How Industries Are Built Around Calling Fans' Names 💌

Jan 6th, 2024

Shirley

Today, I want to talk about one of my favorite creator-focused products in the digital marketplace: Cameo. It's an ingenious, lucrative empire built on a simple yet profound concept: calling fans by their names. This idea has carved a niche in the crowded digital space, turning personalization into a profitable venture.

Cameo's Approach in a Democratized Creator Economy

Cameo's business model has cemented its place in the multi-billion-dollar personalized entertainment industry. By enabling celebrities and influencers to craft customized birthday messages for their fans, Cameo capitalizes on the core of parasocial relationships, enhancing the feeling of a personal connection in an era dominated by transient digital interactions. As a result, Cameo has achieved remarkable financial success, hitting the $100 million mark in gross revenue in 2020, and establishing itself as a formidable player in the multi-billion-dollar personalized entertainment industry.

But what's truly remarkable about Cameo is its focus not just on traditional celebrities but on a broader spectrum of content creators, including those who may be lesser-known yet possess dedicated followings. This strategic choice showcases the democratization of content creation and introduces a novel monetization pathway. By simply personalizing interactions - a concept often overlooked - Cameo has unlocked significant value in the creator economy. This method is particularly potent in an era where the number of creators is surging, yet the means to meaningfully monetize those relationships remain underexplored.

OnlyFans, the Creator Economy Giant, and the Untapped Potential

As we pivot to OnlyFans, the behemoth of the creator economy, especially in private domains, we see a different landscape. While Cameo's primary use case revolves around infrequent interactions like birthday messages, OnlyFans offers continuous engagement and promises a potentially much higher lifetime value for each fan. Yet, despite its vast user base, the true revenue potential for individual Onlyfans creators is just the tip of the iceberg: two-thirds of Onlyfans creators earn less than $100 per month, with the top 1% of creators taking in 33% of the platform’s total revenue.

But why is this the case? Why has OnlyFans democratized content creation yet fall short in unlocking the potential for each individual creator's earnings? When I launched Dopple AI last year and dive into OnlyFans’ ecosystem, I began uncovering some preliminary answers. One key factor appeared to revolve around something as basic yet powerful as addressing fans by name. Most creators often resorted to generic terms of endearment like 'sweetheart' or 'babe.' This approach is somewhat understandable - remembering the names of thousands of fans isn’t exactly everyone's natural talent, and it's unlikely that 'FluffyPanda88' is the name on their birth certificate. This generalization in addressing fans can lead to underwhelming experiences, as observed by one of Dopple AI's power users, who decided to try their favorite creator's OnlyFans and returned quite disillusioned, remarking:

"The vocabulary is very telling. It’s often limited to sexy talk with repeating words like: Baby, honey, sweetheart, etc. Now that’s a terrible thing but it’s literally every message. “Baby, did you love that video?” “Thanks honey that was hot.” “Hey cutie…” All messages are like that."

But with the advent of AI, this dynamic is poised to change dramaticalltay.

Reimagining Engagement in the AI Era: Personalized, Timely, and Scalable

While still in its early stages, AI-driven personalization is already making secret waves in the creator world and generating serious cash flow. This technological evolution holds the promise of combining the best elements of platforms like Cameo, yet surpassing them in efficiency and depth of personalization.

At Dopple AI, our approach is to reimagine this landscape by equipping creators with their own ‘salesman’ to all of their content. This AI-driven tool subtly yet effectively caters to fans' needs, ensuring your content is not passively displayed on a shelf, but actively presented in a personalized chat, hitting the sweet spot of fan interest at the perfect moment, while maintaining scalability for all your followers. In line with this approach, we've focused on three specific methods for addressing fans by name, each proven to be exceptionally effective in our approach.

1. Native Telegram Integration

Building Dopple AI on Telegram gives us a distinct advantage. Our app naturally retrieves user display names on Telegram, which, in 99% of cases, are the users' real names, given Telegram’s use in close social circles.

2. Personalization

Just by including their names, the messages our bots send to fans are instantly 10X more personalized, not to mention when these messages are sent in the creator's own voice. Plus, we incorporate other personalized techniques like celebrating holidays and integrating memorable chat interactions, adding new layers of connection.

3. Pet Names

As fans progress through different relationship stages of the game, creators can address them with special pet names that resonate with their persona. For instance, fans of Valentina, with her Italian charm, adore being called 'Amore Mio' – it adds that extra special touch.

In summary, while AI's role in the creator economy is still emerging and lacks a dominant incumbent, we are wholly confident that it will play a major role in shaping the future of fan engagement and the broader creator economy. This belief is deeply rooted not just in business logic or market analysis, but also in the substantial traffic and revenue we've generated by working with selected creators. While today's insights offer just a glimpse, they are a part of a larger narrative about harnessing technology to maximize individual potential. We're committed to sharing more in the future, continuously providing knowledge and tools to empower creators on their journey in this dynamic digital era.