As Game of Thrones reaches its end, brands look to cash in on the craze

The final season of television network HBO’s Game of Thrones (GoT) is turning into a a gold mine for marketers.

While HBO ran its own scavenger hunt, hiding six thrones across the globe, Mondelez’s Oreo (biscuits) has launched a 50-second advertising spot to recreate the show’s title sequence, promoting the brand’s special-edition saga-themed cookies.

Social media has also been used to keep viewers enthralled. A Twitter and Facebook promotion by Oreo allows fans to pledge their loyalty to House Lannister, House Targaryen, House Stark or The Night King, the royal houses featured in the series.

Shoe major Adidas has created limited edition ‘Ultra Boost’ sneakers, whose designs are based on the royal houses.

Read:Fans won’t be satisfied with ‘Game of Thrones’ ending: Maisie Williams

Finding a connection

Apart from brands, even a dating app has jumped onto the bandwagon. OkCupid, which uses a machine learning-based algorithm to connect people, has launched a global GoT badge.

The profile badge lets users spot, match with, and message other GoT fans. The badge is expected to further help users match based on their preferences — and biases — over their favourite GoT kingdoms.

With almost two million mentions of the show in OkCupid user profiles globally —including India — the most of any show, the company realised it was a great moment to tap the iconic pop-culture moment.

The profile badge will be available to everyone on OkCupid through June, when the series finale airs.

Melissa Hobley, Chief Marketing Officer, OkCupid, said the aim was to get users to connect beyond superficial sharing of location or selfies. “Through user responses to thousands of fun OkCupid questions ,  we have been able to gather tremendous insight into everything that might be relevant, from politics to pop-culture. GoT has got the most chatter off and on OkCupid globally. It is a conversation starter and will encourage people to match their passion for the show.”

Read:Game of Thrones final season premières early on DirecTV Now

Celebrating spoilers

Another campaign by the DDB Mudra Group for OTT platform Hotstar, which is streaming GoT’s final season, celebrates a particular aspect fans love to hate — spoilers.

The OTT platform decided to be the ‘first to the throne’ for Indian viewers, by simulcasting the show, Season 8, at the same time as the US.

In its last GoT campaign, Hotstar took the fight directly to torrents with its spoilers. The campaign handed the power of spoilers to Hotstar Premium subscribers.

Rahul Mathew, National Creative Director, DDB Mudra Group, said for a manically-followed show like GoT, “spoilers as an idea is both insightful and creatively fertile. Then it was just a matter of bringing the idea to life in the most entertaining manner.”

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