WhoSay
A Brief History
The name WhoSay came from a domain search, meaning “authenticity” or “coming from the mouth of the person themselves, with that direct voice.” It was founded in March 2010 by the LA-based talent and sports agency, Creative Artists Agency (CCA) along with Steve Ellis an ex-rock guitarist and entrepreneur. Ellis had just sold his music licensing company Pump Audio to Getty Images when approached by CCA.
CCA and Ellis along with Amazon.com, Comcast, Greylock Partners and High Peak Ventures raised almost $20 million in funding for the company’s launch. WhoSay is currently headquartered in Manhattan with satellite offices in Venice, CA and London and employs 35 staff members.
Jimmel Fallon, Zac Efron and Seth Rogen.
What do we do?
Our social media and online branding service was created to allow actors, musicians, athletes and celebrities “to retain ownership rights” over the content posted to their accounts and maintain control over their digital presence through “copyright branding.” We consider ourselves a “social celebrity magazine” and offer members the ability to easily upload images and post directly to WhoSay and other social media platforms including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, Google+, WeChat and Tencent (China’s social networks) using the our dashboard at no charge. We liken ourselves to People magazine, who is our partner, but instead of employing writers, our content providers are our celebrity members — they post the content, not us. We aim to give fans an inside look into the lives of their favorite celebrities. In return celeb members get the truth out to the world not just on our site, but also to other popular social networks using WhoSay’s simple tools.
Anson Mount celeb feed
Our Members
Our personalities are invite-only and include over “2,000 of the world’s most captivating people—including actors, athletes, chefs, millennial influencers, and more.”
Our 4.8 million unique celebrity “super-fan” members get in-depth news first-hand from favorite “celeb personalities” they follow.
To become a personality, you are an industry referral (usually) and must be invited. We do a simple background check and once approved, you get free access to our services.
Our celeb-fan members can use their Twitter or Facebook account to log-in and join.
According to Quantcast.com we currently have 2.6 million uniques, 3.6 million visits, 4.8 million views with our members located mainly in the U.S. and continue to grow organically.
Kevin Bacon getting #kissedbyapit
How to Use WhoSay
Our celebrity members post pictures, videos or messages to their individual account walls and can update their other social media accounts, all from WhoSay. Members also give us behind-the-scenes information and we upload to other pages of the site.
Channing Tatum’s feed with a pic of his wife Jenna Dewan and daughter.
Fan members can follow their favorite celebrities and the “posts” are fed to the fan’s news feed much like the functionality of Facebook. They can also access additional information on the WhoSay website by surfing through our other pages listed in the top navigation.
An example of a super-fan’s feed featuring Jane Fonda.
Anyone can access WhoSay from their desktop, mobile device or through the WhoSay iPhone and Android app.
We fill the WhoSay site with additional rich content to keep our fan members engaged and information shared. Videos, top trending stories, fashion, beauty, living, #welovepets, and set the record straight are just some of the stories we share that come straight from our celebs.
From the “Set the Record Straight” page
Target Audience
People magazine is a partner to WhoSay and attracts the same target audience as those interested in celebrity news. In order to engage with this audience, we cater to predominately college educated women aged 38 and earn around $72,000 per year.
WhoSay’s target audience is the same as People magazine
WhoSay Social Media
It is easy to stay in touch with WhoSay because we are active on Twitter (79.1K followers), Facebook (267k likes), Instagram (2.7k followers), Google+ ( 261,221 followers) and Tumblr. Our feeds carry consistent content and messaging across all channels.
Our Partnerships
WhoSay makes its money through ad sales and has partnerships with companies such as Viacom, Lexus and Canon.
During the partnership with Canon, cameras were given to celebs like Kevin Bacon, Eva Longoria and Mario Batali to document their lives for the #bringit promotion. The celebs uploaded their photos to WhoSay with the #bringit caption and the content was then forwarded across platforms to Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc.
Competitors
WhoSay’s main competitor is theAudience, financed by William Morris Endeavor. However, theAudience is not a social media platform where non-celebs can join. theAudience works behind the scenes to promote celebs, athletes and movies promoted online.
Another competitor Adly works as a conduit to connect celebrities to brand endorsements.
For more information, click here for a quick Prezi.
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WhoSay
http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/columnist/talkingtech/2013/04/17/whosay-helps-celebrities-connect-with-fans/2089009/
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/09/business/media/09whosay.html?_r=0
http://www.whosay.com
https://www.whosay.com/about
http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2015/03/11/what-say-is-whosay/70180990/
http://www.bizjournals.com/losangeles/news/2014/09/09/q-a-with-whosay-celebrities-control-the-content.html
http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/marketers-bet-celebrities-churn-out-branded-content-162970
http://adage.com/article/media/whosay-turns-celebrities-content-marketers-canon/294259/
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/viacom-whosay-partnership-317887
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