Star World Premiere HD creates extensive social media engagement for GoT

‘Game of Thrones’ has radically altered the TV viewing experience and perhaps has the most unprecedented fan following on the Internet – be it the gamut of fan fiction sites that churn out the wildest theories, or the various social media platforms that see massive outreach on daily basis. The much-awaited Season 6 of the show premiered on Indian television on Star World Premiere HD on April 26, 2016, and brought with it the madness that followed on both the digital universe as well as on-ground.

With a view to establishing massive connect with fans of the show, Star World Premiere HD went all out to tap into the digital space by launching a unique and ‘first-time-ever for Game of Thrones’ initiative, called ‘Flock to Unlock’ in association with Twitter. The activity required Twitter users to mention the ‘10 reasons why they love GoT’ in order to unlock a ‘Game of Thrones’ musical promo released in India for the first time ever.

The channel launched the day-long activity on April 25, a day prior to the show’s premiere, from 4 pm to 9 pm and received a response that only served to reaffirm the impact of the grand show. The hashtag #GOT6onSWP used for the activity helped garner a massive estimated 80.3 million impressions and trended nationally and across cities on Twitter for more than five hours. The initiative even got brands like Sony Pictures and Payback India to join the conversation using the hashtag.

Further, in a bid to own Tuesdays and make it synonymous to GoT Tuesdays in India, the channel commenced yet another initiative – ‘Amazon Fanlords’ – on March 29, four Tuesdays prior to the massively anticipated premiere of the show.

The channel launched the activity to mete out widespread enthusiasm among fans weeks prior to the premiere of the show and keep them excited throughout the 10-episode duration of Season 6. The activity allowed Twitter users to participate in contests every Tuesday and win exclusive ‘Game of Thrones’ merchandise by becoming the Amazon Fanlord for the week. On the day of the launch, however, Star World Premiere HD went a step further to extend its offering for the entire day with one question each hour starting from 4 pm right till 10 pm.

The day of the premiere also saw an integration of the on-air platform as the viewers were directed to Star World Premiere HD at 10PM to answer the questions that would be aired during the show.

The activity garnered over 107 million impressions and 15,569 tweets on the day of the premiere alone. Star World Premiere HD also trended nationally all through 6 pm to 1 am. Moreover, between March 29 and April 26, all the digital activities carried out garnered over 243 million impressions with nearly 40,000 tweets.