As HBO readies for the August 21st premiere of its Game of Thrones prequel series, House of the Dragon, Deadline reports the Warner Bros. Discovery network has tallied a whopping $100 million in marketing across all media and platforms. The value covers advertising spots and cash spent on Ryan Condal’s (Colony, The Sixth Gun) co-created series.
According to Deadline, Friday’s report, offered by WBD CEO David Zaslav himself, recorded the campaign had reached “nearly 30 million people in the U.S. alone.” Targeting its demographic of men and women between the ages of 18 and 54, the House of the Dragon campaign appeared on social media, in outdoor adverts, both digital and traditional TV spots, and in promos with different cable and streaming services such as Xfinity and Roku.
“The House of the Dragon campaign is really about generating big, broad awareness and interest throughout the summer,” Pai Barlow, EVP of HBO Original Marketing told Deadline,” but to also make sure we’re signaling to existing fans as well as new fans alike that this is a new Game of Thrones story coming to HBO Max.”
After its initial announcement, the marketing train for the new series based on George R.R. Martin’s (Dark Winds, Fire & Blood) novels began in October 2021 with a teaser trailer, via Deadline. The second arrived in May of this year two months before San Diego Comic-Con (SDCC). On July 20, the first day of the four-day event, HBO unleashed new trailer which was followed by the highly-anticipated Hall H panel. This was followed by the debut of the DRACARYS virtual egg-hatching app and the live Dragon’s Den experience which tallied 4,000 attendees.
“The timing couldn’t have been more perfect,” Barlow told Deadline regarding Comic-Con’s marketing value. “It was right in our launch window, and because it was the first time we were going to be back truly in full force after a few years, we knew that there was going to be this pent-up demand and excitement from fans, and we’ve had pretty significant presence in the past with Game of Thrones at Comic-Con. So, there was almost an expectation that we also wanted to make sure we were fulfilling for fans.”
Even if you were unable to witness the magic at Comic-Con, the campaign’s reach went farther than the nerd culture event. Deadline reports via stats from iSpot that WBD utilized ad spots across its multiple networks to integrate Westeros and the Targaryens into programming. TBS, for instance, saw 20.9% of its advertising spots reserved for the series. And HBO, the mothership network, saw 99.1% of its ad impressions come from the Hose of the Dragon promos.
If you have since cut the cord and missed a dragon’s cameo on HGTV, viewers were forced to engage via social media. According to Deadline, both the Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon social media accounts tallied 102M impressions and 128K new followers after SDCC. Promotion across Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram reached new and former fans alike, accumulating the franchise’s social universe to a whopping 313M, via social analytics firm RelishMix.
The campaign will not stop after the premiere, as new filters and AR landmarks will be added to Snapchat on Sunday, via Deadline. HBO is also boasting an exhibit through September 7 at the Natural History Museum of LA that explores the history of the Targaryen family tree with costumes, artifacts, and other series memorabilia.
House of the Dragon premieres Sunday, August 21 at 9 p.m. on HBO and HBO Max. View the final trailer that was released this week below.