When an addiction to social gaming turns into a product endorsement: the case of Alec Baldwin getting thrown off a plane due to Words with Friends.
Here we go again – a celebrity’s actions go overboard and he is actually thrown off a plane. If you haven’t heard through your own social media platforms, basically what happened is that Alec Baldwin was thrown off an American Airlines flight for continuing to play Zynga’s Words With Friends (“WWF”) app on his iPad, when all devices were to be shut off.
WWF is a scrabble-like mobile game app playable through Facebook or downloadable through iTunes, produced by Zynga, who also created the popular FarmVille and Mafia Wars game apps. Some of us at CONSOR are also quite fond of WWF ourselves (on our own time, of course).
Conveniently for Zynga, the free publicity brought upon by Alec Baldwin happens one week before Zynga’s IPO of 100 million shares, scheduled for December 16. Shares are expected to be priced between $8.50 and $10 each. Now I ask how much will Zynga’s value increase due to Baldwin’s unanticipated celebrity endorsement? (Conspiracy theorists can jump in now.) Such good timing!
But as these incidents seem to go these days, Baldwin’s seemingly rude behavior has turned into somewhat of a product endorsement for WWF. Everyone will want to know what the fuss is all about. Just picture all the cute words that will pop up on player’s game board, such as WWF’s own tweeted version showing “LET ALEC PLAY.”
While everyone is Tweeting and Facebooking away about the incident, you know that marketing and PR reps are busily strategizing about turning the incident into some endorsement bonanza. That’s the beauty of celebrities’ behavior sometimes; it can turn into free publicity.
I can see a whole co-branded marketing campaign evolving: Alec Baldwin getting thrown off an American Airlines plane, rescued and gently picked up by a lovely United Airlines flight attendant and eagerly shown to the first class section on a United plane, seatbacks equipped with iPads automatically set to WWF – the sweet flight attendants play WWF with passengers, too. Baldwin himself Tweeted that his new WWF user name is #theresalwaysunited. Zynga and United must love this!
Personally, my take on WWF is that at least you are using your brain to spell out words. I think of it as our family’s way of playing board games together, even though I’m downstairs, son is upstairs, aunt is in another city – it’s social media’s version of togetherness. And you can even send messages to each other through WWF! (Who even needs email anymore?)
There’s a marketing strategy for you, WWF: turn this into a nice family bonding scene for the holidays, with Baldwin as your Santa. FAMILY – worth at least 15 points…and just in time to add $100+ million to your IPO valuation!