In case you didn’t already know the final series of Game of Thrones premieres in the UK this evening (that’s if you didn’t stay up late and watch it a 2am!). As part of a huge marketing campaign, it seems every company is getting involved with their own creative brand partnerships. We thought we’d share some of our favourites ahead of the first episode going live. Enjoy!
Cookie Madness
One of the greatest Game of Thrones related campaigns has to be the Oreo ad. Using stop motion and over 2750 cookies Oreo painstakingly recreated the show’s title sequence. Oreo also brought out a limited edition range of cookies that were embossed with the logo of each of the notorious Game of Thrones families. Fans who pledge their loyalty to each House tweeting either #gameofcookies or #forthethrone could win some lucky fans a series of ‘Special Treats’ throughout the series!
Bleed for the Throne
By far the most meaningful of the Game of Thrones campaigns has to be the SXSW and American Red Cross campaign: ‘Bleed for the Throne’. At the three-day event, potential donors could queue to give blood in exchange for an immersive Game of Thrones experience. In the queue, they were handed forms to fill in by actors in Game of Thrones character. To enhance the experience both the waiting and recovery rooms were branded like King’s Landing Castle. Once the donation was complete donors got the opportunity to explore the interactive event. This included an Austin choir singing songs that were composed for the event, and the red priestess honouring each donor in a special ceremony. Each donor was then presented with a ‘Hand of the King’ pin.
Over the three days, the campaign aimed to collect over 500 units of blood (the average blood donation only collects 30 units). By creating such an innovative experience the campaign brought the importance of blood donation to a new generation of blood donors, seeing a 40% increase in new donor appointments. The drive continued after SXSW, taking place in 43 states across America throughout Spring. The campaign was estimated to collect over 10,000 donations.
To read more about the campaign then click here or more about the SXSW Game of Thrones overall experience then click here.
The British Army and Sky Atlantic
The British Army gave members of the public a shock recently when they partnered with Sky Atlantic to publicise the new series. The stunt saw the Night’s Watchmen take on Coldstream Guards at the Tower of London. The British Army’s marching band then performed the Game of Thrones theme tune whilst the Night Watchmen performed a choreographed knife display.
Urban Decay
A recent study in Marketing Dive saw that the majority of Game of Throne ad campaigns were heavily targeted at men. This is despite the fact that women make up for 42% of the viewers of the show and 52% of social media accounts mentioning the show. Marketing Dive went on to explains that Adidas’s Game of Thrones campaign was 89% targeted at men and only 19% to women. This is an increase from their typical targeting strategy which is usually 71% male and 29% female. Similarly, Mountain Dew hugely increased their usual targeting for their Game of Thrones Campaign seeing a rise from the usual 58% male to 71%.
For that reason, this next campaign becomes particularly significant. Urban Decay recently announced that it will be launching a Game of Thrones inspired range. The range will be inspired by all things Westeros including tributes to the characters, locations and of course, the different houses. The product range will include a dragon-inspired highlighter, a red ‘Dracarys’ lip and cheek stain, four shades of eye pencils and lipstick.
In case you didn’t already know, we’ve worked on the game of Thrones premieres on several occasions. But stay tuned because we’re working on something very exciting for the final series of Game of Thrones that you’ll be able to tell you more about soon.
