Foxtel have been the official broadcaster of ‘Game of Thrones’ in Australia for the last seven seasons. The premiere of the final season in April presented an opportunity to capitalise on the global hype surrounding the show, to help build brand love and drive sales. In recent years, Foxtel has had trouble fending off newer, more ‘hip’ broadcast offerings from streaming services like Netflix, and the brand has been perceived as ‘outdated’ and ‘uncool’. This event was particularly important in positioning Foxtel as not only a place to find the world’s best content, but as a brand that is culturally relevant, understands fans, and rewards them with experiences that competitors aren’t capable of.

Game of Thrones isn’t just one of the most popular shows of all time, it’s also one of the deadliest, with more than 100,000 Kings, Queens, Giants and mythical beasts having lost their lives since it began. These deaths have had an incredible impact on fans, who react with delight and despair in equal measure. Recognising this, we tapped into an audience insight in a way no one had before, and built a ‘final resting place’, to promote the final season. The ‘Grave of Thrones’, a one-off experiential event, was an enormous cemetery erected in one of Sydney’s most popular public parks, where fans of the show were invited to come and pay their respects to those who had died over seven seasons. Turning fictional characters into something much more real than they were on screen.

There are two types of Game of Thrones fans: The devout, loyal ones, and the more casual enthusiasts. One group can tell you a character’s genealogy, while the other needs reminding of their name. Foxtel needed to prove they understood both of these audiences when leveraging the Game of Thrones premiere. Our insight came from identifying the crossover between these groups is in the celebration or mourning of characters deaths. Who dies and who lives is what makes the show so appealing. The strategy was to engage viewers in the real world, not just on a screen, and to create an event that would become a must-visit destination for fans and potential new subscribers, create huge PR, and also be shareable online.

Over six weeks, we took the concept from idea to execution. The idea required intense research to bring to life the detailed aesthetic of the show. We decided to create two family mausoleum’s and an enormous head statue as focal points in the 2,000 square metre cemetery that were supported by over 30 additional highly-detailed graves. The location was chosen in a popular Sydney park that could be easily accessed by the public but also be transformed into the world of Westeros.

A team of over 50 people hand-crafted each grave in foam and wood. These sculptures were hard coated, sand blasted, weatherproofed and painted to recreate our original concept sketches in 3D. We built unique ironwork to surround many of the graves, grew our own moss, planted flowers, and added layers of paint and texture to create the illusion that the cemetery and its contents was a real place.

The response was extraordinary and in just three days we saw a 300% increase in searches for Foxtel, resulting in a 17% increase in viewership. The Grave of Thrones cemetery saw nearly 30,000 people come and pay their respects, with some driving hours across the state of New South Wales to be there. The Grave of Thrones website saw more than 20,000 unique visitors and more than 5,000 downloads of the cemetery map. Social media was alight with tens of thousands of images, videos, tags and mentions across various platforms. Foxtel's brand sentiment was at an historic high of 97%, and there were more than 350+ global news stories mentioning Foxtel. Coverage included local mainstream television news, global news, digital publications, and mainstream local and global press. This resulted in more than 410 million media impressions, making the ‘Grave of Thrones’ the most successful promotional experience in the brand’s history.