The Angry Birds characters have appeared on clothing, books, stuffed animals, board games, and now … credit cards!
One of the local banks in Russia, Promsvyazbank (PBS), released a series of credit cards in the second half of June featuring characters in the game created by Finland’s Rovio. The first series is said to be limited to 100,000 units.
“We hope that customers actively use this financial instrument to pay for goods and services. We are addressing an attractive market segment ranging from 25 to 34 years of age, after which we can offer other options such as loans or bonds,” said Ivan Pyatkov, director of consumer products for PBS.
PBS is a private financial institution founded in 1995 and has offices in Russia, India, Kazakhstan, and Ukraine. It has more than 1,200 offices and has banking facilities and ATMs around the world.
Pyatkov explained that depending on the response of consumers, the bank could promote other financial instruments with the popular Angry Birds characters which first appeared in stores in December of 2009.
The division of Rovio consumer products, which includes licensing and marketing, generated 30% of the total profits of the firm in 2011. Only this year, the company made more than 200 partnerships with companies to develop new products for the Angry Birds franchise.
Rovio has over 250 employees worldwide, generating revenues in 2011 of up to 106.3 million dollars. The company was founded in Finland in 2003, after three students won a game development contest sponsored by Nokia and Hewlett-Packard.
