EXCLUSIVE: Despite all the noise surrounding David Zaslav’s quest for $3 billion in cost-saving initiatives at newly merged Warner Bros Discovery, it remains important to the new CEO to spend on content that makes those dollars work.
HBO
And where is that? Why, at the launch of HBO’s nearly $200 million Game of Thrones spinoff series House of the Dragon, which premieres this Sunday on both the linear pay-TV channel and streaming service HBO Max. Sources tell Deadline that HBO’s biggest marketing campaign of all time is worth over $100 million in media spend (that’s a combination of commercial value and hard cash). That’s a theater marquee-sized marketing budget by any measure, not some frugal, Netflix-esque subscriber nudge on the menu. And as Zaslav pointed out today in his congratulatory memo to the staff (obtained by Deadline) ahead of the debut of House of the Dragon, it’s already paid off as the series campaign has “reached nearly 130 million people in the US alone.” , while also representing a unit front across a majority of the brands in the Warner Bros Discovery empire to beat this new show.
Pia Barlow, HBO Max EVP Originals Marketing Getty
Speaking to Deadline, Pia Barlow, EVP of HBO Originals Marketing, said the goal of House of the Dragon’s marketing campaign is “to delight both new and existing fans,” with the demo targeting men and women of all ages 18 to 54 years of age.
“The House of the Dragon campaign is really about creating a big, broad awareness and interest throughout the summer, but also making sure we send a signal to both existing and new fans that this is a new story from Game of Thrones is HBO Max,” adds Barlow.
“It was also exciting to see teams across the company collaborating with the HBO team in an unprecedented cross-promotion campaign. And we’ve done all of this in just a few months, clearly showing what we can achieve when our networks, streaming platforms, digital and social channels all work together to support a common priority,” Zaslav stressed this AM. He outlined the conglomerate’s plan to engage viewers in a marketing push that will bring social media, outdoor, digital, traditional TV spots and splashy promotions to distribution partners like Xfinity Cable (where it’s a HOTD target on their X1 and Flex video platforms exist) involves addressing at the micro level. and Roku, who also produced a special episode of their content buzz show The Roku Rundown.
House of Dragon fire-breathing banner on HGTV. HGTV
If House Targaryen abounds in dragons, then Warner Bros Discovery has an embarrassment when it comes to ad space, with HOTD pumped through such channels as TBS (20.9%), Discovery (9.1%), according to ad statistics from iSpot TNT (7.7%), CNN (7.4%) and Food Network (6.6%). If you were watching HGTV, you would see a fire-breathing dragon appearing in a banner at the bottom of the screen during your favorite show to promote the series co-created by Ryan J. Condal. iSpot also reports that 99.1% of the impressions of HBO’s promo TV ads since July 20 have come from HOTD.
Another notable mention of teamwork for HOTD among Warner Bros Discovery channels was the exclusive look at the Martin series on Discovery’s Shark Week premiere night on Sunday 24th July. Interested in more cross promotion? How about the members of TNT’s All Elite Wrestling team sitting on HOTD’s new GOT throne at the San Diego Comic-Con experience (read up).
Warner Bros
Regarding the future success of HBO Max, Zaslav has clarified that it is in the Warner Bros catalog of series and theatrical titles that release 45 days after their theatrical release. Warner Bros Discovery bean counters see no benefit in distributing films directly to HBO Max like the previous WarnerMedia regime under Jason Kilar. It’s a huge waste of money, and its availability in theaters and homes at the same time reduces its patina as well as its resonance in subsequent secondary windows.
Not to mention that there is research proving that fresh subscribers come for a movie and then pay out for the service. It’s the weekly drop of a hot episodic series like HOTD that includes subs. Not to mention, theatrical films with windows click better than Day-and-Date on HBO Max. We’ve heard that the first weekend of “Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore” on HBO Max after 45 days in theaters ($95 million in gross revenue) drove nearly 20% of traffic to the OTT service while the first frame seen for a week, it was responsible for a third of HBO Max’s traffic.
Additionally, third-party streaming measurement organization Samba TV reported that The Batman’s first week on HBO Max (following its 45-day theatrical run) attracted 4.1 million homes, marking the first week of such day-and-date warner Movies surpassed as The Suicide Squad (3.5 million), Wonder Woman 1984 (3.2 million), The Matrix Resurrections (3.2 million), and Dune (2.3 million).
The HOTD campaign kicked off with two teaser trailers released on October 5, 2021 (17.1 million YouTube views) and May 5, 2022 (14 million YouTube views). But then the marketing mojo went into overdrive and headed to San Diego Comic-Con, where a walkthrough trailer dropped (July 20, 18.8M YT view), the panel in Hall H with the cast, Condal, and an extended trailer; the DracARys app for hatching dragon eggs and The House of the Dragon: Dragon’s Den live experience; The latter attracted 4,000 visitors who walked through the series’ castle world, adorned with cosplayed actors. All of these efforts continue to shine for HBO’s social media; SDCC is “the gift that keeps on giving,” says Barlow, racking up 102 million impressions and 128,000 new followers on the House of the Dragon and Game of Thrones social channels.
“Choose the (dragon) egg wisely” #HouseofDragon #SDCC pic.twitter.com/1aB6mcYoFx
— Deadline Hollywood (@DEADLINE) July 21, 2022
Learn the way of the dragon #HouseofDragon #SDCC pic.twitter.com/ZbQcb6q9tD
— Deadline Hollywood (@DEADLINE) July 21, 2022
Barlow says of HOTD’s huge presence at Comic-Con, “The timing couldn’t have been more perfect. It was right in our launch window, and because it was the first time we were really going to be back in full force in a couple of years, we knew there was going to be this pent-up demand and excitement from fans and we’ve had in the past quite a presence with Game of Thrones at Comic-Con. So there was almost an expectation that we also wanted to make sure we were satisfying the fans.”
Social media analytics firm RelishMix measured how loud the volume was for HOTD and said HBO “took a solid organic approach to attracting 44.1 million fans of the GOT franchise’s social network — already.” at pre-production casting to connect with new social channels for HOTD , now built on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and TikTok.” Add the followers of HBO Max, and the reach of the social media universe for the new Westeros World series is close to 313 million.
“The material was not flooded but posted selectively, with only 12 videos on Facebook with 11.1 million views and fewer on YouTube with 134.2 million views, all posted to earned channels,” RelishMix announces in their latest report deadline. “The Comic-Con announcements and live panel have sparked a surge of materials leading up to the streaming premiere weekend.”
Snapchat
Also out this Sunday on the day of the premiere is a new Snapchat Selfie + AR Lens with a view of the world that will be running throughout the first season. AR developers who are members of Snap’s global Lens network are building custom landmark AR experiences in their local markets, including AR renderings of the HOTD dragons, while taking on global landmarks. The Landmarker Lenses can be unlocked through the Lens Carousel when Snapchatters are near a Notable Location. The lens will be available in territories such as Australia, parts of Europe, India, the Middle East and North Africa, North America and more. The custom Landmarker AR experiences are rolling out this Sunday in Chennai, London, Los Angeles, Mumbai, Prague and Rio de Janeiro.
Promo partners for HOTD include Bose, whose sound system was featured throughout Dragon’s Den at SDCC, and Duolingo, which launched on July 19 with fans learning High Valyrian ahead of the HOTD premiere. The app’s viral TikTok mascot made an appearance at activation of HOTD Comic-Con, where he reminded attendees to complete their lessons with life-size push notifications and shields featuring Dragon Commands in High Valyrian.
Additionally, among the promo partners, there is a month-long pop-up experience for the series at the Natural History Museum of LA from August 5th to September 9th. 7. Inspired by the exhibits on view that explore the relics and traditions of real-world regimes such as ancient Rome or ancient Egypt, the HOTD exhibit features props, costumes and specially designed displays to tell the story of Daenerys Targaryen’s ancestors to highlight.
It would be an understatement to say that there is a lot at stake here with the launch of House of the Dragon, not only from a future GOT development perspective, but also in terms of ratings. The final season of Game of Thrones left big footprints for House of the Dragon, and that was before HBO had the power of HBO Max. GOT averaged 46 million per episode domestically in its final season, and RelishMix notes that social media is chattering about those who “still aren’t happy with the ending.” In comparison, Euphoria Season 2 episodes, which had the added benefit of HBO Max, each averaged 19.5 million viewers across all platforms.
However, RelishMix notes social chatter where there’s an “excitement for the new time travel 200 years before GOT – from protective dragon lovers who insist “no dragons were hurt in the making of the show” and feel like they’re the Core to the story is – for Matt Smith superfans who are on the brink – for HBO fans who enjoy the story of quality programming.”
A ratings storm for HOTD will undoubtedly be one of the early successes for Zaslav’s management style, which aims to break down the walls between all Warner Bros Discovery brands and amplify their synergies to the nth degree.
At the end of his corporate email today, Zaslav said: “We are committed to building a team with a mission — the third of three strategic priorities I highlighted in our recent results conference call — and efforts to support the… Launches of House of the Dragon are a great sign of how strong we are and what we can achieve when we work together.”