HBO Series Game of Thrones Using Augmented Reality App in Multimedia Marketing Campaign
2014-03-25
Bell Media, Astral, HBO Canada and interactive mobile app developers are combining forces to deliver a huge multi-platform marketing campaign for the fantasy TV series Game of Thrones.
The campaign features a mix of paid and in-house media campaign, and it introduces the new immersive app iRiS Game of Thrones: Conquer the North, available for both iOS and Android, which was developed in partnership with the Bell Media Agency, Bell Media Mix, Astral Out-of-Home, and Nova Scotia-based Ad-Dispatch.
iRiS technology and the iRiS AR app can be installed on compatible smartphone or tablets; users can then ‘unlock’ additional embedded content using the camera on their mobile media devices; the targets are two dimensional ads in print, out of home and digital ad locations like transit shelters.
Once triggered, the app unlocks exclusive video content and allows users to choose their allegiance to specific show characters, and insert a photo of themselves on the iconic Iron Throne.
Astral and Ad-Dispatch have worked together on implementing AR marketing and content initiatives for major retail brands and travel and tourism designations, among others.
Ad-Dispatch operates two divisions focusing on Web video and radio production as well as building AR applications for mobile, online, live event kiosk and stadium big screen environments.
“Our overall strategy was to market the premiere of Game of Thrones Season 4 to the level of a massive theatrical release,” said Jon Arklay, Senior Vice-President, Bell Media Agency, Brand, Creative and Marketing. “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.”
In Eastern Canada, HBO Canada’s marketing campaign will use digital billboards on the Gardiner Expressway that countdown to the premiere of Season 4 of Game of Thrones and related activities at Yonge and Dundas Square, both in downtown Toronto.
The campaign also consists of extensive cross-promotion across Bell Media via its television, digital, radio, social, and out-of-home properties as well as print ads inMovie Entertainment magazine and promotion in select Bell Retail stores across Canada.
The overall campaign extends to May when HBO Canada once again hosts Game of Thrones: The Exhibition in Toronto at Toronto’s TIFF Bell Lightbox May 14 – 18.
The Conquer the North experience is linked to a street-level, out-of-home extension in Toronto that encourages fans to interact with hundreds of transit shelter ads using their mobile devices.
The campaign is also accessible online, at hbocanada.com/conquer-the-north. In Western Canada, the app is presented by Corus Entertainment’s Movie Central.
Season 4 of Game of Thrones makes it debut Sunday, April 6, day-and-date with HBO in the U.S. The show is being hailed as the most-watched series in Canadian pay television history. In advance of the Season 4 premiere subscribers can catch up now on Season 3 on the TMN GO mobile app.
For more Mediacaster Magazine coverage related to this topic, please see:
http://www.mediacastermagazine.com/news/astral-outdoor-ads-using-augmented-reality-apps-from-ad-dispatch/1001642021/
http://www.mediacastermagazine.com/news/augmented-reality-takes-mobile-device-users-to-top-of-cn-tower/1002373706/
