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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 sent 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.”
