My DA process has had a slow start but, week after week I have felt improvement within my research and the progress of my DA. With each weekly blog post, I have been able to further develop my research and ultimately my analytical frameworks.
Beginning my DA I had made the assumption that Kim Kardashian (KK) had developed a game with pop up ads and in-game purchases solely to make money and to enhance her rapid shot to fame she had been experiencing in 2014, but through my research I feel I judged this game and KK by the game’s cover too quickly. Through my game experience, my assumption has been proven true but what I’ve discovered from my research about this game and the mobile gaming industry has peaked my interest.
The mobile gaming industry is fairly new and there are hundreds of thousands of games available to download for mobile devices so how did a celebrity with no gaming experience or knowledge, get the opportunity to develop their own game?
Kim Kardashian Hollywood (KKH) is developed by Glu Mobile, who claims to be “The Leader in 3D Freemium Mobile Gaming” (Glu, 2020). Their purpose is to deliver fun mobile games and game experiences and I believe they have certainly hit the mark on with KKH. The CEO of glue, Niccolo de Masi approached KK in late 2013 with the aim to “reuse engines but could add popular appeal” (Tweedie 2014) and KK fit their ideas. So in 2014 KKH was released and did better than either party had expected.
My analytical framework examines the KKH game from a financial and marketing perspective. In the first year since the game’s initial launch, over $71.8 million was made from in-app purchases alone as the game is a freemium game, meaning it is a free to download game and generated over 40 million downloads. Financially, this game has made millions and continues to do so as there is no “end” to the game so although the aim of the game is to become an A list celebrity and gain followers, there is no limit to how many followers you can accumulate as continuous updates allow for players to continue to grow their following.
Looking at the game from a marketing perspective, it was simple but genius. With the rise of Instagram and Twitter, KK was able to not only announce but also continue to promote (and still does) her game from just her social media platforms. The game targets females “emphasising the importance of cultivating a unique individual style for dissemination across networked media (Soehendar & Widjayanti 2020). Using the power of social media and targeting her female followers made this game one of the top games in 2015!
As I continue to develop my research, I seem to enjoy the process more and more and cannot wait to continue my DA. From my research thus far, I feel as though this game has done everything right to make it as popular as it has become.
References
Company | Glu 2020, Glu, viewed 29 September 2021, <https://www.glu.com/company/>.
Tweedie, S 2014, The Mastermind Behind Kim Kardashian’s Insanely-Popular App Explains How The Hit Game Was Created, Business Insider Australia, viewed 29 September 2021, <https://www.businessinsider.com.au/kim-kardashian-hollywood-game-history-2014-8>.
Soehendar, P, T & Widjayanti, P, E, 2020, THE MANIFESTATION OF KIM KARDASHIAN’S AESTHETIC AND GLAMOUR LABORS IN KIM KARDASHIAN: HOLLYWOOD MOBILE GAME, undefined, viewed 29 September 2021, <https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/THE-MANIFESTATION-OF-KIM-KARDASHIAN%E2%80%99S-AESTHETIC-AND-Soehendar-Widjayanti/160fcfc628619f7f85c87aa4958a07ad458a9424>.
Olivia Lopez 