Back in the Game
Foxtel
Issue 36 | September 2015
Agency
MercerBell
Creative Team
Executive Creative Director David Bell Creative Director Simon Bloomfield Senior Art Director Paul Critchley Senior Copywriter Rob McEvoy
Production Team
Digital Designer Harry Court Producer Tori Taylor Full Stack Development Present Company
Other Credits
Group Account Director Becky Bishop Senior Account Director Matt Olanda Account Manager Victoria Warden Head of Customer Loyalty, Foxtel Oliver Stewart Social Media Marketing Manager, Foxtel David Higgins
Date
April 2015
Background
Foxtel Access was a programme designed to recognise and reward customers of Foxtel, Australia's leading pay TV provider. The program was designed to bring customers closer to the entertainment they love in a way that no other brand could.
To celebrate Season Five of Game of Thrones, one of their key properties, Foxtel wanted to invite subscribers to join them at the Sydney Opera House for the premiere of the new season.
Idea
Game of Thrones was arguably the biggest TV show on the planet and much had already been done around it. To get fans to compete for tickets to the Opera House premiere, the idea needed to get them participating and sharing.
The creative insight came from a key aspect of the show, namely that so many of the main characters had met untimely deaths.
The question asked of fans was, who would you most like to bring back from the dead?
The campaign rolled out through eDMs and Foxtel's social channels, driving people to a Facebook app where they could vote and share.
It all took place around the Easter weekend, just a couple of weeks before the event itself, with all results achieved in just 4 days.
Results
For a campaign with a lifespan shorter than Ned Stark's, the results were outstanding:
• Over 5,000 written submissions received over just 4 days.
• Social Media was alive with thousands of comments and pleas.
• The event was a sell-out with all tickets claimed and many guests attending dressed as their favourite dead characters.
• The campaign helped the Foxtel Access program lift Foxtel's advocacy scores to new heights.
Our Thoughts
This wasn’t just about rewarding loyalists, it was about growing the audience for Series 5 and raising the prices of the advertising space available. Which, by the way, it did, making Game of Thrones the most popular non-sport show on Foxtel ever. It was also about getting appetites stirred for Season 6 so that there is now even more conversation about who to bring back into the game since Jon Snow’s death in the last episode. Or apparent death.
Today, it’s not enough for an idea to just reward loyalists, just drive new subscriptions or just drive brand salience, it has to do all the above, which ‘Back in the Game’ has managed to do spectacularly well.