How Sylvester Stallone Rocks Celebrity Online Promotion
We usually think of social media as something that young people do best. They developed MySpace. They were the first on Facebook. They’re now responsible for the rise of TikTok.
The world of online content sharing is for people under 30, ideally under 20, and for anyone over 50 is a foreign country.
That’s a problem for veteran celebrities. They’re more used to walking red carpets, putting their pictures on the wall of their favorite restaurants, and dodging paparazzi than creating their own regular stream of content.
One star who understands how to continue giving back to his fanbase in the Internet age, though, is Sylvester Stallone. The 75-year-old actor, writer, and director has been making blockbusters for almost five decades. “Rocky,” the movie that shot him to stardom came out in 1976. “Rambo” is 40 years old this year.
It would have been easy enough for Stallone to have rested on his laurels, enjoyed his life and his fame, and chosen not to engage with his fans at all. Plenty of actors of his generation have done the same—or at least left their social media pages in the hands of their publicity companies.
Stallone though has taken a much more hands-on approach. He connects with fans directly online, generates engagement, and provides value. In the process, he gets to build entirely new Internet businesses.
His Instagram page, for example, contains more than the usual celebrity self-promotional material. He films himself with his family, at award shoes, and while he’s writing. He shares advice for life and he has fun. His almost 15 million followers are able to feel that they’re not just receiving updates about his products or even watching his life. They’re members of his club and a part of his life. Comments include messages of support from his siblings.
That connection gives Stallone opportunities. The stories he shares on Instagram can promote his store and announce his movies and his productions. Fans can see how a partnership with DAZN will result in a boxing documentary, and they learn about Stallone’s participation in a video game.
Through content, Stallone delivers value first, promotes second, and does both in a native online format.
And that value-giving doesn’t stop at Instagram, which is more than a decade old. Stallone is now releasing an NFT collection. SLYGuys consists of 9997 tokens with combinations of more than 300 unique traits such as boxing gloves, weapons, and clothing. Owning three of the NFTs also gives buyers access to events such as meet-and-greets, dinners, and movie screenings with Stallone himself.
Fans who buys Stallone’s NFTs can hold onto them, try to sell them for a profit, or use them to gain access to those exclusive experiences.
The principle remains the same though. Stallone is using a new technology to first deliver value to his fans, and then to build an enjoyable business out of the engagement that value delivers.
That’s a smart approach for someone who was big even before Friendster.
