Lord of the Rings vs Game of Thrones: Lessons for Associations, Content Strategy and Events

Taking inspiration from the fantasy realms in Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones, let’s look at the competitive advantages associations can gain by getting the most out of their content and communities.

In Episode One (if you missed it, better start here), we looked at battling business models, how important content driven engagement is for all kinds of businesses, and how this creates an increasingly competitive environment for associations.

But associations should stay confident – they have incredibly valuable assets in their content and communities – they just have to know how to harness them.

The reality for associations is that their community can be a double-edged sword (do I get bonus likes for the topical pun? 😉) when it comes to content.

The Double-Edged Sword in Action

A positive example comes from the Peter Jackson directed Lord of the Rings trilogy. The book was published decades before the movies and was hugely popular thanks to the books long before it was famous onscreen.

One of those movies’ great accomplishments was not upsetting people who were fans of the book by not ruining their mental image of the worlds and characters from the books. I remember leaving the cinema (feeling old now…) and talking to friends afterwards – everyone satisfied and no grumbling about “no way did the orcs look like that” or “I can’t believe that’s Mordor”…

The other thing to remember is that people loved the Lord of the Rings movies even though they knew EXACTLY what was going to happen!

There was the odd onscreen scare but basically no surprises, no room for new twists and turns – in the end it didn’t matter because it was beautifully executed and offered a great experience.

In contrast, Game of Thrones largely came to fame once HBO adapted it for the TV screen. It was also notable for (repeatedly) killing off lots of popular characters with little or no warning. This made for great if gruesome TV and frequent “no way!” moments – the viewer was always kept guessing.

But even if shocks were a major driver of the show’s appeal, at the end of in the final season when Daenerys showed her dark side in a particularly brutal manner, much of the fan community freaked out, even going as far as demanding the entire season was rewritten and re-shot.

Deliver Stability and Surprises

We need to balance both interests to keep communities happy and engaged.

Consistency and reliability are good, they guarantee value (if not excitement) for professionals investing time and money. Associations who are able to gather their members year after year shouldn’t undervalue that – especially if they are successfully engaging the intended community.

On the other hand, shocks and surprises are fun – and critically – they are memorable, especially when paired with the emotional response of a shared experience..

Events, especially in person gatherings, provide associations an ideal arena to showcase their ability to deliver all of this.

If you’ve got the right elements of both consistency and surprise at your association events, you’ll be on the right track – however – it doesn’t happen by accident.

In the final episode we’ll look at how to position your characters and design sessions to drive attendee value and engagement.

If you’d like to discuss how this impacts your association strategy, feel free to contact the author – reach out here.

MEET THE AUTHOR

Colm Clarke

Partner, Consultancy

20+ years’ experience in management services, business events and associations. Colm ensures clients are asked the right questions.

Driving change whilst building consensus is central to his work, which usually involves developing vision into organisational structures, educational content, and communications.

Curious, and at ease with complexity, Colm combines creative spark with analytical rigour. Always seeking elegant solutions which like the best guitar riffs, appear deceptively simple until we try to replicate them.