HBO - Game of Thrones

When unexpected production delays between seasons 3 and 4 of Game of Thrones threatened to derail the momentum that the show was beginning to gain, HBO asked us to develop a small campaign to keep fans engaged and remind them why they love the show. In developing the strategy for the campaign, we couldn’t find a commonality uniting fans around what they loved, we decided to take a different approach: Figure out what fans hated about the show. For that, there was a clear answer: The abhorrent King Joffrey was the character that all fans loved to hate - in fact, he was TV’s most hated villain in recent times. So we created the world’s first ever internet comedy roast, giving Game of Thrones fans the opportunity to show the world just how much they hated King Joffrey.

With a total production budget of just $20,000 and no paid media spend, “Roast Joffrey” became an instant sensation. The event kicked off with digital invitations, a dedicated platform to showcase the action, and a social newsroom to respond to roasters in real-time. Taunts and jokes poured in from Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram for 48 straight hours. Fans, influencers, content creators, celebrities—even the cast of “Game of Thrones"—all got involved. The campaign was covered by over 144 press outlets, received 60,000 roasts in just 48 hours, over 850 million impressions, and #RoastJoffrey trended nationally within an hour of launch. Game of Thrones mentions increased 367% year over year and more importantly, viewership jumped from 14 million in Season 3 to 19 million in Season 4. #RoastJoffrey cemented Game of Thrones as the biggest internet-fan-powered show in TV history.