SAG-AFTRA members now have union protection for some of their Cameo earnings.
The guild signed a collective bargaining agreement with Cameo’s C4B (aka Cameo for Business) marketplace, which connects celebrity users with brands for sponsored content. Under the deal, SAG-AFTRA talent will be able to count those earnings toward their pensions and health benefits. They’ll also presumably have SAG-AFTRA’s legal weight behind them if a brand partner tries to pull something shady like non-payment.
SAG-AFTRA says there are “tens of thousands” of celebrities using C4B, “many of whom are SAG-AFTRA members who want the rights, benefits and protections afforded by a union contract.”
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“Similar to the Influencer and Podcast Agreements, the C4B x SAG-AFTRA Agreement is another example of the ways in which SAG-AFTRA continues to innovate contracts to ensure that members have the opportunity to cover their work and be eligible for health insurance and retirement benefits, as well as be in good standing with the union, and have guidance and staff support every step of the way,” Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, SAG-AFTRA’s national executive director and chief negotiator, said in a statement.
“Our mission at Cameo for Business is to seamlessly connect our talent with the brands they love for fast, high-performing creative marketing content,” Cameo co-founder and CEO Steven Galanis added. “The talent experience is a top priority so we’re thrilled that this new SAG-AFTRA partnership will ensure that existing and new talent are easily covered and contributing to their essential membership benefits while engaging with brands on our platform.”
This contract is exclusive to the brand partnership side of Cameo, so celebrities’ other Cameo activities–that is, selling custom shout-outs directly to fans–aren’t covered.
Cameo says that to date, its platform has been used to sell more than 4.5 million videos. It hasn’t yet publicized data about the performance of C4B, which launched in 2020.
