#StayHomeBoxOffice

Its, day-whatever of the global quarantine and citizens all around the world are thinking about one thing; outside. With all of our hyper productivity now confided to the living room, it can be difficult to stay entertained – which presents a great opportunity for streaming services.

#StayHomeBoxOffice is HBO’s latest, PR initiative that encourages their audience to stay at home and enjoy “almost 500 hours of top programming for free” with no HBO subscription needed. HBO is opening the vault and sharing its most iconic series like, The Wire, Six Feet Under, Veep, The Sopranos and more. They are also sharing their box office hits, The Second Part, Crazy, Stupid, Love, The Lego Movie, McMillion$, and Happy Feet to name a few.

---

As wonderful as it sounds, HBO is not doing this from the kindness of their heart. HBO is not particularly doing this at all. Last Year, HBO was purchased by Warner Media, which has plans to launch a new streaming service called HBO MAX, in mid may. #StayHomeBoxOffice is a strategic initiative to get new viewers who were not originally HBO customers to enjoy their current content and eventually be grandfathered into HBO Max in May.

The 500 hours of free programming will only be up for a “limited time”, then the only platform viewers will be able to continue their programing will be on HBO Max.

By taking advantage of the current norm (global quarantine), Warner Media noticed an opportunity for a great PR/digital marketing moment.

---

With most PR initiatives the bottom line is money. However, just because a company has strategic motives does not make them nefarious. Either way you look at it, people are staying inside. Not only have they succeeded in with their HBO Max marketing strategy but this initiative also established them as a more responsible and ethical company. Especially during a time when elected officials are trying to push people to go outside, regardless of safety concerns.

To the rest of the world without inside knowledge of the industry and PR this looks like, “HBO is graciously allowing us to view prime entertainment because they really cared about the health and safety of their audience”. Which may be true but #StayHomeBoxOffice is still going to earn millions of viewers/subscriptions for HBO Max in May.

Overall #StayHomeBoxOffice was an excellent PR initiative from Warner Media by capitalizing on the current global situation, they were able to strategically earn new customers and amplify their values as a brand.