10x the usual number of retweets and interactions as our normal tweets do. It’s unclear if any business came from it.

What I wish we had done differently

  • Understood my limits earlier. I spent a lot of time talking to writers before I realized that 250 characters meant sending over an idea and trusting in the actor. Would have been less stressful to have known that earlier.
  • Be a bit more familiar with the actor. One of the best parts of the Cameo was made in response to an offhand request from a co-worker who was more familiar with their work than I was. I should have done a bit more research.
  • While I focused on the topic and asked the actor to do it in character, I should have included the following in my pitch:
    • How to pronounce the brand.
    • Whether or not I should be mentioned (I was, but that was unnecessary).
    • The optimal length of time (2:20).

At the end of the day, this is a fun alternative (or complement) to the normal boring press release. If you have a character which is in line with your brand or product usage, do check it out.