According to Cardwell, the goal was to present two sides of the story without judgment, with the trailers mirroring each other even down to the last lines.
“The allegiances might change, or people’s opinions might change over this series, and that was important to us,” Cardwell said. “We didn’t want to guide anyone or make anyone think one way or the other. We wanted to present both sides of the story, make an argument and let the fans choose.”
Though the marketing team worried one side would be favored, the trailers have come out fairly even in viewership. For instance, as of this article’s publishing time, the Black trailer has 10 million views on Max’s YouTube page, and the Green trailer has nearly 9 million.
Season 2’s marketing follows up a campaign for Season 1 that Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav called “the biggest campaign in HBO history.”
Season 1’s marketing happened at a unique time for the company, with the series launching just months after Discovery and WarnerMedia finalized a $43 billion merger. In addition, the campaign had the task of reaching the former Game of Thrones fanbase, including viewers who were disillusioned following the Season 8 finale.
“When we were looking at how we were going to launch the first season, we took into consideration that there was a very vocal, but ultimately a small faction, of the internet that had these feelings about Game of Thrones, but by and large there were still lots of fans out there that were very excited about House of the Dragon,” Cardwell said. “It was also at a time when we were coming into a new company, so as marketers, it was pretty exciting because we had all these levers to pull that we had never had before, the whole Warner Bros. Discovery ecosystem.”
The campaign involved numerous activations playing host to thousands of attendees, a dynamic AR app that lets fans raise dragons of their own, an official podcast that dives deeper into episodes and several cross-portfolio promotions, helping the series on its way to averaging nearly 30 million viewers per episode.
Storyline breadcrumbs are coming…
According to Cardwell, the Season 2 campaign will follow in Season 1’s footsteps and “take cues from the fandom.”
“We’re just so lucky to work on IP like this that’s so rich and nuanced and operates in this gray space where it’s not just white hats and black hats. It’s not Team Edward and Team Jacob,” Cardwell said. “It allows us to be creative and talk to fans in a way that’s authentic, and I think ultimately is a good mirror of the show itself.”
