brandknewmag.com
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Q. Rovio started out as a gaming company. How have the
company’s ambitions changed?
A. We are now active in all areas of entertainment. Games
are where we started, and it’s at the core of what we do, but
we are no longer a games company. If you look at Rovio
today, we are a ‘triple E’ company. We are in entertainment,
we are in education, and we apply entrepreneurship to
everything that we do.
Q. How does Rovio differentiate itself from all the new games
coming to the market?
A. With Angry Birds, we created a brand that people know
and trust. There’s no shortage of new products and services,
so brand is really important. For every Angry Birds, there are
thousands of not-successful brands. That’s what sets us apart
— you have to think about branding and marketing.
Q. So we can expect more spinoffs from Angry Birds?
A. We will continue to do spinoffs that play on our brand
strength. It’s just like Nintendo and its series of Mario-based
games. We want to continue expanding Angry Birds to make
it a permanent part of popular culture.
Q. Does focusing on Angry Birds reduce the risk of games’
failing to connect with users?
A. Some gaming companies are clueless about branding.
They build games to last 100 days and move on to the next
one. There’s no guarantee that they will create hits. It’s
difficult to find examples of anyone in entertainment that can
produce hits successfully. That’s why it’s important to build a
brand, something that will last.
Q. Does that make it tough to create a lasting games
company?
A. There are a lot of one-hit wonders. People can get carried
away by their own success. The key is to not get lost in the
hype. For us, Angry Birds has been going for just four years.
It’s a good start, but we are only at the beginning.
everything from music to math. Education is the secondbiggest global market behind food. And there’s a widespread
awareness that education can be made better. If we can
make it more engaging through Angry Birds, people can
learn more.
Q. What does that entail?
A. We are working with the European Organization for
Nuclear Research on a quantum physics book for kids. That
might sound like a tough sell. But if you can make the topic
engaging, you can create a healthy addiction for education.
Q. Games, theme parks, TV shows and now education. Isn’t
Rovio spreading itself too thinly?
A. Of course, it would be easy to spread ourselves too thin.
But last year, we focused on beefing up our organizational
structure. It was a year of investing and preparing for the
next phase of growth. We realize that we are very small. But
we have doubled down on areas like consumer goods where
we already had a presence.
Q. What are Rovio’s short-term goals?
A. We look at iconic brands like Coca-Cola for inspiration.
If Coke can reach one billion servings each day, there’s no
reason why we can be less ambitious. With the growth of
connected devices like smartphones and tablets, we want
one billion people to be interacting with our brand through
games, soft drinks, parks and other products.
Q. Finland has produced a lot of successful gaming
companies like Rovio and Supercell. Is there something in
the water?
A. The big difference is now there are a lot of people with
more experience starting companies and more role models
in the Fi