Sub Club by RevenueCat · 2026-03-06

How To Repurpose Offline Events Into Millions Of Online Impressions – Larissa Morimoto, PhotoRoom

Short episode with Larissa Morimoto, Senior Growth Manager (Special Projects) at PhotoRoom. PhotoRoom grew to ~300M downloads and $50M+ ARR mainly on paid acquisition, then moved into offline brand campaigns measured by branded search uplift and awareness surveys. A London Outernet LED-screen photo booth reached 15,000 people, produced 4M+ UGC views and an 18% branded search uplift; a press-only Tokyo event with comedian Kamuri at Tamiya produced no uplift. Secondhand: Calm's LeBron James partnership was its most expensive, worst-performing campaign.

Play the episode

9 tactics

PhotoRoom · AI photo editing app

Grow mainly through paid ads once the product clearly works

Reached ~300M downloads and $50M+ ARR; later hit ad fatigue and rising CPAs

“we were able to scale to over 50 million ARR using paid as our main source of growth”

Mixedpaid-social

Sub Club by RevenueCat · 2026-03-06

PhotoRoom · AI photo editing app

Rent giant street screens where passersby try the app and see their photos

15,000 people reached, 4M+ online views, 18% more branded search, trade press coverage

“we rented out these huge LED screens so that people could walk in, they could experiment the PhotoRoom photo booth. So they would take pictures of themselves, they could edit their pictures, and then their images would get blown up on this huge screen.”

Workedeventsin-person

Sub Club by RevenueCat · 2026-03-06

PhotoRoom · AI photo editing app

Bring your ad makers to live events and reuse the footage in ads and posts

4M+ views; TikTok-style clips did better than expected on LinkedIn

“we brought our three ad creatives to the Outernet. And so they were also there with us on the day of the campaign and they recorded so much content that they were able to repurpose for ads and socials and even LinkedIn.”

Workedugc-creatorspaid-social

Sub Club by RevenueCat · 2026-03-06

PhotoRoom · AI photo editing app

Judge brand campaigns by brand-name searches and surveys, not cost per install

Freed the team to try new channels; claim only

“we would always compare maybe CPAs to what we were spending on paid acquisition. And that was really impacting our creativity”

Workedanalytics-attribution

Sub Club by RevenueCat · 2026-03-06

PhotoRoom · AI photo editing app

Host a press-only store event with a famous comedian and a hobby brand

No branded search uplift, vs 18% in London; an expensive lesson

“we ended up partnering with Tamiya to host a community event in their new offices that they opened up”

Failedeventspartnerships

Sub Club by RevenueCat · 2026-03-06

Calm · B2C · sleep and meditation app

Partner with a sports superstar to promote a sleep app

Most expensive and worst-performing campaign, per a former employee

“that ended up being our most expensive campaign and our worst performing campaign because LeBron James' audience actually does not care about getting better sleep. They care about basketball.”

Failedinfluencerpartnerships

Sub Club by RevenueCat · 2026-03-06

PhotoRoom · AI photo editing app

Run a TikTok ambassador program

Worked for a while, then stalled as everyone copied it

“we were very focused on influencers and cracking the infamous TikTok ambassador playbook, which did work for us for a while”

Mixedinfluencerorganic-short-video

Sub Club by RevenueCat · 2026-03-06

PhotoRoom · AI photo editing app

Make ads for small-business owners fun and consumer-style, not businesslike

“whenever we run paid acquisition, we don't even try to optimize our creatives fully for businesses. We try to have a fun twist to it, because ultimately consumers can also be businesses.”

Unknownpaid-social

Sub Club by RevenueCat · 2026-03-06

PhotoRoom · AI photo editing app

Team up with a hit movie so users can put themselves on its set

“y'all did an incredible partnership with the Barbie movie where you take a selfie and it removes your background and puts you in the Barbie set”

Unknownpartnershipsproduct-virality

Sub Club by RevenueCat · 2026-03-06

Numbers mentioned

Subject	Metric	Value	Quote
PhotoRoom	downloads Almost 300M downloads since 2019	300M downloads approximate	“we're able to scale to almost 300 million downloads across a variety of different methods”
PhotoRoom	arr Over $50M ARR reached mainly via paid acquisition	USD 50M approximate	“we were able to scale to over 50 million ARR using paid as our main source of growth”
benchmarkShare of marketing budget in a single channel that puts growth at risk	share If ~70% of marketing budget sits in one channel, growth is already at risk	70% illustrative	“if 70% of your marketing budget is concentrated in a single channel, you're likely already putting your growth at risk”
PhotoRoom	count People who walked by / experienced the London LED-screen photo booth activation	15K people/one-time approximate	“we had 15,000 people walk by this billboard, they were able to experience PhotoRoom”
PhotoRoom	views Views on UGC collected at the London activation and repurposed into ads, socials and LinkedIn	4M views approximate	“we actually had over four million views on our collected UGC campaigns”
PhotoRoom	team size In-house ad creatives brought to the London event to film content	3 people	“we brought our three ad creatives to the Outernet”
PhotoRoom	growth rate Uplift in branded search after the London offline campaign	+18%	“Whereas in London, we saw an 18% uplift in branded search, for example.”
PhotoRoom	growth rate Branded search uplift after the Japan Kamuri/Tamiya press event	+0% approximate	“we didn't see any uplift from the Kamuri campaign”
Campaign Magazine	users Monthly visitors of Campaign Magazine, which covered PhotoRoom's London campaign	250K visitors/month approximate	“getting coverage on Campaign Magazine, which was one of the biggest publications for anybody doing offline campaigns. They have 250,000 monthly visitors.”