ONE COFFEE CUP.
$2.3 BILLION IN BUZZ.
When a stray coffee cup showed up in a Game of Thrones scene in May 2019, reporters called Hollywood Branded to ask what it was worth. Stacy Jones answered with data pulled from Critical Mention, and the story went around the world.
A CRAFT SERVICES MISTAKE. A GLOBAL MEDIA MOMENT.
Stacy Jones, Founder + CEO, Hollywood Branded, to CNBC. That first estimate counted monitored online, TV and radio coverage only. As the coverage kept growing, Hollywood Branded's updated estimate passed $2.4 billion.
IT WASN'T EVEN A STARBUCKS CUP.
Even the cup became a story. A Belfast café owner said it was one of his, and the showrunners later said on the Season 8 commentary that it came from Established Coffee, a local Belfast shop. Starbucks got the credit because viewers saw the brand they expected to see, and the shop behind the cup never cashed in.
Exposure only turns into value when someone is ready to measure it and tell the story fast. That is exactly what Critical Mention data let Hollywood Branded do that week.
Reporting: ComicBook.com (showrunner commentary), Her.ie.
WHAT THE PLATFORM ACTUALLY CAPTURED.
Hollywood Branded pulled these straight from its Critical Mention account. The cup story ran across online news, TV, radio and social in 48 languages, and the coverage that quoted Stacy carried Critical Mention's name with it.
Starbucks + Game of Thrones coverage from May 5 to June 12, 2019, with 16,469 of them in the first week.
Including CBS This Morning, America This Morning and The Late Late Show With James Corden, across CBS, ABC, NBC and Fox stations.
Over $52 million in estimated publicity value and 715+ outlets naming HB, in the first days of the story.
Over $20 million in estimated publicity value and 245+ outlets in four days. By July, 273 stories in 15 languages had named Critical Mention alongside HB.
Audience and publicity values are Critical Mention estimates. They exclude word of mouth and most social, and foreign TV and print were not included in the early totals.
READ THE STORIES.
Read on CNBC →
Read on NBC News →
Read the story →
FROM A VIRAL WEEK TO A REAL PARTNERSHIP.
Six days after the cup aired, Hollywood Branded sent Critical Mention a proposal to turn the moment into an ongoing content partnership. Here is what that became.
On the PRWeek webcast "PR Pros and the Media in the Era of Rapid Change," Stacy explained why Hollywood Branded runs on thought leadership instead of a cold-calling sales team, and why it brings in literally millions of dollars to the agency.
Critical Mention alerts still land in Hollywood Branded's inbox every day, tracking mentions for HB, Stacy and our clients.
THE TOOL BEHIND OUR CLIENT REPORTING.
Before Critical Mention, Hollywood Branded reviewed product placement exposures on racks of DVR recording towers. Now the work runs on one platform.
Alerts on HB and client mentions, often before the reporter has had time to send the link.
Clip and review product placement scenes and verbal mentions from TV for our clients.
Impressions and media value for client reports, with repeat coverage removed.
Coverage and word-of-mouth reports that back up Stacy's commentary when reporters call.
Stacy Jones, in Critical Mention's own case study on Hollywood Branded.
CREATING PR OPPORTUNITIES WITH ZACK JENKINS.
Zack Jenkins, Critical Mention's VP of Sales and Account Management, joined Stacy to talk about getting more from your PR: real-time alerts, catching syndicated pickup you would never see otherwise, and turning coverage into numbers your team can use. Stacy also walks through what the Game of Thrones week looked like from inside the platform.
THIS IS WHAT A PARTNERSHIP WITH HB LOOKS LIKE.
Critical Mention gets used on real client work every day, shows up in the press when it counts, and gets talked about on our podcast. If your product can earn a place in our business, we can build the same kind of story around it.