Look Back At Game Of Thrones' Brand Partnerships In Anticipation For House Of The Dragon

Winter Is Coming, But House of the Dragon Is Here

Dragons have returned to HBO with the highly anticipated Game of Thrones prequel House of the Dragon now airing for the next seven weeks. The series is shaping up to be as big of a pop culture phenomenon as its predecessor, which may spell out its future regarding brands wanting to leverage its popularity to garner awareness. Winter may be coming—but so are brand partnerships.

Brand partnerships have always been one of the most effective strategies for brands to cross-promote and increase sales, and this is especially true for Game of Thrones. In this blog, Hollywood Branded shares the brands that jumped at the opportunity to partner with Game of Thrones.

HBO Has Done It Again  

Ok. I am IN.  Fully on board. House of the Dragon is a show I will happily tune in to each week.

Rahenyra kicks some serious butt – she is Daenyrus’ sixth great-grandmother, after all. And there are glorious DRAGONS! I was one of those Game of Thrones fans who were introduced to George RR Martin’s writing due to my wanting MORE between the first season and the second.  I gobbled up every last one of his books that first year and can say – he truly is a mastermind of a writer. The character development, the storylines – he is one of the great visioners of lost worlds brought to life, similar in rank to Stephen King, Michael Crichton, Anne Rice, and Peter Straub, all of who can transport you to another world that your imagination could never have gotten to on its own.

I was a week late to the first episode of House of Dragons and kept seeing somewhat "eh" reviews. But here’s the thing. There is no way this can actually compete with the original greatness of GOT. I did not come in as a viewer even expecting that. This resulted in my delight of the show as there is enough there that it feels connected and similar. The creator spent decades building not only the world but the characters to life. And this series, for the GOT fan that I am, is good enough to make me want to come back to Westeros each week. So tune in! It is fun! And anything with Dragons is just all magically the better.

We all know how epic Game of Thrones was. It's a series that HBO is going to always be aiming to reach. The popularity of the show led to massive brand partnerships - yes, even on HBO - a premium cable network that does not do ad sales. This current series is going to continue past this first season - HBO has invested far too much to let it be a single season. This means brands have the opportunity to start building promotional partnerships with a proven franchise immediately.

Game Of Thrones Flash Back To Brand Partnerships

So let's take a dive into how brands partnered and what you can learn from them. So many of these campaigns were SUPER smartly done by their savvy brand marketing teams, who jumped at the opportunity to leverage pop culture. 

Adidas

Adidas designed a patterned to colorways branded Adidas Ultra Boost sneakers featuring the great houses from the show: red and gold for the Lannisters, grey and black for the Starks.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of Adidas

American Red Cross

The partnership consisted of Bleed For The Throne, which encouraged fans to help end blood shortages worldwide. It resulted in the largest blood donation promotional effort by an entertainment company in the history of the American Red Cross. Fans who donated received an exclusive Bleed For The Throne t-shirt and were automatically entered for a chance to win a trip to the season premiere of GAME OF THRONES' final season.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of HBO

AT&T

AT&T built an "Own the Throne" sweepstakes in which fans had a chance to win the iconic iron throne from the show, with retail stores selling dozens of exclusive Game of Thrones accessories, including phone cases, power cables, wireless chargers, wine tumblers, water bottles, and pint glasses.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of AT&T

Bellagio

Bellagio created a GOT takeover of the iconic fountains with music, light and water features cumulating in dragons setting the hotel's lake on fire in a massive pyrotechnic display.

Photo Credit: Denise Truscello | Getty Images

Bob Cabral Wines

Bob Cabral Wines toasted to the success of the series with an official GOT wine collection built and named around House Stark and Lannister. Fans who ordered through the alcohol delivery service Drizley received a themed corkscrew.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of Bob Cabral Wines

Bud Light

Bud Light produced a Super Bowl spot featuring the Bud Light Knight competing in a joust against The Mountain, a character from the show. The Bud Light Knight was defeated by the Mountain and destroyed by a dragon. Everyone in the crowd was drinking a Bud Light, and the commercial encouraged fans to use the hashtag #ForTheThrone on social media. The ad was followed by another spot showing the Bud Light Knight coming back to life in a manner akin to the return of Jon Snow in the HBO series.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of Bud Light

Danielle Nicole

Danielle Nicole created a line of GOT handbags and accessories as covetable as the Iron Throne itself. The collection interprets the show’s complexities and dark drama into a set of backpacks, crossbody bags, pouches and wristlets.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of Danielle Nicole

eBay

eBay created the Charity Homes For Our Troops sweepstakes which offered fans the chance to attend the premiere of the eighth and final season of the show.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of eBay

Fender

Fender created the GOT Sigil collection consisting of three models that each drew inspiration from family sigils featured in the show House Stark Telecaster, House Lannister Jaguar, and the House Targaryen Stratocaster - all with a bespoke ornate guitar case.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of Fender

Google

Google launched an ad campaign featuring White Walkers, the Night King, and other series characters - all coordinated using Google's Chromebook, and posted a blog post from the Night King, White Walker recruitment orientation slides, and an overview of tools these undead warriors use on their quest take over the fantasy realm of the show. The deck was available on Google Slides to showcase the ease of collaboration and comments between the Night King and a Wight.

Photo Credit: Chromebook

Hulu

Hulu built the "Binge the Game" sweepstakes that offered fans the chance to win a luxury trip to Croatia to visit the locations where many iconic scenes from the show were filmed to drive HBO premium add-on to their subscription.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of Hulu

Johnnie Walker

Johnnie Walker created the Johnnie White Walker Blended Scotch Whisky, and a GOT Single Malt Scotch Whisky Collection with limited-edition bottles inspired by the iconic characters and creative work of Westeros and beyond. In another season, the brand created a collection featuring eight custom whiskies correlating to the eight seasons of the HBO series, each paired with one of the Houses of Westeros, the fictional continent depicted in the show, as well as the Night’s Watch. Diageo designed each whiskey based on the similarities between its Scottish distilleries and the fictional areas depicted in the series.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of Jonnie Walker

John Varvatos

John Varvatos released an 11-item collection of jackets, hoodies, and bags bringing to life the textures and tones of the fictional world of Westeros, including items like the Dragonstone Linen Jacket and the Winterfell Leather Jacket.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of John Varvatos

KFC

KFC launched the ‘Hot & Spicy’ campaign last year, which consisted of a series of images that swapped out flames for the similarly aesthetic image of the hot and spicy batter on its chicken.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of KFC

Kool-Aid

Kool-Aid created limited Kool-Ice and Kool-fire canisters supporting the Fire + Ice themes of the series. 

Photo Credit: Courtesy of Kool-aid

MeUndies

MeUndies designed an array of nightwear essentials, including boxers, briefs, socks, and lounge pants — sporting a tasteful dragon design. 

Photo Credit: Courtesy of MeUndies

Minnesota Timberwolves

Minnesota Timberwolves changed their logo to the Minnesota Direwolves in celebration of the premiere of the season and unveiled a limited edition Direwolves capsule collection featuring a selection of T-shirts, hoodies, and hats.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of Minnesota Timberwolves

MLB

MLB partnered with FOCO collectible manufacturer to create a line of bobbleheads using all 0 MLB team mascots and The Iron Throne and other settings. 

Photo Credit: Courtesy MLB

Mountain Dew

Mountain Dew launched a limited edition collection of completely blank and white, devoid of any branding when heated, branded cans of Mountain Dew - along with sweepstakes. When the cans chilled, it revealed GAME OF THRONES and Mountain Dew logos underneath a list of names that circle around the can. The names are those belonging to the "kill list" of GOT character Arya Stark. Additionally, Mountain Dew produced a video reconfiguring the main title song from the show’s opening credits, featuring celebrities such as Migos, who recorded a new verse for the track, The Chainsmokers, Joel Embiid, A’ja Wilson, and more.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of Mountain Dew

OK Cupid

OK Cupid helped promote the series by asking dating users if they watch the series, which resulted in a custom badge on their profile. This was a way for the dating platform to authentically align with the more than 2 million platform mentions of GOT.

Photo Credit: Shannon Miller | Adweek

Oreo

Oreo created the GOT-branded Oreos with custom packaging showing the Great Houses and White Walkers. A video was launched recreating the show's opening sequence with 2,750 animated Oreos that aired during the NCAA Final Four basketball games.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of Oreo

Red Bull

Red Bull created a viral video eerily similar to where we left Snow at the end of season 5. Titled “Jon Snowboard lives to shred,” the parody sees Snow sit up, chug a Red Bull, and return to snowboarding. It received 5.1 million views, 81,000 likes, and nearly 30,000 shares on Facebook. On Twitter, it garnered 534 Retweets and 713 likes. That's a great result from tying into pop culture. 

Photo Credit: Red Bull Twitter

Shake Shack

Shake Shack consisted of a special secret menu including the Dragonglass Shake, the Dracarys Burger, and more. Items had to be ordered in Valyrian, the fictional language from the show, and their own version of Daenerys Targaryen's Dragonstone Throne. 

Photo Credit: Shake Shack

Snapchat

Snapchat created an immersive SXSW augmented reality festival experience, "Bleed for the Throne," revealing characters at each site covered in blood or ignited in flames. 

Photo Credit: Courtesy of HBO & Snapchat

Spotify

Spotify GOT creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss created a new Spotify playlist, Game of Thrones: The End Is Coming, to accompany their hit show’s final season— even including a hint as to how the beloved series would conclude. 

Target

Even Target joined in with a very popular themed holiday sweater capsule collection.

Photo Credit: Target 

Uber

Uber created a local Manhattan-only contest for fans to take a picture on the Iron Throne, with themed mobile and pedicabs and a "ThroneRides" promo code to get the chance to take a picture sitting on one of a handful of stationary, glass-encased Iron Thrones, or "Pedicab" to be carted around town in a pedicab fashioned after the mighty throne while pretending to be King of the Andals and the First Men. Fun, right?

Photo Credit: The Hollywood Reporter

XBOX

XBOX partnership included a fan giveaway of one of three custom Xbox One consoles featuring designs inspired by GAME OF THRONES. Fans had to follow the Xbox Twitter account and retweet the competition post with the hashtags #GamerThroners and #Sweepstakes. 

Photo Credit: Courtesy of XBox 

We have a TON of articles our team wrote about various brand partnerships. Just head to our blog search bar and type in Game of Thrones. Dozens of brand partnerships with even more details will be revealed! 

In Other Entertainment News: SAG-AFTRA

Here’s something that you may not think about too much but matters in our land of Hollywood. SAG-AFTRA is the governing union that regulates and negotiates how productions work with, and pay, over 171,000 actors, announcers, broadcast journalists, dancers, DJs, news writers/editors, program hosts, puppeteers, recording artists, singers, stunt performers, voiceover artists, and other media professionals. So not only those A-list actors that make mega bucks and who are always in the limelight but those supporting and other lead talent that also work hard to help bring better content to life.

This week, the members voted to ratify a new contract with Netflix, which will impact all other streamers and the industry in general. The ultimate wins for them were that actors – not just those A-listers, but also background performers and lower-tier series regulars, now have the ability to work on multiple productions instead of being contracted to be exclusive. That opens the door for much higher incomes to be able to be earned – the majority of these people are NOT making 6 figure incomes, and also helps producers in general as there is only so much talent out there to hire. Why Netflix was holding this at bay is that it makes scheduling a production very difficult to try to get the same people back on if they are scattered on other projects with haphazard start dates. Much easier to have said you have to ask on a limited basis. Plus, well... they are going to have to pay a whole heck of a lot more now.

There is a bunch of other things that were part of the negotiation, like new residuals for stunt coordinators (that means they make money every time the content airs after x times) and new classifications to allow more background performers to join SAG-AFTRA to receive benefits – like health insurance. Was this altruistic on behalf of Netflix? Not so much. California is planning a legislative bill that would otherwise have regulated some of these items – like the ability to work more than one job. This is being seen as a win for lower and mid-tier levels of production talent in Hollywood.

"The North Remembers"...To Check Out More Content

Want to know more about brand partnerships in Game of Thrones? Well, you're in luck because our team has written plenty of articles about brand partnerships inside and outside the GOT universe. Check them out below!

• Game Of Thrones Brand Partnerships
• Top 5 Branded Partnerships With Game Of Thrones
• How Starbucks Went Viral From Game Of Thrones Product Placement Snafu
• Brand Partnerships With Film Franchises
• 3 Game Of Thrones Brand Partnerships With Alcohol Brands

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