GRAVE OF THRONES

Silver Spike

Case Film

Presentation Image

TitleGRAVE OF THRONES
BrandFOXTEL
Product / ServiceGAME OF THRONES
CategoryA08. Media / Entertainment
EntrantDDB SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA
Idea Creation DDB SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA
Idea Creation 2 THE GLUE SOCIETY Sydney, AUSTRALIA
PR MANGO Sydney, AUSTRALIA
Production REVOLVER/WILL O'ROURKE Sydney, AUSTRALIA
Additional Company PHOTOPLAY Sydney, AUSTRALIA

Credits

Name Company Position
Ben Welsh DDB Sydney Chief Creative Officer
Tara Ford DDB Sydney Executive Creative Director
David Jackson DDB Sydney Creative Director
Tommy Cehak DDB Sydney Senior Creative
Tim Woolford DDB Sydney Senior Creative
Ramon Rodriguez DDB Sydney Senior Designer
Sevda Cemo DDB Sydney Head of Integrated Content
Sam Harris DDB Sydney Producer
Andrew Little DDB Sydney Chief Executive Officer
Priya Patel DDB Sydney Managing Director
Penny Dixon DDB Sydney Managing Partner
Joseph Smeaton DDB Sydney Planning Director
Kirsty Mould DDB Sydney Senior Business Director
Lisa Zimpel DDB Sydney Senior Business Manager
Liv Pultar DDB Sydney Project Director
Richard Maxton DDB Sydney Content Editor
Danny Grifoni DDB Sydney Sound Engineer
Tabitha Fairbairn Mango Communications Managing Director
Ben Handberg Mango Communications Head of Consumer
Jim McGorty Mango Communications Project Director
The Glue Society The Glue Society Artists/Project Directors
Michael Ritchie Revolver/Will O'Rourke Managing Director/Executive Producer
Pip Smart Revolver/Will O'Rourke Executive Producer
Jasmin Helliar Revolver/Will O'Rourke Executive Producer
Isabella Vitelli Revolver/Will O'Rourke Producer
Enzo Iacono N/A Production Designer
Emma Gracie N/A Art Director
Rebeka Watson DDB Sydney Dresser/Buyer
Greg Hajdu N/A Construction Manager
Andrea Davies N/A Illustrator
Romello Pereira Photoplay Photographer
Libby Hams Photoplay Producer
Brian Walsh Foxtel Executive Director of Television
Jo McAlister Foxtel Director, Content Marketing
Jamie Campbell Foxtel Director, Publicity & Talent
Kieren Cooney Foxtel Chief Sales & Marketing Officer

Why is this work relevant for Brand Experience & Activation ?

This piece of work offered a live brand experience that was layered in reference to a show that fans obsess over in great detail. It involved Foxtel, Australia’s largest cable television network, concepting, developing, building, and eventually opening, an entirely new style of event activation - a cemetery. We then invited the public to come and experience this immersive new world as a way to promote Foxtel’s exclusive broadcast rights to Game of Thrones. This world-first experiential idea turned a graveyard into a promotional sales channel at an enormous scale.

Background

Foxtel have been the official broadcaster of ‘Game of Thrones’ in Australia for the last seven seasons. The premiere of the final season in April presented an opportunity to capitalise on the global hype surrounding the show, to help build brand love and drive sales. In recent years, Foxtel has had trouble fending off newer, more ‘hip’ broadcast offerings from streaming services like Netflix, and the brand has been perceived as ‘outdated’ and ‘uncool’. This event was particularly important in positioning Foxtel as not only a place to find the world’s best content, but as a brand that is culturally relevant, understands fans, and rewards them with experiences that competitors aren’t capable of.

Describe the creative idea (20% of vote)

Game of Thrones isn’t just one of the most popular shows of all time, it’s also one of the deadliest, with more than 100,000 Kings, Queens, Giants and mythical beasts having lost their lives since it began. These deaths have had an incredible impact on fans, who react with delight and despair in equal measure. Recognising this, we tapped into an audience insight in a way no one had before, and built a ‘final resting place’, to promote the final season. The ‘Grave of Thrones’, a live experiential event, was an enormous cemetery erected in one of Sydney’s most popular public parks, where fans of the show were invited to come and pay their respects to those who had died over seven seasons. Turning fictional characters into something much more real than they were on screen.

Describe the strategy (20% of vote)

There are two types of Game of Thrones fans: The devout fans, and the more casual enthusiasts. One group can tell you a character’s genealogy, while the other needs reminding of their name. The strategy was to target super-fans with something that appealed to their obsession and fandom, something awesomely nerdy and cool. We knew that if we got this right, these super-fans would amplify the Foxtel brand experience through social and digital, where more casual fans would encounter it. By recreating such an authentic ‘Westeros’ experience, Foxtel blurred the line between real world and the world of Game of Thrones. When visitors arrived, many were so overcome with emotion they couldn’t help but snap thousands of images for social media. Which spread our activation far and wide. Someone even brought down their pet rabbit dressed as a character from the show.

Describe the execution (30% of vote)

The 2,000 square metre cemetery featured the tombs of 35 of the show’s most notorious characters. The curation of characters was poured over, so that every grave was appealing for different reasons - from fan-favourites to the most hated. Each grave was layered in reference to the life and death of these characters. The tomb of Ramsay Bolton for example, who was eaten by his dogs, featured the macabre placement of a dog bowl at the base. Narratives like this were woven into every detail of every tomb. The headstones also featured the season and episode the character died and using Foxtel’s mobile streaming service people could watch their death while standing at their grave. A streamable audio-tour provided further information about each character’s life and death. The sheer size of the build took teams of Australia’s best set builders, sculptors, and artists thousands of hours to bring to life.

List the results (30% of vote)

The response was extraordinary and in just three days we saw a 300% increase in searches for Foxtel, resulting in a 17% increase in viewership. The Grave of Thrones cemetery saw nearly 30,000 people come and pay their respects, with some driving hours across the state of New South Wales to be there. The Grave of Thrones website saw more than 20,000 unique visitors and more than 5,000 downloads of the cemetery map. Social media was alight with tens of thousands of images, videos, tags and mentions across various platforms. Foxtel's brand sentiment was at an historic high of 97%, and there were more than 350+ global news stories mentioning Foxtel. Coverage included local mainstream television news, global news, digital publications, and mainstream local and global press. This resulted in more than 410 million media impressions, making the ‘Grave of Thrones’ the most successful promotional experience in the brand’s history.

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