Game of Thrones:The Teaser Ad!

[LordNedsHead]

Okay. So I was over on the Winter is Coming website (Winter totally rocks for those of you who haven't visited him over there). He made a posting about True Blood and mentioned the new series Merlin in the post. While reading the post and just not being able to get excited for yet another Merlin/Arthur retcon, I had a brainstorm for a pretty fun idea.

Suppose HBO picks up the series. If and when that occurs, the marketing team will then need to kick promoting the new series into gear. My idea to get things going would be a series of teaser ads using typical fantasy cliches and just obliterating them in a style remeniscent of (but not necessarily adhering to) the books. I also toyed around the idea of a tag line something to the effect of "Make-believe you won't believe". The whole point is to show potential new viewers that this new series isn't just another redux of the same old fantasy fare, but fantasy all growed up, HBO style.

The three ideas I came up with for the teaser ad series are as follows. A princess lies sleeping in a bed atop a castle tower. She awakes to a horse neighing outside her window. She looks outside and there is a prince in shining armor. He bashes down the door, strides up the stairs three at a time to rush to his "love"...only to smother her with a pillow. A young squire in the midst of a battle stumbles into a gully where he finds a magic sword. He lifts the blade, it begins to glow and powerful, mystical music begins to swell. The squire turns with sword in hand and rushes into the fray to meet a dark knight...who promptly beheads him then spits on his corpse. A young, pure maiden peers into an enchanted glade where she spies a unicorn. The beast and the beauty slowly begin to approach one another. As they get closer the magical score builds. The maid reaches for the unicorn just barely too far away to touch...when suddenly a pack of dire wolves spring on the pair and rip them to pieces.

Another frequent poster to the site Ryan Dunn came up with this one. A damsel sees a frog on a lilypad. She kneels down, to kiss it...and falls dead into the water with an arrow in her back.

So here's the deal. Use your imagination and let's try to come up with as many fantasy cliches as possible along with creative ways to harpoon them in a teaser ad for GoT.

[Smoldering Hound]

Not feeling it. Prefer the characterizations.

Arya: "Stick them with the pointy end"

Sansa: "Life isn't a Song"

Jon: "Bastards grow up quicker than other children"

Ned: "Winter is Coming"

Jamie: "Hear me Roar"

Cercei: "You win, or you die"

Catelyn: "Honor. Duty. Family"

[Silverstar]

It could be interesting, but I think the problem with it is that it doesn't really tie in that much with the books. If you do something like that, you're basically saying "this is high fantasy. Ok, so it's not your typical high fantasy, but still...". Whereas ASOIAF isn't, really. The focus is on the characters and the politics, and most of the fantasy elements are just drp-fed in here and there as plot points, but they're not really the main part of the story. I think your idea might also come across as a bit comic, which isn't really what ASOIAF is about either.

I did like Brude's (?) idea a while back for advertisements, each one being an image of one of the main characters along with a quote that either they say about the series, or which sums them up. The ones I cam up with were:

* Ned - "The winters are hard, but the Starks will endure. We always have"

* Catelyn - "They are the knights of summer, and winter is coming" or "The world grows a little darker every day"

* Tyrion - "Never forget who you are, for surely the world will not", or "Give me sweet lies, and keep your bitter truths", or "Death is so final....And life is full of possibilities"

* Jaime - "There are no men like me. There's only me", or "The things I do for love"

* Cersei - "Love is poison. A sweet poison, yes, but it will kill you all the same", or "Tears are not a woman's only weapon."

* Arya - "Fear cuts deeper than swords" or "Stick them with the pointy end"

* Sansa - (said to her) "Life is not a song sweetling...someday you may learn that to your dismay"

* Jon - "Night gathers, and now my watch begins", or (said to Jon by Maester Aemon) "Love is the bane of honor, the death of duty"

* Dany - "Fire cannot kill a dragon", or (yes, this isn't actually said by Dany, but it sums her up) "Vengeance. Justice. Fire and blood". Or even "...madness and greatness are two sides of the same coin. Every time a new Targaryen is born, the gods toss the coin in the air and the world holds its breath to see how it will land."

I don't know how that could work for teaser ads, but something more along those lines would tie into the series a little better, I think.

[Brude]

Yeah, I did first mention the teaser poster with quotes idea some months back. I always thought the obvious quote for Cersei is the one that sums up the whole series: "When you play the game of thrones you win or die, there is no middle ground."

[Ser_not_appearing_yet]

Does anyone remember the original Lost adverts? It basically showed the cast, and had voice overs, each line signalling something about a particular character. Maybe something similar could be done here? Except you could use a famous line from the books, (such as the ones above) and cut out the retarded dancing Lost used.

is the one i meant for anyone who doesnt know.

[LordNedsHead]

Love Brudes idea too. I'm just talking about a few little somethings before any actual filming for the series takes place.

[Halfhand]

I like the idea and I think it would be perfect for a fan-made ad campaign. Like you said, you don't need actual show footage to pull it off. Most of the teasers would be short and easy to film (assuming you can easily scrounge up medieval arms and armor).

I could definitely see some enterprising fans of the series making stuff like this and putting it on Youtube. Would be a great way to spread the word about the series and also help build buzz.

[RWHamel]

I was thinking about a few shots of the execution of Gared, and then flashing "Winter is Coming", "To HBO'.

[Nonfactor]

Individual character advertisements are a bad idea. If you think people will be attracted to the series because of a poster of a guy with a beard and a quote beneath him about winter (with snow behind him) then you're fooling yourself. Those types of posters are for the fans, not for advertising.

For advertisements you need a slogan, you need pretty people standing next to each other, and you need those pretty people looking either angry or seductive.

[Jon Targaryen]

I was thinking about a few shots of the execution of Gared, and then flashing "Winter is Coming", "To HBO'.

I thought something along those lines. Open with a camera on the ground or wherever Gared's head would be looking up at Ned. He says, "In the name of Robert of House Baratheon ..." etc, etc until Ice swings down, then cut to what Nonfactor is talking about with scenes of different characters and finally ending with black screen and Cersei's game of thrones line then the title, premiere date and whatnot.

[Brude]

Individual character advertisements are a bad idea. If you think people will be attracted to the series because of a poster of a guy with a beard and a quote beneath him about winter (with snow behind him) then you're fooling yourself. Those types of posters are for the fans, not for advertising.

For advertisements you need a slogan, you need pretty people standing next to each other, and you need those pretty people looking either angry or seductive.

If it's done well it can add mystery and mystery breeds interest. It's a type of ad that's been done in the past and done well (though it's true if you have stars in at least some of those ads they tend to work better). I can't say I know if the "Watchmen" campaign of this sort worked well or not. The trailer was a smash and caused the graphic novel to sell 350,000 copies in the week after it aired. The movie did huge business in its first week, so I assume this kind of ad didn't hurt, but a lot of that interest started with the trailer. Still, the marketing gurus saw fit to create an ad campaign just like this for Watchmen and might have helped - and there were no major stars among the cast (and some were in masks or CGI and unrecognizable, anyway). And it was hardly the first movie or TV show to use a campaign of this sort.

Part of the purpose of a campaign of this sort is to feature the lead actors to build them into stars - a process that sort of feeds on itself. Tell the public and the PR/gossip machine that these people are stars, even if they aren't, and pretty soon - if the pieces fall into place - they become stars and bring attention to the show. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

[Nonfactor]

I'm very familiar with the Watchmen ad campaign. I just don't think it works when you're trying to get new people to tune in to watch the show for the very first time. It's less excitement creating and more excitement maintaining. I could see them use the individual character posters for the second or third or fourth season, but definitely not the first where you're trying to introduce people to the series and get them to start watching.

[Silverstar]

I dunno. I've got to say that seeing yet another fantasy poster of 'pretty people standing next to each other and looking either angry or seductive' would make me roll my eyes at the genericness of it all. So many shows, fantasy or otherwise, use that as their advertising theme, and it is a bit dull.

Concentrating on the individual characters and the intriguing slogans would make me sit up and pay attention more, I'd think. Particularly for a fantasy series. It shows more that it's going to be character-focused, and that there isn't really one main character who is the 'hero', which would be a bit of a breath of fresh air, where fantasy tv is concerned.

As Brude said, it would work better if there are a couple of big names amongst the faces shown, and we don't yet know if that's the case. Dinklage, yes, but he's going to be covered in make-up and almost unrecognisable, no doubt, and I don't know that he's well-known enough to really be called a household name. If the vague hopes that people have of Martin hinting at Sean Bean were actually true, that might work, especially if there was a similarly well-known Catelyn alongside.

[LordNedsHead]

Thanks for reminding me about the Lost teaser ad. I loved that one (even the dancing) and it was fun listening to it now that we know who the junky is, who the murderer was ect.

The more I think about it the more I feel like Brude's idea would work better in a print medium. It would work alright for tv too I guess but I really think HBO is going to want to go for some big shock value right from the jumping off point.

Let me refine my original idea a little. Can anyone think up ideas that take fantasy cliches and turn them on their ear using characters or elements from the books themselves? The one I thought of (aside fromt he direwolf idea mentioned above would be to have nursery music playing in the background while Dany walks over to a crib. She picks up the baby and the camera moves behind her as she sits down to nurse. The shot slowly pans around Dany to reveal that she is breastfeeding a baby dragon.

I realise that this specific idea likely wouldn't work considering it gives away the climax of book, but its something to get the ball rolling. Can anyone else think of some others?

[Ser_not_appearing_yet]

How about handsome knights in bright armour slaughtering peasants?

[cronos619]

I like the idea and I think it would be perfect for a fan-made ad campaign. Like you said, you don't need actual show footage to pull it off. Most of the teasers would be short and easy to film (assuming you can easily scrounge up medieval arms and armor).

I could definitely see some enterprising fans of the series making stuff like this and putting it on Youtube. Would be a great way to spread the word about the series and also help build buzz.

I have everything that would be needed. I'll see about doing one sometime in July if you will to spread the word and give me some ideas. From costumes to trained jousting horses just let me know what you like to see.

[Serfdom]

How about handsome knights in bright armour slaughtering peasants?

How about Tyrion having a threesome with 2 prostitutes?

[Brude]

The more I think about it the more I feel like Brude's idea would work better in a print medium.

Actually that was my original thought, when I first mentioned it as a bit of thread drift in some other topic. I was imagining the bush shelter and subway posters that always go up in the couple of months before these things - and they are sometimes floated around as internet ads, too.

[Secret Tarth]

I dunno. I've got to say that seeing yet another fantasy poster of 'pretty people standing next to each other and looking either angry or seductive' would make me roll my eyes at the genericness of it all. So many shows, fantasy or otherwise, use that as their advertising theme, and it is a bit dull.

Concentrating on the individual characters and the intriguing slogans would make me sit up and pay attention more, I'd think. Particularly for a fantasy series. It shows more that it's going to be character-focused, and that there isn't really one main character who is the 'hero', which would be a bit of a breath of fresh air, where fantasy tv is concerned.

As Brude said, it would work better if there are a couple of big names amongst the faces shown, and we don't yet know if that's the case. Dinklage, yes, but he's going to be covered in make-up and almost unrecognisable, no doubt, and I don't know that he's well-known enough to really be called a household name. If the vague hopes that people have of Martin hinting at Sean Bean were actually true, that might work, especially if there was a similarly well-known Catelyn alongside.

I agree with this. For the print ads, character portraits and quotes might intrigue someone who doesn't know the series and make them want to find out more about that person and the show. I think seeing one or two persons would stand out more than a whole crowd of unknown characters. Game of Thrones is at it's center about the characters so I'd want that emphasized. The background could include clues to the character (that us as fans would pick up on right away).

I'd love a poster of Arya with Needle "Stick them with the pointy end."

[red snow]

I've long envisioned adverts with one key character eg Dany, Jon, Ned and Tyrion and some kind of quote but Brude has gone a step further and actually provided us with some key quotes. All i'd adjust is that "Winter is coming..." has to be on every advert. It's a gift of a slogan to build anticipation, i think you could even drop the character quotes and just have "winter is coming..." picture of actor and then "A Game of thrones. Thursday 35th xurary. Only on HBO".

I'd also be tempted just to have stylised text only "Winter is coming..." adverts on the tube and buses a month prior to releasing the ads with key cast. This campaign would really hinge on it airing in winter though as it would look stupid if people saw the campaign begin in spring ;)