How AT&T’s Game of Thrones displays were designed to “feed the superfan”

Before the final season of Game of Thrones aired, AT&T teamed up with design agency Twenty Four 7, which doesn’t have an obnoxiously cutesy name at all, to roll out a series of elaborate Game of Thrones displays in select cities across the nation. One of them was in Chicago, and I got to visit. Between the VR and AR experiences, the costumes and props straight from the set, and all the merch, it was pretty memorable:

Naturally, that’s be design. “We’re focusing on all the things that a consumer can’t get anywhere else,” Twenty Four 7 president and executive creative director Mimi Lettunich told Retail Touch Points. “With retail access being so prolific, there are so many channels for people to get basic product and service. We’re trying to provide access to the things that seem hard to get, and the things that make the experience a little bit more intimate. These experiences should feed the superfan on one hand, and on the other hand, we’re looking to figure out how to gain an entry point that attracts the novice to the conversation.”

Including real costumes and props from the show definitely got me interested, although I’m not sure it was quite as effective as Lettunich was hoping. “[W]e’re focused on inspiring consumers,” she continued. “It’s the idea that we’re in their mind far beyond that moment of time they had that interaction.”

"It’s about programming and keeping it fresh, and not doing a ‘one and done.’ I think a lot of people look at it as a moment versus something that is part of your ecosystem as a whole. Entertainment is core — it’s not just about selling entertainment, it’s about being entertaining.”"

“Fan experiences” like these are becoming more common as brands try to find new ways to make themselves memorable to consumers who are increasingly savvy about how advertising works. Retail Touch writes that Twenty Four 7 uses “a behavioral science-focused strategy designed to analyze metrics related to customer obsession and irrational fandom.” It doesn’t elaborate, but I want to know more. What exactly is there an “irrational fandom” strategy?

Anyway, Twenty Four 7 didn’t know anything about what was going to happen in season 8, but after brainstorming ideas with a team from HBO, they came up with a suite of experiences that certainly intrigued this longtime fan, although it’s true that many were drawn from the show’s seventh season. There was an augmented reality experience that took you inside the Dragonpit meeting from “The Dragon and the Wolf,” for example, and a virtual reality experience where you went beyond the Wall and fought a zombie polar bear:

Twenty Four 7 also partnered with AT&T to promote Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, among many other projects. Is this the new way companies get into our heads? And will it work? If any of you visited any of AT&T’s Game of Thrones fan experiences ahead of season 8 — or indeed any similar experiences — I’d love to hear your thoughts.

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