Game of Social Media – How Brands Are Marketing With Game of Thrones

by Vedh Jagadish on Friday Jul 21

Stay relevant, or die trying! This is the mantra for social media marketing success.

Pioneered by Amul even before the word was coined, newsjacking is a popular technique in the social media marketing world. This marketing strategy is the art of leveraging trending topics to amplify the brand exposure. Since such trending stories have already captured the attention of the masses, brands leverage this to boost their social media engagement and gain maximum exposure.

Newsjacking is an art as it all comes down to picking the right topic at the right time and of course creating the best content. You can go completely wrong with this PR stunt if you do not have these factors under lock, but that’s a whole other topic and we have more “important” things to talk about!

Winter is here! With an enormous fan base, HBO’s most successful and the most pirated TV show, Game of Thrones, provides enough material brands to thrive upon. For about 2 months, the franchise keeps the viewers enthralled with its amazing storyline backed by greater production and brands leverage this to the fullest.

Here are our favourite picks-

1. Oreo

The cookie is dark and full of cream! Oreo takes the cake with this campaign where they recreate the entire Game of Thrones Title Sequence with nothing but our beloved Oreo –

2. Mountain Dew

With the much awaited Season 8, Mountain Dew launches their Game of Thrones special edition with the tagline, “A Can Has No Name”, which the can itself embodies in a unique way – 

3. Airtel

The telecom giant claims the iron throne as the smart network to rule them all-

4. Bengaluru City Police

The social media savvy task force, Bengaluru City Police, promotes road traffic safety with the Lord Commander of The Night’s Watch-

5. Hotstar

India’s popular streaming platform Hotstar provides exclusive access for Season 7 of the Game of Thrones takes on torrents, in true Game of Thrones style –

6. Pringles

Pringles jumps in on the excitement for the season premiere-

7. Terribly Tiny Tales

Terribly Tiny Tales team do what they do best and join in on the Game of Thrones fan-wagon –

8. Someecards

A witty Game of Thrones themed greeting card for National Siblings Day from Someecards –

9. KFC

KFC promotes their Ricebox with their “Lunchtime is coming” ad with none another than Kristian Nairn aka Hodor –

10. Zivame

Sale during Game of Thrones? Zivame makes the best use of this opportunity with their Game of Threes sale –

11. Samsung

Samsung endorses the quality of screens on their range of electronics and joins in on the Game of Thrones fever –

12. Johnnie Walker

Johnnie Walker is definitely into the Game of Thrones spirit by bringing in winter with their limited edition bottle of White Walker –

This is why I love social media marketing! A playfield to let your creativity flow, with brands of all sizes taking to social media to boost their social presence.

Let us know in the comments about your favourite Game of Thrones posts. For now, I’ll leave you with this – “When you play the Game of Thrones, you win or you die. There is no middle ground.”