Game of Thrones V Sky

Will you #bringdowntheking!

Game of thrones is one of the worlds most watched television programmes across the world therefore sky saw the perfect opportunity within the launch of its fourth series and its current place within New Zealands market. With the rise in social media Sky took this opportunity to create an inexpensive but successful social media campaign to boost there presence. The small proportion of the world who hadn’t watched an episode of Game of Thrones were usually those who were stubborn and often weren’t interested in it at all, these were the people sky wanted to target! With the help of DDB and Brandwatch Sky were able to reach new customers all over the world without them realising it was an advertisement, no one likes to read a sales pitch! By using analytics, one of modern days best tools, Brandwatch were able to track the most talked about issues within Game of Thrones and then used this to there advantage. Everyone loves to talk about a villain, therefore everyone loved to tweet about a villain. Using the #bringdowntheking Sky and Brandwatch created a statue of King Joffrey placed in a popular square in New Zealand and every interaction or mention with the #bringdowntheking saw the Game of Thrones villain winched down. Even if you weren’t interested in Game of Thrones being part of something so extraordinary brought in the interest of thousands of new potential fans of the show, and so the thousands of potential new sky customers.

The use of analytics played a massive part in this social media campaign, in order to engage with the viewers emotions. To create a successful social media campaign you need to know the content will be of interest to your target market, with Brandwatch able to take the main talking points from GOT fans they were able to give them exactly what they wanted –  to #bringdowntheking. The campaign reached 43 million people in 163 different countries, something sky wouldn’t have been able to do by themselves. The joint venture allowed every business involved to gain publicity and achieve there goals through the use of popular social media activity, the modern day marketing trick! Social media campaigns are thought to be an easy way out of marketing, this case proves that’s not the case. Many different aspects of social media and content must be thought about before anything can be launched to ensure the success of the event. However when used correctly this case also proves that it could be the way forward to create brand awareness for your business!

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