Today’s blog post is contributed by a guest blogger, JenC, a social media enthusiast. Jennifer has worn multiple hats in her marketing career including her exposure in both an MNC and local business environment for 8 years. She was one of the organisers of Penang Twestival and one of the pioneers in organising Penang Social Media Club, Malaysia. You can connect with her on Twitter here.
What do Angry Birds and Marketing have in common?
Some of you may wonder, it’s just a game! How many possibilities can they possibly share the same features? Slingshot the birds to kill those pigs? Angry Birds is not only the recent IPhone’s top grossing game but it also holds valuable marketing lessons:
1. Study the scenario
Before we take the first step in everything we do, it’s important to study the scenario. Above is the print screen of a Angry Birds scene (to give a better picture to non- Angry Birds players). The objective of the game is to use the four available birds to attack the two green pigs on the right hand corner. So before you slingshot those birds to kill those pigs, you need to understand the environment of the pigs. You can see that those pigs are protected with bricks, glasses and stone. This will help you to plan how you want to launch those birds.
When playing in the Marketing scenario, it re-applies the same concept. Before we plan and launch any marketing product or event to the market, it is important to study the environment of other existing products in the market. You will need to study your current competitors, the current promotions and hiccups of that products. That will give you a better positioning when your product is launched.
2. Knowing your resources and maximizing it
In this stage, you know that you are only given 4 similar birds (small and red). It is good to understand what is available in every level as well as study the different types of birds which have different functionality. Some of the birds can drop an egg and some can even turn themselves into a bomb. By knowing your resources, you can plan out how you want to slingshot the birds over to the pigs. It’s it going to be high or low, near or far shots. On the other hand, you need to maximize each of the resources that is given. In Angry Birds, the lesser birds that had been slingshot to kill all of the pigs, you gain more score points for the left over birds.
In the marketing scenario, it applies the same where by you need to know what are the available resources for your company. In today’s era, your marketing is not only via media or even newspaper advertisement. There are other resources of marketing today available to you such as email campaigning and social media tools (such as Facebook, Twitter, Websites and Blogs). By understanding and knowing the various resources, you can plan better for your long and short term marketing plans. Besides that, you can maximize your marketing campaign at a lower cost and better ROI.
3. Study the outcome and plan differently
At the end of each Angry Birds stage, it will summarize how well you did by showing the stars you got. The total stars is three. If you got 1 or 2 stars only, you can try again how to slingshot the pigs in the better way. Avoid the same way you slingshot the first time. Try other alternative to get the best results!
This goes to marketing strategy. If it doesn’t bring the best outcome, then work differently with your resources. Plan it differently and make a note about the old marketing way which is not so effective anymore.
My conclusion is that Angry Birds is FUN! So marketing can be fun too!
YAS’s note: Thanks Jen, it is an entertaining read, almost like Art of War by Sun Tzu when you described the ammo= birds (in different sizes, qualities and quantities) which are needed to knock the pig down. Also, the term “slingshot the birds” is officially YAS’ favourite phrase of the month at the office 
