The aim
Game of Thrones is one of the most popular and talked about TV series’ in the world. In New Zealand, SKY holds the exclusive rights to broadcast the program accross the country.
With season 4 of GOT on the horizon, SKY saw this as a prime opportunity to drum up further hype surrounding the series, with the aim to gain more users signed up to their globally popular SKY TV service, as well as their new Zealand counterpart SOHO. Employing the aid of worldwide digital marketing giant DDB, they set about creating a campain to interest and excite current and new watchers of the series. This post aims to create a brief analysis on the campaign’s effectiveness.
The idea
With the primary aim to create a further hype and get people’s attention towards the series, DDB employed the use of shock tactics to create a worldwide buzz. Placing a 7 metre statue of the notorious and globally hated charecter from the series King Joffrey in Aotea square, with a winch and rope wrapped around his neck; the winch was then powered via the use of Twitter….
Every time a tweet was posted with the hashtag including #bringdowntheking, the winch was slightly turned and Joffrey was gradually pulled closeer towards his inpending doom.
The result:
Passers by soon caught onto the significance of the statue, and began to tweet and post photos at a rapid rate, spreading the campaign like wildfire.
The campaign took the world by storm, reaching an estimated 43 million people across 168 countries.
DDB’s Brandwatch Analytics recorded that almost 875,000 responses were gathered from the campaign,and in no time the king was pulled down with ease.
Overall this initiative was a smash success, and is a key example of how a well executed digital marketing plan can affect on a global scale.
Other reports:
http://creativity-online.com/work/sky-tv-game-of-thrones-bringdowntheking/34644
http://www.adweek.com/agencyspy/ddb-new-zealand-to-bring-down-king-joffrey-for-sky-tv/64476