Angry Birds & Toothpaste: A Match Made in Business

BUENA PARK, Calif. (MainStreet) -- Puneet Nanda, the man behind oral-care company Dr. Fresh, had an epiphany last year when he attended a toy show in Hong Kong. With so many Angry Birds toys and accessories featured and even knockoffs being sold on the street, he knew he had to get the license for Angry Birds. He called his licensing manager back in the U.S. and demanded she fly to immediately Finland to get permission to use the Angry Birds brand.

It was a tough sell to Rovio Entertainment, the makers of the hugely popular game, but after strong negotiations and a large amount of money, Dr. Fresh announced last week that it was to be the exclusive U.S. manufacturer and marketer of Angry Birds oral-care products.

Since its launch in 2009, the Angry Birds game has been downloaded more than 500 million times across multiple platforms. There is even a possible TV series and film features in the works, Dr. Fresh says. Angry Birds fever has turned everyone from kids to business professionals into gamers, with hundreds of companies hoping to latch on to the brand's success to sell Angry Birds merchandise.

Dr. Fresh is one of the fastest growing oral-care companies in the U.S., despite being around since 1998. The company is the developer of more than 250 different personal-care products from a top-selling FireFly flashing toothbrush for kids to Binaca breath freshening products. Dr. Fresh licenses for 19 brands including Hello Kitty, Spider-Man, Batman, Barbie and Hot Wheels, to name a few.

Dr. Fresh is up against some heavy hitters in the consumer goods space, such as Colgate-Palmolive (CL) and Procter & Gamble's (PG) Crest.

According to Nanda, Angry Birds will not agree to a license if the product is generic. Businesses must have something new and different to sell if it wants to be allowed to use the Angry Birds brand. Dr. Fresh is the first to use it for oral-care products.

In the third quarter, Dr. Fresh will release the first of nine new products it has been allowed to sell under the Angry Birds brand - the FireFly Angry Birds Squirt 'N Brush Tooth Foam.

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