Starbucks got an estimated $2.3 billion worth of FREE advertising from their cup appearing in a scene on Game of Thrones
The funny thing was, the cup in the 'The Last of the Starks' scene in front of Daenerys Targaryen at the 17:40 mark wasn't even a Starbucks cup (it was just a plain disposable coffee cup)! Immediately after the scene aired, people got on social media to create and share Starbucks memes which gave the company top of mind awareness that was priceless... well over $2 billion worth of free advertising once you factor in all the radio, tv mentions, 30 million audience (in the United States), social media trending, etc. according to Hollywood Branded's CEO Stacy Jones. Eventually, the cup was edited out once the show hit streaming.
Starbucks sure hit the jackpot... and they paid respect to the once-in-a-lifetime blunder by Tweeting "TBH we're surprised she didn't order a Dragon Drink". Fans on Twitter used the hashtag, #Starkbucks (House Stark + Starbucks).