With more than 30 million viewers on average per episode, 34 million followers across Facebook, Instagram and Twitter and over a billion pirated downloads, Game of Thrones has become a worldwide phenomenon with an army of followers.

We knew that if we could harness the power of this global fanbase, we could etch the GoT legacy into the hearts and minds of generations to come.

But when you have a show with such a vast global reach, with so many markets participating and so many brand partners involved from a variety of verticals, how do you make a coherent campaign? HBO needed a clear brand idea to not only promote the final season, but to act as a PR red thread across an array of partnerships, sponsorships and content integrations.

Leading into its final season, the whole world wanted to be part of the greatest show on TV. But in Game of Thrones, there is no easy path to the throne. So we asked the world one question: How far would you go? #ForTheThrone.

Fans of all kinds answered the challenge in a highly orchestrated web of digital and real world activations.

America’s biggest beer brand let us execute their mascot at the Super Bowl. An NBA team changed its name. Shake Shack changed its language, and 100+ other brands jumped in. Fans collectively travelled 4.8 million km to find thrones hidden around the world. And over 350,000 fans even gave their own blood.

Game of Thrones didn’t just hype it’s final season. It turned the world into hype men. And reminded us that if a brand is strong enough, it doesn’t just infiltrate culture, it defines it.

How do you promote the biggest TV show in history? Do you even need to?

While HBO was preparing to say goodbye to its biggest draw, they also had several spin-offs in the works. We needed to prove that GoT wouldn’t die with the finale—it could be as enduring a franchise as Star Wars.

So, in addition to our objective of building anticipation and viewership of the premiere, we defined for HBO an entirely new one altogether: transform a show into a franchise and cement its future legacy.

We needed not only a “wrapper” for our campaign, but a PR prompt, something to spark a global game of one-upmanship among fans and brands alike. Most importantly, it needed to become a clear “brief” for other brands to develop PR-centric ideas and, in the process, tap into their endemic communities and paid dollars, generating earned value.

That “something” became #ForTheThrone.

Our campaign hit all parts of culture, reaching audiences all over the world.

We convinced Bud Light to shock audiences by letting The Mountain execute their Bud Knight at the Super Bowl, as he killed Oberyn in season four.

We collaborated with Shake Shack to create a secret menu only available if ordered in Valyrian. (The language’s inventor, David Peterson, did the menu translations.) We worked with Mountain Dew to strip all branding from their product to create “A Can with No Name.”The Minnesota Timberwolves became the Minnesota Direwolves. Oreo changed the face of their cookies for the first time ever—to house sigils. 30,0000 fans from 93 countries used 360-degree videos and cryptic clues to travel nearly 3M miles on quests to sit on six thrones hidden in six hellscapes. And 300,000+ fans made blood sacrifices, potentially saving 1,048,980 lives.

All #ForTheThrone.

Campaign or no campaign, GoT generates unparalleled levels of conversation. So we’ve been careful to isolate #ForTheThrone from general show conversation and coverage.

Our campaign wasn’t lost in the noise of GoT fan fervor – it became the noise. #ForTheThrone generated:

6,708,928 campaign mentions in social (26% of total GoT conversations during campaign)

8,710 broadcast clips and 10,200 articles, with potential reach of 19B+

4.8M kilometers traveled by fans to reach hidden thrones

352,344 blood donors, 21% of which were first timers

Totalling US$175,990,000 in Advertising Value Equivalency

Wild.

So then what about securing our legacy? Well, we think Fast Company said it best in their headline, “The epic marketing for Game of Thrones’s last season reveals that this is just the end of the beginning”. While 2019 marks the end of this TV show, we’ve ensured that for HBO, the franchise will live on.