It’s The Era Of The Celebrity Cellular Brand

Suddenly, everyone from celebrities to the President of the United States is minting their own cell service to reach top fans.

Why It Rings: Although wireless service is a crowded market led by some juggernaut companies, it hasn’t stopped brands and celebrities from giving a branded network a go. That’s mainly because it’s relatively cheap to do — it just involves buying extra capacity from the top mobile carriers and slapping your name on it.

Behind the Signal: The hottest branding moment of the year might be becoming a mobile virtual network operator.

• While ESPN and MTV failed at their ventures in the early aughts, Ryan Reynolds’ stake in Mint Mobile revitalized the practice and led to a $1.35 billion sale in 2023.
• The SmartLess team (Jason Bateman, Will Arnett, and Sean Hayes) launched SmartLess Mobile on T-Mobile’s network, which will focus on providing low-cost plans for people who have plenty of access to WiFi and don’t need a lot of data.
• Donald Trump also announced his own service, Trump Mobile, which will run on T-Mobile, AT&T, and Verizon. There will also be a branded, gold-plated Android phone, which is set to debut in September.

Last Call: Despite the buzzy names, most mobile virtual network operators fail, so these are risky ventures. Jonathan Chaplin, a managing partner at the equity research firm New Street Research, suggests the best way to make these new ones stand out in the marketplace is to have them offer something the big carriers can’t.

In other words, they’ll need something other than good service.

Prediction: In the near future, the most successful celebrity-backed networks may be those that don’t just leverage fame but also offer fans unprecedented access to the celebrities themselves — blurring the line between audience and inner circle.