TV series encompasses a huge part of the entertainment industry.
They have their separate fan base even after the show ends. Come on, you have heard about F.R.I.E.N.D.S, right? Warner Bros earns about $1 billion every year just through its reruns.
And here is some more! The cast members earn about $20 million each as royalties.
Hopefully, now you have an idea of how big of an industry this is!
Earlier we have already discussed about movie marketing in our previous blogs. If you haven’t read it we will leave all the links below.
Today we will be discussing the marketing of TV series.
Game of Thrones– 17.4 million views per week, cult followers all over the world with record-breaking profits ever made by a TV show!
Whether you watch it or not, GoT can’t be avoided, with its unanimous fame, it is quite interesting to know how a fantasy fictional TV show created such a legacy did.
Apart from its extraordinary storytelling, massive production & epic characters GoT did a phenomenal job at marketing. Be it online promotions or offline marketing, PR moves they did all of the right strategies to make the series what it is today.
Here are some of the bold marketing strategies by GoT team:
The Scavenger Hunt
This was a fan-led scavenger hunt introduced by HBO, where fans had the opportunity to cross the fourth wall and search for six replica Iron Thrones, situated in six destinations around the world.
With a scavenger hunt along with the hashtag #FortheThrone & dripping content on all social media platforms, the team was able to create a massive buzz among the fans throughout the globe.
By visiting GoT’s official website, it’s possible to view 360-degree videos of each Iron Throne, offering striking visual clues as to their whereabouts.
The Visual Contents
Be it their #BringDowntheKing campaign for season 4, by SoHo, the broadcasters of the show in New Zealand or their 3D street art of Jon Snow Scaling The Wall, the show never missed a bit to engage fans all over the world.
Here they used a long-hated character, King Joffrey, as a statue, with a rope around his waist which is to be pulled by the fans.
Here is a picture of the HBO building to promote GoT.
They even made White Walkers take a stroll in the streets of London!
The Innovative Brand Tie-ups
Sure, brand tie-ups aren’t a new thing. But the way the GoT team did it was something to talk about!
Here is a list of few of them:
Oreos
A super Bowl offering, Oreo made a limited edition pack of Game of Thrones-themed cookies.
The cookies had four embossments of the four major houses battling for the Iron Throne- House Lannister, House Targaryen, and House Stark & the White Walkers of course.
Moreover, they also re-created the iconic Game of Thrones opening title sequence with Oreo Cookies.
Mountain Dew
The brand participated with the iconic “A Can Has No Name” campaign.
They produced a limited edition blank can but when warm reveals the kill list of character Arya Stark!
How clever is that!
A simple but quite an innovative idea to promote GoT & sell more drinks.
American Red Cross
You wouldn’t normally find a correlation between Game of Thrones and a healthcare organization like the Red Cross, as the show has a lot of death & blood.
But Red Cross used this point very efficiently to encourage blood donation in exchange for an immersive experience of the Iron Throne.
Their “Bleed for the Throne” campaign included an engaging fan experience where people could hear voices of prominent Game of Thrones characters who have literally “shed blood” in their fight to get closer to the Throne.
Bud Light
Another Super Bowl entry in the list.
For the 2019 Super Bowl Commercial, HBO tied-up with Bud Light to deliver an epic visual display that transforms from well, light, to the dark, ominous and edgy landscape that GoT is famed for in the blink of an eye.
Social Media Marketing Strokes
GoT heavily relied on social media for keeping up the awareness of the show among the fans worldwide.
Spotify
One of their major online campaign partner was Spotify.
Spotify is no stranger to curated playlists; indeed, that’s one of the things the music streaming service is most well-known for. So for the final season of Game of Thrones, Spotify curated a special playlist of around 30 to 45 tracks for each house.
Facebook, Youtube & Twitter
Currently, their Facebook page has over 23 million followers. This is a huge testament to the massive, strong fan base that Game of Thrones has built.
The show’s content, characters, and other elements are constantly appropriated and integrated into jokes, memes, and a plethora of other materials. This, in turn, helps to amplify GoT’s strong presence by spreading brand awareness.
Their promotional trailers and teasers are always very well-done and effectively create buzz, excitement, and suspense. They constantly share countless photos, behind-the-scene footage on their Youtube channel, Facebook.
One campaign that they launched was called “#ArtTheThrone”. This campaign was executed by recruiting five rising artists to produce artwork in different mediums. Each of them had a specific element from the series.
On Twitter, some of their catchy hashtags with #RoastJoffrey, #CatchDragon, #TakeTheThrone which generated millions of retweets & fan engagement worldwide.
Storytelling
Last but definitely of the most crucial marketing strategy of the GoT team!
Yup, that’s right!
Think about all the sudden deaths, one of the most complicated storytelling, out-of-the-world characters & very different plotlines for the books & TV series. All of them helped to generate more curiosity among the fans! One particular marketing move, inspired by the storytelling was the Beautiful Death website.
The website has visually stunning, regularly updated space filled with eye-grabbing artwork and Top Trump-style guides to commemorate all of the iconic deaths that have occurred throughout the series. The site attracts traffic regularly.
GoT never wanted to go mainstream, they pushed boundaries and explore new avenues when it comes to creating meaningful experiences and stories.
As a result, Northern Ireland which has over 26 of the prime filming spots, attracted €58 million in GoT-inspired tourism in 2017!
Which one is your favorite GoT season? Comment down below!
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