As seen the Brandwatch case study, SKY saw an exciting opportunity to increase its customer base through the largely popular TV series Game of Thrones. They utilised the marketing expertise of DDB New Zealand to create a tactical campaign to hopefully entice New Zealanders who had previously dismissed the show to join.
The concept of targeting existing fans for the project was unusual yet extremely effective. I myself was originally drawn into the GoT craze through the desire to understand what on earth all the people around me where talking about. ‘Stark’ this, ‘Lannister’ that, not to mention the ‘Baratheon’s’. The Baratheon’s who housed that ever so hated King Joffrey. Brandwatch picked up on this communal hatred through Brandwatch Analytics which when paired with sentiment analysis revealed he drove the most passionate discussions online.
The challenge was how could DDB New Zealand ride on the back of this shared hostility and translate that momentum into nationwide exposure.
As we have previously seen played out in history, the toppling of a statue symbolises the longing of removing or banishing someone from their position. It was decided that this gesture would be recreated through the form of a 7 meter tall statue of malevolent boy with rope, winch and all to see.
#bringdowntheking
Every tweet which carried the chosen hashtag brought the king ever closer to his fate. As onlookers began to share thoughts and photos of the event social media attention went through the roof. Continued analysis of users involvement allowed the campaign to shift from a nationwide project to a global phenomenon. It was found geographic regions with low engagement could be targeted with native languages to produce a higher response rate and participants with high influence could be engaged further by providing them with a ‘special status’. The link between the physical and digital world aided the exposure the campaign received, reaching 43 million people across 168 countries. It appears that DDB New Zealand where successful in promoting Game of Thrones, stating they recorded 875,000 individual interactions, yet it is hard to say how many of these interactions actually signed up for a new SKY subscription.
Sky – #BringDownTheKing on Vimeo.
Takeaways:
- The case has shown the importance of continually reviewing and analysing what is happening in on-going campaigns to allow for new insights which can be acted upon to generate new or strengthen any coverage already gained.
- The case could emphasise that the utilisation of a physical element linked with an artificial element in a media campaign can help bridge the gap between the cautious/unknown ‘digital world’ and comforting/familiar ‘real world’ through interaction with one having an effect on both.