Dream Games launched what is likely the most expensive celebrity mobile game ad campaign ever earlier this month.
With the likes of LeBron James, Shakira and Jimmy Fallon promoting Royal Kingdom across social media right now, we asked several contacts with good knowledge of celebrity marketing campaigns what these folks are earning – and the answers are eye-popping.
One source suggested LeBron James could have earned up to $4m for his role in the campaign. Another more conservative source suggested he would have banked at least $1.5m for what they estimated to be around 4-5 hours of shooting.
The likes of Jimmy Fallon and Shakira were estimated to have been paid at least a million each for their appearances, while Kaley Cuoco and Johnny Galecki will have likely split a million, banking $500k each for their Royal Kingdom spot.
We asked our sources to take a stab at what some other high profile names got paid for previous campaigns, too. Chris Hemsworth could have been paid up to $2m for his role in Supercell’s Squad Busters launch ad, they said.
The other stars of the ensemble ad – Will Arnett, Christina Ricci, Auliʻi Cravalho and Ken Jeong – are likely to have been paid around half, perhaps even a third of Hemsworth’s fee.
Scopely also spent big on a Monopoly Go campaign dubbed ‘Friendship pays’ recently. Will Ferrell lent his voice only to ‘Mr Monopoly’, while Jason Momoa, Chris Pratt and Keke Palmer appeared in person for the special effects-laden ad.
Ferrell is still likely to have been paid up to $2m, says one source, with Pratt, Momoa and Palmer likely to have received about the same or slightly less for their in-person appearances.
One source also noted the huge money Moon Active is currently spending on Travel Town, with Kylie Jenner, Christina Aguilera and Millie Bobbie Brown all heavily promoting the game on TikTok.
Those creatives are likely to have cost Moon Active much less than the multimillion-dollar spends on the lavish ads above, as they are low-production-value pieces to camera, in keeping with TikTok’s less polished, more organic aesthetic.
These estimates also just account for the celebrity’s fee alone – factor in production costs and the cost of media buying and the likes of Dream Games, Moon Active and Scopely are likely to be spending tens of millions on each of these campaigns.
“The celebrities’ fee really depends on deliverables, how many working days, which territories, with or without TV, for how long, number of social posts…it also depends on how ‘hot’ the celebrity is,” said one marketer who has worked on several celebrity campaigns.
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“I don’t think that all of these ensemble actors got paid equally,” they continued. “Also it depends if they are with the same talent agency to get a bundle deal for all talents – that’s what I would have done, go with the main talent and see how I can bundle 4-5 more within the same agency.”
Speaking about the Royal Kingdom creatives, another source added: “These are some of the highest, if not the highest, caliber of celebrity ads i’ve seen. What’s different now is that you’re seeing these ensembles rather than just a single celebrity like Arnold Schwarzenegger or Kate Upton back in the day.”
According to Appmagic, Royal Kingdom downloads and revenue have risen since the ads began two weeks ago, but it’s perhaps too early to say whether the millions spent will truly pay off long-term.
Prior to the ad campaign, Royal Kingdom was pulling in around ~80k downloads per day at weekends. Early Appmagic figures suggest that it was generating over 300k installs per day this past weekend, with revenue seeing a more modest rise.
