The last season of Game of Thrones is just around the corner. And brands have begun squeezing out the most value they can from the remaining season of the series. All throughout this epic fantasy series, many brands have tried to leverage the popularity. Quite a few of them were brilliant and bold and worthy of respect.
Lets look the ones who made the most out of this opportunity.
Sodastream: Shame or Glory
I think for me, this has been the best ad ever based on the Game of Thrones theme.
Well, apart from the fact that I lean towards any brand that tries to be a bit socially responsible, I think the ad was very well timed and so beautifully executed that few could match it.
It recreates the scene in which Cersei Lannister is taken through the walk of shame to atone for her sins. Only, instead of Cersei, it is a boy who is carrying soda water bottles for the Mountain.
Eventually, the Mountain teaches him a lesson about creating wastage with plastic bottles and using Sodastream instead.
This ad had me since the day I watched it!
Budweiser:
I have written about this ad before in the superbowl ads post. I think Bud Light just nailed it with this super duper ad, releasing it right on Superbowl, and just before the GOT final season.
The beauty of it is that I don’t even need to watch the twice to be reminded of Bud Light because right now, I, like every other Game of Thrones fan, am waiting for the release of the season. The ad recall value is very high and content is so well woven to the story of GOT.
A big thumbs up (again) to this.
Diageo: Johnnie “White” Walker
Marketers love coming up with special products for festive seasons, like Christmas, or new year’s eve. But this one tops it all.
Diageo launched this version of its brand in October last year, with whiskey that apparently tastes best “chilled”. Not only that, the bottle has a special ink inscriptions on it which reveal a secret text when kept in freezing temperatures. It reads, “Winter is Here”.
Is that’s worth collecting? I would love to own that bottle, even if I don’t like Johnnie Walker as such.
On one hand, one could say the opportunity was always there with the name, “White Walker”, for a brand like Johnnie Walker. But to be able to execute it in such a brilliant manner, is another thing.
This is an excellent example of marketing guys killing it. Hats off to those guys!
KFC: Chicken with Rice!
Again, this was clever ad by KFC. It is not one that will go for miles, but well, for a tactical one, it is does the job pretty well.
It is based on the end of episode 5 of season 6, the HODOR scene, where it is revealed how Hodor started saying “Hodor”, in short for “Hold the door”.
KFC smartly uses the character’s GOT story to transform its words, “Chicken and Fries” to “Chicken and Rice”, to introduce the item in its menu.
Spotify: With Whom Do You Listen
This partnership was towards the launch of season 6. Spotify partnered with GOT music supervisor,
Evyen J. Klean, to create music profiles suited to 31 characters.
So, Spotify users could create their playlists and match themselves with the GOT characters.
This was damn interesting for people and engagement on social media went through the roof.
I never took part in this, but I bet I would have been likely to get this:
Wishful thinking on my part, but the good part about being an author or a writer or a storyteller is that you can be whoever you want in your story.
Apart from these brands above, there were many others who tried to piggyback on the popularity of the show on social media. Carlsberg and Clorox ones are exceptionally good.
Ireland Tourism, Domino’s and Samsung are a few other are pretty decent in terms of the association.
Back home in India, Hotstar, Airtel, Zivame, Mother Dairy and Flipkart were a few of the brands that tried their luck on social media. The Hotstar and Airtel ones were particularly good.
And last, but not the least, for the hardcore fans and the collectors of Game of Thrones memorabilia (who also drink scotch whiskey), Game of Thrones has tied up with 8 different Scottish distilleries for each to represent 7 of the houses and the Night’s watch.
Check the list below to know which of your favorite whiskeys belong to which house.
Funny enough, I already prefer Oban for its taste. Now I just have to start liking Dalwhinnie and Cadhu too because of the houses they represent (lol). Which House Whiskey is your new favourite now?
As I end this post here, I am already feeling almost nostalgic about the series. One of the greatest shows of our time is about to end this year. But heck, all good things come to an end, don’t they?
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Winter is coming!
