How Mobile Games Are Sports Stars’ Newest Marketing Channel

Heads Up with Cristiano Ronaldo — a mobile game featuring the Portuguese soccer star — has already been a hit for parent company RockLive after less than a month in the iTunes App Store. Users have spent more than 225 million minutes playing the game since its launch on Dec. 4, according to RockLive co-founders John and Sam Shahidi. Last week it was the top-ranked game in the app store's sports category.

But Heads Up is just the latest in RockLive's line of arcade-style iOS games based on celebrity athletes, and the company is spearheading an emerging industry that is putting a new twist on how athletes market themselves across mobile platforms.

In November 2010, RockLive released Mad Chad, featuring popular NFL player Chad Ochocinco, and followed that this March with Mike Tyson: Main Event. Titles featuring NBA scoring champion Kevin Durant and Olympic star Usain Bolt are planned for 2012.

"Because we did such a great job with Chad and Mike — and now that Cristiano's game has had this great appeal — a lot of celebrities are saying, 'I've done a great job with Twitter, but now what?" John Shahidi says. "Well, now they want mobile games."

RockLive's games don't adhere to the realistic simulations that are the basis for most sports games. In Mad Chad, which has gained more than a million users, players help a cartoon version of Ochocinco find a lost pet pigeon. In Main Event, which has gained more than two million users, players box cartoon versions of celebrities including Tyson and DJ Pauly D. Similarly, Heads Up features a cartoon Ronaldo who bounces colorful soccer balls off of his head to gain points.

But Heads Up also represents an important step forward for RockLive, its founders say, with the new game having already generated more revenue than Mad Chad and Main Event combined. RockLive also released a full social platform with Heads Up, allowing users to compete against Twitter and Facebook connections, create a gaming profile and browse a public leader board. An API for third-party developers is planned to debut in 2012. Among all Heads Up users, the Shahidis say, some 30% of time spent with the app is devoted to its social elements.

John and Sam first met Ochocinco when he was an NFL teammate of two high school friends of theirs. The brothers began helping manage Ochocinco's social media presence (they currently do the same for more than 10 sports personalities) and soon developed an Ochocinco iPhone app. Before long they moved on to mobile games, starting with Mad Chad, in an effort to create a more use-heavy marketing product for athletes.

"It's been crazy ever since," John says.

RockLive works closely with its athletes to develop games; Tyson helped design some of the characters in Main Event, while Ronaldo insisted on including his pet Golden Retriever in Heads Up. The immediate popularity of RockLive games has even enabled the Shahidis to be be picky about whom they choose to work with.

"If someone isn't interested in being closely involved in the process then we're not interested in them, no matter who they are," John says.

The side-by-side relationships also help the company forsake traditional marketing efforts to instead promote products through stars' robust social media followings. With Heads Up for example, Ronaldo's immense popularity on Twitter (where he has more than 6 million followers) and Facebook (where he has more than 37 million likes) has been a boon for the app, which has gotten more than 50% of its users from outside the United States.

And what's good for RockLive's games is good for the athletes the games are built around.

"What we're finding is athletes really want to get more eyeballs and build their followers online, because that's where the world is going," John says. "Games are a new way for them to expand their reach worldwide."