Why Lady Gaga is getting into the games business with Zynga

For many people hearing that Lady Gaga is going into business with social games giant Zynga has got to have them scratching their heads.  After all, why would the coolest, most iconic pop star since Madonna want to be a part of the decidedly uncool, reviled by hipsters, makers of Farmville?  I've got a few ideas that when you hear will make sense:

Audience Size
Zynga commands a huge audience; bigger than most people realize.  Any way you slice it, by monthly active players or daily active players, Zynga is simply huge.  Reaching over 250 million players a month and approximately 50 million a day, Lady Gaga wouldn't be able to reach this many if people if she were on American Idol for a month.

A New Platform
Lady Gaga is the queen of being where he audience is.  She is one of the top celebrities on nearly every network that counts.  She has the most views on YouTube, the most Twitter followers and her Facebook fan page fan count is right up there.  The next logical step is for her to reach the game audience.  With Zynga, Lady Gaga has the opportunity to reach an entirely new audience of online game players and a new demographic, her fans mothers!

New Revenue
The forgotten success of Zynga is its mainstream introduction of micro transactions.  Zynga makes its money by selling very inexpensive virtual items that either helps a player go faster through one of their games, or as unique decorations.  For Gaga, having the opportunity to tap into the micro transactions market is invaluable.  If a Gaga brand game or Gaga goods can do well, she'll be able to access a whole new revenue stream untouched by any artist so far. I can see her little monsters scooping up ever piece of Gaga branded game art, can't you?

Consistent with her brand
Lady Gaga is an original (derivitive, but original).  She's an artist and thrives by taking risks and chances.  By being on the edge of a cultural phenomenon she's able to be out front of things and have first mover advantage.  Pairing up with Zynga is out on the edge and unusual for the music business.  Regular artists or controlled artists would never even think of being part of a game company’s portfolio.  Gaga's fans expect her to be on the edge of culture and Zynga represents that new frontier for her.

Amplification
All of Lady Gaga's success has been within the context of the web and the opportunities for her art to be amplified.  When she does something wild it reaches so many people so quickly because her fans are connected to each other online.  Lady Gaga has become a phenomenon the old fashion way, through art and outlandishness while Zynga is an expert in the science of virality.   The marriage of the two extends virality and gives both the opportunity to share knowledge it what is working.

 

So what do you think?  Good?  Bad or indifferent the Lady Gaga’s Zynga plans?  Let know what you think.