Farm Monster: Lady Gaga Partners With FarmVille Makers Zynga for GagaVille
News leaked weeks ago that pop powerhouse Lady Gaga might team with Zynga for a possible promo deal. Why would social gaming firm Zynga be interested in partnering with Gaga, and vice versa? Easy answer: massive, massive buzz. Zynga has roughly 250 million active users worldwide, while international superstar and deal-making maniac Gaga has near universal reach online--just a small number of her music videos have accumulated more than a billion views combined.
Details of the partnership have finally come to light, and as you might've guessed, you can tack on one more name to the ever-growing list of roster of Zynga games: GagaVille, a Gaga-inspired in-game farm featuring her "unique style [including] colorful crystals, magical unicorns, [and] sheep on motorcycles." But don't let that eclectic creation fool you: Zynga and Gaga are in for some serious cross-promotion.
All the details revealed today indicate the partnership was designed to boost both Zynga's games and Gaga's hotly anticipated album. GagaVille acts as a companion to FarmVille, and will give users exclusive access to music from Gaga's upcoming release Born This Way. In Zynga's Words With Friends game, Zynga has planned a "Words With Gaga" contest, which will give players a chance to win Gaga prizes such a concert tickets and signed album copies. What's more, Zynga will offer Gaga-inspired virtual items in RewardVille, and if that wasn't enough, $25 Zynga game cards will come with a free download of Born This Way along with exclusive bonus tracks.
"I want to celebrate and share Born This Way with my little monsters in a special way that's never been done before," Gaga said in a statement Tuesday. "Zynga has created a magical place in FarmVille where my fans can come play, and be the first to listen to the album."
This is certainly an innovative approach to marketing a music album. We might've expected a partnership with iTunes or Google perhaps, as rumors have suggested, but Zynga may pay off for both brands in the end.
And it's not the first time Zynga and Gaga have joined forces. In March, they teamed up to raise more than $3 million for relief efforts in Japan.
This content was originally published on FastCompany.com
More news from Fast Company:- Syria's Facebook Wars- How Google Music Beta Could Make Users Go Gaga - Wannabe SEALs Help U.S. Navy Hunt Pirates In Massively Multiplayer Game