The “Angry Birds” are a true internet phenomenon. The MIT Entrepreneurship Review described the game as the biggest app success it had ever seen. And indeed, according to the list published by Apple (as of May 2013), “Angry Birds” is the most successful paid iPhone/iPad app of all time. Angry Birds has been downloaded an estimated 1.7 billion times across all platforms, its YouTube channel has a billion views and almost 25 million fans have gathered on Facebook.
Behind this sensational success is the Finnish software company Rovio Entertainment. Before I tell you how the collaboration came about, here’s my iPad clip for the new Angry Birds Seasons update.
Rovio and I actually have quite a lot in common. Sadly, I don’t mean their 2012 profit of 150 million euros – but the games studio from Espoo near Helsinki owes its breakthrough to Apple’s iPhone and iPad. My career, too, has developed wonderfully since my first iPad magic video: performances all over the world – most recently in Kuwait, Muscat and Toronto – show the effect of viral YouTube clips, word of mouth 2.0, so to speak.
“We are very very serious at Rovio when we say we want to surprise and delight our fans. We really mean what we say! Simon’s incredible iPad magic is perfect for our Angry Birds Season Abra-Ca-Bacon update, which is why Simon has now become the Official Angry Birds Magician! We expect incredible and magical things from this fresh partnership.”
Peter Vesterbacka, Mighty Eagle, Rovio – Angry Birds
The title of the update, “Abra-Ca-Bacon”, explains what else we have in common – in this particular case, the “Bad Piggies”, the Angry Birds’ adversaries, have now developed magical powers too.
In April, while I was performing at Hannover Messe, an email from Rovio reached me – on my iPad, of course: “We’ve seen your videos on YouTube and think they’re fantastic! We’re preparing something new and would love to talk to you about it.” As an Angry Birds fan, I didn’t hesitate for long and took the next available flight to the Angry Birds headquarters. At the entrance there’s a large fan shop with just about every merchandise item you can imagine. The branding can now be found on thousands of products. There’s even a feature film in the pipeline.
The meeting then takes place in a large playroom. My first drafts are very well received, and the collaboration is sealed with a handshake. The new features of the Angry Birds game form the basis of my iPad magic: the birds are fired out of the iPad with a slingshot, and magical portals teleport the Angry Birds from one iPad to another.
New Angry Birds Seasons updates will follow. Whether we team up again then will, of course, also depend on how many views this iPad clip gets. So off to YouTube – let’s hit the million mark! In the meantime, the new iPad effects will of course also feature in my live show.
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