London – Rovio Entertainment has appointed Popcorn Digital, a JV between leading kids’ entertainment specialist CAKE and digital content producer Diagonal View, to manage branded content on the official Angry Birds YouTube channel. Popcorn Digital will lead the digital strategy, implementing plans to grow viewership and revenue of original animation and branded content and further expand an existing fan-base of over 1.9 million subscribers.

While classic content from the library is being repurposed and re-released, the channel will also debut new series including Angry Birds Blues, starring the boisterous blue birds and Hatchlings from The Angry Birds Movie, with new episodes launching weekly through the end of 2017, as well as the forthcoming Piggy Tales: 4th Street, the fourth instalment of Rovio’s hugely popular Piggy Tales series, which will debut in 2018. Since Popcorn Digital’s management began, the Angry Birds YouTube channel has seen a 150% subscriber growth, a 30% increase in revenue and a 25% increase in views over a 3 month period.

Joe Lawson, Head of Content Licensing and U.S. Brand Development at Rovio Entertainment said, “For a digital brand like Angry Birds, YouTube is an essential channel for building audience engagement and affinity. With that in mind, Rovio is focusing heavily on content distribution of our existing and new short form content leading up to the movie sequel planned for 2019.

We are extremely excited to be working with the experts at Popcorn Digital to help grow and optimize the audience’s relationship with Angry Birds.” CCO & Managing Director, Ed Galton from CAKE said, “Angry Birds is a great addition to Popcorn Digital’s roster of channels and with CAKE managing linear and digital distribution of all original AV content, we will have the opportunity to align our strategy across all platforms.”