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HBO’s House of the Dragon Season 2 marketing is fueling the fire of discourse, leaving fans questioning everything from their allegiances to their realities.
In partnership with Giant Spoon, RQ and Busterwood, HBO and Max rolled out a global campaign directly involving fans for Season 2 of the Game of Thrones prequel, making them choose a side in the Targaryen civil war between the green banners of King Aegon II (Tom Glynn-Carney) or the black banners of Queen Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy).
The campaign kicked off towards the end of March with dueling trailers asking fans to choose a side, with the trailers breaking Max viewership records. Then, it evolved into the message of “Raise Your Banners,” with AI-generated posters, influencers weighing in and even a dragon appearing on top of the Empire State Building.
Plus, banners appeared around the world to claim landmarks for either side. Or did they?
In June, HBO and Max set out to divide New York, claiming the New York Stock Exchange, Rockefeller Center, Grand Central Terminal and The Mets’ Citi Field for either the green side or black side with physical banners. Local NYC bars and restaurants also joined in, offering custom food items and exclusive House of the Dragon merch.
However, in addition to the physical activations, 32 institutions worldwide also donned CGI banners that were amplified on social and through various partners and influencers. And the results set the internet ablaze.
“Raise Your Banners” drove over 1.4 billion estimated social impressions the week of the June 16 premiere*, according to data from CreatorIQ provided by HBO and Max. And that’s without counting press.
As an example of the digital activations, the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges raised banners for Team Green and Team Black, respectively, in a viral CGI stunt. Other global landmarks, including the Eiffel Tower, Sugarloaf Mountain in Rio de Janeiro, Sydney Harbor and Al Ula in Saudi Arabia, followed suit.
“What we wanted to do was create a series of stunts around the world that just blurred the lines between physical and digital, and then we started seeing people question, ‘Is that real?'” Pia Barlow, evp of originals marketing at HBO and Max, told ADWEEK. “What’s real? What’s not real? At the end of the day, it didn’t matter. It was all about taking that simple call to action, making it global and to get people talking, which we did.”
Beyond the billions of social impressions, press outlets were also abuzz about the physical—and CGI—banners. AP even sent a reporter to verify if the New York banners were real: “An AP reporter on Monday about 1 p.m. went to the area where each video was filmed and confirmed no banners were hanging from either bridge,” the outlet wrote.
However, not all the House of the Dragon talk was positive. Backlash ran the gamut, including everything from critics complaining about being tricked with CGI to others saying the CGI— often mistakenly called AI—didn’t look real enough.
“There are always going to be some haters. It doesn’t matter,” Barlow said to the criticisms. “It’s just a matter of trying to get everyone talking.”
The campaign takes flight
According to Barlow, the campaign was around an 18-month process during the two years the show was off the air.
The Season 1 campaign was all about reinvigorating life into the Game of Thrones franchise following a hiatus of material after the final season’s mixed reviews. Now, Season 2 was about bringing House of the Dragon to where Game of Thrones used to be among fans, reaching a broad audience and making it the unmissable event of the summer, according to Barlow.
“We’re incredibly fortunate that we have this fandom with lots of love for the show, so how do we leverage this fandom, not just to get them talking about the show, but also the campaign?” Barlow said. “How do we help create brand ambassadors for us? What’s a rallying cry we can create that makes you want to be part of this community or you’re just missing out?”
And nothing creates a community like a rivalry, especially where each side has shades of gray.
Digital, AI-generated character posters, created in partnership with Media.Monks, added to the discourse, allowing fans to put themselves in artwork for their respective side. The posters also gave the series a worldwide push as Max continues expansion around the globe through Europe and Asia.
House of the Dragon’s digital poster generator, which is available globally in 9 languages, has already had more than 2 million posters generated since launching on June 10, according to the company. And it’s live throughout Season 2 in case any fans decide to change sides, which Barlow “fully expects.”
Raise your Baa-nners
Among the other campaign elements around the globe, in New Zealand, DDB Aotearoa and Neon put armor on sheep, dubbed Baattlewear, with different breeds siding with green or black. Plus, a partnership with Snapchat for a dual selfie and world view lens featured a high-fidelity dragon with audio machine learning (ML) capabilities, and HBO/Max has an “Iron Throne Room” on Apple Vision Pro.
The campaign culminated in a 270-foot dragon installation that recently appeared on top of the Empire State Building. ADWEEK previously reported that the installation had to pivot after bad weather delayed it a week. However, Barlow said the adjustment worked in House of the Dragon’s favor, with an inflatable of Vhagar, the biggest dragon in the show, appearing on the day of the premiere, a week after Team Green claimed the Empire State Building.
The House of the Dragon installation, which was done in partnership with the Empire State Building, included photo opportunities with the Iron Throne, early registration for Zynga’s Game of Thrones: Legends mobile game and had tens of thousands of visitors over the 10 days it was live, according to HBO.
Big risk, big reward
The Season 2 premiere drew 7.8 million viewers, which was 22% below the 10 million viewers House of the Dragon got on its Season 1 premiere night in 2022. However, HBO premiere night numbers are only a fraction of an episode’s final viewership, with Season 1 episodes growing to reach around 29 million viewers each.
With millions of participants in activations and billions of impressions, the campaign achieved Barlow’s goal of getting people talking, even if the talk—including fan criticisms and even CGI banners on Chapultepec Castle leading Mexican officials to reportedly threaten legal action—wasn’t all positive.
According to Barlow, the response to date was everything the team discussed: “In success, this is what it would look like.”
“Honestly, it’s like a pinch-me moment to see it play out. Even some of the more controversial like, ‘Ah, that’s clearly AI!’ I’m like, ‘It’s not AI. It’s CGI.’ Let’s make sure people understand the terminology,” Barlow said. “Even the pivot that we had to do with the Empire State Building and Vhagar, all of that. Frankly, I couldn’t have scripted it better myself.”
*Owned & Earned Social Impressions + Ad Value calculated based on a $10 CPM via NetBase, Paid Creator Media Value estimated by CreatorIQ
