The Stories Behind the Strategy

A Glimpse Into "Raise Your Banners" Case Study

Image from Lions

Case studies are to marketers what playbooks are to championship teams: they preserve what worked so success can be repeated. I personally find case studies among some of the most interesting and inspiring works of writing within advertising. 

Unlike traditional business reports, case studies are colorful pieces of business writing. Marketing case studies fuse storytelling, visual design, and performance metrics into a unified, persuasive narrative. This is the kind of writing that reminds us that finished products are not the only part of campaigns to discuss, but the strategy behind them deserves to be remembered and replicated.

As a marketing professional, I have read my fair share of case studies from many agencies, but time and time again, I come back to Giant Spoon’s “Raise Your Banners” campaign for HBO’s Original, House of the Dragon (HOTD).

It is the kind of campaign that lingers in your mind long after you finish reading about it, unfolding less like a business report and more like a behind-the-scenes look at the moment creativity, strategy, and culture collided to create something unforgettable. Readers are seamlessly guided through the inner workings of the campaign, as if they are a part of the end-to-end execution. 

Giant Spoon’s case study walks people through the initial business challenge of securing views for season two of HOTD after the series took a two-year hiatus. The agency recognized that their original audience had not just forgotten details surrounding the plot, but they had stopped participating in the vast world of HOTD altogether. Giant Spoon thus decided that their strategy was not to just advertise the television show but to make choosing a side of which kingdom to support in the show’s civil war like they were joining a real cultural movement.

“Raise Your Banners” demonstrates how modern advertising has shifted from selling products to creating cultural conversations. Still, its effectiveness depends on how clearly it communicates the campaign's strategy and results.

Some advertisements ask for your attention. Others wrap a skyscraper-sized dragon around the Empire State Building and dare you to look away.

Image from Warner Bros Discovery

Giant Spoon concocted a perfect recipe of out-of-home advertising, brand partnerships, event marketing, and social media to transform a television premiere into a citywide spectacle.

The universe in House of the Dragon is split into various kingdoms and defined by an iconic civil war, sparking inspiration for the creation of the slogan, “Raise Your Banners,” prompting audiences to pick their side in the show’s war.

Image from Giant Spoon

As everyone knows, numbers don’t lie. Campaigns need more than striking visuals and strategic media placements; they need results. Case studies are responsible for effectively communicating these results to readers.

“Raise Your Banners” marked season two as the #1 biggest premiere in Max history and the #1 global conversion of any campaign in Max history, and the #1 global press generated of any campaign in Max history (earning 6.4B+ press impressions from publishers like AdWeek).

Image from Giant Spoon

I would recommend marketing students who are building their understanding of campaign strategy and advertisers interested in community-building to read Giant Spoon’s case study for themselves.