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.

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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

After finding product-market fit early with the background remover, PhotoRoom relied mostly on paid acquisition to scale. Over time it saw ad fatigue, weaker campaign performance and rising CPAs, which pushed it to diversify.

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

Goal: show PhotoRoom is more than a background remover. Picked a smaller test market (UK, London) to get clean data. Rented high-footfall places with physical screens (the Outernet) and huge LED screens; people walked in, used a PhotoRoom photo booth, edited their pictures, and saw them blown up on the screen. Planned for UGC/online distribution from the start. Measured via branded search uplift.

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

Brought PhotoRoom's three in-house ad creatives to the Outernet on campaign day; they recorded content that was repurposed for paid ads, social posts and LinkedIn (TikToks reposted on LinkedIn). Advice: always factor UGC/online distribution into any offline activation to get ROI.

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

Stopped comparing brand/offline campaign CPAs to paid acquisition CPAs. Now measures brand uplift through branded search, runs brand awareness surveys, and uses qualitative measures instead of installs/conversions/retention.

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

In Japan (large PhotoRoom market with many collector users), partnered with model-kit maker Tamiya to host a community event at its new offices/store. The local team hired comedian Kamuri to host. Because he wanted a closed audience, attendance was limited to journalists, press and TV, relying 100% on media coverage for exposure.

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

Calm partnered with LeBron James as part of its celebrity partnerships.

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

Focused brand efforts on influencers and a TikTok ambassador playbook; no details given.

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

Treats small-business owners as consumers first (they are already on Instagram/TikTok), so paid creatives are not fully optimized for businesses and carry a fun twist.

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

Barbie movie partnership: take a selfie, PhotoRoom removes the background and places you in the Barbie set (described by host).

Unknownpartnershipsproduct-virality

Sub Club by RevenueCat · 2026-03-06

Numbers mentioned

Who	Metric	Value	Context
PhotoRoom	downloads	300M downloads approximate	Almost 300M downloads since 2019
PhotoRoom	arr	USD 50M approximate	Over $50M ARR reached mainly via paid acquisition
benchmarkShare of marketing budget in a single channel that puts growth at risk	share	70% illustrative	If ~70% of marketing budget sits in one channel, growth is already at risk
PhotoRoom	count	15K people/one-time approximate	People who walked by / experienced the London LED-screen photo booth activation
PhotoRoom	views	4M views approximate	Views on UGC collected at the London activation and repurposed into ads, socials and LinkedIn
PhotoRoom	team size	3 people	In-house ad creatives brought to the London event to film content
PhotoRoom	growth rate	+18%	Uplift in branded search after the London offline campaign
PhotoRoom	growth rate	+0% approximate	Branded search uplift after the Japan Kamuri/Tamiya press event
Campaign Magazine	users	250K visitors/month approximate	Monthly visitors of Campaign Magazine, which covered PhotoRoom's London campaign