I read a case study on SKY, DDB New Zealand and Game of Thrones that was quite interesting so I decided to provide a little summary of what I read.
SKY are very active in New Zealand and are the most popular choice for pay television broadcasting within households in New Zealand. DDB New Zealand is a big advertising group that are equally, if not more, as active as SKY in New Zealand. It was also mentioned that SKY have a exclusive rights to broadcast Game of Thrones in New Zealand.
The case study then goes on to explain what happened between these three entities.
In order to promote its paid channel, SoHo, to current subscribers and to get new ones, SKY asked DDB to create an advertising campaign on a small budget that would encourage people to do so. The audience that SKY wanted to reach had previously said that they were not interested in G.o.T so DDB realised that they had to find a way to “infect” the people who had previously dismissed the show into wanting to find out what happens next, the same way that the online community anticipate it. Although existing fans were not the target, their excitement about the upcoming season could provide enough “momentum” to generate the same excitement in those that were not yet fans of the show. By using Brandwatch Analytics, DDB found that the most passionate of discussions in the online community centered around King Joffrey and decided to use that to their advantage by trying to get not yet fans to have as much hatred for the character as other fans already did. By creating a tall statue of Joffrey an putting it in a very public and popular place in the country and utilizing hashtags to get people to participate, DDB were able to generate an immense online buzz, which was their goal and that even received global recognition. All of this helped to “promote SKY’s passion around their content”. Unfortunately…that is about all I have time for today! Until next time! #bringdowntheking.