Arcade Fires' music video: Using creativity and story on Google, Twitter and Youtube to increase Word of Mouth

Today we look at how social media has brought interactivity to the music industry....gone are the days where music videos and concerts are simply passive viewing experiences. With social media, individuals can get involved in creating the music videos they want to watch and share them with friends online; people can customize music videos to tell their own personal stories. Similarly, watching a concert can now become an interactive and social experience.

One case study with the band, The Arcade Fire, recently came to my attention at work. After looking it up on WARC (in an article titled, 'Google: The Wilderness Downtown'), I discovered that this campaign won the prestige Cannes Lion award 2012. Have a read here...

Arcade Fire, The Band

Arcade Fire is a 7-person, Indie rock band based in Quebec, Canada. The band has been popular amongst fans of alternative music since they released Funeral in 2004. They are now known for albums such as Neon Bible and The Suburbs, which won the 2011 Grammy awards for Album of the year, as well as the 2011 Polaris Music Prize.

In recent years, the band has also been known for their interactive music videos, which invite fans to take part in their stories. They have developed three such videos for 'We use to wait (2010), 'Sprawl II' (2011) and 'Reflektor' (2013)...

The Wilderness Downtown Google Experiment

The Wilderness Downtown is the interactive, social media version of a music video for the Arcade Fire song, 'We use to wait.' It is a Google Chrome experiment; a multi-browser, HTML5 project which allows individuals to become part of the music video...To view the project, fans must put in the address of their childhood home. Following this, they can watch a music video built around them and their personal geography. Images of fans' childhood homes are interwoven into the clip, making it relevant and meaningful to viewers. In the clip, people are also given the opportunity to write postcards to their past selves. The clip is shown through several windows, which pop up and disappear as the story progresses...

You can make your own video here: http://thewildernessdowntown.com (Google Chrome must be used and it is browser heavy) or you can view an example below, though the full experience doesn't come across as well as trying it for yourself...But how is this all related to social media?

 

Well, fans can share the experience in a number of ways: they can share their video, with their childhood neighbourhood embedded in it, with others on social media pages like Google+ and Facebook. They can send a static url of the postcard they write to friends or out into the public. Chris Milk, director the video, created an invention called the Wilderness Machine, which has been programmed to swap postcards with random senders- sort of a message in a bottle concept. Each postcard can be "planted" (a graphic of a tree appears on the screen) and individuals who recieve a postcard can respond to them (they have a special code returning postcards to the sender). This can start conversations between fans of the band. Additionally, The Wilderness Machine scans and tweets the postcard messages to its Twitter account, one postcard message a day. 

Because the campaign was so 'cool', it also generated a lot of word of mouth advertising and buzz on social media when it was released...check out the tweets from celebrities:

Ashton Kutcher – 10M followers

"this is about the coolest thing I've seen in a long time http://bit.ly/cUptyg"

Jimmy Fallon – 5.3M followers

"New Arcade Fire video-directed by Chris Milk – type in your childhood address – it's really cool. http://bit.ly/bGqWer"

Ben Stiller – 2.6M followers

"http://www.thewildernessdowntown.com/ Taking it to another level."

Rainn Wilson – 3M followers

"If u go to one website in your life, make it this one: http://www.thewildernessdowntown.com/"

Stephen Fry – 4M followers

"This is just too impossibly splendid for words… http://www.thewildernessdowntown.com/Try it"

Not long after it was launched in 2011, it had already generated 4 million visits, with many visitors creating content and sharing it with friends. What was so successful about the whole project? Well, I believe it was quite creative. It was one of the first interactive music videos launched which allowed fans to take an active role in their viewing experience. It exhibited elements of co-creation - providing fans with a beautiful and nostalgic framework to develop their own stories and shape their own entertainment. It was also easy to share, which meant that fans only had to click to pass on their videos and spead word of mouth. Further to this, Arcade Fire co-branded with Google and experimented with new technology (HTML5). This also helped to drive SEO and online discussion, as Google would not only promote the music video, but people would be interested in it due to its use of advanced technology. Pretty creative way to market music!

YouTube Concert

Following the release of the album, The Suburbs (which featured the song 'We use to wait' and The Suburbs, below), Arcade Fire also teamed up with YouTube, Veveo and American Express to perform a live-streamed concert in New York City. According to Mashable and Google, the online stream-concert attracted 3.7 million viewers and offered a range of interactive features. For example, people could play with a 'Choose Your Cam' function, switching between the directors' stream and second camera. They could also view fan-generated images, showing various childhood suburbs. 

The results? The album sold 765,000 copies in the US. Also:

The album debuted at No. 1 on the Irish Albums Chart, the UK Albums Chart, the U.S. Billboard 200 chart,^[4] and the Canadian Albums Chart.^[5] 

While its difficult to attribute the exact sales made due to social media promotions and activities, the Cannes Judges awarded this campaign for its creativity, integration of different channels and its high level of reach.

                                        

In conclusion...

Songs are about stories and creativity, performance is about sharing and experience; Arcade Fire knew this and incorporated these ideas to promote their music. They tailored the story of their music video so that it was local and personal to viewers. They made the project one of co-creation, both with customers and other brands (Google). So the music video was made 'together' with fans and was sharable with the wider community. All this  helped to generate online hype that propel the band's popularity and album sales.

Read more about The Wilderness Downtown here:

http://mashable.com/2010/08/30/arcade-fires-chrome-video/
http://www.canadianbusiness.com/lifestyle/turning-page-views-into-album-sales/
http://socialmedia.hpc.unm.edu/?p=360

Key Points to take away:

• Be creative in social media  marketing - choose different platforms or create your own, and develop unique content to get customers talking and sharing your brand online.
• Involve elements of story and play on nostalgia, particularly customers' personal stories. People love to share their own tales and are more likely to remember marketing campaigns that involve narrative.
• Experiment with something new, like new technology. Nothing gets people talking like new concepts!
• For established brands (e.g. Arcade Fire), it is worthwhile co-branding and cross-promoting with other popular and relevant brand names (Google) to generate excitement and online discussion.
• Make social media content and campaigns local, personal, sharable and collaborative. This will increase chances that the content, and the brand, will get discussed by customers online.

Creating conversation and effective engagement in the Breaking Bad series finale!

Did anyone catch the series finale of Breaking Bad last week? Did you talk about it on social media before, after or during the final episode? Today's post will examine the social media strategies used to promote the finale of the popular TV series, Breaking Bad. How did AMC, the show's TV station, manage to accumulate 10.3 million viewers for the final episode of Breaking Bad? Well, aside from providing an intriguing story line for viewers to follow, AMC used effective engagement techniques on social media.

Breaking Bad: An Introduction

Breaking Bad is a US television series that began in 2008. It follows the story of Walter White, a struggling chemistry teacher diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. To ensure financial security for his family before his death, Walter starts to produce and sell drugs with one of his former students, Jesse Pinkman.

The show ran for 5 seasons with the TV station, AMC, and developed a huge fan base. It was known for placing characters in seemingly hopeless situations, where they would need to use all their wit to escape. It was this intelligent and engaging plot that hooked viewers to follow the series. Last week, the final episode aired on US TV. Up against some critically acclaimed shows and the NFL, the TV station needed to draw attention to its final episode. This was achieved largely through social media...

What sort of social media strategies and techniques were used to promote the Finale?

Conversation and engagement on social media

Social media was used by the cast and producers of the show to interact with fans, share videos and cast predictions for the final episode. AMC provided additional content and activities to express thanks to the audience for their loyalty over the years. Here are some of the specific techniques used across different social media platforms to enhance interaction with audiences and draw viewers towards the finale...

Facebook: On Facebook, the show already had over 5,000,000 likes. To engage viewers, AMC asked followers to show their affection for Breaking Bad by changing their profile picture to the following and tagging #BBaddict. This would send the show out in style, whilst advertising the finale to viewers' friends. This activity resulted in over 57,000 likes, 3,200 comments and 13,000 shares.

                                                       

They also created conversation with fans leading up to the final episode by asking followers on Facebook, 'How is it all going to end? Tell us your predictions.' This got fans talking about their theories and resulted in 19,000 likes, 17,000 comments and 1,900 shares. This conversation continued during the airing of the final episode with fans encouraged to tweet about their viewing experiences, and to farewell the show using the hashtag #GoodbyeBreakingBad on Twitter.

Twitter: A week before the finale, AMC ran a marathon online of all the Breaking Bad episodes. Casts of the series helped to promote this with Aaron Paul (who played the character Jesse Pinkman) live tweeting the Pilot episode. As he currently has over 1.2 million followers, and the series has over 680,000 followers, this quickly spread word of mouth about the finale.

Official Website & Blog: AMC also engaged their audience on the official website with social TV activities including 'story sync' a web-based application which provided a live, two screen experience that allowed viewers to vote on snap polls, answer trivia questions, play games and review moments of the show as they watched it air on TV. Users would have to register beforehand and log-on to the platform as the show started. On story sync, viewers could vote on whether or not the main character had turned to the dark side on a 'Judgement poll'...They could also ask characters questions and rank their most ingenious criminal stunts on the 'Mastermind Meter.' These activities helped to turn the viewing experience into an interactive one, where viewers could share their ideas and feelings with other excited fans. 

                               

                                     

AMC also posted plenty of additional video content on the network's site for fans, including interviews with cast and a special final farewell episode, filmed from the finale party. This farewell video was shared across Facebook and Twitter. While it received 186 views and comments on the website, it gathered over 10,800 comments, 188,000 likes and about 40,000 shares on Facebook! Talk about spreading far and fast with social media! 

                          

Before and during the final episode, fans were encouraged to post questions on the official Breaking Bad blog, on Facebook and on Twitter, to be answered by the series' cast members and its creator, Vince Gilligan. This helped to engage many viewers who were interested in conversing with the masterminds who had brought them their favourite series.

                             

Aligned promotional activities

AMC also created offline events which were strongly connected to their social media activities. As mentioned before, a party was thrown for the the airing of the final episode. Leading up to the finale, fans could enter-to-win or buy tickets to the Finale Watch Party at Cinespia at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, thrown by Aaron Paul (Jesse Pinkman). This was a fundraiser event, with ticket proceeds going towards the Kind Campaign, an organisation devoted to stamping out bullying.

For AMC, the event, and competition, helped to drive their audience members online, as well as to the TV - everyone who scored tickets to the event was posting statuses, pictures and tweets during the party that helped to increase awareness of the final episode.

It also drove online discussions because the event helped to support a charity that was considered important to many Breaking Bad fans. This promotional event helped to generate over 51,000 likes as well as numerous comments on Facebook...here is an example of the Facebook conversations that took place on the event/competition homepage while it was active (click to view larger picture):

From analysing the Breaking bad finale campaign, we can see that AMC created conversation and engagement online by using several of the techniques suggested by W. Glynn Mangold and David J Faulds (in their article, 'Social Media: The New Hybrid Element of the Promotion Mix):

• They provided networking platforms through their story sync applications on their website.
• They used blogs and other social media tools to engage customers, interacting with them about the finale and connecting them to the actors and creators of the show.
• They designed a product with talking points and Utilized the power of story by developing a TV series with a strong plot that invited discussion.
• They used both traditional and internet-based promotions, aligning offline activities with online ones. These activities also supported causes considered important to audiences, such as the Kind Campaign.

All this drove people to talk about the series and generated popularity for the show's final episodes. Finally, fans talked about the finale because AMC put a lot of effort into thanking them on social media. Unlike other series such as LOST, Gossip Girl or Dexter, which ended quietly or tamely, Breaking Bad provided additional content and activities that got fans involved in the finale, both online and off; they made the ending exciting for fans....Did you find yourself tweeting or Facebooking about it? I would be interested to know if you could leave me a comment!

Read more about Breaking Bad social media strategies and results here:

http://socialtimes.com/breaking-bad-does-good-with-finale-social-media_b135976
http://www.cnbc.com/id/101074132
http://vator.tv/news/2013-10-07-breaking-bad-wins-first-nielsen-twitter-ratings

Key points to take away to take away from this post:

• To engage individuals in conversation about products on social media, ask directly for opinions, experiences and ideas. Link social media activities to other topics individuals will be interested in talking about: social causes, issues, celebrities, events etc. Also, encourage audiences to post their own questions about the product.
• Align marketing events with social media activities. Events should help to drive individuals onto the brand's social media sites, whilst social media activities should drive audience members towards attending events. All marketing activities should shape an experience worth sharing on social media. In other words, they should generate interaction with others over the product.
• Social media can provide companies with a cost-efficient way to thank their customers. By using networking platforms to provide additional services, information and entertainment, companies can show they value and appreciate customers. This makes them happy, and as such is likely to increase positive brand discussion online.

Become The Wolverine! Virtual experiences + social media (Part 2)

Virtual experiences + social media in entertainment marketing

On my last post, we talked about using virtual experiences with social media to attract customers and augment offerings in travel campaigns. But virtual media can be used for more than just tourism advertising. Consider entertainment and film-based marketing. Younger audiences often develop fandoms for their favourite movie or TV characters, particularly if they are superheroes or fantasy characters - just think of all the Comicon conventions or midnight blockbuster film screenings where individuals dress up as Star Wars, Harry Potter or X-men characters.

Entertainment firms can take advantage of this and create shareable virtual experiences that allows audiences to become the characters they love. By doing this, firms create additional value for their audiences; they augment the entertainment they provide, turning it from a passive viewing activity to an interactive one. Audiences are not just waiting to be entertained...they can join in the fun themselves. The more fun they have, they more likely they are to share experience with others on social media. This co-creates value, leading to greater promotion for the product and company. Let's look at a creative film campaign that used virtual experience and social media to attract its audience.

Case study: The Wolverine Augmented Powers Campaign

20th Century Fox studios wanted to attract audiences to the new The Wolverine film. As the sixth installment in the X-men series, the film was not expected to receive the same hype as it predecessors. Because of this, the studio needed to make the film stand out to their target audience. To achieve their goal, the studio decided to create campaign that would augment the film for customers by providing them with a virtual experience where they could becoming the lead character of the Wolverine. 

This experience was not offered through an online game, but through actual kiosks placed in shopping centres and cinemas in 17 different countries according to Mashable. Individuals could play on the kiosks for free. When they approached, a Microsoft Kinect sensor would transport the user to a scene from the movie where Wolverine fights a Yakuza soldier on top of a speeding bullet train. Individuals would become 'Wolverine' in the battle, their swift hand movements turning into claw swipes on screen.

To link this to social media, the kiosks would take pictures of individuals engaged with the virtual experience and post it on their Facebook walls as well as on the official fan page.

This campaign was strong because it reflected a great understanding of the target audience; it appealed to them effectively by giving them the chance to live out their fantasies. According to the studio, the activity augmented the film; 'By slicing through obstacles and defending themselves from ninja attacks, fans would experience a virtual thrill ride, based on an exhilarating scene from the up-coming movie.' By providing a virtual experience through game kiosks, the company changed the film (the product) from a viewing experience to a fun, participatory experience. 

This not only got fans involved with the movie, it also enticed them to share the experience....so it was a smart idea to provide players with a photo memento to be shared on social media. The photos allowed players to arouse the curiosity of their Facebook friends and helped them to recommend the activity, and the film, to others. I think the shareable element was a great idea and might have been better if the kiosks had recorded short videos of players. Videos would have demonstrated the actual activity. It could have also helped to generate a higher level of online discussion about the campaign if players had used funny or 'cool' moves. 

Nonetheless, the campaign was highly creative and played a part in promoting the film in countries such as Mexico, New Zeland and The Phillipines. In the end, The Wolverine generated ticket sales of over $370.5 million USD internationally, which was about three times more than the films' production budget of $120 million. 

More information about the campaign can be found on Mashable and the inspiration room

http://mashable.com/2013/07/02/be-the-wolverine-kinect/

http://theinspirationroom.com/daily/2013/wolverine-experience-augmented/

After reading this case study, do you think it was a strong campaign? What other industries might benefit from creating campaigns with shareable virtual experiences? Leave a comment and let me know!

Key points to take away:

• Virtual experiences can help to create a strong social media campaign in experience-based industries. This can include tourism (as discussed in our last post), but also entertainment, where audience members often seek to be like their favourite movie characters or Hollywood celebrities.
• Virtual experiences help to transform passive experiences (advertisements, films etc) into interactive experiences.
• To be linked effectively to social media, the virtual experience should include a shareable element, a photo, a video or some digital token that can be embedded on peoples' Facebook profiles/blogs/ Twitter feeds/ Pinterest accounts and shared with friends or followers. This helps to arouse awareness and interest in the campaign (friends may go try out the virtual experience too) and in the product (as a result of this advertising, they are likely to become aware and interested in the product as well.)

Augmenting book products through games and content communities...A look at Harry Potter and Legend

This week I've been ushering at the Melbourne writer's festival and at each presentation, social media has been mentioned as a factor that has changed the writing, reading and marketing of books. So I thought I would explore this concept in this week's post.

 

The challenge with marketing books today

Book are generally more difficult to market than other entertainment products today. Firstly, there is a high level of competition with  more forms of visual entertainment, such as TV shows, films and internet entertainment. Secondly, consumers' preferences are changing due to the development of new technologies and more instantaneous entertainment. Members of the younger generation seek more interaction and involvement with their products. As a result, some think books are less entertaining today....unless you're talking about Facebook...

Augmentation through social media

In order to market books effectively, whether e-books or physical paperback stories, authors and publishers need to create involvement with readers. This should be done not only through the book itself (the actual product) , but through social media.

Social media can help to augment book products. What do we mean by augment? In Marketing Management, Philip Kotler explains that 3 levels of product exist: the core product, the actual product and the augmented product.

The augmented product is the value-added product;  this includes the  services and experiences that enhance a physical good. Social media is a tool that can  help augment books because it provides a way to supply additional content, experiences and services in an interactive and inclusive manner. But what forms of social media are most relevant for adding value to young adult fiction?

Games

According to Gamification expert, Gabe Zichermann, the use of game-based thinking and dynamics in a non-game context can engage individuals. This is particularly true with books, as these products already come with a game element: narrative. Virtual gaming worlds can draw younger audiences into stories by literally placing them within the context of the story and letting them experience the events described.

By using games to market books, publishers co-created value with their young audiences: children and teens can receive a more interactive and involved experience of a book, while publishers can market the book in a  more enticing manner to customers.  Publishers can also find out about their audiences' preferences from games and use this to inform other marketing activities.

Case Study: Harry Potter e-books enhanced through co-creating value with Pottermore

Harry Potter has been a phenomenally successful series, due largely to its imaginative world-building, relatable characters and good writing. However, social media has also helped to augment the series and propel sales.

J.K Rowling recently updated the Harry Potter website into Pottermore, an interactive social gaming and networking site. As well as providing a 'thank you' gift to fans, this was developed to sell Harry Potter e-books directly to readers (bypassing e-retailers such as Amazon).

From a marketing perspective, Pottermore has been a smart way of augmenting the Harry Potter e-books. Without Pottermore, there might have been less appeal for the products as most fans already own several copies of story. Some fans had also drifted away from the series altogether since its completion. However, by creating an interactive game world based on the series, Rowling created a more engaging experience of the story which drew readers back towards the books again. With an exclusive 'first million' entrants limitation into the new gaming world, the site diffused quickly, bringing back many old readers and therefore, consumers.

By placing users of the site at the centre of the story, Pottermore allowed fans to experience the narrative from the first book as a character themselves. This created nostalgia, which was fuelled by interaction between fans within the Pottermore gaming world.

But was this successful for e-book sales? ...Well, e-book sales topped 1 million pounds within 3 days according to The Guardian: Furthermore, it increased the sales of her physical books too. By augmenting the reading experience for her fans through game, Rowling was able to co-create value which led to benefits for her book sales as well.

Content communities

According to Andreas Kaplan and Michael Haelein in  'Users if the world, Unite! The challenges and opportunities of Social Media', content communities allow for the sharing of media between users. Content communities can augment books by offering a platform to  co-create value: by providing fans a space to produce fan-art, authors can gain additional advertising material and learn about what interests their audiences.

  

Case Study: Facebook games, Deviantart, Pinterest and Tumblr to enhance Legend

Legend is a series of dystopian teen novels written by an author called Marie Lu. While Legend does not have a fan base quite as big as Harry Potter, it has become a New York Times Best-seller.

This is may be due to Lu's interesting writing style, but also to her use of social media to augment the book experience for fans. Lu has highly active Twitter and Facebook pages (with an online game where players are characters in the dystopian world of the story). In addition, she also reaches out to fans via content communities. On Pinterest and Deviantart, Lu provides supplementary content to her book series, including ideas that inspired her stories and artworks based on her characters.

  

 Facebook game:

 

Pinterest inspiration folders:

Fans are also able to create fan-art and send it to Lu, who shares it on her Tumblr page (a creative blogging platform) and Deviantart profile (art creation and sharing community). She not only re-blogs these pieces, but also compliments fans on their artwork. These content communities  help co-create value with fans in two ways: They can gain supplementary information to the story from the author. In additional, they can share their own art-work and interact with an artist they value. In turn, Marie Lu gains additional ways to promote her books series and find out what interests fans.

Tumblr page:

  

This brings me to the end of this post. Are you fans of any book series that rely on social media to bring the reading experience to life for you?

Key points to take away from this post:

• Social media can augment products, particularly books, by providing a platform for co-creating value between customers and producers.
• Games and content communities provide interaction for non-interactive products like books.
• Both games and content communities can help to bring stories to life for books. This co-creates value with young generations, who seek a higher level of engagement in their entertainment.

Co-creation of value in the Game of Thrones Social Media Campaign

Anyone a fan of Games of Thrones? And did you know that social media played a large role in its advertising strategy for season 1? As I mentioned in my introduction, I love pop culture and entertainment. So today's blog post will be looking at how HBO used social media to co-create value with Game of Thrones fans and propel the success of the television show.

An Introduction

Game of Thrones is a TV show based on George RR Martin's high fantasy book series, A Song of Fire and Ice. As with most book to film/TV transitions, there were worries that the Game of Thrones series would be a huge flop - the books' highly enthusiastic followers were either going to love or reject the outcome and the general public might consider it too geeky or cheesy to follow. So HBO needed to reach out to its strong existing fan base and secure the attention of other potential audiences. To do this, they used a social media campaign.

The Social Media Campaign

Co-creation of Value with existing fans

1) HBO began their campaign a year before the show to target loyal fans of the series.

• They rolled out trailers online on: the HBO website and HBO Youtube channels.
• HBO then launched an official production blog 'The Making of Game of Thrones' for fans
• They also launched a twitter profile @gameofthrones, where fans could provide advice, feedback or comments on the production of the series.

In my opinion, HBO's use of social media to integrate fans' opinions about the series was a really smart move because it allowed the show to be co-produced with its consumers. This co-created value between the two parties: HBO was able to develop a more successful adaption of the series through using their audiences' knowledge. They were also able to attract more viewers as fans began spreading word of mouth to others. On the other hand, these social media channels increased value for fans of the series because they were able to shape the entertainment they wanted to watch. If you've ever read any of Vargo and Lusch's articles about Service Dominant Logic, this is the perfect example of co-created value, where both parties benefit from interaction through social media. Now onto the second stage of HBO's campaign...

Creating an experience for fans

2) Prior to the premier, HBO started launching official social media pages on Facebook etc.

• Here, they launched the Maester’s Path, a game that took place both online and offline. Fans collected weekly  Facebook clues to complete challenges in the real world. 
• Clues were linked to food truck stunts. Fans who collected clues would be able to meet at events and taste cuisine from Westeros, the land in which the series takes place.
• At WonderCon 2011, fans could also take pictures with an exact replica of the Iron Throne. These were featured on the official Facebook page in real time and created a media buzz.

I thought this was interesting because they immersed fans in a real-life experience of the world from the TV show, using social media as a platform to do this. If you remember Phillip Kotler's product theory, companies should differentiate products and services by adding value to them and shifting them up the levels from product to experience. I think this would be easy for products and services with retail outlets because companies can create a shopping experience for consumers using music, retail personnel and store presentation...but how would you do this for something like a TV show (as a product)? Social media has played a key role in developing experiences for consumers and more importantly, these experiences are co-created. Companies have instant feedback as to whether or not they are doing a good job, or a poor one! In this case, HBO was definitely not providing a poor experience for viewers

Interaction between audience and TV station

3) After the premiere, HBO engaged fans through a number of social media channels.  Finally, they launched 'The Battle for the Iron Throne' Facebook game to conclude the campaign. The results were pretty strong: The Game of Thrones Facebook page grew to 150K connections even before the show aired and the premiere generated an audience of 2.2MM viewers, which meant the series was immediately renewed for a second season.

Social media has been a great way to connect fans to each other and to HBO, even after this campaign. I remember the second last episode in the most recent season where a traumatic event occurred in the series - my Facebook newsfeed was SPAMMED with people expressing their devastation. There were statuses, memes and photos, which generated more hype as people commented and interacted with one another over their grief. I heard people even wrote on the HBO Facebook profile begging them not to slaughter off anymore people....

So if you're a fan of the series and you know which episode I'm talking about did you take to social media to share your angst? And did you experience any of this social media campaign as it was rolled out? Do you think they could have done anything better, or is this a good campaign by your standards? Leave a comment and let me know! Also, look below for some key points to take away.

Key points to take away from this post:

• Co-creation of value benefits both the company and the consumer in marketing, so it's a good idea for to initiate co-production or creation practices over social media platforms.
• Social media can help create both online and offline experiences, particularly for intangible products, such as TV shows, films, holidays...Worth leveraging in these industries!
• If used strategically, social media can co-create value, shape experiences and generate interaction with consumers, which can lead to more effective marketing and communications.