Are Brands Going To Become More Like Kim Kardashian? You'd Be Surprised

Yeah, yeah, we know. Grotesque. Repulsive. Ridiculous. 

But you may have forgotten an adjective or two. Like popular. Oh, and profitable. Wildly profitable.

Kim Kardashian, the avatar of meaningless celebrity and self promotion. Just keep dissing her on the net, in social media, wherever. She's laughing all the way to the bank.

She has a video game. We're not kidding. What could it possibly be about? No idea. Who cares. It was downloaded 22 million times and generated $43 million in revenues. Over what time period, you ask? A year? Hah! How about three months.

More action on the game than on her family's TV show. By a long shot.

So what does this mean for brands? It suggests that creativity and new ways of delivering content are going to be essential for extending the value of brands. The Kardashians may be a phenomenon many love to hate, but they get that keeping their brand in front of their fans by whatever means necessary is the best way of assuring that it continues to generate the kind of attention that pays. Whatever that may do to the world's collective psyche. JL
 
Kevin Chou comments in Pulse:

More than five times as many minutes were spent with her game than with her TV program -- and this season even included the big wedding to Kanye!
One of the big ideas for 2015 has actually been sneaking up on us the past few years. Mobile games will play an increasingly central role in a brand’s growth and development.
The mobile games market is expected to hit $25 billion in global revenues in 2014 and is projected to hit $30 billion in 2015, surpassing traditional console games as the largest game segment by revenues, according to market researcher Newzoo. Popular global brands pairing with mobile games is a large part of the equation.
Consider two phenomena that were watershed moments this year. One is Disney’s Frozen and the other is, yes, Kim Kardashian.
Whether you consider Kardashian a paragon or a punch line, her free-to-play mobile game, Kim Kardashian: Hollywood, is an example of a brand leveling up in terms of both reach and revenue.
Variety reports that Kim Kardashian: Hollywood:

• Generated $43.3 million in sales from the end of June through the end of September
• Has been downloaded more than 22.8 million times
• Logged more than 1.2 billion sessions, and players have spent more than 5.7 billion minutes with it on iOS devices alone

To compare, during the same June through September time frame this year, first-run episodes of the television show Keeping up with the Kardashians (season 9) were watched by a total audience of 23.42 million who spent 1.04 billion minutes with the show.
More than five times as many minutes were spent with her game than with her TV program -- and this season even included the big wedding to Kanye!
Maybe you can’t stand keeping up with any form of Kardashian, no matter how many dollar signs are flashed. You are a Kardashian denier who will not be convinced. Then let’s move to a brand decidedly more family friendly – Disney’s Frozen.
During a recent mobile showcase, Disney Interactive President James Pitaro highlighted the success of the Frozen Free Fall mobile game, including:

• 70 million downloads
• 4 million daily players
• 147 million daily minutes
• 31 billion minutes played

Gigaom writes that “Users have spent more minutes with the app than theater audiences with the Frozen movie in theaters.”
Kabam has seen its own successes with free-to-play games based on blockbuster entertainment properties such as The Hobbit, which generated more than $100 million in revenue in less than one year, and Fast and Furious, which has been downloaded 67 million times
Through mobile games, fans have an entirely new way to interact with their favorite brands. And this interaction is no longer constrained by a movie’s release in theaters or a TV show’s weekly schedule. The mobile app is always with the audience and always connected. There is always an opportunity to engage.
In 2015, we’ll all be keeping up with Kim Kardashian, and we’ll be better for it.
[*Statistics derived from: The sum of the ratings for each episode times the minutes per episode.]