A Powerful Secret Weapon for Your Paid Media
In the never-ending battle for attention on the internet, we’ve uncovered a powerful combination:
Video + Celebrity.
For the past year, Masterworks has been buying videos for our clients using the Cameo for Business platform, then housing those videos in conversion ads in Meta.
These ads have raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for ministries and acquired thousands of new donors.
Here’s How it Works
Using Cameo for Business is easy.
Here are the four basic steps of using Cameo for Business in your paid media efforts:
Search for your celebrity endorser
Options are legion, but the search functionally on the platform is robust. Consider your organization, your current donor file, and your desired donor profile. Get creative with your search parameters. I do recommend doing research on your prospective talent off-platform. Cameo will provide a bit of information about the celebrity and their online reach but doesn’t often dive deep into a personal profile. You want to hire a celebrity that you’re proud to have endorse your brand. And also a celebrity who would be likely to fulfill the video request.
2. Choose your desired licensing window
The available licensing windows for Cameo for Business ads start at 15 days and increase in 15-day increments up to a maximum of 90 days. If an ad is performing well, even the 90-day license is often extendable for another 30 days. Cameo for Business has four components to their pricing:
The base price for the video, which is consistent regardless of the licensing window.
The licensing fee, which, no surprise, increases the larger the time horizon.
The service fee, paid to Cameo for the convenience of the platform.
Sales tax.
3. Submit your staging and messaging directions
You’ll be able to provide a bit of messaging and staging direction to the talent for videos. These include: background information about your organization, style and tone direction, talking points, required lines, and things to avoid. (An example on this last point: we provide wardrobe recommendations to a celebrity making a video on behalf of a prison ministry.)
We’ve used Cameo videos to promote evergreen offers and short-term campaigns. We’ve done them to promote matching grants and to invite general fund donations. We’ve used athletes, musicians, and local personalities.
4. Create Ads and Deploy
Once a video is ordered through the platform, celebrities have 7 days to deliver. Once a video is delivered, organizations have 30 days to activate the license on the video.
This gives ample time for you to consider your creative and targeting strategies for the video you’ve ordered. Make sure to wisely consider your interest targeting in Meta to take the greatest advantage of your chosen celebrity.
The Three Most Common Objections
These are the three most common objections to using Cameo for Business in your paid media program:
1. We already have a relationship with this celebrity!
By far the most common objection is that the ministry has a pre-existing relationship with a celebrity. While true, even celebrities with a historical tie to your organization have busy schedules and are hard to reach.
Cameo removes every barrier between you and the celebrity and delivers a usable marketing video in days. Our average time from submission of payment to receipt of video is less than 3 days.
Videos ordered through Cameo also retain a Cameo watermark in the lower corner of the video. This subtle touch lends a third-party credibility to your content that a homespun video could never have.
2. It’s so expensive!
While the hard cost of a video does add an expense to an already expensive paid media budget, we believe that the investment will pay off. Why? Because it’s paid off every time we’ve used it.
If expense is a major concern for your organization, start with a 30-day license and extend it if you see performance.
3. Wait! I can’t edit the video!?
No. The video is the video. No takebacks. No edits.
We have a couple of exceptions to this, such as using Cameo’s inbox communication tool to request another take of the video, but generally, Cameo for Business follows the same rule parents of toddlers deploy at dinnertime: you get what you get and you don’t throw a fit.
I’ll admit that this was my biggest objection when we started dipping our toes in this pool. But all fears have been alleviated as we’ve deployed Cameo videos of all lengths and sizes and qualities…and seen all of them rake in money for ministry.
While a perfectly staged, perfectly scripted video absolutely has a time and place in your marketing efforts, these raw, celebrity-in-their-own-environment videos have a different kind of power that prospects and donors find believable and attractive.
If you ever want to talk about Cameo for Business or anything else related to elevating your brand, please reach out any time to slatour@masterworks.agency.
About Seth La Tour
Seth has been fundraising for nonprofit organizations since the 20th century. He’s driven to help nonprofits increase fundraising by telling compelling stories that find new audiences in every channel. Seth has helped raise millions of dollars for organizations like Prison Fellowship, Open Doors, The Salvation Army and Seattle’s Union Gospel Mission. His work has often taken him overseas to see ministry in action, in places like Vietnam, Indonesia, Russia and many more. He writes poetry, loves grocery shopping, and works out in VR several days each week.