After launching in the Australian market in August, personalised video message platform, Memmo.me has been securing top Australian athletes such as Nathan Lyon and Dane Swan.

In an interview with Ministry of Sport, Memmo.me general manager for Australia, Greg Mitchinson, discussed the growth of the business in Australia and the opportunity it presents for athletes and brands.

“We’re still a fresh company, we were only founded in December 2019 over in Stockholm, and essentially our idea was to allow fans to purchase personalised videos from their favourite stars,” Mitchinson told Ministry of Sport.

“Our mission is all about creating unforgettable memories for the fans while providing a really solid source of income for stars and celebrities.

“Since 2019, we’ve now got thousands of stars on the platform across all different sorts of categories, with sport being massive for us.

“Our stars to date have created hundreds of thousands of videos for our fans so it’s been going really well so far.

“We’ve typically got two types of customers, being a fan who will typically purchase a Memmo for a friend as a gift and those videos are between about 30 or 90 seconds long and just recorded from the stars phone.

“Our second type of customers are business; we provide a really easy way to purchase a video from a star for your businesses if you’re looking for a pep talk, a video to use on social or for an ad.

“We launched into Australia just in August and we’ve proven the concept out here so far, we’ve got some amazing talent in the likes of Nathan Lyon and Clayton Oliver, and Memmo has already become a big part of their life and a serious source of income for them.

“For right now it’s more about scaling and trying to do more of the same,” he said.

Explaining how brands can capitalise on the personalised video message platform while still keeping a lot of control and choice in the hands of the athlete, Mitchinson said there’s a growing opportunity for both parties.

“We want to really bridge the gap between fans and businesses to stars and make them really easy to access, it’s as simple as ordering a t-shirt from a website, it’s an ecommerce business,” Mitchinson said.

“The opportunity for businesses to book Memmos is huge, gone are the days where this process could take months and months to get done and prices are unknown.

“All the prices are listed on the website, and it broadly says what the talent is willing to do.

“That being said, completing an order is completely down to the talent so if a business booking came through that competed with one of their current sponsors, it’s in their right to cancel it if they need to.

“It’s been quite amazing; we’re finding it easier and easier to sign talent.

“At first there’s always a bit of hesitance with a new medium, but what we find is once a talent gets to do a few Memmos, they see the beauty of it and it’s a feeling they don’t want to leave behind.

“For us, video messages are just the start, we will continue to use our relationships with talent and understanding of consumers to provide more ways to interact and help the stars earn more money,” he said.

When asked how Memmo.me fits within the broader scope of revenue generating methods for athletes outside of their sport, Mitchinson said: “From a talent perspective, compared to everything out there, it’s a lot simpler.”

“Getting started is as simple as downloading the talent app, creating a profile which takes a minute, it’s the same as creating an Instagram account, and it’s a really proven model.

“There’s been a bunch of stuff with technology over the last few years seeing the rise of the creator economy.

“The world is now used to this monetary exchange between a star and their fan.

“Platforms like Patreon really started this movement and normalised it.

“Memmo and this kind of medium is definitely here to stay and it’s going to become a more and more significant income stream for talent,” Mitchinson told Ministry of Sport.