Imagine opening gifts on your wedding day, to find a signed headshot and/or letter from your favorite actor, actress, musician, politician, academic, motivational speaker, athlete, author, artist, or fashion designer speaking directly to you as if they were there with you on your special day? That’s exactly what happened to Carl Padilla on his wedding day, three years ago, which gave rise to what is now known as Celeb Gap.

Padilla, who was a huge fan of CMA artist Thomas Rhett, planned to have his first dance with his wife to Rhett’s song, “Die a Happy Man.”

What he didn’t know was that Rhett knew that already, thanks to his friend who happened to play golf with a major record label who regularly worked with Rhett. 

Carl then launched Celeb Gap in 2019, after receiving an envelope from his friend on his wedding day, containing a signed headshot of his favorite country artist, Thomas Rhett, with the message – “I hope you always remember your first dance,” – knowing that Carl and his wife would be dancing their first dance to Rhett’s “Die a Happy Man.” 

“I will never forget the day Sean came over and handed me that envelope. I opened it and chills ran down my spine. Tears came down my eyes. I was speechless and overcome with emotion. There in my shaking hands was a headshot of Thomas Rhett, signed ‘I hope you always remember your first dance.’”

The COVID-19 pandemic sparked a market demand for fans and celebrities to more closely interact with one another, giving rise and popularity to the celebrity engagement platform ecosystem. 

Having created a platform for fans and talent to have a more personalized experience with one another to send one another gifts and/or experience real-time moments with one another, Carl created a new business model that differed from other video messaging platforms that existed in the industry, providing for the arguably the most personalized fan-celebrity experience to date. 

With over 70 active admin agent portals on the platform to ensure orders and talent are taken care of, a fan will have the ability to browse through the platform’s growing roster of talent once they make a profile.

“If a particular talent is unavailable or inactive at the time of their search, they are able to choose a “follow” option on the talent’s profile, which will notify them the next time the talent becomes available,” Padilla says. “Once a talent is active, the fan only needs to select the service they want to purchase, including, but not limited to a shout-out, video game session, autograph, video call, etc.

As for the talent, once a purchase is made by the fan, they will receive a text and email notifying them that they have an order.

Over the years, celebrity messaging platforms like Cameo, Community, Memmo, TrueFan, GoNuts, and more have helped bridge the gap between fan and celebrity, that would allow fans to request shoutouts or personalized messages from their favorite celebrities, in exchange for a certain amount of money. 

However, Padilla’s mission in having a platform like Celeb Gap thrive in the celebrity engagement platform sphere meant personalizing that relationship even more. Their social mission is to provide a user experience that allows fans and celebrities to connect in ways that weren’t available before.

For example, the ability to participate in real-time video game sessions with talent, is a feature that some of the platform’s competitors haven’t implemented into their ecosystems as of today. 

Padilla came from a sales and recruitment background prior to launching Celeb Gap, but his entire career path changed on his wedding day, opening him up to a rush of emotion that he wanted to share with as many people as possible, to make every day as special as his wedding day was. 

That’s why Padilla created an avenue where a user could request an autograph, video chat, or real-time gaming session with their favorite celebrity. 

In an interview with PopWrapped, the Celeb Gap team shared their perspective on the current landscape for celebrity engagement platforms and why their upcoming release helps bridge the gap between fantasy and reality. 

What’s Been Missing?

Unique to the celebrity messaging economy, is CelebGap’s immersion into video games, whereby fans are able to request gaming sessions with their favorite celebrity.

The idea, according to Padilla, came after a phone call with the president of Roc Nation, who expressed interest in the concept of having ‘video games’ as the center of the fan-celebrity experience, rather than the shout-out features.

“Once a fan requests a gaming session with talent, the celebrity reserves the right to pick the system, game, schedule, length, and price of the session,” Padilla explained. “From there, it’s up to the fan to pick a time, where the celebrity will be notified through a text message and email.” The fan can also follow their profile to be notified when they become available again. 

According to Celeb Gap, the ability to “game with a celebrity” has been the most exciting part of this platform’s capability.

“By every definition, you will be literally hanging out with your favorite celebrity, virtually playing a game of the talent’s choice,” Padilla explains. “Whether you are fighting side by side in Call of Duty or having a one-on-one in a game of Madden, you now have what used to be a once in a lifetime experience accessible at your fingertips.”

The Pandemic Generated a Cry for Mental Health Advocacy

Indeed, the COVID-19 pandemic along with mental health advocacy helped spark a true need for a platform like Celeb Gap and helped bridge that gap between fan and celebrity. 

“The pandemic has affected everyone in this country so much, that isolation genuinely became our reality for some time. Our platform will give these people an escape in a COVID-free way that was never thought possible, providing talent with a way to be able to connect with their fans, while in-person events are still recovering.”

You Can Network with Talent

Beyond just requests, fans and talent can use the platform to expand their professional networks, connecting with one another in ways beyond mere social interaction.

For Padilla, he personally used his own platform to propose to his wife, asking the talent to tell her to ‘turn around’ on the video shout-out, with him down on one knee, the Celeb Gap CEO said in an interview with Digital Journal.

“Fans can use video calls for coaching sessions and jam sessions, if they are reaching out to musician talent. 

Streamers can use video game sessions with talent to coach and/or just connect with their loyal followers in efforts to promote things they have in the works. 

Talent can use the platform as an alternative source of income, choosing whether they want that income donated to charity, or using it to connect with their fans in different ways that can be shared across social media and promoted as part of their own brands.”

The bottom line is that Celeb Gap seems to have everything and more that the market currently offers, with a user-friendly platform that takes “interaction” to the next level, while taking less out of the talent’s pocket at 19%, compared to competitors who take around 25% and higher.

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