Angry Birds metamorphosis: From game stars to entertainment media companies

From the world's most popular games to entertainment media companies, Rovio, an angry bird development company, has successfully transformed in two years. Income from derivatives now accounts for 40% of total income. Recently, "China Business newspaper" reporter interviewed to Rovio company in China, general manager of Chen Boyi, and he jointly explore the idea and strategy of bird transformation: How to use the game for derivative development? China is now the world's second-largest market for birds outside the United States, and its marketing strategies and problems in China deserve our attention and research.

Rovio's CEO, Mikael Hed, now wants outsiders to look at them as an entertainment company rather than as a gaming company, though they do rely on the game's fame. Before "Angry Birds" hung around the world, Rovio was just a small, obscure gaming company. Before the Apple App Store in 2009, the bird's initial investment was 25,000 euros, but in 2011 the birds had made 106.3 million dollars for Rovio, and 40% of that income came from derivatives. This is the real reason why Rovio companies become entertainment companies from gaming companies. Mikael Hed believes that strong revenue growth is reflecting the popularity of the "Angry Birds" brand, and what Rovio is doing now is to fully convert the brand value into real gold and silver.

Flight "Secrets"

"Every new character is developed, and it's in the story, and it's part of the story."

From a simple game to start, "Angry Birds" how quickly fly all over the world. Rovio, general manager of China, Chen Boyi, interviewed by the China Business newspaper, attributed it to how to tell a good story and interact effectively with the player.

Game development at the beginning, the bird is just a copy of the role of Slingshot game, but the company quickly found that the bird is an affinity for the image, so around it designed a listless pig, told a self as a weapon, and steal the eggs of the pig head War revenge game. "There's not a good story behind many games, but the design and development of the bird is very attentive to this," Chenbo revealed, this idea has been through the "Angry Birds" subsequent product development, "each development of a new role, will be aware of its position in the story, as part of the story." The narrative design effectively attracts players of all ages, from children to the elderly. In addition, the Rovio company attaches great importance to the interaction with the player. Within 4 months of the initial online game, the company made almost no advertising effort. The secret to making the birds fly farther is to have a full interaction with the player. In the 2011 Rovio Mobile 40 Team, 23 were dedicated to responding to fan emails and interacting with fans on Twitter. The fans ' opinions were even incorporated into the development of the game, such as the "Magic Eagle", which was designed to come from a 5-year-old child. The operation of social media is an important part of the Rovio promotion game, early in 2010, birds quickly flew into Facebook, the current number of fans has more than 21 million.

After the initial success of the game, Rovio's strategy is to test water from small markets such as northern Europe and then to the world. According to Chen Boyi, the success of the birds in Finland, quickly to Sweden and other countries, the App Store in these countries have also been particularly recommended. After a small trial of water, the birds quickly flew across the European and North American markets, "with the power of the Apple Store and a good time node."

The success of the game is only the first step for birds to fly to the world. In the 2010, the company found that fans were not only interested in games, but also wanted to buy peripheral products related to the game. The company has decided to turn the birds into an entertainment brand, and all sorts of derivatives have been rapidly developed and spread around the world. Toys, clothes, cartoons and even recipes and comics, more than 10,000 kinds of peripheral products began to become the company's gold-sucking weapon. In Singapore, Rovio with the cable car operators at the Sentosa playground, and every visitor to Sentosa will take the "bird" cable car first. In Australia, the bird counters are paved to airports in major cities. For Rovio, expanding the popularity of the game as much as possible is the best way to help around the sale of products. At the same time, they are very willing to try new channels. With the film "Rio Adventure" is a useful attempt, Rovio with the production side to develop a special edition of The Big Adventure, online 10 days after the download exceeded 10 million times. Interestingly, Rovio's investigation found that 42% of movie viewers knew the movie through the game. "For us, the first element of choosing a partner is to see what our fans will like, what fans might like, and we'll be willing to do it, and social media is a great way to listen to the voices of our fans." "Chen Boyi said.

"Fan" economy

Rovio does not want to rely solely on selling derivatives to make a living, but rather to become a Disney-like company, to shoot TV cartoons or movies, to open theme parks.

After the great success of the game, the Rovio Company's business center began to shift to how to use various channels to get the nuggets from the fans.

Before "Angry Birds", Rovio was almost unknown. In operating the "bird" brand seems more willing to choose those well-known partners for the brand to bring a linkage effect. In addition to insisting on designing their own products, Rovio and toy giant Mattel developed a board game toy. At the beginning of entering the Chinese market, Rovio and China Mobile, Unicom and Chinese telecom have all established cooperative programs for mobile games, and the sale of Angry Birds ' shoes in partnership with the domestic famous online shoe city. "At present in China, we prefer to choose a national partner to cover more fans." "Chen Boyi said.

For Rovio, China has become one of the most important markets. At the end of 2011, "Angry Birds" in China has reached 100 million downloads, ranked second in the world. For the Nuggets ' huge fan market, Rovio quickly decided to set up a China office in Shanghai. It is understood that the China office more than 10 employees responsible for the surrounding products business expansion sales and sale. Rovio has opened a physical store in Beijing and Shanghai, and the number of stores is expected to reach 6 by the end of the year.

In addition, Rovio not only want to rely solely on selling derivatives to earn a living, it would like to become a Disney-like company, shooting TV cartoons or movies, open theme park. Despite doubts about the way the theme park was opened, Rovio was confident. Chen Boyi, currently Rovio has opened 10,000 square meters of theme parks in Finland. According to the plan, the global theme park is divided into three kinds of large and medium-sized, small park not more than 1000 square meters, such as will consider and City park cooperation; medium-sized Parks can be part of a large theme park. The large theme park will be more than 100,000 square meters, currently siting in Shanghai or nearby haining. Chenbo said at the same time, even if the Shanghai Disneyland is completed, the two will not form a competitive relationship, and may even bring customers.

Even so, localization is still part of the Rovio company's push. At home, Angry Birds in the cat opened a store, sales of the category including the iphone-related peripherals, doll pillow, food and home. But according to the reporter observes, the sale is not so hot. In addition to the promotion of mid-autumn cakes and individual doll sales better, some products sales in single-digit digits. The audience interviewed said that the problem of the bird peripheral products is relatively simple, not enough, in addition, the price is not favorable. In response, UTA Fashion Management Group China President Yang Dayun said not optimistic. The previous Mattel Barbie flagship store in Shanghai was hit by Waterloo. "Goods from the eyeball to the terminal, it is not easy to succeed." "The key also depends on whether they have enough patience to study Chinese consumers, the introduction of products suitable for China's national conditions and applications."

      But apparently the birds are still full of confidence in the Chinese market. Over time, more kinds of derivatives will be brought into China, Chen Boyi said. In order to attract the Chinese player, specially developed the Angry bird Mid-Autumn Festival version. In the cat flagship store, fans can also buy the bird's mid-autumn moon cakes. Perhaps these are far from enough, said one industry source, the problem of the development of derivatives on the birds also comes from the game image is not rich enough. But there are still more people who are concerned about the way the birds are changing, the same is the App Store Star Game "Plant vs Zombies" developer of the Big China Manager Kun said the development of derivatives, the zombie approach is different from the birds, the development of derivatives, while still more focused on the game development itself. But the birds play, for more game companies, there will be different reference meaning.