It has been Game of Thrones mania this past week with the final season premiering Sunday night, 4/14, on HBO. Many of the cast from the show have been appearing on the news and talk shows with even Kit Harrington hosting SNL last Saturday night and a few of his GOT co-stars, including Emilia Clark and Kit’s real-wife, Rose Leslie, who played Ygritte in the show, showing up in his opening monologue.  So I’m super synced for it to finally be here. Us fans have waited over 20 months to find out who will win the throne! I wish I could have been involved in some of the companies that have gotten on the GOT bandwagon, but unfortunately we have not. Here’s a few that have had success.

PepsiCo’s Mountain Dew is riding the GOT’s final-season wave with a sweepstakes promotion featuring a limited-run special-edition can called “A Can Has No Name”. This promotion ties into the Arya Stark character and what she endured from the Faceless Men of Braavos. The cans, when at room temperature, appear to be just be all white, brand less. But when chilled, the cans reveal the names from Arya’s “kill list,” along with the Mtn Dew and GOT logos.

Fans can try to win one of the cans by posting on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter about what they would sacrifice #ForTheThrone, using that hashtag plus #ACanHasNoName and #MTNDEWsweepstakes. 1,000 cans that come in a custom box will be awarded based on a computer-generated formula seeded throughout the Sweepstakes. If chosen as a winner they will receive a winning notification and perhaps a message from the Sponsor depending on what platform they used to enter.

In addition, residents of New York City and Los Angeles have been offered the opportunity to “find the Masters of Coin, state the ancient password, and receive a coin,” then follow instructions to locate Iron Vending Machines that dispense the no-name cans. Mtn Dew promoted the Sweepstakes with this GOT-themed short video and posted it across Mtn Dew’s social channels.

Oreo is another brand who got very creative with a GOT tie-in and has created four limited-edition cookies — three embossed with the sigils (coat of arms images) of the Lannister, Targaryen and Stark houses, respectively, and one embossed with the face of the White Walker Night King. They then recreated the GOT opening all with these GOT Oreo cookies.  Check out the video here.

Lastly, Bud Light released another GOT TV spot with the Mountain that aired during last weekend’s NCAA tournament.

We know what so many of us will be doing Sunday night. Enjoy! #ForTheThrone

HBO-JonThe Game of Thrones Season 6 finale was this past Sunday night and I am still talking about it. Yes, I am what you call a hard-core fan of Game of Thrones. I’ve been reading every article that I come across to gain insights of what others saw in the final episode, the Winds of Winter, and to learn more about what theories others think will come true in Season 7. At least now we have a pretty good idea of who Jon Snow’s true parents really are. But no one else knows this, not even Jon Snow.

I came across this Adweek article about this new campaign that HBO launched recently that involves an Instagram Contest for us hard-core fans of Game of Thrones as well as fans of Silicon Valley and Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. The “Deep Instagram Challenge” tests fan’s knowledge on their Instagram page by having them answer trivia questions to solve clues leading to prizes.

All three challenges are now officially over. The Game of Thrones (GOT) Challenge came first, which launched on June 10. The object of each Challenge was to get to the winning video post by successfully completing multiple levels of word string-type games beginning at the “image of the iconic HBO static” found on HBO’s Instagram page. The first person to successfully complete all the game levels, which led to the winning post, and then make a comment on the winning post, was the Grand Prize winner. There were many dead ends which featured original videos from the show’s stars and fans had to go back and try again.

HBO-GOTIn the GOT challenge fans knowledge of the seven kingdoms was tested for a chance to win a trip to San Diego Comic-Con and other prizes “worthy of a king or queen”. The Silicon Valley Challenge was launched next on June 13 which offered a chance to win a real-life replica of Erlich’s Aviato car and other prizes “Gilfoyle could only dream of receiving from tech companies vying for his attention”.

HBO-JOLast Week Tonight with John Oliver was the last challenge which launched on June 15 and ended June 20. The Grand Prize winner received a trip for two people to New York City sometime this Summer to attend a live taping of John Oliver’s show which includes round-trip airfare, 2-night hotel accommodations and ground transportation. Runner-up prizes included 50 “Make Donald Drumpf Again” hats along with some bonus prizes.

“When the iconic HBO static intro lights up their screens, our fans know they’re about to experience something extraordinary,” adds Chris Spadaccini, evp of brand and product marketing at HBO. We think they’ll be excited by this innovative opportunity to go even deeper inside the static intro and engage with the brand on the Instagram platform.”

Here are a couple of the dead-end videos from the GOT Challenges. Stay tuned and follow HBO on Instagram for the next two challenges they have planned. And for us GOT fans, we just have to wait another year for our show to return.