Below is a brief summary of the DBB marketing campagin which attempted to incresase viewer ratings for the forth season of Game of Thrones.

Sky, currently in posession of the rights to broadcast the popular television series in New Zealsn, wanted to add to the ever growing fan base. Although initially the target market was aiaming at current fans, this was not thir primary goal. However, they decided by targeting the existing fans with a clever strategy in an attempt to attract more viewers, by using the excitement genrerted by said fans.

DBB had recognised that the common link between the majoirty of the existing fans was the passion and hatred towards one of the main characters. By using Brandwatch, a social medis marketing and analystics tool, they were able to discover that the most discussed item of the show was that of King Joffery, one of the leading characters. Using this character as the focal point, they believed they could use the existing fans strong feelings toward him in order to attract others, in Leymans terms, causing mass commotion in order to provoke a reaction and raise awareness.

With Joffery aggred upon by the DBB they set about creating a large effigy atop a plinth and placing it in Aotea square, a popular location that markets and other events were held as well as possesing an element of reality, as occasionally the location plays host to political rallies.

King Joffery in all his glory standing 7 meters high in Aotea square

By starting the discussion on Social media with the tweet #Bringdowntheking, revealing that each tweet would lower a noose around the hated kings neck, both awareness and engagement skyrocketed. By using Brandwatch they were able to identfy the areas both engaging and also the regions lacking in awareness.

” In total the reach of the campaign reached 43 million people in 168 countries” (Brandwatch, 2014) This to me persoanlly shows the power that social media has on peoples perceptions. The revolution of viral content marks a new dawn in marketing, and has revolutionised the way in which businesses achieve objectives and aims and more specifically reach the target demographic. Relating to a similar case was that of the “what  colour is this dree” showing how influential social media can be, with the simple discussion of what colour the dress was trending worldwide.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/weird-news/what-colour-is-the-dress-white-and-gold-or-blue-and-black-an-eyewitness-gives-a-definitive-answer-10074553.html

The king is dead… Long live the king.