Can we meet you sir ,a brief introduction of yourself Sir?
My name is Temi Esan. I was born and raised in Nigeria but I have had the opportunity to live and work within Africa and Europe. I am a tech enthusiast, avid lover of soccer and a huge fan of athletics.
Tell us what PENG is about and how it came about?
The idea came up while I was planning my wedding in 2018. My wife is a huge fan of a popular Nigeria musician and I felt it would be nice to get her an unusual surprise for our wedding. I wanted to get the celebrity to come perform at our wedding reception but two things happened: 1. The celebrity took a while before he could respond to my request, 2. it was super expensive to pay him for his service (his charge was literally 30% of the entire wedding ceremony’s budget…Lol).
Eventually, I was able to get a congratulatory message from the musician to my wife and guess what? She was absolutely blown away. I honestly didn’t think it was a big deal but her reaction and excitement was shocking. She was not only amazed about my intention but the fact that her favourite celeb congratulated her for the wedding.
It then struck me that there will be millions of people out there who will have a similar feeling or expression either getting the shoutout for themselves or someone they love. After doing some research, I concluded that creating a platform that connects celebrities to their fans in such a way would be a great idea. The marketplace would have everyone within the value chain benefit either financially or emotionally.
Basically PENG is an online platform that helps African talents connect with their fans on a more personal level through paid personalised video shoutouts and online live sessions requested by fans. We incorporated as a business both in Nigeria and in the United Kingdom.
These shoutouts or sessions could be used for birthdays, wedding ceremonies, bridal or baby showers, graduation events, or simply to motivate someone. Currently, we have celebrities like Iyanya, Seyi Law, Ubi Franklin, Chef Chi, Teddy A, OsasIghodaro and some BBNaija Stars just to mention a few.
FYI, PENG is an acronym for PersonalisedENGagement 🙂
What type of celebrities or influencers can join PENG
We work with all types of talents. Musicians, DJs, Actors, Influencers, Comedians, Entrepreneurs, Motivational Speakers, Religious Leaders, etc. Provided you have some form of followership or your online fanbase is greater than 20k, you are more than welcome to join PENG.
What are the celebrities on PENG expected to do?
It is pretty simple. All they need to do is join PENG through our sign up link www.sendpeng.com/talent-signup. Once you get approved by the talent management team, you would immediately be available on the platform for booking. We create a dedicated creative ad for you to post on your social media pages so your fans are aware that you are now on PENG.
Once you get a booking from one of your fans, you immediately get an email and SMS notifying you. You have the chance to either accept or decline the booking. Once you accept and create the video shoutout for your fan, they immediately get it in their inbox. The beauty of this idea is that these celebrities do not have to leave where they are to create the video. They could get the video done anywhere, at the gym (e.g. Eric from BBNaija..Lol), on their couch, airport lounge or even while they get up from bed in the morning.
These celebrities are allowed to set their price, change their price anytime they want or even go inactive on the platform whenever they wish to. The celebrities are paid for every booking they complete on a weekly basis.
What is the aim of PENG?
Our primary goal is to continually create exciting fan experiences for Africans with the help of technology. In order to do this, we are developing the largest platform that connects African celebrities with their fans anywhere in the world.
While doing this, we also believe it is important to give back to the community. My co-founder and I are both beneficiaries of educational scholarships which gave us the opportunity to study in the UK. We are fully aware of the issues Nigeria and the entire continent of Africa is experiencing in the Education sector.
According to UNICEF, Nigeria has over 13 million children aged between 5 – 11 years old who are currently out of school. To put this into context, that is a combination of the entire population of Croatia, Denmark, Norway. You would also be shocked to know that 2 in 3 children do not have access to early childhood education. We intend to help reduce this number and support these kids the little way we can so they get back to school.
As part of our vision, we donate a percentage of revenue made from every booking to charity organizations focused on supporting primary education across Nigeria.
How has PENG been so far and where do you see PENG in the next five years?
The experience and traction we have gained since our official launch in August 2020 has been impressive. We currently have close to 200 celebrities signed up, have unique website visitors from 54 countries and gotten multiple bookings from people both in and outside Nigeria. At the moment, we work with WeFeedTheFuture Foundation where we support them financially.
In the next 5 years, we see ourselves as the go-to platform that makes impossible fan connection possible for Africans. We are also keen on helping One Hundred Thousand African kids (100,000) get back to school by 2025.
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