by Case Study: Game of Thrones

How Sky Atlantic used video in email to drive mobile video views

A new original television mini-series based on George R.R. Martin's best-selling 'A Song of Ice and Fire' series, ʻGame of Thronesʼ is aired in the United Kingdom exclusively on Sky Atlantic.

To announce the arrival of this television program - projected to be a major hit - Sky Atlantic knew it had to think creatively to extend the reach of its promotion efforts.

Increasing the frequency of standard 15 and 30-second trailer spots on TV was one sure way to drive reach. Yet with viewers increasingly connected to media via smartphones, not television, Sky Atlantic needed to find a creative solution to reach its potential viewers with video right where they were - any time, any place.

To connect with a mobile audience, a mobile-friendly Game of Thrones website was established. The site could be viewed both on iPhone and Android devices. It was promoted via email, search, and even highlighted in some TV spots. Still, aside from the standard TV trailers, none of the other promotional vehicles were able to deliver compelling video content to the audience in a “push” manner. The idea of video in email was explored in previous years but discarded due to lack of standardized support among mail clients.

● Proactively deliver promotional video trailers to smartphones

● Grab viewers and encourage interaction with a show-specific website

● Diversify the standard show promotional mix

● Unsure how much of the audience would see video in a mobile mail client

● Lack of standardized support for video in email among mail clients, including mobile

● Never tried using video in email before

“Sky Atlantic

creative way to deliver compel-ling video to its mobile viewers”

Goals

Challenges

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by Case Study: Game of Thrones

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As the promotion strategy for Game of Thrones was being hatched, Sky Atlanticʼs email marketing partner, Experian Cheetahmail, suggested that the landscape of video in email had changed. The rise of HTML5 video coupled with mail client detection soft-ware would allow video to be safely and reliably delivered to mail clients that supported it, while simultaneously ensuring that mail clients and mobile devices that did not support video would properly render either a silent animated .GIF/.PNG video or a static image. Such technology, provided by Video Email Express, would therefore allow Sky Atlantic to drive added reach with video in the proactive, “push” manner desired by the television network.

Of particular interest to Sky Atlantic was the fact Video Email Express had conducted research indicating mobile, and iOS in particular, was a major emerging driver behind video email support. “The iOS ecosystem fully supports video in email,” said Justin Foster, GM Video Email Solutions for Video Email Express. “Video Email Expressʼ embed code detects the presence of iOS and can serve a compatible video in email in real-time as the email is opened. This is critical because video in email is vastly simpler to con-sume on mobile devices when compared to video linked from static images in email.”

Sky Atlantic evaluated the ease of video consumption on iOS (iPhone/iPad) and deter-mined that indeed it would reach many more viewers by including video directly in email.

Armed with new information about video in email, Sky Atlantic successfully employed a video-in-email strategy by featuring a 15-second video trailer directly in email.

Video embedded directly in email

Recipient taps video; video plays

Static image in email linked to video on web

Recipient taps static image

Recipient waits for click redirect

Recipient opens new web browser or browser tab

Recipient waits for page to load

Recipient waits for video player to load

Recipient taps video; video plays

Process for consuming video in email on iPhones and iPads

Video Email Express Traditional email method

“Sky Atlantic's Game of Thrones video in email drove 1.25 million video views; with 500,000 of those views on mobile iOS devices”

Results

● Drove 1.25 million video views through video in email

● 500,000 views on mobile iOS devices (iPhone/iPad)

● Successfully leveraged video in email to expand promotional mix