How HBO Ignited House of the Dragon's Marketing Campaign

On Warner Bros. Discovery's earnings call in early August, CEO David Zaslav called House of the Dragon's marketing push "the biggest campaign in HBO history." It's easy to see why. The campaign for the Game of Thrones spinoff involved numerous engaging 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 each week; and several cross-portfolio promotions, leading to tens of millions of views for the trailers and teasers on YouTube and social channels. "My focus wasn't about topping this, that or the other thing. My focus—my team's focus—was really about putting that same level of craft and care and storytelling into our marketing that our viewers expect from the show and what you see on the screen itself," Pia Barlow, HBO Max's evp of originals marketing, told Adweek. Update: The benefits are already evident—Monday afternoon, HBO said that Sunday's premiere episode drew nearly 10 million viewers across linear and HBO Max platforms in the U.S., the largest audience for any new original series in HBO history. But it was a long journey on Westeros' King's Road to get here. House of the Dragon’s AR App and Comic-Con Activation Makes You the Mother of Dragons Barlow told Adweek the company started planning the campaign for House of the Dragon, which tells the bloody history of House Targaryen, back in late 2019, shortly after the series was announced. In spring 2020, before production even began, the marketing team was already talking with showrunners Ryan Condal and Miguel Sapochnik as well as co-creator George R.R. Martin, whose Fire & Blood novel inspired the series. And the evp of originals marketing even shared some of those early ideas that didn't necessarily catch fire with the team. "There was a lot of, 'Let's burn down billboards [on] Sunset!' And we're like, 'OK, wait a minute. Maybe that's a little too aggressive,'" Barlow joked. Of course, the Covid-19 pandemic had other plans when it came to the show, and production didn't wrap until early 2022. "Covid always throws a wrench in things, so we have to be very agile and nimble and just be adaptive. But the production was incredible, and we went on set to make sure that we're capturing interviews and behind-the-scenes. After production wrapped, [HBO and HBO Max chief content officer] Casey Bloys' team really started putting together the show," Barlow said. "That's when we start architecting the right kind of moments to make sure that we are slowly bringing our new and existing fans along for the ride." Barlow knew Game of Thrones still had a fervent fanbase. After all, the marketing originals evp noted past promotions for the original series had fans getting permanent tattoos at San Diego Comic-Con, and there was a year where parents named more than 4,500 kids after characters from the series in the United States alone. The job was to cultivate that fandom once again. And though the final season of Game of Thrones was divisive among fans, it didn't have an effect on the marketing for the new show, Barlow explained. "While we were aware of it, it didn't really cloud or drive any of our decision-making for House of the Dragon. I think a big part of that is, yes, there are similarities, and we want to make sure that some familiar themes are incorporated because it's important, but House of the Dragon is its own show," Barlow said. "And you don't need to really watch or even remember everything from Game of Thrones. It's a careful balance." That balance between reminding people of Game of Thrones and focusing on the new elements of House of the Dragon was discussed throughout the development of the campaign. And ultimately, several key elements came into focus. Marketing is coming ... With dragons being at the center of both Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon, which adds 17 different Targaryen pets in the series, the creatures were an easy fit for the campaign. The Iron Throne, Westeros' most coveted power seat, also became a focus, as once again Martin's characters would jostle over sitting on the uncomfortable metal chair. Though, with House of the Dragon taking place around 200 years before Game of Thrones, the Iron Throne would take on a much more formidable look. The series trailers and teasers, which Barlow's team put together while talking regularly with production, put these elements front and center, showing off several of the winged creatures as well as the more robust version of the Iron Throne. "We know exactly what not to spoil and what to hold back and also, more importantly as a marketer, what to tease," Barlow said. One such tease came in the first teaser trailer, which was released last October and showed Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke) briefly wielding a Valyrian Steel dagger. The dagger is the same weapon Arya (Maisie Williams) used to kill the Night King (Vladimír Furdík) in Game of Thrones. HBO Max knew exactly what it was doing with the moment, and the image of the dagger went viral instantly. "When you're putting these trailers together, you think, 'Oh, I wonder what will get picked up?' And with House of the Dragon, this incredible fandom, it is pretty amazing. I don't think that they missed anything. But [the dagger] in particular, we were like, 'Oh, let's do this one," Barlow said. As House of the Dragon's premiere date got closer, the campaign ramped up over the summer. At San Diego Comic-Con in July, HBO Max unveiled its immersive House of the Dragon: The Dragon's Den activation. The promotion took fans on a journey through Westeros, where they got to sit on a version of that new Iron Throne and experience a ceremonial dragon hatching. Around 4,000 people went through the Comic-Con activation, and a TikTok walk-through earned the series around 1.5 million views. HBO's House of the Dragon activation includes photos on the updated Iron Throne. The activation coincided with the release of the House of the Dragon: DracARys app. Powered by Niantic Lightship and produced by The Mill, the app's AR experience allows fans to raise and name their own baby dragons. "The ambition we have is like, 'How can we create the most responsive, most dynamic type of AR app.' And there'll be some great surprises along the way because it's going to be reactive to and follow the series as it goes. That to me was the one where I was like, 'Sounds great on paper,' but it's executed brilliantly," Barlow said. Even the marketing originals evp uses the app. Barlow's dragon, which her son named, is called Bob. In addition to the Iron Throne and the Targaryens' dragons, the High Valyrian language also served as a marketing bridge for the HBO Max series, connecting Game of Thrones fans to the new show. The language spoken by Emilia Clarke's Daenerys Targaryen in Game of Thrones is often present among the Targaryens in the new series. In addition to appearing in the DracARys app, where you can say High Valyrian commands to your dragon, HBO teamed up again with the language learning app Duolingo, adding 150 new words and 700 sentences to its existing High Valyrian course. The learner who completes the course and earns the most experience points can win a real steel sword called Streak Keeper. Barlow said the campaign also helped Game of Thrones viewership dramatically improve ahead of House of the Dragon's premiere. Talking with Adweek in mid-August, the marketing originals evp said the series was coming off its strongest week of viewership since the platform began in May 2020, helped in part by the series launching in 4K in support of the new dragon-filled spinoff. "We look at these key leading indicators like trailer views, social conversation and search volume, amongst others, and it's the strongest we've seen for the series in the history of HBO Max, and so we're pretty excited," Barlow said. Continuing to fan the flames And the campaign is just warming up. A pop-up activation is still going on at the Natural History Museum of LA, where attendees can learn about House Targaryen and sit on the Iron Throne. And Snap revealed a new selfie and world-facing AR lens in honor of the series debut. The company will also launch a custom Landmarker Lens throughout the season, which includes AR renderings of the show's dragons taking over local landmarks around the globe. In addition to a House of the Dragon promotion during Shark Week, where eager fans got to see an exclusive clip ahead of the series, Warner Bros. Discovery has plans to utilize its other brands as well. "We continued to reach out to our sister brands now across the portfolio. And so we're partnering with other properties like AEW (All Elite Wrestling), The Big Bang Theory, Major League Baseball and many others. So you're going to see a lot more amazing cross-pollination," Barlow said. With a campaign that began so long ago, some could simply be feeling exhausted. However, like the Targaryens, Barlow is still flying high. "I don't think I'm going to sleep for 10 days. It's all of those mixed emotions. It's one of those things where you have been planning it for so long, and you're finally hatching this baby dragon into the world," Barlow said.

Programming & Performance

How HBO Ignited House of the Dragon's Marketing Campaign

The push to promote the new Game of Thrones prequel series was years in the making

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