Two words define the show: “Valar Morghulis” (All men must die). We took these two show-defining words, understood by true GoT fans, and used them to forever change the way, they saw Hotstar.

Introducing ‘Torrents Morghulis’ (All Torrents must die): Hotstar’s Clarion Call Against Torrents.

‘Torrents Morghulis’ anchored our interventions. It worked three ways.

1. Declare our Intent: We didn’t question torrents. We branded them obsolete & unnecessary. We actively questioned the labor & rituals that torrenting, had forced down the throats of Struggling Pirates.

2. Build a Connection: Instead of name-calling pirates, we connected with millions of GoT fans like true fans, by speaking to them in the show’s very-specific lingo, a lingo they had championed.

3. Establish our Value: We validated how Hotstar was the ‘best GoT experience’ with clear benefits: a-minutes-after-America broadcast, effortless streaming, pre-loaded subtitles and a completely uncensored show.

1. High Impact Hoardings: Two weeks before the 1st episode dropped, GoT fans across Mumbai, Delhi & Bangalore woke up to ‘Torrent Morghulis’. 210 sites across India from July 15th to Aug 5th. Flooded airports with billboards to reach the Premium Audience

2. Topical Films on TV & Web: One week before launch, we released a series of films on web & TV, where we targeted piracy pain-points. Estimated reach of 10-15 Mn across English Movie & GEC channels in Urban Sec AB 15+

3. Attacking torrenting with Social Posts & Videos. Reached 95% of GoT audiences on FB with multiple creatives.

4. Influencer Marketing: Monday morning episodic video reviews with social media influencers to deliver the ‘minutes after America’ experience along with Monday morning episodic minimalist posters to trigger FOMO amongst fans who had not watched the episode yet.

5. Performance Marketing + Native advertising over 6 weeks

On opening day, we had 13X new subscribers as compared with the GOT day in 2016

By the end of the run, over 8X new subscribers had watched GoT on Hotstar.

We doubled our subscription targets.

We didn't just meet our objective of maintaining our churn rate at 25%, but set a new industry standing by enduring just 18% churn

Not only did we retain our subscribers, over 58% subscribers sampled at least 2 shows other than GoT

Covered by international publications such as Torrent Freak, International Business Time and many others

Pirates of the dark web, AnonOps threatened to take our servers down in a planned DDOS attack, reacting to our message

The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (India) approached us to join forces and fight piracy together

Amongst other things, an apparel brand launched a new collection showcasing the subcultural impact