Equity marketing and the next LVMH Or Private Equity Play
Celebrities have been doing the startup thing for a while.
Kylie Jenner started a cosmetic company in 2015 and sold 51% to Coty Inc. for $600 million in 2019. Forbes eventually corrected the details of her net worth and the profitability of the company.
George Clooney sold his tequila brand to Diageo for $700 million with an additional $300 million based on future performance.
Conor McGregor sold his whiskey brand for up to $600 million.
Dwayne Johnson’s tequila just passed a million cases sold in a year after only three years in business.
Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul from Breaking Bad have a Mezcal brand.
And then there’s Ryan Reynolds. Personally I think he blends his personal, film and business character flawlessly. Aviation Gin. Mint Mobile. Wrexham. Brilliant.
It’s no surprise that consumers pay attention to celebrities and are willing to spend a little more of their hard earned money to buy the products that make them feel closer to them.
I think there’s a way to build a luxury house around this. The play would be simple but hard to execute. The basic build is a shared back office and distribution relationships for all of the brands. Then on top of that are luxury brands backed by celebrities who do marketing for equity in the company. Ideally, the celebrity would have influence on the product, but within a range of the experts behind the scenes.
The goal would be to build out a luxury house of celebrity brands and either sell them off or keep them in perpetuity earning experts would be able to guide them as well. An LVMH like company built on the celebrity of the equity partners instead of the history of the brands.
However, the more lucrative way to do this would be to create a private equity firm that does this. You take on a business with a product that could be marketed by a celebrity, bring them in as an owner and then ramp up growth and sell the brand in 3-6 years. Then you repeat. Then you raise a bigger fund and build the celebrity rolodex and ideally after your first fund you have celebrities calling you to do a deal.
Spirits would be the obvious starting point, but distribution is tough there and you could have a big player like Diageo eventually start a silo of their own copying the strategy. Although that’s unlikely as big companies don’t always innovate well and giving up equity is hard.
Makeup is another obvious area as there’s been success there. But I think it could work in a lot of areas:
Mattresses and pillows – just imagine the ads
Beard products
Headphones – Rick Rubin headphones anyone?
Watches
Jewelry
Bags
Suitcases
Pet products (leashes, collars, beds, bowls, etc.)
Plain tee shirt – Just look at True Classic or Fresh Clean Tees and imagine a celebrity backed version
Candles
Cologne/perfume – although marketing deals are already common with celebrities and some earn a portion of revenue
Now I’m just brainstorming, but I think if you structured it similar to a movie deal then it would be more familiar and could work into the existing flow of Hollywood. Imagine instead of an agent receiving a script they receive a brand overview, sample product and a script for the ad campaign.
Another way to do this would be to be a brand agent. You bring brands and celebrities together, sign the deals and take a cut.
What’s the benefit of this vs. just hiring celebrities to be in commercials? Just ask Reynolds who made an estimated $300 million on the $1.35 billion sale of Mint Mobile.