Angry Birds: 8 Keys To SuccessThere's one mobile game that nearly everyone can name: Angry Birds. Rovio recently revealed that there have been 350 million downloads since Angry Birds launched in December 2009 for the iPhone. Players put in 300 million minutes of gameplay every day, according to Rovio. The game is now available on 25 different platforms, including Facebook and Chrome. Other developers can learn from Rovio's example.
Rovio's success didn't come overnight; Angry Birds was their 52nd game, and the company was on the verge of bankruptcy, having shrunk from a high of 50 employees down to only 12. They had to come up with a winner if the company was to survive, and they did so. Certainly there's an element of luck in the success of Angry Birds, but there are also many things Rovio did that helped capitalize on their lucky breaks.
Create A Polished Game: Rovio took a lot of care to refine the design, the interface, the graphics and even the music for Angry Birds. The game changed considerably from the initial idea, as they weren't afraid to tinker in order to make it better. They even made sure the back story made sense; why were the birds so angry with the docile pigs, testers wanted to know? The answer came to the team: The pigs stole the birds' eggs. This may seem trivial, but attention to detail is important in many ways. That consistency in the story makes it easier to create new material for the game, other games based on Angry Birds, and even licensed products.
"Licensing brings in over 40% of the revenue from Angry Birds"
Find A Way To Win: When Rovio introduced the game, it was a flop for the first three months in the big English-speaking App Stores. Rovio had a strategy, though: Get to first place in smaller App Stores, which they managed to do in Finland with only a few hundred downloads. They also went to number one in Sweden and Denmark, then Greece and the Czech Republic. This gave them a compelling sales pitch for lining up a distribution partner, Chillingo (later purchased by Electronic Arts), who helped Rovio get a big introduction the U.K. market (see the next item).
Be Creative In Your Marketing: With a featured slot as Game of the Week coming up in the U.K. App Store, Rovio decided to create a YouTube trailer for the game, only the second one ever done for an iPhone game. Brilliantly done in classic animation style, the video has received over 42 million views.
Stay Close To Customers: Give them regular updates, a continuous supply of new content, along with the many levels provided in the game. More than content, though, Rovio resolved to answer every letter and tweet that came in from customers, and even incorporated levels designed by fans. Listening to the fans lets you know what works and what doesn't and makes the fans even more enthusiastic about the game. This can take a lot of time and patience, but it's crucial to building an enduring franchise.
Be Everywhere: Once you have something that's selling, make sure you sell it everywhere you can. Angry Birds is now available on 25 different platforms, even such offbeat things as the Roku streaming media player. Mobile games should be small enough and simple enough that porting them to different platforms doesn't require a huge investment of time and money. When you're available on multiple platforms, all your marketing spending gets more efficient at converting impressions into dollars.
One of the licensed plush toys.
Take Advantage Of Opportunity: Rovio was approached by Fox Digital in November of 2010, and worked with them to produce Angry Birds Rio, connected to the animated movie Rio (which was about birds). It was a brilliant marketing move, which got them an ad appearance during the Super Bowl (where ads typically cost $3 million). When you get a chance like that, don't hesitate to jump on it.
Be Flexible With Monetization: Rovio wasn't locked into one way of doing business. Diverse monetization schemes are a fact of life in today's game industry, and committing to one only may not be the best move. Rovio went with a paid app initially on the iPhone, but when Angry Birds came to Android they made it free and ad-supported (with ad revenues now over $1 million per month). Now you can get a free or ad-supported version of Angry Birds on multiple platforms, and they've added in-app purchases from the Bad Piggy Bank too.
It's More Than One App: There's more than one way to make money from a hit product. Licensing brings in over 40% of the revenue from Angry Birds, according to Rovio. They sell more than 1 million t- shirts and 1 million plush toys every month. Every one of those Angry Birds licensed items serves to help advertise the brand and the game; it's marketing that brings in money.
