House of the Dragon season 2 deservedly wins marketing award

The second season of House of the Dragon premiered last June, and HBO went hard to make sure everybody knew it. The marketing campaign was epic. The most impressive thing was definitely this giant inflatable dragon wrapped around the Empire State Building:

But there was lots of stuff. Under the heading of "All Must Choose," HBO hung banners at famous sites around the world, dividing fans between Team Black (those who follow Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen) and Team Green (those who follow King Aegon II Targaryen). Unlike the inflatable dragon, those banners were computer generated, but they were still striking:

The strategy paid off. The second season dropped on June 16, which was the biggest day in the history of Max, HBO's streaming service. Each episode had an average of 25 million viewers. Now, WorldScreen reports that Series Mania has awarded the second season of House of the Dragon with the third annual marketing initiative prize.

The award was given out by Warner Bros. Discovery executive Marina Maslać; House of the Dragon is produced by WBD, so that was some nice kismet. For the record, the other nominees were Blur, Gąska, Parliament, and The Source.

Given everything we just showed off, I think we can all agree that House of the Dragon richly deserved this award; what other show coiled a 270-foot dragon around an iconic building?

The third season of House of the Dragon is filming as we speak, or is about to. New episodes won't air on HBO and Max until 2026; will the marketing campaign be as epic? We'll see.

Closer in time, a new Game of Thrones prequel series called A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is coming out on HBO and Max later this year, although we don't know exactly when; it'll be in the back half of this year, at any rate.

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