If you happen to be one of the few people in the world who haven’t heard of or played angry birds (the most successful game in mobile history) it’s a game that was released on December of 2009 that featured a bunch of wingless birds that are shot from a slingshot towards a group of pigs that have plotted to steal their eggs.
While the premise may sound a bit confusing and/or lackluster to say the least the game is actually very easy to understand and play, and for some most people it is extremely fun and addictive.
What makes this game so amazing isn’t its storyline or game play but it’s sales.
Since it’s release in 2009 Angry Birds (a .99 cent game) has been downloaded over 75 million times to date and continues to grow its fan base with every new iteration of the game.
Here are just a few interesting stats to show you just how massive their fan base is:
- Twitter: 476,082 twitter followers (as of 8/11/2012)
- Facebook: 21,268,830 likes (as of 8/11/2012)
- Google+: 2,805,089 people have them in their circles (8/11/2012)
- YouTube: 644,318,257 views on Rovio Entertainments YouTube channel (8/11/2012)
Not only have they managed to snag a major fan base they have also been featured in a number of popular publications such as National Geographic, New York Times, Huffington Post, Wired and countless other media platforms.
Angry Birds have even made it into outer space (a place where most of us will probably never go in this lifetime) thanks to NASA.
From video games to underwear and toys Angry Birds shows no signs of slowing down.
And all this from a .99 cent game that was released less than 4 years ago.
So what can Angry Birds teach you about building a brand?
While Angry Birds may have appeared to be an overnight success the developers spent years honing their skills and implementing them into their work before they became massively successful.
According to Wired Magazine the develops spent 8 years working on various projects before they finally reached worldwide acclaim with their Angry Birds title.
The lessons they learned from their mistakes and the feedback they acquired through years of practice set up the framework for their success and enabled them to take advantage of their success with Angry Birds and build their brand that far exceeded the single .99 cent title they released in 2009.
If a project doesn’t work out after you’ve put sufficient time and effort into it learn from your mistakes, start a new project and implement the lessons you’ve learned into it.
Keep working at your business and evolve it until you reach the level of success you are happy with, then grow it some more.
Success takes time, learning and practice so don’t give up if you don’t reach your goals as quickly as you’d like.
It’s very easy for most people to overestimate their outcome in the beginning so keep that in mind.
They started on one platform and expanded only after they were successful.
Rather than trying to do everything at one time the developers released Angry Birds solely on the iPhone platform.
Once they realized they had made something people loved they then began to release their game on other mobile devices.
As their success continued to grow they kept expanding their horizon and added to their brands success by creating new products and social media platforms to share their games with the world and give their fans more of what they loved.
When you first start out don’t try to do everything at the once as it’s likely you’ll either spread yourself so thin you won’t be able to make much of an impact in any one area of your business or you’ll have trouble keeping up with all of your projects or social platforms.
Instead choose one (maybe two) areas you want to focus on and grow it until it is successful or at least until you understand it enough to minimize the process and time you need to continue its growth before you move onto another project or area of focus.
If you see another blog or business killing it in their field using only one social media platform (assuming they aren’t gaining fans by paying for advertising) than there is a good chance you can too.
Study them and learn how they reached their level success and grew their business using content marketing and implement the techniques that resonate with you into your business.
They used a be everywhere mentality and marketed the hell out of their game
Rather than simply being stagnant and letting the game sit on its laurels Rovio entertainment began to market their game excessively everywhere they could by releasing YouTube video’s, growing a following on Facebook, and tweeting to their fans.
Eventually as popularity grew they were able to expand into new area’s of marketing and now they are currently in the process of making a movie.
As I stated before thoroughly understanding how other (similar) businesses use social media can give you an in-depth knowledge of how you can expand your own influence and grow your business in your particular field.
Start with one social media outlet such as a blog, YouTube or podcast until you are successful at it and then expand your businesses reach as you grow.
There are no tricks or secrets to successful marketing, there’s only hard work and a good content marketing strategy.
They created additional products to meet the demands of their fans
It is often said that in business the first sale is usually the hardest sale and it’s easier (and cheaper) to keep an existing customer happy than it is to try to gain a new one.
When Rovio’s fans couldn’t get enough of the game they created additional content to keep them happy.
They also began creating animated videos, clothing, toys and various other products to create additional buzz and give their audience more choices.
Rovio used the leverage of one product to build upon another and grow their brand.
They could have stopped at any level of success and quit but knowing that there is still room for improvement and growth, and taking advantage of it is what made this company such an established and big brand in mobile gaming.
You know a game is successful when your grandma how doesn’t even know what an iPad is spends half an hour playing Angry Birds on it.
5 tips on becoming an 8 year overnight success
1. Understand that it takes time to reach your goals. The better you are at excepting that fact the less likely you will be to quit when things don’t work out in the first few months or years.
2. Start with one platform and expand your business as you begin to grow your success. Maybe it’s gaining a YouTube following, growing your blog or building a podcast fan base. Work on one platform until you’ve learned the ropes and have made some success on that platform before moving to the next.
3. To expand on the previous tip try to create a single product/service or promote an affiliate product as soon as possible so that you have something to gauge your businesses success with. As you become more familiar with product development and marketing you can expand your product or service line to accommodate a larger reach and keep existing customers happy.
4. Study others in your market and learn how they became successful. What are they doing right? How are they marketing their products/services? How do they respond to their customers wants and needs? What products and/or services are they selling to their customers?
5. Listen to your readers and grow your business according to what their wants and needs are. In some ways this can include responding to comments or posting on topics they’ve identified as important or answering important emails. In other ways this can include analyzing your analytics and seeing where people spend the most time or money and identifying what they are most likely to share with their friends. (This may not be something you can really elaborate or work on until you have readers so develop a good content marketing strategy so that you can build your readership and learn from them.
What tips and idea’s do you have for becoming an 8 year overnight success?
Share you thoughts and opinions in the comments.