Megastar Millionaire: world’s richest online talent competition set to launch this weekend
MSMCI (ASX: MSM) is about to launch the world’s richest online talent competition.
Called Megastar Millionaire, the App will be available for download in the USA on Saturday the 30th of September and in Australia the following day.
Megastar taps into the public’s interest in talent competitions, such as the X Factor and Idol, but transitions this narrative to the rapidly growing, on-demand, mobile format with rolling 12-week competitions.
Prize money for the ultimate winner is US$1M and is a carrot that should draw some impressive talent to the tournament. Fans are the judges, they vote to decide the winner and are rewarded for discovering the best talent.
The Megastar Millionaire app viewed on a phone.
The completion of the global launch this weekend will coincide with what the company claims will be one of the largest marketing and media programs ever conducted to promote a mobile App. A total of $5.7M has been budgeted for the program, which is fully funded post the Company’s $10.5M capital raising completed at 20 cents in August.
MSMCi has compiled an impressive list of social media stars to promote the App via the established platforms. The leading brand ambassador, social influencer and head judge is the Grammy award winning celebrity “Usher”, who has 68 million social media fans across Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
Usher will direct his fans to download the Megastar Millionaire app so that they can watch his latest content and participate in the tournaments as either a contestant, a fan or both. Interestingly, Usher was instrumental in recognising and developing Justin Bieber so he certainly knows about burgeoning talent.
In concert with Usher is a group of social influencers from various fields of talent. The list includes former Olympians, extreme frisbee throwers, dancers, comedians and more. Social influencers and sponsored performers will promote the competition to their social media audiences of 130 million people using content produced by Megastar with specific calls-to-action to install the App and join the competition.
Another of the social influencers is “Danceon”, which is a professional dance studio whom includes Madonna (yes, that’s correct) and Nigel Lythgoe (co-creator of American Idol, X Factor and So You Think You Can Dance) on the board of directors.
In a recent video interview, MSMCI’s CEO, Mr Dion Sullivan had the following to say about the global launch:
“Come September 30th, we are going to come out with such a massive burst of marketing, including all of our social media marketing, that it is going to drive awareness, and therefore adoption, throughout the entire tournament
Megastar is, and always will be, a social media marketing driven company. However, given the nature of our partnerships, given the celebrities that we have involved in Megastar, there will be some mass media pick up. That will be in the form of paid and earned media and we expect that to be quite significant.”
The social media campaigns will be amplified by mass media and PR campaigns. Rogers & Cowan has been enlisted to drive PR in the US and the UK and is credited with achieving 1B impressions and 50M downloads in 30 days post the launch of Angry Birds 2.
The other ‘marketing machine’ behind the App will be the talented individuals vying for the prize. More publicity, means more votes, equals a greater chance of winning one million dollars. It will be the contestants who drive virality over the long term by promoting their own submissions and interacting with fans. The more they drive their own brand the more they drive megastar.
Monetisation of Megastar Millionaire
The app will monetise via in-app purchases, in-app advertising, sponsorship deals and big data resale.
Monetisation kicks off from day one of the global launch and it is anyone’s guess how much revenue the company will generate. We do know that Megastar Millionaire comes at an opportune time as consumers spend increasingly more time on their smart phones and increasingly more money on casual games.
Rovio Entertainment, the owner of the Angry Bird’s franchise, is reportedly soon to conduct an IPO, pricing the company at approximately A$1.2b. Lesser known, but still very popular apps of a similar ilk to Megastar, are ‘Smule’ and ‘Musical.ly’. Both reportedly have valuations of approximately US$600M each and prove that there is serious money in successful social gaming apps.