Silicon Beach: Apps Can Help the Little Guy Break into Entertainment
By Karla Robinson
September 14, 2012
September 14, 2012
- “The opportunity now for anybody on a connected platform to build a business to compete with the big guys is just amazing,” says Andrew Stalbow, North American general manager for ROVIO.
- At the Silicon Beach conference at USC, Stalbow discussed how the playing field has been leveled, enabling anyone to build a worldwide brand quickly, just as ROVIO’s “Angry Birds” took off across the globe.
- Although most associate ROVIO with the widely-adopted “Angry Birds” app, “we don’t want to be a mobile games company,” Stalbow notes. “I think we’re an entertainment company.”
- He explained that games are at the core of what they do, just as movies are at the core of Disney. But like Disney, which has built out theme parks and retail and more, ROVIO has many other aspects to its business, such as consumer products, retail and animation.
- He also said that the company has built itself on a business model of ubiquity. He criticized the Hollywood business model for being built around scarcity, saying it is “very challenged” with rights and window schemes. “I think the business model needs to evolve,” he suggests.
- “The power of these new connected devices hasn’t really been realized yet,” believes Stalbow, suggesting there is opportunity in the entertainment industry to more efficiently use new media.
- Moreover, these connected devices and new platforms can create a new forum for marketing. “In an app ecosystem, you’re actually connected [to your fans],” he says. “The people who create the content and control it will have the opportunity to tell their audience about their other [ventures].”
- Stalbow contrasts this environment to that of the traditional entertainment industry in which content is provided or distributed by third-party channels.
- ROVIO spends nothing on marketing, Stalbow claims. Instead, it leverages its apps and other products to inform its customers about the company’s various offerings. Also, working with NASA for its “Angry Birds Space” app or Disney for its “Rio” app, allowed for a cross-pollination of promotion, showing how one can use media in new ways to push a brand.
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