‘Game Of Thrones’: HBO Series Partners With MLB For Season 7 Promotion
Popular HBO series Game of Thrones has partnered with Major League Baseball for Season 7 promotions. MLB will be a part of the cross-promotional deal to help people get more aware of the dreaded winter everyone has been eagerly waiting for. Teams that will take part in the promotional activities include Boston Red Sox, Los Angeles Dodgers, San Francisco Giants, and St. Louis Cardinals.
No specific promotional offering has been finalized yet. According to reports, promotional strategies will vary from team to team. It is, however, revealed that the promotion will include social media events, giveaways, ticket packages and co-branded merchandise. Noah Garden, MLB’s EVP of Business, says MLB has been associated with HBO for a long time. HBO Now uses MLB’s BAMTech technology platform for its streaming service. Garden also said that MLB was planning to do something on a larger scale. MLB has previously worked for Star Wars and Disney’s Marvel.
Baseball is coming.#GameofThrones teams with @MLB: https://t.co/jsIytjrXoB (via @Deadline) pic.twitter.com/jq0zNjq1hY
— Game Of Thrones (@GameOfThrones) March 1, 2017
The MLB official said there would be “a tremendous amount of tie-ins.” Financial terms are not specifically revealed, even though it is expected revenues will be split. While every Game of Thrones fan is eager to know the release date of Season 7, Garden says he has no idea when the new season will come up. According to Deadline, the HBO series will have promotional activities during All Star Game. However, there will be promotional activities on MLB’s digital properties and apps.
Who’s your favorite character in Game of Thrones?
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There has been huge curiosity related to Game of Thrones‘ Season 7. There are wide speculations that very few episodes are left in the HBO series. While it is widely believed that the show’s release date is in April, actor Liam Cunningham has recently given a different date for it. The actor, who is known for playing Ser Davos in the show, says fans will be disappointed to know that the show won’t come before July. The actor told The Independent that there would be only seven episodes in the seventh season. According to him, the popular HBO series will end after one more season. The shooting for Game of Thrones Season 8 will start in September, he said.
Meanwhile, Garden says that MLB’s popularity among young adults is often overlooked due to the excessive focus on TV ratings. Partnering with Game of Thrones is going to help the game reach millennials. MLB wants to reach out to the target group, as the HBO series will have new episodes introduced during the baseball season.
“What people fail to look at when it comes to MLB is that we were the first to stream our games online and the first to launch an app — long before any other sport did,” Garden says. “Our millennials went to those platforms right away. The curse is that it gave the perception to some that we’ve become an older sport, which really couldn’t be farther from the truth.” According to the MLB official, partnering with Game of Thrones is going to “tell a different story.”
Seven Kingdoms and seven stages.
Get an inside look of the making of the #GameofThrones Live Concert Experience. pic.twitter.com/y5KGsVldNQ— Game Of Thrones (@GameOfThrones) February 19, 2017
Cunningham revealed that the premiere for Game of Thrones Season 7 would have something “special.” It will be interesting to see how the HBO series plans its promotions with various MLB teams. Will popular Game of Thrones characters play for the teams? Are we going to see dragon’s flying over the stadiums while games are on? Will MLB players appear in promotional videos with GoT actors? These are wild speculations, which can only be confirmed once the promotions start.
[Featured Image by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images]
