Ask someone for an example of a mobile game, and chances are the first name past their lips will be Angry Birds. Since the first app was released in 2009, Rovio – the Finnish developer of the games – has gone from strength to strength.
Each game in the series has been more successful than the last: where the original Angry Birds took 167 days to hit 10m downloads, 2011s Angry Birds Rio took eight. Last years Angry Birds Star Wars, meanwhile, hit the milestone in just one and a half days.
Its apps now have a combined 1.9bn users, and 35m daily active users. That puts it “second only to Facebook in terms of reach”, as pointed out by Raphaelle Tripet, director of brand partnerships & advertising for Rovio Europe, speaking at this mornings MMA Mobile Gaming event.
But in spite of all that, its portfolio is still remarkably small, consisting of nine apps. So how does a company so synomous with a core franchise expand on its success?
From apps to theme parks
Increasingly, the answer lies outside of the world of apps: “Weve moved from being a mobile gaming company to to a character-based entertainment company,” said Tripet. “Our consumer products arent a small revenue stream for Rovio.”
Thats certainly true – Angry Birds merchandise made up 45 per cent of the companys revenues in 2012, something which has led to it setting up a dedicated licencing team. And the cuddly toys and clothing you might have seen are just the tip of the iceberg.
Rovio has set up a number of Angry Birds-themed activity parks around the world: two in its native Finland, one in China, two in the US, and even one in glamorous Yorkshire. Its also opened an animation studio, which has been distributing its cartoon through Rovios apps as well as on TV, and a film studio in Hollywood, looking towards the 2016 release of the Angry Birds film.
Its even launched its own soft drink.
“This is a proper business for Rovio,” said Tripet. “We launched the Angry Birds drink in Finland about a year ago, where it has become the #1 soft drink, outselling even Coke and Pepsi.” 
Earlier this year, the drink became available in Australia, New Zealand, Russia and Spain, with the UK set to follow shortly.
Getting real
The key, according to Tripet, is “looping the physical world back into the games” – the drinks cans, as well as being decorated with the games characters, feature a code which can be entered into the apps for rewards.
Its something the developer will be further exploring in its second Star Wars tie-in game. As announced yesterday, the game will be accompanied with a series of Hasbro toys which can be scanned, Skylanders style, with the devices camera to unlock content in-game.
A partnership with McDonalds in China, meanwhile, took this one step further. 1,500 of the countrys fast food restaurants were turned into Magic Places, where customers were able to access exclusive location-based content – including a branded level – for the time they spent instore. According to Tripet, the campaign helped push McDonalds sales in China up by 40 per cent year-on-year.
Staying Angry?
People have spoken about Rovio as the next Disney. The key difference is that the developer is still relying on a single franchise. Of its nine games, seven are Angry Birds-related, while its only original IP, Amazing Alex, failed to replicate that success.
The question going forward is not how far Rovio can expand outside of the world of apps – its fairly conclusively proved itself capable of that – but whether it can create another hit franchise, or else how long it can keep people interested in its cast of irritable avians.
