Marketing, formerly a bastion of consumer good, durables and possibly services, has today become an all pervasive field. Nothing gets launched / opened without ‘marketing support’ to announce its presence.
The marketing buzzword for the current times is Content Marketing and some of the best marketing strategies of this are today seen in the film and television world. George R.R. Martin’s Game of Thrones (GoT) is one of the most viewed series with millions of viewers hooked on to its addictive, racy plot full of surprises by the minute.
Driving the success of this series is not just the loyal fan base but an extremely well planned out marketing strategy that constantly whets the appetite for more. Some of the key points are noted below for marketer’s to get inspired by
1. Don’t just broadcast, engage: GoT fans continue their conversations across social media channels, furthered and fueled by inputs from the GoT team. This ensures that the engagement becomes an active dialog rather than a passive telecast. The result- Game of Thrones‘ total social media audience on the major platforms is 1 million, which trumps the competition: megahits Breaking Bad and Mad Men have combined audiences of 12 millionand 2.8 million respectively. The differentiator is amazing, engaging content.
| Game of Thrones | 14,500,000 | 2,300,000 | 393,000 |
| Breaking Bad | 10,900,000 | 1,100,000 | 21,400 |
| Mad Men | 2,600,000 | 206,000 | 47,800 |
2. Only text is boring content: 90% of information transmitted to the brain is visual. Visuals are processed 60,000X faster in the brain than text. Posts with photos generate 53% more likes than an average post. Simply put, content has to be rich and visually engaging to be shared. GoT lays heavy emphasis on the customization of its content using rich visual from the series with iconic quotes. Thereby ensuring a guaranteed amount of virality around it.
3. Be omnipresent: Just because you have digital covered for your millennial audience it may not make the mark. You have got to be out there covering all bases across media. Caveat being- carry the same amazingness everywhere. Case in point: GoT’sdragon ad in the New York Times to announce the start of season 3 was a brilliant example of native content
4. Out of sight need not mean out of mind: Your product line may be a seasonal one (much like a TV series). But make sure that the fans don’t forget you during the absences. Keep a steady stream of engagement supplements flowing with your fan base so that when you are ready to make a comeback, you are not starting a conversation all over again. GoT does it in super simple ways by keeping its content calendar active and especially so in the fallow period. A steady buffering of quips, quotes, behind the scenes footage, mashups ensure that when the new season is announced everyone is all ears. It doesn’t hurt that the high natural brand engagement means that cost of reach for GoT will be much reduced.
5. People love secrets and sneak peeks: Consumers and viewers today love to be in on the development process. Everyone has an opinion and in today’s time, they can actually share it with those who count without climbing mountains. GoT lets their fans in to get in on the behind the scenes actions. GoT folds insider and red carpet content into the mix to give fans exclusive access to what’s going on in the Westeros universe in the palms of their hands – all 17 million of them. The average amount of likes on the below photos of the cast from the premiere with their miniature characters on instagram, for example, is 15K. Exclusive access lets the fandom feel privileged – a feeling that they love to share with their network. And of course, GoT stays in the news
Original article appeared in the Newscred blog by Lauren B. Mangiaforte- 5 Things to Pillage from Game of Thrones’ Content Marketing Strategy
