3. Introduction
Angry Birds is a mobile game1 developed by Finnish
multi-media entertainment company Rovio in 2009. It
has 40 million active users and has been ranked as the
most popular paid games in Apple store for a long period
of time. The general idea of the game is a trajectory game
where angry birds will be thrown to pigs to score points as
well as to ―revenge‖. It is this simple-manipulating game
that has brought millions of dollars of profit to Rovio.
Many companies from the field of entertainment and even other areas are curious about the sudden success of this game. It is necessary to bring
some insight into the features of Angry Birds and learn from their development strategies. From the perspective of marketing, the secret of the
game is obvious but hard to imitate – easy to play, broad channels through different platforms, a comprehensive segmentation, etc. If
summarized in one word, the marketing strategy for Angry Birds is variety, whether it is variety of platforms, variety of products, variety of
characters, variety of versions, or variety of targeted customers, variety of pricing strategy. This feature can also be summarized by the picture
above where, with Rovio released different versions in apple and android platform, the download of the game grew exponentially.
1 Mobile game ―is a video game played on a mobile phone, smartphone, PDA, tablet computer, portable media player or calculator. This does not include games played on
dedicated handheld video game systems such as Nintendo 3DS or PlayStation Vita.‖ Wikipedia.com
4. Forbes’ view
On 7/18/2011, Nicole Perlroth wrote on Forbes after her interview with the maker of Angry Birds, Peter Vesterbacka. In her article, she made
three points. Firstly, she explained the ―world domination‖ of the game by including
an anecdote of someone in the tribe of Amazon Jungle played Angry Birds. Of course,
she also presented data like ―Every month 50 million people play the game‖. The second
point she made is that Rovio considers Disney as its biggest competitor, with China
being the most potential and profitable market that Rovio is looking at. However, she
also interviewed executives of Disney. He did not worry about the competition of Rovio
because of its tiny scale compared to Disney‘s huge empire. The last point she
made can be summed up in the idea of variety. ―If Rovio is a one-bit wonder, the
company is ensuring it is as broad and profitable a wonder as possible,‖ as she wrote, Rovio has imitated Disney‘s strategy of creating a broad
empire of products: toys, amusement park, movie, etc. In this way, the company is not only making money through paid games in apple store, but
also the derived products that are sold successfully for the lovely and familiar images of birds and pigs. Bloomberg Businessweek has an article
demonstrating the company in the context of Finland. The article compared Nokia and Angry Birds, both of which were originated in Finland. It
delineated a relationship between these two companies by stating that Finnish government was looking for Rovio and other new technical
start-ups to support the national economy after the decline of Nokia. However, the article also admitted that ―High taxes, a lack of incentives for
investors, and the country's distance from major markets‖ did not provide a welcoming environment for Rovio and similar companies.
5. Segmentation
Basically, there are three types of segmentation in term of the development of Angry Birds—segmentation based on
different types of players and segmentation based on diverse platforms and devices of this mobile game. As the VP
of Franchise Development for Rovio Mobile Ville Heijari said in a game conference Casual Connect Kyiv, ―First
there are people who have heard of the game and may play it, and discuss it. Then there are players who pay
money. The 3rd level of players are the engaged players who play regularly and spread the word. Finally, there is
the core player base who love the game.‖ The goal of the company is to move people from the first level to the final loyalty level by creating a
community of Angry Birds fans and rewarding them accordingly. The chart
on the left shows the sharp difference among different usage of Tablet,
eReader and Smartphone thus showing the different lifestyles of users
holding different devices. For example, the dark blue bar demonstrates that
Smartphone holders play around their devices more often when shopping
than other device holders. The third segmentation strategy is about
different platforms, which literally mean Android, IOS, Windows 7. But it
also represents different types of reference group and lifestyles. It will be
discussed more in the next section—Targeting.
6. Targeting
After the company segments its customers, it chooses the optimized
strategy to deliver the information of their products to the targeted
customers. VP of Franchise Development for Rovio Mobile Ville
Heijari‘s answer to preference for platforms shares the similar idea
with the graph on the left. He pointed out that ―Apple will be the
number one platform for a long time from a developer perspective,
they have gotten so many things right. And they know what they are doing and they call the shots. Android is growing, but it‘s also growing
complexity at the same time.‖ On the other side, from the chart it is obvious that IOS gamers spend much more time on mobile games, which
means users of Apple Iphone are most profitable targets of the game. In term of different types of users, research show that single male, under 25
years old, are the majority of the game and are 76% more likely to convert to paid version of the
game. Then Rovio launched their marketing mix to target these groups of people and
occasionally attracted other customers as well. The figure on the left shows that, British Prime
Minister David Cameron claimed that he had finished all levels of the game, which functioned
as a great advertisement for the broad popularity of the game. It also represented the power of
the word of mouth acting in the spread of Angry Birds phenomena.
7. Mission Statement
―Rovio is an entertainment media company, and the creator of the globally successful Angry Birds franchise.‖ On the official
website of the company, it defined itself as an entertainment company rather than a mere game company. And in different
interviews that the company officials went to, they all emphasized the unique mission of
Rovio—To entertain people! ―Some of our competitors are in the business of play. We are
in the business of entertaining people. That's why we bought the animation studio, and are
creating books. It's about creating amazing entertainment experiences,‖ the executive
Vesterbacka said. By ―entertain‖, the company not only aims to create a fun game but also
provides great customer service to maximize the utility of customers, as the executive
explains in one conference, ―Optimized for touch, great characters, everybody loves the birds. And we like to think that we know a thing or two
about how to work together with our fans and community too, ie the future of marketing.‖ That is why in 2010, Rovio declared an Angry Birds
day on December 11th to ―urge people to get together and get to know each other.‖ The figure on the right shows a snapshot of the day. The
entertaining feature of the game is further
proved by the chart on the left where more
than 50 % of 1000 surveyed players felt
relaxed after playing the game.
8. Growth Strategy
According to investorwords.com, growth strategy is ―A strategy based on investing in
companies and sectors which are growing faster than their peers.‖ While keeping
releasing new versions and levels of the game, Retail of derived products and China
are the two other main sectors that Rovio is investing a lot in. As Vesterbacka has
claimed, ―Angry Birds is ‗the most copied brand in China‘ already, which is what led to
the retail strategy there‖. The company opened an office in Shanghai, China in November 2011. The
figure on the right shows the advertisement for a planned Angry Birds store in China in 2012. As an
article explains, ―The decision to open the stores in China is due to the shear number of unofficial and
knock of Angry Birds products and merchandise available in China and the rate it is selling!‖ In
addition to retail, Rovio‘s interest in China is very obvious when a local amusement park in
China launched a real-life Angry Birds game without the permission of Rovio. The figure of
two Chinese female on the left shows how people play this game. The figure on the left
shows the poster of the incorporation of the real-life game with the theme of ―International
Stress Reduction day‖ in Window of World amusement park in Changsha, China. Instead of
suing the amusement park, Rovio actually began to partner up with this park.
9. External environment
According to businessdictionary.com, external environment means ―Conditions, entities, events,
and factors surrounding an organization that influence its activities and choices, and determine its
opportunities and risks.‖ A big factor of influence on game industry comes from social network
websites like Facebook and Twitter. The popularity of these websites provides both opportunities
and challenges to Rovio. ―Facebook is the other new frontier for Angry Birds, with the game having launched on the social network in
mid-February 2012. Just over two weeks later, it has 3.9m monthly active users (MAUs) and 930k DAUs, according to analytics site AppData.‖
Vesterbacka commented positively on Rovio‘s corporation with Facebook. However, the Facebook also nourished many competitors of Angry
Birds, including Draw Something which has already ranked over Angry Birds, shown in the left figure. The magnification effect of social networks
allows the spread of the game but also requires accelerated update of levels to trigger consecutive waves of popularity on Facebook. Another big
influence comes from the geographical location of the company. Since Finland is distant from main
markets like UK, US or China, the strategy Rovio took was ―local grassroots marketing approach
driving towards virility‖ which means ―first focused on making the game popular at home in Finland
through word-of-mouth, then did the same in Sweden, then Denmark, and then other European
countries. With demonstrable and increasing popularity they were able to have their game featured
in the UK app store, which led to record growth, and then popularity expanded to the US.‖
10. Sustainability, Global aspect
From the marketing perspective, sustainability is not merely a responsibility that the company holds for
the welfare of the society. Rather, it brings a positive perception to its customers if the company has
sustainability branding strategy, which markets the company for its
support for the big Green Movement. However, Angry Birds and
Rovio is very ambiguous about its attitude towards green movement
because of two reasons. First, it is hard to measure the negative environmental effect of a mobile game if we want to separate it from the devices it
is on. Second, Angry Birds has not launched any famous environmental campaign to show its social responsibility like Pepsi does. However, there
exist some critics about the ―e-waste‖ of the game, as shown in the formulas above. The
first figure is drawn by Ecosquid, who observes that ―The CO2 emissions savings from
recycling 50M Angry Bird devices‖ would sustain ―19,287 years driving an average
car‖. This data might sound meaningless if we assume that people who play Angry
Birds already have the devices. However, one of the Rovio‘s officers once proudly
claimed that people who never play games play Angry Birds. This is an indication that
some people might become a device buyer because of the incentive of the addictive
games. The other two chars show the potential waste of human times on games
because of Angry Birds and Mobile Games in general.
11. Pricing Strategy
Pricing is one of the four elements in marketing mix. It
estimates the cost of the product as well as the demand from
customers and then set appropriate prices that are
acceptable for customers and at the same time, profitable for
the company. Depending on different effects that the
company tries to create, about quality or quantity, the company chooses different
pricing strategies. In the U.S apple portable device market, Angry Birds follows the
tradition of ―race to 99 cent‖ because ―they want to charge something; but if they
charge any higher than $0.99 they are frightened of being pushed off the Top 25 list …‖
according to a case study by the APP outsourcing guide. Meanwhile, to equalize the
effect of exchange rate, the apple store helps the company to set different prices for
different countries, as shown in the graph above. There is also observed ―whale
hunting‖ through setting higher price for the complete seasons and levels. Though being criticized for charging money for advanced lev els, Rovio
has done a great job to catch the 5 % of the people who are willing to pay more than 20 dollars on mobile games, who is also considered the most
profitable group of customers according to Flurry‘s research. The chart shows that transactions over $20 are the most profitable.
12. SWOT Analysis
Strength
1.Rovio knows how to ―entertain‖ people
2.Rovio has been in the game industry for a while
3.Angry Birds has gained a big group of loyal fans
4.The game is easy to play, yet it has mystery and characters— all the
elements that make it stand out from other games
5. It is easily convertible to many platforms
Weakness
1. The amount of capital input is still not as many as what Disney get
2. The amount of characters are still limited, not enough to create an
empire like Disney
3. The Angry Birds effect might fade soon
4. Rovio is located in Finland, far from the main markets it is looking
at
Opportunity
1. The retail of derived products like toys, real-life games, books and
movies are expected to bring a big new market
2. Focus on retail in China can bring great buying power
3. The corporation with Facebook can bring more MAUs and DAUs
and new types of profit-making mode
4. Themed Amusement parks like Disneyland can bring longevity to
the company
Threats
1. Angry Birds is in a fast changing, fragile industry
2. The competition is fast, intense, unpredictable and many times,
fatal
3. Customers‘ taste and preference changes quickly; Any companies
have to be very flexible with the development of the products
4. Conversion from IOS to Android platform requires a lot of effort but
might give small profit increase
13. Conclusion
The success of the company is definitely a great combination of four Ps of the
marketing mix. This is like the game Angry Birds where players make good use of
different features of different birds to hit the pigs and get scores. However, the
contributing factors are subjective in a way that different people may value
different parts of the strategy just like the figure on the right, which shows one
player‘s view on different birds. We have to admit that it is not true for every
other player. To me, the success of Rovio can be summed up in three aspects.
Firstly, the company finds the right model—Disney to imitate and compete with
so that it can adjust the pace of development accordingly by looking at how
Disney develops. Secondly, right positioning contributes to the uniqueness and
popularity of the game. ―Angry Birds has been more than a game for some time
now: it's a mainstream entertainment franchise with a huge and global reach‖,
Peter Vesterbacka told Guardian of UK. This idea of ―Entertainment‖ helps the
company to develop around its customers, thus understanding its customers
better and serving them better. The last factor is the open mind that the company
holds through globalization and extended area of operations. As a result, the company is always extending its market.
14. Reference for figures
1. Angry Birds Wallpaper, http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/appsblog/2012/mar/01/angry-birds-peter-vesterbacka-rovio
2. Parabola, The anthropology of Angry Birds, http://www.allaboutsymbian.com/news/item/12503_The_anthropology_of_Angry_Bird.php
3. A Field guide to Angry Birds, Angry Birds characters, http://uniqueinterestingfacts.com/real-angry-birds
4. How Angry Birds ruled the Apple Store #1 spot for 250 days, http://www.148apps.com/author/bonnie/page/2/#ixzz1tq2i9q32
5. The chart showing the comparison between Disney and Rovio, Disney on steroids? http://northstream.se/blog/disney-on-steroids/
6. I love Angry Birds, Angry Birds: World Domination? http://www.play-angrybirds-online.com/blog/
7. Situational Usage, The Three Benefits of Digital Video and TV, http://blog.polk.com/blog/digital-marketing
8. Hours spent per month on mobile games, iPhone Owners Love Games More Than Other Smartphone Users
http://www.idownloadblog.com/2011/07/13/iphone-owners-love-games/
9. Prime Minister is a customer, The UK’s Prime Minister is an Angry Birds Gamer, http://gizmodo.com/david-cameron-angry-birds/
10. Rovio logo, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Rovio_Logo.png
11. Angry Birds Day celebration, Angry Birds – Unlikely Pop-Culture Craze Goes From Cellphone Screen to Mainstream,
http://www.impactlab.net/2010/12/12/angry-birds-unlikely-pop-culture-craze-goes-from-cellphone-screen-to-mainstream/
12/19. 55% of players feel relaxed/human time spent on Angry Birds, Are You Addicted to Angry Birds?
http://aytm.com/blog/research-junction/angry-birds-addiction/
13. Advertisement of Angry Birds shows in Chinese, Rovio knocking off the knock offs with Angry Birds stores in China,
http://www.gizchina.com/2011/11/02/rovio-knocking-knock-offs-angry-bird-stores-china/
14/15. Real-life Angry Birds game in an amusement park in China, Real-Life Angry Birds Game Illegally Staged in Chinese Amusement Park
http://indie-games-ichiban.wonderhowto.com/corkboard/real-life-angry-birds-game-illegally-staged-chinese-amusement-park-0129940/
16. Facebook like icon for Angry Birds, Game Angry Birds Will Present at Facebook,
http://www.gadgetfighter.com/game/484/game-angry-birds-will-present-at-facebook.php
17. Rank of Draw something is higher than Angry Birds, Don't Look Now, But Angry Birds Space Has Fallen To Draw Something,
http://articles.businessinsider.com/2012-04-04/tech/31285074_1_app-store-free-app-zynga#ixzz1u78etwuJ
18. Recycle of the devices, The e-waste take on Angry Birds, http://ecosquid.wordpress.com/2011/06/03/the-e-waste-take-on-angry-birds/
20. U.S game players by age, Almost two-thirds of smartphone users regularly play games on their phone
http://www.parksassociates.com/blog/article/parks-pr2011-mobilegaming
21. Cost of Angry Birds across the world, An Analysis Of Apple’s Adjustment Of International App Store Prices,
http://www.macstories.net/news/an-analysis-of-apples-adjustment-of-international-app-store-prices/
22. In App Purchase Transaction size VS Revenue generated, Study Says Five Percent of Mobile Gamers Are Willing to Spend More Than $50,
http://allthingsd.com/20110725/study-says-five-percent-of-mobile-gamers-are-willing-to-spend-more-than-50/
23. Likability of Angry Birds characters, Which Angry Birds Character Do You Like Most?,
http://mytechquest.com/interesting/which-angry-birds-character-do-you-like-most/
15. Reference for texts
1. Perlroth, Nicole. ―Audacious Birds‖. Forbes. 7/18/2011, Vol. 188 Issue 1, p28-32, 3p. Web database.
2. Ben-Aaron, Diana. ―After Nokia, Can Angry Birds Propel Finland?‖. Bloomberg Businessweek. 12/6/2010, Issue 4207, p48-50, 2p. Web
database.
3. Dredge, Stuart. ―Angry Birds' Mighty Eagle: 'We have expanded the market for games'‖. guardian.co.uk. Thursday 1 March 2012.Web
4. Chulis, Kimberly. ―Overview of Angry Birds Monetization and Brand Strategy from Casual Connect Kyiv 2011‖. Smartdatacollective.com.
December 28, 2011. Web
5. Fuld, Hillel. ―Peter Vesterbacka, Maker of Angry Birds Talks about the Birds, Apple, Android, Nokia, and Palm/HP‖. Techinmarketing.com.
27. Dec, 2010.Web
6. Gizchina.com. ―Rovio Knocking Off the Knock Offs with Angry Bird Stores in China‖. November 2, 2011. Web
7. Duryee, Tricia. ―Study Says Five Percent of Mobile Gamers Are Willing to Spend More Than $50‖, July 25, 2011. Web
8. Spencer, Graham. ―An Analysis Of Apple‘s Adjustment Of International App Store Prices‖. Macstories.net. July 15, 2011. Web
9. Mauro, Charles L. ―Why Angry Birds is so successful and popular: a cognitive teardown of the user experience‖. February 6th, 2011.Web
10.Murphy, Michael. ―Rovio: Angry Birds Day Declared as December 11th‖. Talkandroid.com. Dec 8 .2010. Web
11. Mazin, Lev. ―AreYou Addicted to Angry Birds? [INFOGRAPHIC]‖. Aytm.com. September. 2011. Web
12. Mansur, Rachel. ―Real-Life Angry Birds Game Illegally Staged in Chinese Amusement Park‖. Indie Games Ichiban.com. November.2o11.Web
13. Suvi. ―Disney on steroids?‖ . Northstream.com. 11 Apr 2012. Web
14. Davis, Nick. ―App pricing strategies and case studies‖. The App Outsourcing Guide. 2010. Print.
15. Ecosquid.wordpress.com. ―The e-waste take on Angry Birds‖. June 3, 2011. Web
16. ―Growth strategy‖. Investorwords. Com. Accessed on 4th May 2012. Web
17. ―External environment‖ businessdictionary.com. Accessed on 4th May 2012. Web
