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Case Study of Case Study of RovioRovio

“Using Social Media as a Catapult to Success”

Rovio is a Finnish game company that was founded in 2003. They have produced over 51 games for several major companies including Namco and EB. They wanted to create a popular game under their own brand Rovio. It would take the company 8 years until they found success with their Angry Birds game app.

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What is Angry Birds?What is Angry Birds?

Case Study of Rovio

Angry birds is a mobile app game that can be played on iPads and iphones and is now available as a download for a home PC. It is possible to get a free version or buy the business version through the Apple Apps store for $0.99 US, with the PC version costing $4.99 US.

The game is simple but very addictive, and this is why this game has found so much appeal among its users. The setting of a tropical island appeals to everyone and allows you to escape from the reality of your own world for a little while.

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BeginningsBeginnings

Case Study of Rovio

Rovio is run by Mikael and Niklas Hed who always wanted to develop games. Niklas entered a competition in 2003 held by Nokia and HP to create a mobile game for one of Nokia’s very first smartphones. They ended up winning. The company Relude was founded in 2004. They invested some of their own money and won contracts working for Digital Chocolate a games developer. By the end of 2004 the company was renamed and Rovio was created. Rovio means bonfire in Finnish. Mikael’s father invested money into the company and Rovio started to expand. Mikael and his father had problems and Mikael ended up leaving the company in 2005.

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Rovio continued making great games for other companies but didn’t have the distribution or marketing facilities to promote their own games. By 2007 the company started going downhill. They went from 50 employees down to 12.

The iPhone was released in 2007 and the App Store was created. This now gave developers a method of reaching their audience. Distribution to millions was made possible.

As the company put it:

“The iPhone opened up the whole word,” says Niklas. “You had one contact, plus worldwide distribution.’

Excerpt from an interview for Wired, March 2011

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Concept DevelopmentConcept Development

Case Study of Rovio

Mikael returned to the company in 2009. They continued to work for other companies in order to pay the bills. But they started to concentrate on developing their own games.

They focused on the iPhone platform. Trying to define a profile for iPhone users they concluded that this phone was for everyone. In response to this they decided that their games would be for everyone too.

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Angry Birds was the brain child of Jaakko Iisale who is Rovio’s principal games designer. The colorful birds who had no feet and who couldn’t fly had something magical about them. The game went through different stages until it took on the appearance of today’s game.

Angry Birds was finally released in December 2009. For the first 3 months, it didn’t take off in the English speaking market. Instead of targeting the largest market first Rovio concentrated on smaller countries. They targeted Sweden, Denmark, Greece and the Czech Republic. They ended up with 40,000 downloads in these smaller countries.

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February 11, 2010 was the day when Angry Birds was featured on the front page of the UK App Store as game of the week. Prior to this Rovio made a YouTube trailer for the game. This was a new concept at that time too.

Rovio created 42 additional levels of the game, which gave it mass appeal. Once the game was featured, the Angry Bird’s app went from 600th to 1st place. In April 2010 it hit number one in the US Store and has remained in the top ten ever since.

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Success StrategiesSuccess Strategies

Case Study of Rovio

• Received funding from Tekes, which is the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation.

• Rovio has partnered with Roku Inc to bring Angry Birds to Internet TV. The company will offer future games, an animated series and merchandise and more through this outlet.

• Family investment

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• Rovio made comical characters which are easy to recognize. The birds had thick frowning eyebrows.

• The company created a logo which really stood out in the Apps Store and attracted attention.

• The sound effects were funny, catchy and instantly recognizable.

• The company provides quality customer relationships by ensuring that all fan mail and suggestions are answered. All customer relations are made top priority. This is all done via social media.

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Social MediaSocial Media

Case Study of Rovio

This is the method that has helped push Rovio to the top. By using social media as their customer service platform, they keep their gaming in real time. Social media has replaced traditional media as a PR outlet. This allows for two way communication between management to public and public to management. Rovio uses the feedback from social media to evaluate their strategies and plan future messages.

Rovio uses social media to find and hire employees with job postings listed on their website.

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Benefits of Using Social Media:Benefits of Using Social Media:

Case Study of Rovio

• Cost effective

• Done in real time

• Used as a feedback channel

• YouTube is used for publicity videos – advertising dollars are earned from views

• Customer service and support

• Real time support on Twitter available every working day. Feed is also updated by latest information

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•Angry birds went viral through social media. Recent research has shown that more people will buy a product that has been recommended on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter.

Rovio has been extremely successful by incorporating social marketing into the mix. This includes using social marketing for Marketing, Advertising, Customer Relations, Research, Evaluation, Corporate Social Responsibility, Communications, Investor and Employee Relations.

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Possible Flaws:Possible Flaws:

Case Study of Rovio

• User requires the use of internet or a mobile device, this can leave out certain people. Research does show that these numbers are decreasing.

• Social media requires constant attention - can't disappear for a few days. Failure to advertise would have a damaging effect on their brand.

• Competitors - easy to find information about new launches and products.

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• Product - Angry Birds is better known than their company Rovio. This could affect new games as the public doesn't recognize the company brand. Note: this is being addressed by the company.

• If problems occur the news will be spread quickly by social media. This has the potential of being very damaging to Rovio.

• Pirated versions are already being sold and some games can be installed on iOS for free. This can reduce revenue.

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Future DevelopmentsFuture Developments

Case Study of Rovio

Rovio intends to partner with major corporations to improve their market share. This includes making alliances with top producers such as Nokia, Google and Apple.

You can access Angry Birds for free on Google Chrome. Rovio is partnering with the likes of Facebook, Microsoft, Mattel, Roku and Amazon. These alliances will all be announced on Social Media sites.

The Finnish film foundation backed the production of the angry Birds animation movie. Additional movies and board games are in the works.

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AccomplishmentsAccomplishments

Case Study of Rovio

• 50 games produced to date but well known for only one.

• Best Product to date is Angry Birds. This game has been downloaded 250 million times.

• Sold 3 million plush toys

• 30 million t shirts

• Their one game Angry Birds has 593,000 Likes on Facebook.

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• 400,000 players per month for the original Angry Birds game.

• Angry Birds online shop sells plush toys, PC games, casings for electronic devices.

• Customers can access the store through Facebook.

• 2011 released Angry Birds Rio along with the animated movie of same name. Used social media at each launch to promote the game.

• Angry Birds Cookbook will be a cookbook based on egg recipes.

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• Angry Birds were featured in a cameo in the Super Bowl ads. Fans were able to unlock a code that gave them access to a Super Bowl themed level in the game. Once completed players had the chance to win passes to attend the Rio movie premiere.

• Rovio organized World Angry Birds Day for its Fan on Dec 11 2010.

• Rovio supports Birdlife International, which helps conservation of critically endangered birds. Helped raise awareness through website and Facebook page. Fans are rewarded by being given access to secret level in the game.

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AwardsAwards

Case Study of Rovio

Won Webby Award by New York International Academy of Digital Arts and Science in May 2011.

November 2010 - Won best Finnish game of the year by Finnish Association for game industry.

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Key PointsKey Points

Case Study of Rovio

• Use Apple's Apps Store as a one-contact worldwide distribution method.

• To retain customers, they release new content to their game regularly. E.g. Angry Birds Seasons version which is based on festive holidays.

• Target Market - iPhone users, which ended up proving to be everyone.

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• Use feedback from fans - used art work of 5 year old who emailed some drawings to the company, used in design of the game.

• Angry Birds was originally released for Apple’s iOS and became extremely popular. The main gaming platform is still focused on Apple's iPad and iPhone, and the company is currently working on other markets.

• Promotion - fans who blog, tweet and make Facebook posts about Angry Birds help promote the game. All of this equals Free Publicity.

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