Since the beginning of the series, fans have been primed with the notion of the impending arrival of Winter.

But we couldn’t just say “Winter is Here” and be done. After all, our 30+ million fans had been waiting for six seasons, over six years, through 50+ hours of programming for this very moment.

Throughout our six-month marketing calendar, we worked with press to create synchronized moments around each wintry asset drop. Showing fans what the arrival of winter really means for the story and characters they love.

Across the 6-month marketing calendar, we sustained Winter-themed messaging complemented by intermittent, large-scale pulses to create added buzz.

The first pulse started with ominously vague OOH in Austin, followed by an Escape-the-Room experience at SXSW. Simultaneously, fans participated in a Facebook Live event that allowed them to use comment-fueled flamethrowers to melt a 4,000lb block of ice, revealing the Season 7 premiere date.

Next, we released a poster of the Night King with a hidden message inside that teased a surprise trailer. Within 24 hours, it became the most watched TV trailer ever.

On the Summer Solstice, we subverted the cultural zeitgeist by taking over Twitter with a winterized Emoji Engine, aligned with media outlets for icy takeovers and a first-to-market partnership with Reddit.

Throughout the season, we gave fans wintery Snapchat and Facebook lenses, a Comic-Con experience, and brought winter to the MLB through a league-wide partnership.

SXSW: Escape the Room

- 70 pieces of coverage, including from AdWeek, IndieWire, and Vanity Fair

- 7.52B online readership; 6.38MM Estimated Coverage Views

Trailer 1

- Press coverage included 931MM Online Readership and achieved 109k Social Shares

- Drove trailer to reach 61 MM views in the first 24 hrs, making it the most viewed TV trailer ever

Summer Solstice

- 25 pieces of dedicated coverage, including from The Hollywood Reporter, CNet, Mashable, totaling 680K estimated coverage views

- #1 trend worldwide on Twitter

- #1 video on YouTube

- #2 video on Reddit

Comic-Con International: San Diego

- 47 pieces of coverage achieving 860k estimate coverage views

The Game of Thrones Season 7 press and marketing drove it to be the biggest in the network’s history.

- Season 7 premiere – 16.1 MM viewers – HBO's biggest premiere episode ever

- Season 7 finale – 16.5 MM viewers – HBO's biggest finale ever

- Overall Game of Thrones Season 7 viewership – 32.8 MM viewers per episode – Most watched HBO program ever