The Betting industry and reputation management : Case Veikkaus

"Reputation or media cannot be controlled. " This is how the director of communication at Veikkaus sums up his experience in dealing with public relations and general perception of the company. Veikkaus, the Finnish national betting agency is owned by the Finnish government. The total profits are directed to sports, art, youth work and science. It controls a large majority of the gaming markets in Finland, which according to many foreign betting companies causes an unfair advantage to free market principles. Sports betting is completely operated by Veikkaus in Finland, and the market access is restricted for other companies. Four years ago foreign companies attempted to take Veikkaus to EU-court in order to end the monopoly. This meant that Veikkaus, and its director of communication Ilkka Juva needed to work hard to defend the company´s image and reputation in front of the international public and media.

"Actually they attacked against the Finnish legislation, not us. 

             But still it irritated me."


What is reputation? Where does a company reputation stem from? Development manager Riku Ruoholahti from the T-Media Oy /Reputation Institute Finland gave a short speech at this year´s "Elonmerkki" -media conference regarding this topic. According to Ruoholahti, reputation cannot be compressed to cover just the balance sheet or sales revenue of a particular company. In reality, it originates from everything a company does: all its interaction with various stakeholders composes the perception. It is a question of trust and a positive emotional bond at its best: good reputation ensures that customers are satisfied and recommend you, employees are loyal and the media views you favorably.

Certainly the particular field of business affects the reputation. When thinking of the tobacco industry in the 21st century, it is hard to imagine how reputation good be naturally decent, at least with regard to its traditional product compilation. The same way, it could be argued that betting and gambling are considered infamous in the Western world. Finnish "Veikkaus" however, has managed to prove otherwise.

Despite the deplorable incident with the other international betting companies, Veikkaus managed to bypass the accusations of monopoly and strengthen its position. According to Ruoholahti from the Reputation Institute, Veikkaus is now the fifth most reputable company in Finland (the number one spot goes to the confectionery company Fazer). Mr. Juva admits that  the goal of Veikkaus has been to systematically stand behind its image as a public benefactor. All the proceeds go "back" for the citizens. In other words, through the act of entertaining games one can take part in taking care of the society as a whole. Charity through betting. This message clearly has saved the reputation of Veikkaus in the midst of European Union and their warnings. In the light of his experiences, Juva upholds skillful mastery of communication as the utmost important asset for today´s company. In his view, communication specialists should be present in the company boardrooms, and not as just  plain sidesupport players. Although media cannot be controlled, one can participate into the ongoing discussion and form a mutually beneficial dialogue.

The Betting industry and reputation management : Case Veikkaus

Angry Birds, Peter Vesterbacka and the Uncomfortable Insolance

Vesterbacka´s speech at this year´s Elonmerkki -conference divided opinions. Some thought he was inspiring. Some said he is brave and exemplary. Others- could not take his arrogance. The underlying discussion beneath the day´s speeches had been Finnish design and ways to take it abroad  - marketing. Or, the lack of better Finnish marketing. As Artek´s leader admitted, they are well-known internationally, but  do not know how to capitalize their fame. Vesterbacka knows a thing or two about capitalizing and taking action when the iron is  hot. And he is not afraid to say it out loud, without embarrassment or demure attitude. And this direct pride is not accustomed to in the Finnish landscape. It is... showy.

The Chief Marketing officer of Rovio ( the company responsible for producing "Angry Birds" game into our cultural consciousness) does not bow down in front of his company´s success. He drops facts and numbers like Agent Orange to a Vietnamese field. The audience gasps and smiles uncomfortably. Some cheer.
"Surely this kind of success cannot happen just like that? Surely this kind of success cannot last? Just look at What happened to Nokia- we shouldn´t brag."

The "Angry Birds" has been downloaded approximately 350 million times so far. At the present rate, it is being downloaded 1 million times a day. 200 million minutes are played every day. They have around 130 million active users around the world. According to Vesterbacka, the company is growing faster than YouTube, Google or Facebook (at present). Last year the company´s revenue was a meager 6,5 million euros. This year, they are expecting the number to reach 100 million (euros). Within the next couple of years, they are going public.  Vesterbacka himself was voted the seventh most influential person in the world
(TIME -magazine, April 2011). Interestingly, the international commentators found his reaction to the newly appointed status as "humble". So what is it that made the company so huge?

Before the company made it huge, they were in deep trouble. Money had been burnt by the owners Niklas and Mikael Hed, and something needed to be done. "Angry Birds" was Rovio´s 52. game. There were 51 attempts to make it before the success, and in the beginning, even the birds weren´t that catchy. Game designer Jaakko Iisalo´s pet project was a raw idea that needed a lot of meat for the bones. There were no pigs, there was no slingshot. Besides the brain power of gifted designers, there was also the marketing genius of Peter Vesterbacka, who knew the direction to go for and the measures needed to make the game big. Before the slingshot, the game was not understandable for the average user. Before the pigs, there was no enemy to go against. (Adding the pigs as enemy was also a clever move the in the midst of global swine flu-epidemic). In December 2009 the catapult-puzzle  game was released. By February 2010 it was the top-selling game in both UK and US Apple application stores.

When asked, even Vesterbacka himself does not know the exact reason for the worldwide popularity of the game. He lists the swine flu, the fun and colorful characters, the concurrent rise of the touch-screen smartphones, attention to detail, smart marketing and a cheery game-idea (there are no negative punishments for mistakes).

By now, Rovio´s main goal is to strengthen and widen the brand. There is the cookbook coming, the toys, the film, the shoes, the clothes... Vesterbacka is comparing the brand to the world famous "SpongeBob" -phenomenon, which still (after its creation in 1974) is selling merchandise in the ranges of 4 billion US dollars
annually. The great goal is to be the first entertainment brand with 1 billion fans.This is no small talk, no unassuming muttering, this is plain determination. Will the company make it there?

While focusing on "Angry Birds", it is easy to forget that there is much more happening overall in the Finnish game industry, and Rovio is just the first mega success on the road to many more. According to the recent  Finnish Game Industry  2010-2011 study, the revenues of the whole game industry have grown steadily, and topped 100 million euros last year. The revenues for this year are expected to rise to 165 million euros. In comparison to  game industries in other Scandinavian countries, Finland is now holding the number one spot. In the light of this, it is surprising to learn how little the Finnish government is investing in the education or finance regarding game industry. Preconceived ideas against the field of entertainment?

So what are the possible "next" success stories in the field of Finnish game industry? This year the foreign finance was totaling approximately 60 million euros, from which Rovio took the main cut ( 34 million). The second biggest company to hit the big league was called Supercell, which collected 12 million euros in venture capital from Accel Partners. Also a company called Grand Cru has received 1 million.  According to insiders, much is expected from the oldest Finnish game company Housemarque, when it releases its new version of an old game for Sony  and a puzzlegame for iPad. There is also names like Recoil with its "Rochard" -game and "Trine 2" from Frozenbyte. (On a sidenote, you should check out the soundtrack for Trine1, which features world-class classical players instead of machine-generated pseudo-music. Thank me later.)

Besides Rovio therefore, much is happening in the Finnish game industry at the moment. Although the money might be there, the process to reach glory and fame is still slow and laborious. This does not seem to dispirit the energetic designers. The buzz and drive has spread to other cities outside the capital Helsinki,
and the hopes are high. Who will be the next success in a red shirt? According to Rovio´s brand image, as we have come to associate him, it takes a good idea, some smart marketing and pure courage to try. After all, it was the golden 52. game which took the world by storm. Not the first, not the third. The number 52.

Angry Birds, Peter Vesterbacka and the Uncomfortable Insolance

Solving the smallest Rubik-cube in the world

I don´t know why, but watching this footage makes me all twitchy and uncomfortable. Kind of like holding the original bigger version of the cube. Never quite got the fascination, although I´m usually the one hooked on  all the trendy games of the season.
The cube is only 10 mm, or 0.39 inches.

Solving the smallest Rubik-cube in the world