Celebrity presence in your event (be it wedding or a corporate event or even a video) not only increases the glamour factor but also makes it a lot more memorable. The first thought which comes to your mind immediately is that celebrity appearances would cost too much and the second thought obviously is how to approach one?
Indian Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan (C) poses with newly-wedded couple, designer Manali Jagtap (L) and Vicky Shoor (R) in Mumbai
Same thing happened with us! We at Stagephod.com were approached by FeverFM (Hindustan Times). They wanted to create a DIY web series with multiple celebrities. Their major constraint was budget as they wanted to keep celebrity budget as low as possible. We were first surprised as HT(FeverFM) being a big media house (who hosts celebrities for promoting their films) is looking to outsource the celebrity hiring activity. Then we realized that challenge is not to hire a celebrity but to hire him/ her at the best price.
So what are the problems with celebrity hiring:
- Expensive – Infact there is no fixed price or market standard or anything like that. Casting agencies tend to overcharge it to 1000%. Yes, they can ask 10x without any hesitation.
- No structured way to approach one – The celebrity has to maintain their privacy and safeguard their image/ status. So they tend to avoid speaking directly to unknown people (even genuine ones)
We knew going the normal way of approaching casting agencies would not work. This was an interesting and challenging problem and as entrepreneurs, it intrigued us.
How we figured it out?
We knew that getting a celebrity at a genuine price is only possible when we can talk to them directly. But “How?” is the big question.
At Stagephod.com, we have a community of 200+ independent videomakers/ filmmakers/ production houses. These people have worked with numerous artists, technicians and celebrities in the past. The good part of this industry is that everyone is a freelancer and almost always work with different sets of people for projects that involve celebrities or their close friends and hence they make a lot of contacts in the process.
So we floated our requirement to this community and to our surprise (not that much actually) we got references. We talked to few and were finally able to work with a few of them. For example – Mugdha Godse, Gauahar Khan, Gurmeet Chaudhary etc. In the process we also got acquainted with few more celebrities like – Riteish Deshmukh, Sonu Sood, Claudia Ciesla, Bruna Abdullah, Aftab Shivdasani etc.
Check out the work done by us with celebrities
Idea of Marketplace
During this process we got in touch with 50+ celebrities but our strong community gave us the confidence that we can arrange any celebrity (if interested and available). So our entrepreneurial bug started giving us some pointers. As we have cracked the supply side of the marketplace, it was only logical for us to convert it into a marketplace.
Now, here is little promotion about what we are offering:
Celebrities are available for:
- Web series
- Video Ads
- Endorsements
- Catalogue shoot
- Wedding appearance and performance
- Corporate event appearance and performance
Here is how celebrity hiring works at Stagephod.
– Share your requirement
– We will understand your purpose and recommend a few celebrities to you.
– Once you approve the list, we will float that list in our community and take quotations
– You can then finalise the celebrity based on availability and quotation
– Make your event memorable with celebrity presence and selfies with them ????
The biggest learning for us while we solved this problem is that our strength lies in community. With this strong network, we can solve problems which are otherwise not feasible to crack. Do give us a try if you are looking to hire a celebrity.