Adding an innovative humanitarian twist to the usual promo campaign, HBO invited Game of Thrones fans to bleed for the throne today- literally. The network announced, as part of their #ForTheThrone campaign leading up to Season 8, a blood drive in partnership with the National American Red Cross. The Bleed for the Throne campaign kicks off March 7th with an immersive experience at SXSW.
According to HBO, Bleed For The Throne is “the largest blood donation promotional effort by an entertainment company in American Red Cross history, with six days of coordinated giving from fans across the entire country. The partnership will include an immersive experience at SXSW from March 7-9, in addition to blood drives in 43 states and 9 colleges and universities across the U.S. from March 7-12.” The SXSW drive will take place at Fair Market in downtown Austin.
So what’s in it for the fans who step up to the throne and give? Fans who present to donate during the above period will reportedly receive an exclusive Bleed For The Throne t-shirt (while supplies last). As a very cool bonus incentive, people who present for blood donation at any Red Cross blood drive by March 17th will automatically be entered to win a trip to the season 8 world premiere of Game of Thrones!
Blood donation appointments are available starting today at 11:00 am ET and are expected to fill up quickly, with a standby line available for fans who are unable to make appointments online. The link to register with Red Cross!
Lyft is also helping out with the cause by providing rides (up to $10) at SXSW and to all 163 Red Cross blood donation centers across the country. Donors can visit the American Red Cross website leading up to the blood drives to learn more about how to access the Lyft rides.
SXSW Activation Location:
Fair Market: 1100 E. 5th Street, Austin, TX 78702
SXSW Activation Hours:
Thursday, March 7th: 12-6pm CT
Friday, March 8th & Saturday, March 9th: 10am-6pm CT
Learn more at forthethrone.com/bleed!
That’s a nice promotion. Good for you, HBO!
Fuck you HBO.
Great way to get people out to donate for a worthy cause. You never know when you might have a need yourself.
I think it’s a good campaign idea. I assume the show will have a presence at SXSW, which will hype fans even more because it’s only a month before the premier. I wonder who’s going from cast and crew this year.
Nice to see a campaign to encourage people to donate blood.
The promo campaign for Season 8 has been simply marvelous. Maisie posted a photo of her and Sophie on her IG earlier saying it was Day 1 of the GoT press tour. With HBO dropping the Veep trailer yesterday and with the True Detective finale this Sunday hopefully the GoT trailer isn’t far off. March is right around the corner.
#ForTheThrone #WhatWouldYouDoForTheThrone #BleedForTheThrone
You sure? Maisie’s last post on her IG is from a few days ago. She posted a story earlier today but it was just of herself.
AryaArya,
Sophie posted the Instagram story of the two of them doing the press day.
Yeah like Sue said it was Sophie. I had it mixed up.
Yeah, Carice also said “press day” earlier. *squee*
I suppose this campaign is a good idea. I’ll have to skip it though; trypanophobia is my weakness…shouldn’t have tried to watch them draw blood from my dog. _._ So unless the needle used is about a centimeter…nopenopenopenope
New Arya pop! https://twitter.com/OriginalFunko/status/1097918848840450049
It’s a shared exclusive with Box Lunch.
I really, really hate the commercialization of this new owner of HBO and how it’s cheapening the best TV show ever made. So glad we’ve only one year under their direction, so they couldn’t spoil the excitement of the show too much.
A nice idea, although requiring a blood donation discriminates against those people, who for medical reasons, are unable to contribute (people who are probably over-represented at “Sexy Southwest”, anyway.)
Oh jeez, I missed the bit about being entered for premiere tickets. I wonder which one is “the world premiere,” since we know per Jason that there’s supposed to be one on the 3rd, and then the “last” Radio City one obviously between the 4th and 13th. (I reeeeeally can’t wait to find out which day specifically so I can plan to head over there…) Well, at least I’m entered in the Emilia Omaze.
Omaze website says the winner will be announced “on or around the 3rd”, so I’m wondering how late the Radio City one will be?
Yeah, exactly; I thought there’d be only one, but clearly not. It can’t be any later than April 13, since the next day is the actual television premiere…
Missed opportunity. Arya. Meryn F*cking Trant bleeding out. Perfect promo for giving blood.
This is clearly a great cause but I’ve largely seen people complaining about the lack of official trailer in response on social media. I hope this hasn’t back fired as a result.
I feel people need to accept that we are likely only getting one trailer for S8 but that being kept in the dark isn’t such a bad thing. No doubt the trailer will drop soon anyway, surely can’t wait much more than a week or two now.
Yeah pretty much 99% of the comments on every post from the GoT and HBO social media pages are about the trailer lol.
mau,
I take it you’re against donating blood? Jeez, you don’t have to be so mean about it.