Three entertainment brands that claimed the throne at The Drum Marketing Awards 2023
As part of The Drum’s Entertainment Focus, and with the deadline for The Drum Awards for Marketing 2024 approaching, we reflect on the entertainment campaigns that claimed awards in The Drum’s global marketing competition in 2023.
Taylor Herring, Now TV and Sky won with its Throne Tour campaign
The entertainment and media categories were keenly contested across the three regions covered by The Drum Awards Marketing – EMEA, the Americas and APAC – with well-known names Spotify, Sky TV and DirecTV claiming the entertainment trophies.
In EMEA, Now TV and Sky took the entertainment award for their House of the Dragons Throne Tour campaign created by Taylor Herring to build excitement in the run-up to the launch of the House of the Dragon TV series.
Few fanbases are as passionate and devoted as the Game of Thrones community and to build excitement for the release of House of The Dragon, the hotly anticipated prequel to Game of Thrones on streaming service Now and Sky Now TV, Taylor Herring wanted to send superfans into a frenzy. They created the ultimate ‘thronie’ experience, which rewarded fans with the opportunity to sit on the ultimate seat of power, Aegon Targaryen’s Iron Throne, and feel what ruling the kingdom of Westeros is like.
The results of the campaign were the stuff of fantasy. The Tower of London activation and subsequent nationwide tour drove 230+ earned articles, plus live broadcasts on Sky News and ITV’s Good Morning Britain. Throne tickets sold out in 24 hours and the tour had roughly 240,000 visitors. Meanwhile, influencer content had a combined reach of 3.4m views and social posts netted 1.3m impressions, as well as over 4,000 engagements.
In the Americas, agencies Critical Mass and TBWA/Chiat/Day won the media category award for their Goatbusters campaign created for streaming service DirecTV.
This smart, targeted, digital campaign intersected with upper funnel awareness efforts, focusing on specific audiences (such as sports enthusiasts and cord-cutters) with RTBs engineered to drive direct action.
Legendary Major League Baseball hall of famers Alex Rodriguez, David Ortiz, Ken Griffey Junior and Randy Johnson transform into bat-wielding busters in the sports/movie mashup of the season. The result? A home run for sports fans and TV lovers everywhere.
The APAC award went to music streaming giant Spotify, whose ‘Dil Filmy Toh Suno Filmy’ campaign, created by agency Interactive Avenues, won over judges’ affections.
In India, film music is a huge part of all our moments – whether mundane or celebratory. It inspires everything from Indian fashion to Indian dance moves. This was the obsession that Spotify used to show India that Bollywood music is a part of their DNA.
This is what informed the campaign ‘Dil Filmy Toh Suno Filmy‘ (If your heart is filmy, listen to filmy.) Through this campaign’s sharp insight and rigorous planning, Spotify showed Indian audiences that they truly got India’s filmy obsession and laid the base for acquiring their next 10 million users.