For his return on HBO this Sunday,
March 31th, Game of Thrones has just completed its historical record audience
with 4.4 million fans. The finale of season two in June 2012 had attracted 4.2
million viewers. Plus, Game of Thrones was the most downloaded series on the
web in 2012 as well. How could we explain this strong enthusiasm for Game of Thrones in United
States and in Europe? The launch of the season three is for us the moment to try
take a step back to analyse this huge success.
At the beginning, Game of thrones is
the first novel in “A song of ice and fire” written by the American George R.R Martin. The first volume novel was published on 1996 and experienced a
planetary success: 15 million copies worldwide in more than twenty languages
plus one reward (Locus Award in 1997) and two nominations. Originally envisaged
as a trilogy, there are now five published novels in the series with two more
planned. For those who have no idea about the book or the serie, basically, the
story takes place
in a fictional world in a continent called Westeros but also on large land on
the east knows as Essos. Most of the characters are human and they fight each other
for the control of a mythical kingdom (secret liaisons, plots, unions). Gradually, other races are
introduced, such as the « Others » from the North and dragons from
the East. There are three principal story-lines in the series; the more the
series progresses; the more story-lines become interrelated on each other. With the series, the Game of Thrones Transmedia experience started. The series has been adapted as a board games, a tabletop wargame,
a collectible card game, two tabletop roleplaying games and two computer games all
of them based on the series. However, HBO was innovative this time with a new
kind of storytelling transmedia experience: a sensorial experience which is
absolutely unusual.
Game
of Thrones: multi-sensorial experience
In February 2011, Campfire decided
to create a multi-sensory experience that incorporated the five senses: touch,
sound, taste, smell and sight. The campaign used several platforms: there was a
game that incorporated one of the five senses (Kingdom of
Westeros), a website with puzzles and clues (themaesterspath.com), social
media websites and a real-world experience (HBO created scent kits to evoke
scents of important locations in Westeros). The goal of this five-step
model was to create awareness and increase consumer interest for Game of
Thrones.
After having kept satisfied book’s fans, the new line of the Game of Thrones business model is to generate new fans. The first step was attracting hard-core fans of Game of Thrones who would talk about the “scent kit”. These fans talked about the scent kit through their own channels on social media, which was free publicity for the show and attracted fans to the website.
Secondly, on the website themaesterspath.com, fans could experience the other two senses: sound and sight. They could listen to conspiracies that were brewing in the tavern of Westeros and so on. Each week the site gives puzzles dedicated to the series. This platform thus allowed access to exclusive videos of the series or to unlock and fans can share it on Facebook. Each player had a "Maester's chain" a sort of "check point" personalized, allowing it to inform the course of the adventure and get all the essential information to complete the puzzles. To solve the puzzle, it was necessary to demonstrate a knowledge of heraldic symbols from the bestseller. According to the director of Campfire "riddles and challenges were clearly oriented to satisfy the fanatics of the series, it was to prove the passion felt by HBO and his staff for Game of Thrones ". Thus, players could sail from six different tables of the inn discreetly listen to gossip and rumors referring to the conundrum.
In the third experiment,
players have discovered a casual flash game to integrate members of the
"Night Guard" in the context of a mission which was to preserve the
kingdom from attack (not a great interest according to books fans). In addition
allowed viewers to have a first glimpse of the fortress designed by HBO for the
series.
For the last experience (the taste), HBO decided to focus on inhabitants of New York city and Los Angeles. A famous chef Tom Colicchio
cooked dishes inspired by Game of Thrones. This experience has been a huge success among both old and new fans. They distributed some 300 dishes imagined by the author of books. The goal of this sensorial experience was
about “tell the story of the bestseller through dishes”.
Evaluation of the “Game of Thrones Marketing Campain”
Well done HBO ! Thanks to the “Maester’s
Path” website and the 5 tastes experience, HBO attracted 2.2 million viewers
and an average of viewers per episode around 10 million. Afterwards,
Game of Thrones became the third most watched serie on HBO canal – clearly a
success.
The Game of Thrones
transmedia extension was a real success. HBO gathered all the initial fans and now most of them are following the series too. The website recorded no less than 37,000 players, 12,000 downloads for the application "The Ice and Fire" and 190,000 interactions with at least one of the digital elements of the campaign. Nevertheless, "The Maester's Path" does not bring anything new to the world of Westeros created by George RR Martin. The innovation of sensory approach is a really good proof of how transmedia experience is based both on marketing and business aspects. In the case of Game of Thrones, transmedia storytelling is clearly about bringing newcomers without letting down old fans.
Enjoy, Lisa Dutard.
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