The John Gruber Experience

HBO – Game of Thrones Pedicab Sponsorship

Information


10 Pedicabs, Specially Designed To Look Like The Iron Throne From Game Of Thrones, Offering Free Rides Up To 10 Hours Per Day, All Week During Comic-Con. Recurring Campaign, 2011-2016

My Responsibilities

  • Photo editing and enhancement of publicity photos
  • Creating case study for websites. Adjusted content to enhance SEO and reading score.
  • Social Media Campaign

Objective

HBO wanted to promote their new hit show Game of Thrones at San Diego Comic-Con. The week of Comic-Con is insanely hectic, with masses of people crowding downtown San Diego and countless brands vying to compete with each other, so HBO knew they needed to come up with a campaign that was unique, exciting and memorable.

The Solution

VIP Pedicab Outdoor Media offered 10 pedicabs to swarm the downtown San Diego area and offer free rides to anyone who needed, compliments of HBO. However, these pedicabs were no ordinary pedicab; they were specially designed to look like the “iron throne,” an iconic aspect of the Game of Thrones brand. Drivers were also outfitted with Game of Thrones t-shirts.
Most of our production can be kept in-house, but for a project of this magnitude we hired a 3rd-party graphics company based in Florida. The “iron throne” cut-outs were an expensive initial investment for HBO, however we were able to preserve them and reuse them for the following Comic-Cons, making them a frugal and worthwhile investment for HBO.
To this day, the Game of Thrones pedicabs are one of the most talked-about and popular marketing campaigns of Comic-Con, and one of the most successful campaigns in VIP Pedicab Outdoor Media’s career. HBO eventually bought the pedicabs and shipped them to events all over the world.