Case Study
How OSN+ and HAQM Ads brought House of the Dragon to shoppers’ doorsteps in Saudi Arabia
Goals
- Increase brand awareness and association between OSN+ and House of the Dragon
- Drive subscription growth through innovative marketing touchpoints
- Deliver engaging entertainment experiences across multiple customer touchpoints
Approach
- Deployed 350,000+ custom HAQM delivery boxes with QR codes in Saudi Arabia
- Created interactive landing page featuring Team Black vs. Team Green experience
- Implemented homepage takeovers across HAQM.sa and Twitch
Results
- Achieved 257% engagement increase on custom delivery boxes
- Drove 16x higher click-through rate via homepage takeover
- Increased unprompted brand awareness from 7% to 12% for OSN+
When OSN+, a streaming service in the Middle East and North Africa region offering a wide variety of content, set out to launch the second season of HBO’s House of the Dragon (HOTD), it wanted something that went above and beyond a typical media plan. Teaming up with HAQM Ads, OSN+ aimed to spark curiosity and engaged viewers across a variety of channels with tailor-made HAQM Ads solutions. This dynamic approach captured the show's intense rivalries, generated powerful buzz for the new season, and increased engagement towards the streaming service.
House of delivery: OSN+ initiates on-box advertising
Before the series premiered, OSN+ and HAQM Ads orchestrated a series of teasers designed to stoke anticipation. In the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, over 350,000 specially designed HAQM delivery boxes were produced, with the aim of transforming routine deliveries into delightful doorstep moments. Each box bore striking imagery from HOTD and included a QR code that drove customers to the OSN+ Brand Store on HAQM.sa.
OSN+ custom HAQM delivery box with QR code
The Brand Store on HAQM.sa acted as a virtual battleground where visitors chose between Team Black and Team Green, diving into the world of HOTD Season 2. While on the landing page, fans could also explore exclusive trailers and character histories through a tailored experience that revealed the secrets and rivalries of their chosen house. This dual-path content journey helped visitors delve deeper into each house's story, further increasing engagement on the page while creating a natural journey to the OSN+ website, where viewers could subscribe to watch the new season of HOTD.
OSN+ Brand Store on HAQM.sa featuring Team Black and Team Green
On HOTD Season 2 launch day, OSN+ utilized the homepage takeover, draping the website in black or green, piquing curiosity among HAQM shoppers who might not have been die-hard fans of the show. This digital transformation spanned across devices, giving anyone browsing HAQM.sa a direct route to the custom landing page. The campaign also tapped into Twitch, with a hero headline on the service’s homepage and a First Impression Takeover, where viewers would see an OSN+ pop-up during their first Twitch broadcast of the day.
OSN+ homepage takeover on HAQM.sa
A victory for OSN+
The full eight-week run of the custom box deliveries extended beyond the typical launch window, ensuring shoppers kept encountering the campaign and wondering which side they should support. A 257% increase in engagement for on-box ads was achieved, marked by a scan rate of 2.5%.1 Moreover, a brand lift study conducted after the conclusion of the campaign found that ad recognition rose by 12% among people who received the custom delivery box.2
Positive perception of OSN+ grew by 10%, with more viewers expressing a favorable opinion of the brand.3 Subscription interest also climbed 7%, reflecting how the show’s allure and the campaign’s creative execution converted casual viewers into potential subscribers.4 The association between HOTD and OSN+ surged by 8%, while unprompted brand awareness for OSN+ nearly doubled from 7% to 12%.5
Finally, the HAQM homepage hero takeover drove a 16x higher click-through rate compared to OSN+ benchmarks, while Twitch saw a 90% video completion rate, nearly 30% above average.6
By leveraging HAQM Ads unique blend of physical and digital touchpoints, from custom delivery boxes to premium ad placements across HAQM, OSN+ successfully drove meaningful engagement throughout the highly anticipated return of HOTD, proving that innovation in advertising can truly help content find its throne.
1HAQM Internal Data, KSA, 2024.
2-5Brand Lift Study, KSA, 2024.
6HAQM Internal Data, KSA, 2024.