Oh My Lady Gaga

Roxanne Wu, Shanghai & Jonathan Halliwell, London

 

Working in the Edelman Global Partners Program these past six months or so has seen the link between our two offices, Shanghai and London, grow and grow.  Sharing knowledge has been a huge part of this and most recently Roxanne and I have been discussing the JCPR Trend Report, a monthly look at the latest consumer trends compiled by the consumer team here in London, JCPR. 

May’s report called out a growing trend within Farmville as savvy brands bring their content to the platform to engage with their 60 million players across the globe.  This last month has seen two very different brands partner with the Facebook phenomenon to offer unique content experiences that directly engaged with committed farmers.  These collaborations have mutual benefits for both parties – the brands have the opportunity to engage with millions and Farmville gets the chance to hook a new wave of players.  Zynga is treating Farmville like an entertainment franchise which is particularly interesting for something that at first glance is a simple online game.  But the Farmville audience is much wider – and to many brands more valuable – than your average online game, and its brand activity acts as a new channel to directly engage with their target audience.

The first example is American Express, putting their stake in the virtual ground by gifting Farmville members with a free Blue Windmill and Instant Grow application for their virtual farms to promote social currency and the theme of their Membership Rewards program.  The second is Lady Gaga.

When Lady Gaga released exclusive new tracks from “Born this Way” within GagaVille, traffic to the game increased by over 30%. The exclusive Gaga content gave members a chance to experience the much awaited tracks via their Farmville network, crucially before anyone else across the globe. All this within a Lady Gaga environment specifically created within the game to allow fans to interact with a piece of Gaga’s world.

This got Roxanne and I thinking about Gaga in particular.  Alright, her rapid rise to stardom may be peaking over here in the UK, she has doubtless become a global phenomenon and I think a lot of us would agree this isn’t just down to the quality of her music.  Beyond GagaVille, the comprehensive digital approach to launching her album “Born this Way,” has been striking.  She’s been positioned across digital platforms including, Starbucks (client), Chrome, Best Buy (client), Gild.com, HBO, Facebook and the Robin Hood Foundation, all driving the same singular work, her music, through different approaches will empower her fans to experience, interact, celebrate, to treasure and love.  By using these different channels the experiences become more and more personal – be it getting Gaga content while playing my favourite game or Gaga content while ordering my favourite coffee.

Just take a glance at this activity Roxanne highlights from her vantage point in Guangzhou:

• Launch of GagaVille on Zynga
• Partnership with Starbucks with a treasure hunting online game “SRCH”
• Music video sharing on Google Chrome
•  Best Buy live show of her interactions with fans
• Donations to Robin Hood Foundation and linked the initiative with her new track
• Gaga’s Monster Ball show on HBO
• Her photo collage on Facebook won support of 25 million “likes” and the music video on Juda (I’m not familiar with Juda, can you tell me anything about it?) enjoys over 35 million views…

This combined to rock China’s music industry, breaking the best seller record on amazon.cn in two days with 440K  copies sold.  Pretty impressive.  In the US Gaga scored the highest opening sales figures in a decade, while in the UK she topped the charts with 215K sold.  And where Lady Gaga goes we can expect others to follow as brands recognize the online potential to tell their stories in new and innovative ways and engage new audiences.

Lady Gaga is a growing phenomenon in China, with some Chinese pop stars following and imitating her style, to a rapturous reception.  Her fans are now longing more than ever for her long-awaited and much rumoured China tour.  Even the UK media have picked up on the reaction as the Gaga wave washes over China, reporting that “Oh My Lady Gaga”  is the coolest new expression out there.

Oh My Lady Gaga.