Game of Content: Content Marketing lessons from Game of Thrones

Game of Thrones is the biggest thing to hit mass media since Marconi proved the feasibility of Radio communication. It has taken the world by storm and has gotten millions of people talking about it. Don’t worry, there will not be any spoilers in this article, so please continue reading.

For those of you that don’t know, Game of Thrones is the brainchild of author George R.R. Martin and was brought to the small screen by David Benioff and D.B. Weiss. It is set on the fictional continents of Westeros and Essos, and follows several noble families in their attempts to sit upon the Iron Throne and rule the Seven Kingdoms.

Game of Thrones is rich with lessons for Content Marketers to both optimise their content strategies and engage with their fans on a daily basis. To put it in perspective; the total number of posts during the Premiere was 176,017, with a total reach of over 1 billion. That was generated in just under an hour of the show running and these stats have grown as the show has continued.

What can Content Marketers learn from this? Well, there are a few valuable lessons that can be taken from the show:

Intros are important

If you ask avid viewers of the show, many will tell you that they very rarely skip the intro to the show. Many Content Marketers simply publish content with no context, assuming that users are aware of their brands and what they stand for.

Take some time and tell your story, get users to buy into it so that when you do start pushing content, they know where is it coming from and the levels of trust and credibility are already there.

Quality over Quantity

With each season only containing 10 episodes (with the exception of Season 7 and 8), Game of Thrones leaves its viewers wanting more and anticipating new content every week. The biggest mistake most Content Marketers make is publishing a lot of content all at once. This leaves the user overwhelmed and desensitised to the brand message.

Choosing when and where to release content is extremely important and often, less really is more. Publishing less quantity but higher quality content will enable brands to speak through the noise and be noticed by users.

User Generated Content

Do yourself a favour and, after an episode has been aired, go onto Twitter and search #GoT. What you will see are thousands of tweets about the show from its multitude of fans. The creativity of content will astound you and you will notice that very little of this content comes from the Official Pages.

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Getting people to buy into your brand and content will give the users a sense of ownership. When users feel invested in a brand, they are more likely to create their own conversations about it. Encourage these conversations and use them to tailor your content based on what the users want to see.

Stay Consistent

Fans of the show know that the next episode will be aired weekly. They have their alarms set and have cancelled all their plans to make sure they don’t miss out. Content Marketers should have their users doing the same. Regular and consistent content will keep your users engaged and looking forward to more. Content Marketers should always have a plan of action to make sure that their users are always given what they want.

There may not be an Iron Throne to sit on in the Content Marketing space, but well-planned content will help you rule the Digital Kingdom and leave your competitors wishing they had a dragon or two to try outdo you!