Telenet and fans’ Game of Thrones campaign ignites struggle for Iron Throne

Baratheon, Lannister, Stark or Targaryen? How far will Flemish viewers go to put their favourite house on the Iron Throne?

Antwerp, 21 April 2015 – Game of Thrones fans worldwide had marked 12 April on their calendars, the day of the long-awaited launch of season 5 of the HBO hit series. These Days Y&R and Telenet, who are broadcasting the episodes simultaneously with the US on Play More, wanted to celebrate the premiere by launching a campaign together with the fans to answer the burning question once and for all: who will mount the Iron Throne?

The objective of Telenet’s Choose Sides campaign was to find the most popular Game of Thrones family. To further develop the concept, the help of a group of die-hard GoT fans was enlisted. The result was an exciting online and offline battle. Stand-up comedians Alex Agnew and Xander De Rycke, both major fans themselves, were more than happy to spearhead the campaign. In 5 episodes, they debated what makes the series so great and which houses will ultimately triumph in the struggle for the Iron Throne. The videos were distributed on Telenet’s social media channels.

#choosesides
To give the fans a voice in the debate, we launched the hash tag #choosesides. This allowed fans to support their favourite character on social media. In just a few days, fans organised special activities such as ‘Howl like a Wolf’ (howling at the full moon for House Stark on 4 April) or a road trip to Dorne in Limburg in tribute to the eponymous peninsula, ruled in the series by House Martell. Still, the tattoos some fans had done in honour of their favourite house probably took the biscuit.

By participating in the #choosesides-debate, the fiercest fans could win a ticket to the final event on 11 April at the Monasterium Poortackere in Ghent. Especially for the occasion, the venue was completely transformed into Westeros, the world of Game of Thrones. Characters from the series welcomed and accompanied guests to a medieval buffet in true GoT style and afterwards the winners got to attend a sneak preview of the new season’s first episode.