Warning: getimagesize(http://www.adnews.com/images/32548.jpg) [function.getimagesize]: failed to open stream: HTTP request failed! HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found in /home/nas1r1/83/28/8202883/web/view.php on line 159
Warning: getimagesize(http://www.adnews.com/images/m32548.jpg) [function.getimagesize]: failed to open stream: HTTP request failed! HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found in /home/nas1r1/83/28/8202883/web/view.php on line 162
Bell Media breaks Game of Thrones campaign
By Adnews Staff
Bell Media has begun a marketing campaign for the start of the new season of television series Game of Thrones next month. The campaign is a collaboration between Bell Media, HBO Canada, Bell Media Mix, Astral Out-of-Home and Ad-Dispatch. According to the company, this is the largest campaign HBO Canada has yet undertaken.
The initiative makes use of an augmented reality mobile application called "Game of Thrones: Conquer the North," available for Android and Apple devices. Consumers can use the application to interact with 300 transit ads. Doing so will give the user access to exclusive video content and allow them to insert themselves into a photograph of the show's Iron Throne. Users can also declare an allegiance to one of the family houses depicted in the show, and to see by geo-location what houses other users favour. A web-based version of the application is located at <http://www.hbocanada.com/conquer-the-north>.
Television, digital, radio, social media and out-of-home advertising will run on various Bell Media properties. Print ads will run in Movie Entertainment magazine. In-store materials will also be featured in some Bell Retail stores nationally. In eastern Canada, the campaign will also make use of digital billboards in Toronto, counting down to the day of the premiere. In May, HBO Canada will again host an installation called "Game of Thrones: The Exhibition" in Toronto, displaying a collection of props and costumes from the show.
"Our overall strategy was to market the premiere of Game of Thrones Season Four to the level of a massive theatrical release," said Jon Arklay, senior vice-president of Bell Media Agency. "With its phenomenal success and dedicated fan base, our challenge was to develop a campaign that measured up to the epic scale of the show and our viewers' heightened expectations. We wanted to discover new ways to connect fans to the show."