Hotstar attempts to claim the social throne with #GOTFinaleOnHotstar

I will take what is mine with fire and blood – and Khaleesi certainly did so and beyond the realms of Game of Thrones. What commenced with the onset of winter, ended with dark spoilers in the depths of chaos across social platforms.

Game of Thrones managed to take social media by storm – leaving brands to rejoice under the large shadow casted by this one show. The story however, was different for Hotstar, which needed to justify the not so modest investment in made in acquiring the streaming rights of Game of Thrones, Season 6.

Also, Star’s online streaming app has been competing head on with Netflix – making it very important for Hotstar to win the viewership game.

The social throne

To make the most out of the finale episode of Game of Thrones, Hotstar initiated #GOTFinaleOnHotstar. Conceptualized by DigitasLBi, the campaign’s core platform was Instagram.

The campaign worked towards creating a buzz around the finale episode, encouraging users to view it on Hotstar. Deciding to go beyond teasers, Hotstar created an Instagram catch up of the entire series, creating a dedicated album for all the prominent noble houses.

Leveraging the inter-tagging option on Instagram, Hotstar created 12 albums such as House Lannister, House Stark, and House Greyjoy.

#AreYouPrepared to find out which Stark will rule the North? Click on the image tag to recap House Stark's journey, and prepare for the Winds of Winter. #GOTFinaleOnHotstar. #GameOfThrones

A photo posted by hotstar (@hotstar) on Jun 26, 2016 at 6:37am PDT

Once the user clicks on the image, they’re redirected to a separate account of that particular house giving a glimpse of every important person of the house.

On viewing the character’s image, the user is then guided to the GoT character’s account which then narrates their pictorial journey throughout the series.

Jon is the bastard son Ned lord of Winterfell, and half-brother to Robb, Sansa, Arya, Bran and Rickon. Realizing he is an outsider in his own family, Jon follows his uncle to the far north and accepts the honourable duty of serving in the Night's Watch. Jon's Direwolf is called Ghost and is always with him. Click on the image tag to relive Jon Snow's journey from season 1-6. #GOTFinaleOnHotstar #GameOfThrones

A photo posted by House Stark (@hotstar_stark) on Jun 24, 2016 at 4:22pm PDT

The interlinking of all accounts creates a Game of Thrones experience within the Instagram itself.

A picture story

While such interlinked Instagram diaries can be traced back to IKEA’s Instaloge through which the furniture brand introduced its designer collection on Instagram, completely using the inter-tagging feature.

Despite, the similarity in concept, Hotstar managed to give it a whole new feel with contextual application of it. Creating a GoT album caused a storytelling like impact, only with pictures, which works even better.

Also, the selection of right platform as a base for the campaign worked wonders for Hotstar. The socialverse is dark and full of spoilers – Instagram emerged as the one platform that wasn’t cluttered with Game of Thrones’ content, giving #GOTFinaleOnHotstar the kind of space and attention it demands.

A statistical view

Hotstar has over 39k followers on Instagram. After the launch of #GOTFinaleOnHotstar, the streaming app gained 884 followers on Instagram which leads to a 2.3 per cent growth in the last 7 days.

Twelve posts were updated on Hotstar’s main account – and almost 100 pictures in individual accounts that were interlinked. The image of House Stark, received the maximum engagement (82) out of all 12 posts with 120 likes.

#AreYouPrepared, #GameOfThrones, and #GOTFinaleOnHotstar recorded an average engagement of 53. The most engaging day for the campaign was Sunday, the day of the finale episode. The campaign further garnered 928 likes in total in the last 7 days.

Considering the number of followers Hotstar has, the campaign managed to exhibit decent results. The story, however, would have been completely different had the campaign been executed for a longer timeframe with some kind of gamification element – completing the viewers’ transaction, while they were watching the finale.

Did Hotstar claim the throne?

In terms of creativity and storytelling, Hotstar performed exceptionally well. Nonetheless, the campaign could have been much more integrated across platforms making it seamless; utility factor like a contest or some gamification element wouldn’t hurt either.