On March 21, 2024, HBO dropped not one, but two trailers for the second season of the House of the Dragon, which, if you’re a big fan like me, was the best day ever. As a fan I was ecstatic, but as a social media professional who’s always looking for best in class examples of social media campaigns and exploratory uses of video (i.e. TikTok encouraging full-screen horizontal videos to increase engagement), I was (and have been) intrigued and enticed by the launch and continued campaign of the promotion of season two. 

Why was I enticed? Because they encouraged and promoted an audience divide (and continue to do so) through their content, and nicely utilizing the algorithm by saying “If you’re seeing this, you’re #Team(Color).” And, if you’re Team Black like me, and got the team you didn’t want popping up first, you commented with the color you stan 😉

But, back to the social impact 🤓

The nudges (not so subtle 😉) to the audience to choose a side and be divided is really gratifying because it creates an overwhelming amount of conversation, regardless of the side you’re on, it doubles down on the amount of conversation generated. And by solely going through comments, you can see that Team Black is leading the way by the amount of 🖤’s under Team Green videos and content.

If you haven’t yet chosen a side because you haven’t seen the trailers, haven’t wanted to take a side or aren’t interested in the show, then I invite you to take a work break and “pledge your loyalty” to the the side you’re the most persuaded by — let us know in the comments!

Team Black: 

Team Green: 

Now, when you look at the data across X, Instagram, YouTube and TikTok you can see the increasing conversation since the launch of the trailers, and they continue, and will continue, to grow as the trailers show up in feeds, along with the continued social promotion of the show. 

Data was last updated on Thursday, April 4th, at 4:30 PM ET.

What will be even more compelling is seeing how the social media handles prolong their campaign and differentiate their content by utilizing social listening to test and target the audiences on each handle. That way, they’re creating engaging content based on what their followers want to see and hear, and not solely relying on reposts from the other handles. This not only shows that they’re listening, but are actively taking advantage of UGC content opportunities and ideas.

On Instagram, they’ve been flirting with the impact of other HBO shows and movies by spotlighting well-known and loved characters in green and black clothing to further encourage fans to declare allegiance — what a way to scale your audiences and content! And last week, they played off the NBA playoffs with their starting five players for each side — another great way to gain social media traction through larger conversations.

On TikTok, they upgraded the quality of the trailers by releasing them in vertical video format. They also created a filter and partnered with influencers to create videos with the filter to have them choose a side — this helps to engage the influencers followers and have them also participate in the campaign.

All of these activations combined have established a campaign that’s successfully dividing audiences to increase and enhance engagement across social media channels. And if you’re a brand that has the opportunity and content to divide your audience, utilize video in different formats and hop on pop-culture references to expand your social media campaigns, this is a great case study example of how to do it — even if you can only test one or two, you have lots of options to see what works best. I would definitely keep an eye on this campaign, no matter what industry you’re in, and see how it continues to grow and evolve.