Twitter has been buzzing this week with news that pop goddess Lady Gaga is setting up shop in Facebook uber-game FarmVille to promote her new album, Born This Way. Social gamers can ditch the spuds and head to GagaVille to plant gems and glitter balls and ride about on pink-maned steeds. Along with custom virtual goods, GagaVille residents will also be able to unlock and stream tracks from the new album on certain days before the album is released.
The partnership of two love-to-hate (but incredibly popular – FarmVille has 45 million active players) brands has unsurprisingly sparked much digital scorn, but after watching this tongue-in-cheek promo video by Evolution Bureau, I can’t help but warm to the idea, despite my relative lack of interest in either the game or the music.
Less widely reported is the fact that the cross-promotion actually spans multiple social games including incredibly-dear-to-my-heart-but-terrifyingly-addictive Words With Friends for iOS/Android. Words players will have the chance to play a word-of-the-day for the chance to win free tickets to Lady Gaga concerts and a signed album. What a fantastic idea to add another element of game play to this popular game. (Words With Friends was recently bought by FarmVille (and every other-Ville) creators Zynga.)
Gaga branded items will also be available in RewardVille, CityVille, FrontierVille, Mafia Wars, Zynga Poker, Café World, Treasure Isle, YoVille, PetVille, and Vampire Wars.
Seems like Gaga may have hit on one of the most innovative social game marketing strategies yet – something we will probably be seeing more and more of considering the hundreds of millions of active and dedicated social gamers around the world.
