Let me educate y’all on how celeb merchandise deals works: if a celebrity can prove they can MOVE PRODUCT via ACTUAL SALES then they will be offered more money. If after the campaign, the numbers don’t meat the quota, the marketing team will move you to the influencers list. https://twitter.com/akaworldwide/status/1260851102548987905

The reason why SAn celebrities don’t get celebrity merchandise/ambassador deals is because they cannot or have not proven they can land actual sales. They will get people talking but don’t know how to make sales. For a brand, they only care about the sales numbers.

The influencers list is for marketing and brand awareness. The brand puts little investment so expect little return. A few likes is a win. But for a celebrity ambassador/merch deal they put in a lot of investment and expect a much higher return. You have to make x sales in y time

I have been in many meetings where brands have said they are no longer looking to give ambassador/merch deals in SA and will give them influencers deals. It’s not personal. Just only a handful of celebrities these days can guarantee that level of return on investments.

Also different brands have different requirements as well. So let’s say you got like 500 sales down but you didn’t secure enough positive press promoting the product. Or after the launch, the brand got a lot of “but why you working with him” tweets. A lot of other factors too

Also you can sell 500 and think you did well. But for a brand used to getting 50 900 sales in 7 days from a celeb deal then to them you barely did anything. Also remember that these brands are experts at what they do and sometimes good is just not good enough.

In SA it is much easier to move cosmetics and alcohol than it is to move apparel. That’s just a fact. So maybe the brand had unfair expectations but you must still meet them.

Note I said “x sales in y time”. Selling out is not the only priority. If it takes you months to sell a small batch then that’s still not meeting the quota. Many local celebrities have had apparel deals and had to sell x amount in as little as 14 days & did. It’s not unrealistic.