Want a Celeb Endorsement on Twitter? Follow Adly
Thanks to social media platforms like Twitter, fans can follow their favorite celebrities, learning where they’re going, what they’re buying or wearing, and what they think about the biggest headlines.
In 2009, Beverly Hills startup Adly saw some major potential in this accessibility.
“Adly was created with the vision that celebrities are powerful endorsers for brands,” says CEO Walter Delph, who joined the company a year and a half ago. “The ability to work with them through social media was a great mechanism for advertising.”
With that in mind, Adly created a service to connect Fortune 500 companies like Pepsi and Samsung with famous athletes, actors and influencers whose Twitter followers would potentially be a great audience for their products. Depending on the level of the campaign, Adly can cost a company between $25,000 and $500,000.
“We are a very good mechanism for raising awareness,” says Delph, who compares Adly’s services to that of television commercials. He says the average celebrity on Adly’s platform has more than 1.5 million followers – about the same reach as a mid-sized cable network.
Adding to the Adly Team
Earlier this year, Adly closed a $2 million round in funding, bringing the company’s total funding to $7.5 million.
With the funding, Delph says the company will add engineers who will be able to develop Adly’s back-end analytics tool, as well as more sales staff.
“We try to market that we are a technology company that provides this consumer insight about celebrities,” says Delph.
With Adly’s analytics tool, Delph says companies can learn three things about consumers: where they are, who they are and what their interests are.