Title	GAME OF THRONES CRYPT
Brand	AMEDIATEKA
Product/Service	AMEDIATEKA - ONLINE VIDEO SERVICE. HOME OF HBO IN RUSSIA
Category	A05. Media / Entertainment
Entrant	BBDO Moscow, RUSSIA
Idea Creation	BBDO Moscow, RUSSIA
Production	THE MARKETING ARM Moscow, RUSSIA
Production 2	METASHARKS Moscow, RUSSIA

Name	Company	Position
Nikolay Megvelidze	BBDO Russia Group	Chief Creative Officer
Elina Yaroslavskaya	BBDO	Digital Director
Valery Gorokhov	BBDO Russia Group	Senior Producer
Vladlena Obukhova	BBDO	Managing director
Anastastasia Pryamilova	BBDO	Client Service Director
Elena Ekimenko	BBDO	Senior Digital Art Director
Denis Zavgorodniy	BBDO	TV producer
P. Volchok	BBDO	Creatives
Sergey Kuznetsov	METASHARKS.STUDIO	Operation leader
Iya Yampolskaya	METASHARKS.STUDIO	Project manager
Maksim Orlov	METASHARKS.STUDIO	QA
Andrey Evstafyev	METASHARKS.STUDIO	Front-end developer
Konstantin Pivovarchuk	METASHARKS.STUDIO	Back-end developer
Dmitry Shevchenko	METASHARKS.STUDIO	Back-end developer
Dmitry Rogozhkin	Amediateka	CMO
Olesya Demidova	Amediateka	PR director
Ekaterina Ermakova	Amediateka	Marketing Manager
Alessandra Nelubina	Amediateka	Creative Director
Elena Kirushina	Amediateka	Managing Director

Why is this work relevant for Brand Experience & Activation?

The AMEDIATEKA online service offered the real atmosphere of Game of Thrones TV series to all its subscribers in the following touch points: a 2400 sq. m offline Crypt housing the graves of all characters, with actual “funerals” for the newly-deceased; a website which gave users the chance to relive the experience of watching the deaths of all characters again and to bet on future deaths; and a stadium screening the final death on a huge screen. Customers had an excellent experience in all touch points using the online service provided by AMEDIATEKA during the activation period.

background

In 2019, AMEDIATEKA, a service providing legal video content, set the goal to increase the number of subscribers before the launch of the final 8th season of Game of Thrones. Over the previous 8 years viewers had been following its characters’ stories, living through their lives and deaths. That’s why we decided to give to all Game of Thrones fans something to echo in their hearts. They got a chance to see their favorite characters one more time and to bid them farewell. We created a real-live Crypt where all the characters were buried.

Describe the creative idea (20% of vote)

Season 8 of Game of Thrones is a planetary-scale event, a unique TV show attracting global attention. But why is it loved so much? What was its key attraction? There were loads of unexpected cruel and vivid murders of all main characters of the saga. Over a dozen popular and loved heroes in the show had to die. This thrilling suspense became a part of our life: we were terrified to watch deaths, sympathized with those still alive and anticipated what would happen to them. This is exactly what gave us the emotions we could not experience in real life. That’s why we created a Crypt where we buried all dead characters for all fans of the TV series so that they had a chance to say good-bye to their favourite characters and experience all those amazing emotions again, completely immersed in emotion and the world of the TV series.

Describe the strategy (20% of vote)

We created an immersive brand experience targeting GoT fans bringing to life the heroes and the setting of the series at the popular Vinzavod venue. The activation was integrated into the communication mix to drive AMEDIATEKA subscriptions even among the high clutter of GoT messages during this period.

Describe the execution (30% of vote)

A truly immersive Game of Thrones experience was created at a perfect venue in Moscow downtown. The Crypt — the ultimate expression of the the key subject in the series — death — and a monument to the plot’s complexity, linking the activations to engage thousands of people for over 2 months. The 2400 sq. m. Crypt contained full-scale graves for GoT characters who died during the previous 7 seasons. The gravestones had QR-codes, so that visitors could rewatch the deaths of their favorite characters and post comments about them online. Moreover, the attention of guests was drawn to funerals held for some of the newly-deceased heroes, and online betting was organized for those who wanted to guess who would die in the final season. The winners could get prizes, including a chance to watch the final GoT episode on a huge stadium screen.

List the results (30% of vote)

Overall, 65 characters were buried in the Crypt. Over 110,000 people came to the Crypt. Hundreds of thousands of pictures in social networks. Millions of comments. 20+ mentions on TV and 150+ in mass media; Earned media — 1.5 mln $. Amediateka’s Season 8 viewings increased 700% vs Season 7. The number of subscribers during the activation period increased 12 times in comparison to the previous 2 months.