The night of the Game of Thrones season five premiere, a handful of Telus Optik customers received a visit from one of the show’s mythical creatures, the white walker.
Together with its experiential agency, Behaviour, Telus sent employees in white walker makeup out on April 12 to deliver pizzas to customers for the first round of its Game of Thrones-themed surprise and delight campaign.
The brand plans to run the campaign through the majority of the show’s season, and deliver a total of about 8,100 pizzas. Each of the pizzas comes in a box designed by one of four artists, James Jirat Patradoon, Alexandra Snelgrove, Yaiagift and Dennis Chow, and is inspired by one of the fictive four ‘houses’ in the show.
One pizza, inspired by House Lannister, is called Iron Pepperthroni (cheese, pepperoni and bacon), while another called Sausage and Baratheonion (cheese, sausage, onion, sundried tomatoes), is a reference to House Baratheon.
Jon Snow may know nothing, but we know people love pizza. Which #GameOfThrones art is your favourite? #OptikDelivers pic.twitter.com/L8prOxft0v
— TELUS (@TELUS) April 15, 2015
Dan Sorotschynski, Telus’ director of marketing communications, said the promo was a chance for the company to showcase Telus Optik as a premium cable service that’s customer-centric.
He said Game of Thrones was a fit partially because of its rabid fan base, but also because it’s a dense, creative show that provided the brand plenty of material to work with. For example, the pizza box designs are filled with “Easter Egg” references to characters and storylines from the show.
“We were trying to find a show that had an interesting twist to it,” he said. “In [Game of Thrones] there’s very unique characters, which allowed us to create something compelling and interesting – but even more so, it has a very devoted fan base and they know and appreciate all the nuances of the show.”
He explained the company sent out a message to all of its HBO subscribers with a time-sensitive pizza offer, directing the customers to a microsite where they could sign up for a delivery in their area. Once all the set time slots for delivery were taken, they were alerted they’d have to try again on an upcoming Sunday.
Though the pizzas won’t be delivered by costumed characters every week, Sorotschynski said the brand is planning several other unique activations to pair with the deliveries that will also be inspired by the show.
