{"id":37699,"date":"2025-11-04T16:11:33","date_gmt":"2025-11-04T16:11:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/usa\/the-youtuber-behind-the-timothee-chalamet-look-alike-contest-is-launching-a-marketing-startup-here-are-the-details\/"},"modified":"2025-11-04T16:11:33","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T16:11:33","slug":"the-youtuber-behind-the-timothee-chalamet-look-alike-contest-is-launching-a-marketing-startup-here-are-the-details","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/usa\/the-youtuber-behind-the-timothee-chalamet-look-alike-contest-is-launching-a-marketing-startup-here-are-the-details\/","title":{"rendered":"The YouTuber behind the Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet look-alike contest is launching a marketing startup. Here are the details."},"content":{"rendered":"<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.insider.com\/690a21c40be9845f2dc5ac59?format=jpeg\" alt=\"Anthony Potero and Talia Schulhof founded Pufferfish, a new marketing company working with brands on viral stunts.\"\/><figcaption>Anthony Potero and Talia Schulhof founded Pufferfish, a new marketing company working with brands on viral stunts.<\/p>\n<p>CJ Sanciangco; Pufferfish<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<ul>\n<li>Anthony Potero, the YouTuber known as Anthpo, is launching a new business.<\/li>\n<li>Potero is the brains behind viral stunts like the Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet look-alike contest.<\/li>\n<li>Pufferfish, founded by Potero and Talia Schulhof, will work with brands to make viral ads.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>No one likes a boring ad.<\/p>\n<p>Anthony Potero, the YouTube creator with 1.9 million subscribers known online by &quot;Anthpo,&quot; wants to help brands stand out with a new viral content and stunt marketing company.<\/p>\n<p>A recent brand partnership with cult-favorite footwear brand Crocs became an internet phenomenon and laid the groundwork for Potero&#039;s latest venture.<\/p>\n<p>Potero told Business Insider he pitched a handful of ideas to Crocs, and the brand ultimately landed on the &quot;most complicated one&quot; he&#039;d outlined: putting 3D printed Crocs on statues across New York City. Potero would also go undercover, build a character and a narrative, launch an entirely new social media account on Instagram and TikTok, and document the entire process.<\/p>\n<p>The &quot;Kid with Crocs&quot; accounts racked up millions of views and hundreds of thousands of followers.<\/p>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.insider.com\/69090b9d599d46a4ccc15ca5?format=jpeg\" alt=\"Screenshot of Kid with Crocs video\"\/><figcaption>Potero&#039;s &quot;Kids With Crocs&quot; collaboration went viral.<\/p>\n<p>Screenshot\/YouTube<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Potero said that after he revealed that he had been behind the account, his inbox quickly flooded with interest from other brands.<\/p>\n<p>Potero texted Talia Schulhof, whom he had met in 2023 while working for YouTube juggernaut MrBeast, about the influx of inquiries. Schulhof had been working on a popular short-form video talk show called &quot;Hollywood IQ&quot; with the media company Mad Realities, and had previously worked with Potero on a few of his YouTube videos.<\/p>\n<p>The two 24-year-olds teamed up in the summer and are now launching Pufferfish, a new creative marketing company focused on viral stunts that have a cultural impact \u2014 both in person and online.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;We have a finger on the pulse of what it takes to go viral,&quot; Schulhof said, adding that the pair wants to help brands tap into &quot;the pace at which the internet is moving.&quot;<\/p>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.insider.com\/69090af2599d46a4ccc15c7f?format=jpeg\" alt=\"Timothee Chalamet contest\"\/><figcaption>Potero organized the viral 2024 Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet lookalike contest in NYC.<\/p>\n<p>Jeenah Moon for The Washington Post via Getty Images<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Gen Z whisperers who understand the zeitgeist of online culture are already shaping the future of marketing, from Duolingo&#039;s former social media manager Zaria Parvez to firms like Gen Z-led JUV (which rebranded to UTA Next Gen after being acquired by the talent management giant in 2024).<\/p>\n<p>Brands are also recognizing that in an era of content overload, thinking outside the box by literally getting outside is one way to cut through the noise. Think Apple TV&#039;s stunt in Grand Central Terminal promoting the latest Severance season, or 2024&#039;s barrage of advertising for Charli XCX&#039;s Brat album.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;Bringing people together is silly,&quot; Potero said. &quot;There&#039;s so many little human touchpoints.&quot;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>The making of a viral stunt<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>&quot;Kids with Crocs&quot; wasn&#039;t Potero&#039;s first rodeo with a viral stunt. Remember the Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet look-alike contest that attracted thousands of people, including Chalamet himself? Potero was behind that event. He&#039;s also the brains behind a Cheeseball Man stunt where he dressed up in a ski mask and cape, gathered hundreds of people in an NYC park, and ate an entire massive tub of cheeseballs.<\/p>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.insider.com\/69090c040be9845f2dc59c89?format=jpeg\" alt=\"Talia Schulhof and Anthony Potero\"\/><figcaption>Schulhof and Potero at the &quot;Cheeseball Man&quot; stunt that took place in NYC.<\/p>\n<p>Courtesy of Talia Schulhof<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The basis of Pufferfish&#039;s offerings will be Potero&#039;s knack for immersive stunts.<\/p>\n<p>Potero said he wants to teach others the &quot;psychology and the art of it all, and then build a company surrounding it.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>The company&#039;s team of four, based in an office in Midtown, consists of Potero (the company&#039;s chief creative officer), Schulhof (the CEO), and two others, including a strategic advisor. Potero&#039;s separate team for his YouTube channel is about seven people, and occasionally, the two teams overlap and share resources, Schulhof said.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;There&#039;s not a lot of overhead for running a content company,&quot; she said. Paying the production team is the main expense, and the marketing startup is bootstrapped without outside capital.<\/p>\n<p>Targeting six-figure deals, the company is working with brands on bespoke campaigns. They&#039;ll incorporate digital content and work with content creators, and often have an IRL component, too.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;We take a blank slate approach, think about what the client needs, what&#039;s going on on the internet right now, what people are craving, what people want to connect with lately,&quot; Schulhof said. &quot;Then we figure out how we can make a brand new campaign for them.&quot;<\/p>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.insider.com\/69090a5b0be9845f2dc59c47?format=jpeg\" alt=\"Kock ad for Airlearn app in Times Square\"\/><figcaption>Airlearn partnered with Pufferfish on its latest campaign, which included a billboard in NYC&#039;s Times Square.<\/p>\n<p>Courtesy of Airlearn<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>One of Pufferfish&#039;s first campaigns: a set of provocative billboards scattered across Manhattan for the language learning app Airlearn. In giant font, the billboards have translations for words like &quot;kock&quot; \u2014 Swedish for chef \u2014 or &quot;pussi&quot; \u2014 Finnish for bag.<\/p>\n<p>The goal? Make an ad that gets people to stop, take a photo, and share it with a friend or online.<\/p>\n<p>Beyond the billboards, Pufferfish also worked with Airlearn to come up with a puppet character to use in social media content.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Lessons from MrBeast<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Potero and Schulhof worked for YouTube&#039;s top creator, MrBeast \u2014 whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson \u2014 on the company&#039;s short-form video content team in Greenville, North Carolina, shortly after they had both graduated from college.<\/p>\n<p>If there&#039;s one main lesson to take away from it all, Potero said, it&#039;s that &quot;there is no secret formula.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>Working at MrBeast gave Potero and Schulhof a perspective about how to work in and build a creator-centered company, particularly when it comes to hiring.<\/p>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.insider.com\/690516150be9845f2dc58656?format=jpeg\" alt=\"Anthony Potero and Talia Schulhof\"\/><figcaption>Anthony Potero and Talia Schulhof founded Pufferfish, a new marketing company working with brands on viral stunts.<\/p>\n<p>CJ Sanciangco; Pufferfish<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Talent in the creator space isn&#039;t as cut-and-dried as a beefy r\u00e9sum\u00e9. What really matters is being obsessed with online content \u2014 and consuming a lot of it.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;That is the criteria for being able to make stuff in this industry,&quot; Schulhof said. &quot;It&#039;s changing the need for experience.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>&quot;The real talented people I&#039;m seeing in the space right now are really good storytellers and are very emotional,&quot; Potero said. &quot;Especially in the wake of this AI takeover, being a human and being able to speak to humans is going to be the only value prop we can have, fortunately.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>Read the original article on Business Insider<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Anthony Potero and Talia Schulhof founded Pufferfish, a new marketing company working with brands on viral stunts. CJ Sanciangco; Pufferfish Anthony Potero, the YouTuber known as Anthpo, is launching a new business. Potero is the brains behind viral stunts like the Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet look-alike contest. Pufferfish, founded by Potero and Talia Schulhof, will work with [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37700,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-37699","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-usa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37699","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37699"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37699\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}