Save this article to read it later.
Find this story in your accountsSaved for Latersection.
Game of Thronesexecutive producers David Benioff and D.B.
Weiss are known for their meticulous attention to detail.
theres never been a shortage of compelling visuals.
Youre going through a tremendously reductive process, says HBO program marketing chief Zach Enterlin.
Every season, the richest visuals in the world have to boil down to a single image.
As for specifics, Enterlin says the process was pretty identical from season to season.
Campaigns, in terms of the creative process, would start while a season was still in production.
Wed then work through those ideas on our side, and would share back with them.
It was a very iterative process.
They very often [got] a hole in one, the duo said.
We were doubling down from moment one: This is the show that would do the unexpected.
The first poster also contains more copy than those for future seasons.
Once again, the elements worked on a deeper level for fans whod read Martins books.
Season 3
The 2013 launch of the third season stands as a milestone inGOTs marketing history.
Obviously, it stands in contrast to our approach the first couple seasons, Enterlin says.
It was unique to the show; it stood out in the marketplace; it felt big.
And if you dont even know what this is, it certainly begs curiosity.
The concept also gave HBO a fun tool to play with outside the confines of a poster.
It was very fun to execute in the real world, Enterlin says of the dragons shadow motif.
In magazines and newspapers, it looked as if it was obscuring editorial [copy].
His thinking: Let this visual speak for itself.
We started to see the abbreviation in social [media], Enterlin says.
We decided we could put more of an emphatic exclamation point on that branding.
This season was very much a narrative forward play, Enterlin recalls.
We were foreshadowing the long-awaited meeting of Tyrion and Daenerys.
And this was a suggestion from Dan and Dave, the general idea of foreshadowing this meeting.
We were just incredibly drawn to the simplicity and the juxtaposition of Tyrion and Drogon.
We all felt we nailed it in moment one, Enterlin says.
We were very, very focused from moment one on ensuring we were always organic to the world.
It was very much debated on the internet as to what [the inclusion of certain faces] meant.
Enterlin says the campaign was meant to signal the shows ending was near.
We really wanted something that felt representative of the series overall, Enterlin says.
Dragons had similarly been used twice before.
Putting them together for the first time, however, proved incredibly compelling, Enterlin says.
We loved that idea of discovering that the dragon eyes blend in with the throne, he says.
I might or might not know how this season ends, he laughs.
We can talk after May 19.
