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Individual Press Kit and Communication Plan:

Emmy’s Award Show- Pitch Letter on Game of

Thrones and Lena Headey

Kaetlyn Hernandez

hernandezkaetlyn@csu.fullerton.edu

(562) 413.3520

Communications 362

Professor Conkey

Dec. 10, 2018

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Kaetlyn Hernandez

COMM 362 Monday 2:30-3:45 p.m.

Final Press Kit: Pitch Letter: The Emmy’s

Angle: Lena Headey’s celebration of the strong pull of 2018 Emmy nominations

TO: http://watchersonthewall.com/author-bio/petra/

SUBJECT: For Petra: Exclusive on Lena Headey and the “Game of Thrones” nominations for
the Emmy’s Television Awards 2018

Petra:

Winter is finally coming. The ultimate redemption is arising. After a long time of waiting since
their ineligibility in 2017, “Game of Thrones” is back in the Emmy’s game and they are certainly
the highlight of the year with 22 nominations making them the leading television show.

After reading your article on who HBO submitted as contenders for an Emmy, these exclusive
updates on the nominations for the Emmy’s will excite your readers and followers of your blog.
You will be happy to hear that four of your contenders that you had written about received
nominations! All three Lannister siblings, Lena Headey, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau and Peter
Dinklage, have received nominations for supporting actor/actress and Diana Rigg received a
nomination for best guest actress. The rest of the nominations are for best drama series, best
directing and best writing. This is Peter Dinklage’s seventh nomination for best drama
supporting actor, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau’s first Emmy nomination and Lena Headey’s fourth
nomination for best drama supporting actress.
Lena Headey celebrated her nomination with an Instagram post of an old photo of her and her
co-stars. The post features a photo of the three Lannister siblings in their costumes for the third
season back in 2013 taken for the TV Guide cover. “Now this is more like it. Congratulations to
my brothers (literally) from other mothers," Headey wrote on her Instagram post. "I'm a lucky
lucky sista to these Mistas. Love you Peter Dinklage and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau.” In an
interview with Lena Headey, she describes her nomination as “a mad thrill this is, to be
nominated for a job that I love alongside my two Lannister brothers.” The dramatic and
conflicting relationship shown on the show is combated with the goofy representation they have
in this photo and is an exciting way to celebrate the nomination.
With the most nominations of all shows for the last four years, “Game of Thrones” may be able
to add more wins to its 38 total wins record. Last year being the first time since 2011 that “Game
of Thrones” was not among the Emmy’s contenders, the show is coming back with a new
determination to not only lead in nominations but lead in wins. Its biggest competition is
“Westworld” and “Saturday Night Live” who trail with 21 nominations each. The seventieth
primetime Emmy awards will be on Monday, Sept. 17, at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles.
We’re offering this Emmy nomination story exclusively to Watchers on the Wall, so please let
me know if you are interested. I would be happy to work with you to share our offer of the
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exclusive interview with Lena Headey and all details for the Emmy awards ceremony for you to
consider.

I will email you Monday, July 30, to see if you are interested in this Emmy’s story for your
“Game of Thrones” followers.

Warm regards,
Kaetlyn Hernandez
Public Relations Director
Television Academy
562.413.3520
prdirector@theemmys.com

RESEARCH

About Jacob Sarkisian. Gold Derby. Retrieved from

https://www.goldderby.com/author/jacobsarkisian/.

About John Koblin. New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/by/john-

koblin.

About Petra. Watchers on the Wall. Retrieved from http://watchersonthewall.com/author-

bio/petra/.

About Tracy Brown. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved from https://www.latimes.com/la-

bio-tracy-brown-staff.html.

Brown, Tracy. Web Producer. “Why ‘Game of Thrones’ did not receive any Emmy

nominations this year”. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved from

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-et-st-emmy-nominations-2017-live-why-game-of-

thrones-will-not-get-any-1499934353-htmlstory.html.
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Koblin, John. Media Writer. “Emmy nominations 2018: ‘Game of Thrones’ and Netflix

lead the way”. New York Times. Retrieved from

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/12/arts/television/emmy-awards-nominees-live-updates.html.

Petra. Writer. “HBO submits ‘Game of Thrones’ actors for Emmy awards consideration”.

Watchers on the Wall. Retrieved from http://watchersonthewall.com/first-time-hbo-submits-

game-thrones-cast-emmys-lead-actors/.

Renfro, Kim. “'Game of Thrones' star celebrates the Lannister family Emmy nominations

with the best cast photo of all time”. Insider. Retrieved from

https://www.thisisinsider.com/game-of-thrones-lena-headey-emmy-nomination-instagram-photo-

2018-7.

Sarkisian, Jacob. Contributing Writer. “How many Emmys will the Lannister clan win

for ‘Game of Thrones’?”. Gold Derby. Retrieved from

https://www.goldderby.com/article/2018/emmys-game-of-thrones-peter-dinklage-lena-headey-

nikolaj-coster-waldau-news/.

“Stars react to nominations for the seventieth Emmy awards”. AP News. Retrieved from

https://apnews.com/9a2f8ec601194d90b8bcc05cdcdcd36f.

Wigler, Josh. Journalist. “Emmys: A look at all the nominations ‘Game of Thrones’

received”. The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved from https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-

feed/game-thrones-2018-emmy-nominations-breakdown-1126606.

Interactive Elements

1. Link to Petra’s contact page

2. Direct link to the Emmy’s website

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3. Direct link to Petra’s article on the Game of Thrones recommendations for Emmy

nominations

4. Direct link to the HBO website

5. Direct link to Lena Headey’s Instagram post

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COMMUNICATIONS PLAN
1. Problem statement
To promote the domination of Game of Thrones in the nomination pool with the recent
nominee release for the seventieth primetime Emmy awards.

2. Research:
A. Client: The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences is a nonprofit organization
founded in 1946 dedicated to advancing television arts and sciences and promoting
creativity and leadership in telecommunication. The Academy is the only major
organization for the television and screen entertainment industry with more than
24,000 members and 30 professional peer groups that are filled with performers,
directors, producers, art directors, artisans, technicians and executives. The Academy
primarily recognizes those in the industry with several awards: the Emmy Awards,
the Creative Arts Emmy Awards, the Engineering Emmy Awards, the Television
Academy Hall of Fame, the Television Academy Honors and Los Angeles Area
Emmy Awards. These awards acknowledge great work in the television industry,
such as acting performances, production, direction and television technology. The
Academy has two sister organizations, the National Academy and the International
Academy, that award Emmy winners worldwide.
The Academy was founded by Syd Cassyd who intended for the organization to
be a forum for serious discussion about the television industry. The original intent
was not to hand out awards; Cassyd was had no interest in the glam of an awards
show. It eventually took on both roles. When the Academy first met on Nov. 14,
1946, television was still a luxury with only about 50,000 homes across America with
a television set in home. The Academy grew quickly from five members at the first
meeting to 250 members at the fifth. The group was founded by S.R. Rabinof, Orville
Engstrom, Morrie Goldman, Sam Nathanson, Harmon Stevens, Russell Furse, Harry
Lubcke and Klaus Landsberg. The Academy was not well known until it started its
Emmy awards after formally becoming a non-profit organization. The first Emmy
awards on Jan. 25, 1949 at the Hollywood Athletic Club was purely to recognize local
Los Angeles television. During the Golden Age of television, the Academy focused
almost all of its efforts on the Emmy awards ceremonies. In 1955, the National
Academy was launched to include New York in the awards. Each regional chapter
started hosting their own Emmy awards shows for local news. The Academy’s
philanthropy, the Television Academy Foundation, was made a non-profit
organization on April 23, 1959. The mission of the foundation is to ‘preserve and
celebrate the history of television while educating and inspiring those who will shape
its future.’ The foundation fosters an internship program, a visiting professionals
program, a faculty seminar, a college television awards and an oral history of
television to build the next professionals in the television industry. The Academy is
now lead by the CEO, Hayma Washington, who was appointed in Nov. 2016 and the
Emmy awards are now being held at the Microsoft Theater in downtown Los
Angeles.

B. Message/subject:
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HBO has been known as the original outlet for entertainment programming for
over 40 years. They run seven 24-hour networks that play movies, boxing and
Spanish series on traditional pay television. “Game of Thrones” is one of their most
popular television shows. The show follows a storyline of a fight for the Iron Throne
and is based on the bestselling book series A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R.
Martin. The show was created by David Benioff and D.B. Weiss out of Warner Bros.
Television Studios and released on April 17, 2011. It has run for seven seasons
ending on Aug. 27 and will premiere an eighth season in April 2019. The seventh
season received an average of 30 million viewers per episode. Each “Game of
Thrones” episode takes an average of six million dollars to make. Most cable shows
take about two million dollars to make. The “Game of Thrones” seventh season broke
two records when 16.1 million total viewers watched it at the time of the broadcast
and sent 2.4 million tweets while watching the show. As of 2017, the show holds a
record for having received 38 Emmy awards and is now nominated for 22 awards at
the 2018 Emmy awards. Its biggest competition is “Westworld” and “Saturday Night
Live” who trail with 21 nominations each. The three Lannister siblings, Lena Headey,
Nikolaj Coster-Waldau and Peter Dinklage, have received nominations for best
supporting actor and actress. This is Peter Dinklage’s seventh nomination, Nikolaj
Coster-Waldau’s first Emmy nomination and Lena Headey’s fourth. Diana Rigg
received a nomination for best guest actress. The rest of the nominations are for best
drama series, best directing and best writing. Last year was the first time since 2011
that the show was ineligible for the Emmy nominations due to the show airing later
than the required timeframe by the Television Academy. The 2017 Emmy awards
show received 11.4 million viewers.
Lena Headey was born on Oct. 3, 1973 and is an English actress and voice actress
from Yorkshire. She reached fame after playing Cersei Lannister on HBO's “Game of
Thrones” and Sarah Connor on the television series “Terminator: The Sarah Connor
Chronicles.” She debuted in “Waterland,” a 1992 film. She worked in small films and
on British television, until she received parts in “The Brothers Grimm”, “300”, “Tell-
Tale”, “Dredd”, “The Remains of the Day”, “The Jungle Book”, “Face”, “Mrs
Dalloway”, “The Man with Rain in His Shoes”, “Onegin”, “Gossip”, “Aberdeen”,
“The Parole Officer”, “Ripley's Game”, “The Cave”, “Imagine Me & You”, “St
Trinian's”, “The Broken”, “The Red Baron”, “The Purge”, “The Adventurer: The
Curse of the Midas Box”, “Low Down”, “Zipper” and “Thumper”. She was won a
Silver Iris award, an EWwy award, a Portal award, a Women’s Image Network
award, an Empire award, and two Gold Derby awards. She has been nominated for a
MTV movie award, a Teen Choice award, seven Saturn awards, three Scream awards,
two SFX awards, a Portal award, six Screen Actors Guild awards, two Women’s
Image Network awards, five Gold Derby awards, a Golden Nymph award, an Empire
award, a Critics’ Choice award, a Golden Globe award, a Satellite award and four
Emmy awards. She celebrated her 2018 Emmy nomination on Instagram with a post
of a throwback photo of her and her Lannister co-stars during a TV Guide photoshoot
back in 2013. The caption read, “Now this is more like it. Congratulations to my
brothers (literally) from other mothers. I'm a lucky lucky sista to these Mistas. Love
you Peter Dinklage and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau.”
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The 2018 Emmy awards will be on Monday, Sept. 17, at the Microsoft Theater in
Los Angeles with SNL’s Colin Jost and Michael Che as the hosts. This is the
seventieth year of the Emmy awards.

C. Publics (Who are the publics to whom this message should be addressed?)
1) Watchers on the Wall followers
2) Game of Thrones fans
3) Emmy’s fans
4) Television show fans
5) HBO fans
6) Lena Headey fans
7) Those with access to televisions with cable plans
8) Those with access to HBO
9) Those who have access to Instagram and/or follow Lena Headey on Instagram

D. News Media/Channels of Communication:

1) Watchers on the Wall writer, Petra. Email and phone not released, can be contacted
through web page: http://watchersonthewall.com/author-bio/petra/. This is a news blog site
dedicated to “Game of Thrones” and Petra has written an article about the nominees for the 2018
Emmy awards.
2) E News Entertainment writer, Chris Harnick. appsupport@eentertainment.com. E
News is one of the most popular entertainment news sources and Chris Harnick has written
articles on the 2018 Emmy awards.
3) Los Angeles Times writer, Kate Feldman. kfeldman@nydailynews.com. This writer
has covered the 2018 Emmy nominees and their predictions.
4) Cosmopolitan writer, Peggy Truong. This writer covered a review of all the Emmy
nominees.
5) TIME writer, Megan McCluskey. This writer covered the Lannister siblings’
nominations for the 2018 Emmy awards.

3. PR Objectives
1) To increase awareness of “Game of Thrones” nominations for the Emmy awards
2) To increase viewers for the 2018 Emmy awards

4. Key Message Statement: Game of Thrones is making its comeback after being ineligible for
awards last year at the 2018 Emmy awards with 22 nominations, including Lena Headey for best
supporting actress who shares her excitement on Instagram and in interview.

5. Method of Evaluation
1) Measure how many viewers the 2018 Emmy awards received
2) Measure how many tweets and other social media posts regarding “Game of Thrones” were
made before and during the Emmy awards
3) Measure how many of the Emmy viewers were “Game of Thrones” fans
4) Measure how many viewers watched the Emmy awards the year with the “Game of Thrones”
eligible and ineligible
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RESEARCH

About Jacob Sarkisian. Gold Derby. Retrieved from

https://www.goldderby.com/author/jacobsarkisian/.

About John Koblin. New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/by/john-

koblin.

About Petra. Watchers on the Wall. Retrieved from http://watchersonthewall.com/author-

bio/petra/.

About the Academy. Emmys. Retrieved from http://www.emmys.com/academy/about.

About the Foundation. Emmys. http://www.emmys.com/foundation/about.

About the history of the Academy. Emmys. Retrieved from

http://www.emmys.com/academy/about/history.

About Tracy Brown. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved from https://www.latimes.com/la-

bio-tracy-brown-staff.html.

Brown, Tracy. Web Producer. “Why ‘Game of Thrones’ did not receive any Emmy

nominations this year”. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved from

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-et-st-emmy-nominations-2017-live-why-game-of-

thrones-will-not-get-any-1499934353-htmlstory.html.

Game of Thrones. HBO. Retrieved from https://www.hbo.com/game-of-thrones

https://www.hbo.com/about/.

Game of Thrones. Wikipedia. Retrieved from

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_of_Thrones.

‘Game of Thrones’ viewer numbers. Wikipedia. Retrieved from

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_of_Thrones#Viewer_numbers.
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Kasperkevic, Jana. Marketplace. “Let's do the numbers on ‘Game of Thrones’”.

Retrieved from https://www.marketplace.org/2017/07/21/business/lets-do-numbers-game-

thrones.

Koblin, John. Media Writer. “Emmy nominations 2018: ‘Game of Thrones’ and Netflix

lead the way”. New York Times. Retrieved from

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/12/arts/television/emmy-awards-nominees-live-updates.html.

Lena Headey. Wikipedia. Retrieved from

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lena_Headey#Awards_and_nominations.

Petra. Writer. “HBO submits ‘Game of Thrones’ actors for Emmy awards consideration”.

Watchers on the Wall. Retrieved from http://watchersonthewall.com/first-time-hbo-submits-

game-thrones-cast-emmys-lead-actors/.

O’Connell, Michael. The Hollywood Reporter. “TV Ratings: 2017 Emmys Avoid New

Low With 11.4 Million Viewers.” Retrieved from https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-

feed/tv-ratings-emmy-telecast-track-low-1040575.

Renfro, Kim. “'Game of Thrones' star celebrates the Lannister family Emmy nominations

with the best cast photo of all time”. Insider. Retrieved from

https://www.thisisinsider.com/game-of-thrones-lena-headey-emmy-nomination-instagram-photo-

2018-7.

Sarkisian, Jacob. Contributing Writer. “How many Emmys will the Lannister clan win

for ‘Game of Thrones’?”. Gold Derby. Retrieved from

https://www.goldderby.com/article/2018/emmys-game-of-thrones-peter-dinklage-lena-headey-

nikolaj-coster-waldau-news/.
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“Stars react to nominations for the seventieth Emmy awards”. AP News. Retrieved from

https://apnews.com/9a2f8ec601194d90b8bcc05cdcdcd36f.

Wigler, Josh. Journalist. “Emmys: A look at all the nominations ‘Game of Thrones’

received”. The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved from https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-

feed/game-thrones-2018-emmy-nominations-breakdown-1126606
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