Los Angeles, CA- May 3, 2017- Rovio Entertainment, creators of the highly-successful Angry Birds franchise, has retained the services of Evolution as its USA licensing agent focusing on consumer products and retail expansion. In a separate but related announcement, Simo Hämäläinen has been named Senior Vice President, Brand Licensing for Rovio Entertainment as part of a global strategy aimed at strengthening the Angry Birds brand for the future.
Hämäläinen has been with Rovio for over four years and was the VP of Marketing and Promotions before taking over as the head of all licensing operations. He has a wealth of experience in working with big consumer brands. Prior to joining Rovio he held several sales and marketing roles at Heineken over a period of seven years, working with brands like Heineken, Sol, Fosters and Pepsi.
Evolution will represent Rovio’s ongoing Angry Birds initiatives for merchandising, promotions and retail opportunities while looking ahead to 2018 to focus on the breakout characters, the Hatchlings, the cute little young birds introduced in the company’s successful film debut, “The Angry Birds Movie,” last summer.
“These are exciting times for Angry Birds in the USA. We have new animation content in production, several big game launches coming in 2017 and 2018 and the sequel to The Angry Birds Movie in development,” said Hämäläinen. ”Partnering with Evolution greatly strengthens not only our licensing program in the USA, but will significantly increase our retail penetration across all channels."
With clients like Miramax, Gaumont Television and Sunny Bunnies on its roster, Evolution is poised to greatly elevate Rovio’s licensing and retail business.
“Having seen the huge success of the franchise in the past and knowing that the team at Rovio has a strong focus on releasing new compelling content: games, animation, movies, we felt that our team could assist them in expanding a meaningful consumer products program in the US,” said Travis Rutherford, Partner and Chief Revenue Officer of Evolution.
Rovio’s decision to turn to an external licensing agent solution in the US is consistent with how their licensing business is handled throughout the world and allows Rovio to focus on mobile game initiatives and expanding their content creation.
About Rovio Entertainment Ltd.
Rovio Entertainment Ltd., based in Espoo, Finland, is the creator of Angry Birds, the casual mobile game that changed an industry and became an international phenomenon. Today Angry Birds is not only the most downloaded series of games of all time, it is a renowned entertainment brand that has branched out into animation, licensing and more. The Angry Birds Movie was released in May 2016. www.rovio.com
About Evolution USA, LLC
Evolution has the expertise to fully monetize all forms of intellectual properties through licensing and merchandising, digital monetization, promotions, location based entertainment, retail development and brand management on a global basis. Evolution is also adept at managing manufacturing and distribution, which enables it to develop intellectual properties from concept to the retail shelf. www.evomgt.com
For further information on Evolution, please contact:
Travis J. Rutherford – Partner / Chief Revenue Officer
Phone: +1 (818) 501 3186 E: licensing@evomgt.com