Create #ForTheThrone
HBO
Issue 52 | October 2019
Agency
360i
Creative Team
Chief Creative Officer: Menno Kluin Executive Creative Director: Frank Cartagena Executive Creative Director: Sam Shepherd Creative Director: Andrew Hunter Creative Director: Doug Murray Associate Design Director: Brian Gartside Junior Art Director: Sarah Arrington Junior Copywriter: Victor Rivera
Production Team
Executive Producer: Kristina Kane Producer: Adrienne Darnell
Other Credits
CMO, WarnerMedia Entertainment: Chris Spadaccini EVP, Digital & Marketing Content, HBO: Sabrina Caluori SVP, Digital & Marketing Content, HBO: Jim Marsh VP, Digital & Marketing Content, HBO: Emily Giannusa Associate Manager, Digital & Social Media, HBO: Dolly Meckler Associate Manager, Digital & Marketing Content, HBO: Charlie Weber Director, Digital & Social Media Content, HBO: Tanner Stransky Sr. Manager, Digital & Social Media Content, HBO: Katie Lucas Manager, Digital & Marketing Content, HBO: Ashley Morton Coordinator, Digital & Marketing Content, HBO: Marissa Blanchard Senior Digital Producer, HBO: Shaquana Deas, Associate Digital Producer, HBO: Hanan Esaili, VP Interactive Design, HBO: Cathy Davenport Lee Director, Interactive Design, HBO: Lynn Kim Art Director, Digital & Marketing Content, HBO: Paolo Simeti Art Director, Digital & Marketing Content, HBO: Jake Taylor Art Director, Digital & Marketing Content, HBO: Edward Chu Senior Designer, Digital & Marketing Content, HBO: John Manthos Group Account Director, 360i: Danielle Calogera Account Supervisor, 360i: Allison Guggenheimer, VP, Director of Business Affairs, 360i: Andrew Zinker Strategy Director, 360i: Angela Arner Strategist, 360i: Rohan Krishnan Photographer: Nicholas Alan Cope Set Design: Jared Lawton
Date
February 2019
Background
Over the past eight years, Game of Thrones has become a global phenomenon, amassing an army of over 30 million fans. Within this massive fanbase are the world’s most creative fan artists. They’ve done everything, from creating portraits of their favorite characters using table salt, to whittling the tip of a lead pencil into a Stark wolf, to building an entire scene from the show using carved fruit. They’ve done cross-stitch, fine-art painting, cartoon drawing, tattoo, cosplay, illustration, song-writing.
Idea
For the final season, HBO wanted to thank this engaged, creative fanbase – and give them a creative opportunity that would raise the bar on fan creation. To do so, HBO went into its archives and unearthed some of the show’s most iconic props, including Jaime’s golden hand, Beric’s flaming sword, a White Walker ice blade, and Kingsguard Armor. They gave 18 of these props to 18 different fan creators from the world of visual arts and design. The artists were given the opportunity to impact the show’s history itself, delivering on the prompt: What will you Create #ForTheThrone? Each official prop presented a different challenge, prompting fans to freeze, burn, sew, break and craft museum-quality art. The artists rose to that challenge, spending an aggregate 2,500+ hours honing their pieces.
Results
The resulting series of commissioned works formed the basis of a multichannel outreach effort encouraging Game of Thrones fans everywhere to show off their creativity and skill by posting their own original Game of Thrones artwork online. HBO used its platform to highlight the incredible resulting works, turning them into murals in Brooklyn and Venice Beach, sharing them to their tens of millions of social followers, editorial sites, and even displaying them at the Final Season Premiere Party in NYC.