Lumedia Applauds HBO for Using Live Classical Music in Activation

It is a rare person who has not heard of South by Southwest (SXSW) and an even rarer person who hasn’t heard of HBO’s Game of Thrones (GoT). The music and drama of this last season left viewers enthralled.

In preparation for the season, HBO partnered with the American Red Cross on an activation (experiential marketing device) during SXSW. Cleverly named Bleed for the Throne, people could donate blood and be treated to an interactive, immersive GoT experience. As part of this experience, HBO hired a 24-person choir, 2 hammer dulcimer players, 2 cellists, and 2 percussionists to perform an original score based on the GoT music. They also hired a composer/conductor, William Kempster, to write the 30-minute choral piece and direct the ensemble.

This was a HUGE undertaking! The whole project was ambitious and carried significant risk. There was nothing to indicate that an event depicting music styled from the 16th-century was going to be a hit with your average audience. Live music is not cheap, and this was a large and highly specialized group hired to make it happen.

Admittedly, I was skeptical. I was not looking forward to the 3-hour drive from Houston to Austin, the SXSW traffic, the long lines, the crowds. I was wrapping up an exhausting weekend of work myself. But the effort to attend the activation paid off. I was blown away!

 While the various interactive experiences were interesting and fun, and the chance to interact with characters from the season was engaging, it was the music that carried the most power and emotional impact. I realized that HBO could have opted for the convenience and savings of a digital soundtrack. But that experience would have been much less.

Having the force of sound from 30 live musicians wash over you, feeling the energy of the performers, absorbing the magic of the atmosphere that the music and scenery created, all would have been impossible to replicate digitally. I think the performance served to remind people that there really is no substitute for the live experience. David Jacobsen, the Associate Director and Head of Production (NYC) at Giant Spoon, the creative agency behind the project, said “We [the ensemble] were not only prepared, we were groundbreaking. Folks were speechless to see this level of composition and performance. As I often say, the bar is set at post-production trickery and auto-tune.”

I observed, as a member of the audience, that many were experiencing live classical music for the first time, and possibly even classical music at all. The theme of GoT put the music in context and fans could easily relate to it. People were moved. It didn’t matter that it imitated 16th-century styles or had words in a language they couldn’t understand. Classical music came alive.

Conductor and composer Mr. Kempster picked up the same vibe: “From my conducting position during the Austin activation, while I was always concentrating hard on my job, I was very much in the audience as well, and it was difficult not to notice how various members of the public were experiencing the show. I saw a great deal of evidence that the vast majority of this 'audience' was totally engaged by the music and the visuals of the performance itself. I well remember this one young couple (mid to late 20's) who sat 2 rows in front of me. I would bet any money that these folks had never been to a classical music concert, and yet the young woman was actively imitating the dulcimer players, the cellists, and even me during the show. She was having a great time! There were many others as well, like the older couple I spoke to after one show who sheepishly admitted they had managed to get in for a second time just to hear the music again.”

The experience was truly unforgettable. As Mr. Jacobsen said, “People are hungry for texture and experience … digital natives are looking for what they call ‘analog’ or more ‘real’ experiences.” The activation delivered exactly that. HBO achieved what some of us performing musicians only dream about: presenting classical music that engaged and impacted new audiences on a massive scale!