Brazilian actress and influencer, Larissa Manoela has launched her own MVNO.

Following the launch of several Football Clubs and Samba Schools as Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNO), the time has now come for celebrities in Brazil.

20 year old actress (and influencer) Larissa Manoela announced the launch of her own MVNO Lari Cel, in a post to her social media followers.

The MVNO is launched in cooperation with the Dry Company and the MVNA/MVNE Surf Telecom as the enabler, using TIM as the network.

Target Segment

Lari Cel will target the younger segment, who makes up the majority of her fan base and followers on social media.

“I believe that, in addition to being connected for life, we will now be connected literally through a powerful internet signal”, said the artist, when announcing the MVNO service to her followers.

Larissa Manoela has 38.3 million followers on her Instagram page, 18.4 million on Tik Tok and 2.5 million on her twitter account.

Value Proposition

The service plans on offer in Lari Cel follow very much what we have seen from the other fan based MVNOs in Brazil, which is: Prepaid plans starting from R$25 per month for 1.5Gb data, 60 minutes voice calls, zero rated WhatsApp and unused data accumulates in the following month.

As with the other fan based MVNOs, the price of the services is not the differentiator. The value proposition for the end-users, is being part of a community that fits their lifestyle and taste, be it a football team, a energy drink - or in relation to an artist.

“Larissa's fans can receive a call from her during her birthday or, who knows, maybe win a raffle to have dinner with her,” Tatiana Perez, CEO of Dry Company told Forbes.

Celebrities and influencers in MVNO

Celebrities and influencers in the MVNO space is not new. Over the past couple of years we have seen influencers launch MVNOs in other markets, either directly or as brand ambassadors.

Before that we have also seen Richard Branson in relation to Virgin Mobile branded MVNOs. i.e. in some markets, the Virgin Mobile brand is licensed by local entities, as a brand for MVNO operation - and despite not being directly involved in the running of the local MVNO, Richard Branson will sometimes pop-up on a country visit, a few days before or during a Virgin Mobile MVNO launch, as part of the Go-to-Market Strategy.

In 2019 the Canadian Hollywood actor, Ryan Reynolds bought an ownership stake in the U.S. MVNO Mint Mobile and has since become actively involved and the public face of the company - with great success.

Larissa Manoela's MVNO announcement on her Instagram

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A post shared by Larissa Manoela (@larissamanoela)