Story by
Drew Olanoff
Drew Olanoff was The Next Web's West Coast Editor. He coined the phrase "Social Good" and invented the "donation by action" model for onlin Drew Olanoff was The Next Web's West Coast Editor. He coined the phrase "Social Good" and invented the "donation by action" model for online charitable movements. He founded #BlameDrewsCancer. You can follow him on Twitter, Google+, Facebook, or email [email protected]
There’s quite a few things that Rovio, the company behind the massively successful Angry Birds franchise, is good at. The company makes extremely compelling and addictive games, distributes them on every major platform, and markets the heck out of its characters.
The latter is the most impressive feat and probably why everyone and their mother has heard of the Angry Birds series. I can’t walk twenty feet in San Francisco without seeing someone wearing or selling one of those red Angry Bird hats.
The company has announced its latest version of the game, Angry Birds Space, and it will be available for iOS, Android, PC, and Mac on March 22nd. Rovio even landed NASA as a launch partner, which is extremely fitting given the title’s setting.
While Rovio could merely sit back and let its current fanbase send the new title up the charts, the company isn’t resting on its laurels and has the marketing knobs turned to 11 once again. It’s as if the company challenges itself to outdo its last efforts with each release. It’s rather inspiring to watch.
In a series of promotional videos, Rovio is teasing all of the new characters that will be a part of the Angry Birds Space family. The animated videos are short, punchy, and eye-catching. But that’s not the thing that seals the deal for viewers, have a watch:
The brilliance of this animated short is that Rovio is showing you exactly how the new character will interact in the game. If you’ve ever played Angry Birds before, you know that each bird has its own properties that help you through the levels. These videos aren’t promotional videos, they’re tutorials. Yes, Rovio is getting your brain going by showing you how the new characters will perform.
Check out this comment from someone on YouTube:
Notice that this person didn’t say something like “Wow, Cool Vid!”. Nope, this person is already thinking about how the new character will interact within the game. It’s sheer brilliance on Rovio’s part to give this type of stuff away before the release.
Even casual Angry Birds players will start figuring out how they’ll use these new characters in different combinations to get through the new shiny levels. The promotional videos leading up to the launch on March 22nd have an average of 300k views, and I’m sure that the title will shoot up the charts on Google Play and Apple’s App Store almost immediately thanks to the pre-launch buzz and cross promotion in previous titles.
If you’ve taken the bait and and watched these videos, you’re definitely going to buy it on the 22nd. Well played, Rovio.
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