Glu: only stars with 100 million followers are suitable for us

Niccolo De Masi, CEO of Glu Mobile, told during GamesBeat 2015 what principles the company follows when choosing the next celebrity for a mobile game.

In the image: singer Katy Perry
Glu Mobile’s flagship project is a game featuring socialite Kim Kardashian.

The title was launched last summer, and since that moment has earned the studio tens of millions of dollars. In the wake of the success of the first project, Glu Mobile has signed agreements with several more stars – sisters Kim Kardashian, Katy Perry, Nicki Minaj, Britney Spears and Jason Statham.

De Masi believes that enlisting the support of a celebrity is more profitable than buying a license. “One of the reasons why we love working with stars so much is that it’s a long-term marketing asset,” he comments. Movie licenses do not have the most active audience in social networks. But a star with 100 million followers with fan support is fine, de Masi is sure. A contract with such a celebrity by default means effective promotion.

According to de Masi, Glu Mobile does not even consider cooperation with stars who have less than 100 million subscribers in social networks. “Believe it or not, the demand for contracts with us significantly exceeds our capabilities, so we are very, very picky. I get messages every day from those who have 5 million, 10 million, 30 million followers. We are not going to make a game for those who have 10 million followers. Now 100 million is something like the lower bar,” de Masi said.

He shared that the studio focuses not only on the number of subscribers. The genre of the future game and the tastes of the existing audience are taken into account. The CEO of Glu Mobile also noted that the company pays stars 10% royalties for cooperation (which probably explains the huge number of people who want to sign a contract with the studio).

A source: http://www.gamesindustry.biz