Angry Birds Brand Over-Extended?

I love Angry Birds, which I mentioned in my Amazon Appstore post. What's not to love? Globally, 200 minutes of Angry Birds is played every day.

Rovio recently said the game has been downloaded over 250 million times! I think I contributed to 5 or 6 of those downloads alone on all my various devices in my home. (On a side note, I recently downloaded Angry Birds on my desktop Chrome browser and was quite surprised how good the user experience was!) I wonder how many of the 250 mil are unique users?...but I digress.

Back to the point of my post.

Yes, Rovio has a runaway success with this mobile game.

And yes, some of its product extensions made sense:

• Plush toys - Got the classic red bird and green pig myself.
• Angry Birds-inspired movie, Rio - I had my doubts, but it did well and was still dealing with cute cartoon characters in the movie that was close to the premise of the game.
• Angry Birds Magic that leverages NFC capabilities. The Plush toys could activate elements in the game. Geo-location could be leveraged too. Definitely some cool offline/online spins to the core game play.

But egg recipe cookbooks? Come on! I think that's a stretch for the brand. Just because I love the game, do I really trust Rovio's culinary tastes?

I still can't find the Angry Birds Game on Facebook. =(

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Is This a Bad Media Placement?

Following my last post on DJ's as ultimate community managers, it appears I may be on a music-themed blogging streak here (unintentionally).

Today I was on the subway and ad in the commuter train caught my eye:

Normally, it's the QR code that I notice...due to my inner digital marketer. But QR codes in ads have become quite common in the Bay Area.

And it wasn't because it had Willow Smith featured...or at least I think that's Willow. What do I know? I'm an old dude!

Nor was I questioning why Disney made this app? It's actually been downloaded a ton and has some cool features. 

But, it was more because I was questioning the media planner who thought this was a great placement for the ad.

Sure I've seen ads that encourage commuters to download mobile apps, such as eBay.

And I think eBay had the right target audience and placement. Commuters could download the app, search, and bid on an auction item while they're waiting for their train.

But to whom is this Radio Disney app ad targeted?

If the ad is targeted for tweens or younger, then are they riding the subway and commuting to and from work? And do they even have smartphones? The chart below is recent comScore data that shows those aged 13-17 make up less than 10% of smartphone users.



Or perhaps the ads are targeted toward parents who have kids that like Radio Disney already. Then the logic would have to be that parents who see this ad will be compelled to download it so they have yet another app for their kids to play with when mommy or daddy is busy and needs the kids to entertain themselves. That may not be so far fetched, but if I were a kid, wouldn't I just click on Angry Birds instead to kill time on my parent's smartphone?

So I'm not convinced if this is a good media placement...do you?

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Downloading the Amazon Appstore

Yesterday, Amazon finally launched its Android Appstore. So I took it for a test drive today.

First of all, downloading the Amazon Appstore app on my Droid was non-trivial. Amazon even had to make a tutorial video on its site! I guess since it's not distributed on the Android Marketplace, they had to do this workaround. But for non-techies, the idea of being asked to check "Unknown sources" to "Allow installation of non-Market Applications", followed by this warning:

Yeah, that can be pretty scary, especially in light of the recent malware reports of certain Android apps. But I did it anyways because I'm an Amazon fan and they were giving away Angry Birds: Rio for FREE right now!! Who can pass up Angry Birds???

After launching the app, it prompted me for my Amazon login. I do like that I can now pay for apps with my Amazon account.

In many ways, the interface was good and organized like the Apple App Store and other app sites out there. But, Amazon definitely added its own Amazon-spin to it. The product listings follow closely the very familiar Amazon merchandising model, which I liked. It took me all of 0.0000001 seconds to figure out how to navigate the app because it resembles my Amazon.com app user experience.

I also noticed they were promoting a free paid app every day on the top of the page. World Series of Poker: Hold'em Legend, regularly $4.99, was free when I was there.

But I was on a mission for Angry Birds: Rio, an Amazon exclusive. And then I found it. The top free app, discounted from $0.99. Come to papa! The screenshots are much better here than the Android Marketplace. I was also surprised to see 1278 people already reviewed it! I hit the Get App button and it was mine at last!

Here's another cool thing I discovered. Back on Amazon.com on my desktop, it is awesome how well integrated it is to my Amazon account. You can shop for apps on their site, just as easily as buying a book, as I mentioned above. What's cool is if I find an app I like, on the far right, I can use Amazon's patented 1-Click to download the app directly to my phone.

 

One thing that would be nice is if Amazon aggregated all its apps under one app.

Here's a lesson drawn from Angry Birds. I like how Angry Birds: Seasons continues to add more thematic versions of the game (e.g., Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day), but it's just another icon after loading that's still in the ONE app. It would be nice if Amazon built such a "container" app for all its apps so my phone isn't cluttered with various Amazon apps, which currently includes Amazon MP3, Amazon Kindle, Amazon.com, and now Amazon Appstore.

Overall, a nice app store. Well done, Amazon!

Disclaimer: I do not own Amazon stock.

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