Celebrities have a dubious reputation when it comes to getting results from an advertising campaign. Old school wisdom suggests that while celebrities are memorable, they often overshadow the actual product being advertised and fail to convince consumers to purchase products. However, this is shifting: According to data from YouGov, 34% of Gen Z audiences trust celebrities or influencers in advertisements (compared to just 22% for the general population).
No wonder then that game publishers and brands looking to reach gaming audiences have increasingly turned to mainstream celebrities to spruik their products. In this article, we’re looking at recent successful celebrity sponsors of games to see how they engage with viewers and what they achieve for the brands they represent.
Celebrities Appearing In Commercials for Games
The most traditional form of celebrity sponsorship is the classic TV spot: Putting a celebrity into your ad alongside dazzling visuals and showing them absolutely eating up your product. “X celebrity thinks this is cool? Then it must be!” For the most part, these ads usually aim to achieve cultural relevance by associating the product with a trendy star.
A perfect example of this strategy is the latest PlayStation ad featuring Thai singer LISA (originally known from K-pop group BlackPink). Obviously K-pop is incredibly popular right now, but LISA herself is also having a moment: She’s striking out on her own solo career and even appearing in TV shows like season 3 of The White Lotus. This Playstation ad leans into her style, bridging the gap between LISA’s fashion and the console’s library of modern titles like Marathon and Astro Bot. This is a big win for PlayStation, with LISA reaching 107M fans across Instagram and X and holding an impressive engagement rate of 3.8%. LISA also benefits from the collab, branching out into other forms of media with global reach.
Some other examples of celebrities appearing in ads for games and game consoles include:
- God of War Ragnarok with Ben Stiller, John Travolta, LeBron James
- Sony with King Gnu
- Nintendo with Paul Rudd (throwback to an older 1991 commercial)
Mobile Games Throwing Money at Celebrities
When it comes to celebrity endorsements, one genre of gaming has taken the ball and run with it: Mobile gaming. F2P mobile games consider A-list celebrities essential for reaching new gamers. The truth is: Mobile games have a LOT of competition, so their main concern is awareness. A huge publicity campaign with stars that are regularly covered in tabloids and blogs guarantees an earned media boost for their title.
Royal Kingdom made headlines with its stunning cast of celebrity spokespeople. The talent on show here ranged from comedians like Amy Poehler and Kevin Hart to sitcom stars like Jennifer Aniston, Kaley Cuoco, and Sofia Vergara. AND, as if that weren’t enough, they even nabbed LeBron James and Shakira. The diversity and star quality on display here is unmatched, and this prompted a wave of online articles wondering where a mobile game possibly got the budget for this kind of advertising campaign. But what outlets should have been reporting on is the strategy here: Royal Kingdom partnered with celebrities well-known to Millennial audiences who have the largest mobile game adoption rate of any demographic.
Some other examples of celebrities appearing in ads for mobile games include:
- Monopoly GO! With Jason Momoa, Chris Pratt, Keke Palmer
- Hay Day with Gordon Ramsay
- Clash of Clans with Erling Haaland
- Squad Busters with Chris Hemsworth, Christina Ricci, Ken Jeong, Will Arnett, and Auli’i Cravalho
- Travel Town with Kylie Jenner
- Coin Town with J Lo, The Kardashians, and Terry Crews
- Mobile Strike with Arnold Schwarznegger
Entering the World of Game Creation with Celebrities
One of the common objections to investing in celebrity endorsements is that it comes off as artificial: Who’s gonna believe that Jennifer Aniston spends her downtime playing Match-3 puzzle games (even if she actually does)? However, some celebrity partnerships roll the star into the media itself. Lending one’s talents to a game or film shows passion on the part of the celebrity while still giving that word-of-mouth boost.
Cut to Nicholas Cage walking on-stage at Summer Game Fest 2023 for his reveal as a playable character in Dead by Daylight. The crowd roared with excitement for this team-up. Yes, of course Nicholas Cage is famous, but the collab also made sense: Dead by Daylight pays homage to horror film franchises, and Nicholas Cage’s recent outings include horror-blended titles like Mandy, Renfield, and Longlegs. Additionally, Nicholas Cage’s avant-garde reputation nicely aligns with supporting newer forms of media, making the jump from films to games palatable for his fans. All of this means authenticity, which means credibility, which means sales.
Some other examples of celebrities backing games with their talents include:
- Mortal Kombat with Megan Fox (VA role)
- Armored Kingdom with Mila Kunis (Web3-enabled game)
- Fatal Fury with Cristiano Ronaldo (full blog here)
- Casting for video game movies:
Celebrities Jumping onto Streaming to Reach Gamers
Of course, it’s not just games themselves that are attracting celebrity sponsorships. As you well know if you read our blog, there’s a strong overlap between streaming audiences and gaming audiences. Naturally, then, celebrities will sometimes be asked to appear on stream to promote a product. Streaming feels more natural than a paid TV spot, and allows the celebrity to showcase their IRL personality rather than leaning on an established persona.
John Cena is the perfect example of a celebrity well-suited to streaming. Apart from his showmanship and ability to ad-lib, he also has an upbeat, energized personality that reinvigorates long streams. No wonder that McDonald’s asked John Cena to appear on stream with Kai Cenat to promote their chain, combining Kai Cenat’s star power with John Cena’s 21.2M Instagram followers. The (relatively) casual hangout between the two captured the essence of McDonald’s branding as comfort food, harkening back to late night hangouts with friends.
There are plenty of other celebrities that have either appeared on streaming as part of a sponsorship, or who have started their own live-streaming channels to reach a wider audience. You can check out a fairly comprehensive list here on Stream Scheme.
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Celebrities have cottoned on to the power of aligning themselves with games to boost their own profiles. These collaborations can be win-win situations – but all parties need to feel that the sponsorship is synergistic, relevant, and can be delivered in a way that highlights the star’s talents. Additionally, this is just the first step: Marion Balinoff suggests that celebrity sponsorships should be combined with influencer campaigns to boost the reach of their effect and activate some of the most engaged audiences online (as influencers still have higher ROI than celebrities on average).
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