Merchandising a money maker for Rovio
Licensing merchandise about 30% of 2011 revenue
Rovio’s consumer products business, which handles the merchandising and licensing, has over 200 licensing partners that are making a number of products. The Angry Birds appear on everything from T-Shirts to calendars and just about everything in between. The success of the licensing of the Angry Birds is quite amazing; and the licensing is an extension of its almost 650 million downloads across all of the platforms that the Angry Birds appear on.
Rovio’s success has inspired a number of other software publishers to look harder at merchandise licensing to help generate additional revenue for its most successful franchises. As we can see by Rovio’s success, it can be a game changer that adds considerably to the bottom line.