Highlights From Global Trends and Top Fandoms Show 2021 Was the Year For Roast Videos, Brian Baumgartner (Again!), Sports, Sonja Morgan, and More
2021 was a year for the books… and Cameo videos! We are celebrating another busy and exciting year as the world’s leading fan engagement platform having enabled over 27,000 hours of personalized connections across the globe this year. From TV stars and notable athletes, to TikTok creators and comedic legends, Cameo has helped fulfill 2.5 million magical moments since our launch in 2017. And just in this past year, we have welcomed almost 10,000 new stars including Succession’s Brian Cox, Basketball star Isaiah Thomas, 2020 Olympic Medalist MyKayla Skinner and even the animated Boss Baby — bringing our total talent roster close to 50,000 at the end of this year.
We’re excited to reveal our trending talent, top cultural moments and more in our first-ever holiday year in review! After analyzing a year’s worth of data, we found that 2021 was the year for roasting your friends and family, binge watching The Office, yet again, and celebrating the return of live sports.
Here are the stand-out highlights from 2021:
A Round of Applause for Cameo’s Leading Global Talent
No matter what type of superfan you are, Cameo has something for everyone, and we’ve pulled together the most booked stars for 2021 across our most popular and fastest growing categories in our top three markets around the globe.
The Office’s Brian Baumgartner and The Inbetweeners’ James Buckley reigned supreme as the platform’s top actors for a second year in a row, while Sonja Morgan is the queen of the Cameo reality TV castle. Check out the full list of most-booked talent on Cameo in 2021*:
U.S.
U.K.
Australia
The Brian Baumgartner Effect
Clearly the Office fandom on Cameo continues to remain strong, as Brian Baumgartner tops Cameo’s “best of” lists again this year. As the most-booked US talent on Cameo this year, Brian has made authentic connections with thousands of his fans.
Here are a few of Brian B.’s 2021 Cameo accolades:
- Most-Booked US Star on Cameo in 2021
- #1 U.S. Star in the Actor and Comedian categories by Cameo fan bookings
- Among the top 5 most-booked talent in the states that requested the most Cameo videos: California, New York, Texas, Illinois, and Florida
- Most-requested talent for celebratory anniversary videos
A Slam Dunk in 2021
Now moving on from cult-TV favorites and getting back to our roots with sports stars. Athletes were the base of our talent roster when we first launched with NFL player Cassius Marsh and in 2021, we’ve seen this category skyrocket. Our fastest growing category this year, we’ve welcomed athletes of all kinds from emerging stars like Buddy Boeheim and Livvy Dunne in the NCAA to living legends like Bill Russell and Magic Johnson.
Currently, we have more than 7,400 sports stars on the platform and that number continues to grow — — athletes available on Cameo grew by almost 50% just over the past year!
With 470+ new NCAA athletes having made thousands of connections this year, students and alumni from The University of Tennessee, Baylor University and Southern Methodist University will be pleased to hear that their alma mater made the top 10 list for the fastest growing categories* this year.
Cameo Roast Masters
Talent and fans all over the world brought their creativity this year, co-creating unique videos for every occasion including anniversaries, pep talks, Mother’s Day and yes, even roasts — which grew in popularity by 46%! Many turned to hilarious personalities like Michael Rapaport, Shooter McGavin and Gilbert Gottfried to personally roast their loved ones — all in good fun, of course.
See below for the rankings of the holidays and milestone occasions for the most-requested videos in 2021:
Trending (Pop) Cultural Moments
From new viral TikTok stars to the long-awaited premiere of your favorite show, 2021 was filled with memorable cultural moments marked with personalized Cameo videos.
Because ~80% of Cameos are given as gifts, it makes sense that we saw Cameo.com web traffic spike around core holidays including Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day and more; but 2021 booking data also illuminated some new moments for fan celebrations — from TV obsessions to social and current events.
For reality show fans, the new HBO show that had fans buzzing this summer — FBoy Island — also quickly flew to the top of the rankings this year as one of the fastest growing new offerings on the platform. And, notably, viral TikTok stars Island Boys booked the most videos in their first two weeks after joining Cameo this year.
Trending By Location
With fans in all 50 states, we decided to take a look at where people were requesting the most Cameo videos and found that the east coast had the most superfans in the country, while California snagged the number one spot.
Here are the top U.S. locations that have ordered the most Cameos this year alone:
We loved taking a look back at all of the incredible trends, fandoms, standout moments and leading talent names in 2021, and are looking forward to uncovering even more. Until next year!
*Most -booked talent on Cameo in 2021 refers to stars who were most requested for Cameo videos so far this year. Data was pulled January 1, 2021- November 15, 2021.
*Categories on Cameo refer to tags assigned to star profiles including broader categories like “Actor” & ”TV“ and more specific ones like “Succession”. Stars on Cameo are tagged with multiple relevant categories as the process is designed to aid in easy search and discovery for fans.
