Earlier this summer, New Yorkers may have spotted a 270-foot dragon encircling the top of the Empire State Building. No, it wasn’t a spin-off of King Kong. Instead, the idea was cooked up by another member of the Warner Bros. family: Max.

“In one of our brainstorms, somebody threw out, ‘Wouldn’t it be crazy if we put a dragon up there?’” Pia Barlow, EVP of originals marketing for HBO and Max, told us.

The dragon, which Barlow said took between 10 and 12 hours to install over the span of several days, was one of the highest-profile marketing stunts yet to promote the second season of House of the Dragon, the Game of Thrones spin-off series that has seen its Season 2 audience steadily increase since the first episode aired on June 16, which was Max’s best streaming day ever.

• The season’s fourth episode, which aired last Sunday, attracted 8.1 million viewers on linear and streaming, a season high.

Max centered its campaign for the show’s second season around the idea of taking sides in the civil war, with landmarks around the world declaring their support for Team Green, the supporters of Alicent Hightower and her son Aegon II Targaryen, or rival Team Black, supporters of Rhaenyra Targaryen and her claim to the throne.

It took about six to eight months from the time the idea was pitched to the dragon being installed, and the overall marketing campaign for House of the Dragon Season 2 was 18 months in the making, according to Barlow, who, at the beginning of the season at least, considered herself to be a supporter of Team Black.

Continue reading here.—JS

From AI to data trends to personalized strategies, marketers are making big changes this year…and 2024 isn’t over yet. Dig into everything you need to know about this year’s marketing trends with the 9th edition of the State of Marketing Report from Salesforce.

Salesforce found that 40% of marketers avoid third-party data. To learn what they’re using instead (and how they’re approaching data + AI), Salesforce surveyed nearly 5k marketing leaders around the world.

In the full report, you’ll learn how marketing leaders are:

• building cohesive data strategies
• investing in + implementing AI
• delivering personalization at scale
• boosting brand loyalty + account-based engagement

Get your copy here.

Etsy was once known as a marketplace for artists selling handmade goods. After becoming a destination for resellers peddling drop-shipped and mass-produced items, the nearly 20-year-old brand is preparing for a refresh—and hoping to re-emphasize the human element.

In a new marketing campaign that rolled out last week, Etsy is focused on showcasing the work of its artisan sellers, not robots, and encouraging consumers to “keep commerce human.”

“Right now, in the cultural context, we see that there is such a desire and need for human connection and creativity, and there are concerns about the role of technology and the role of mass production,” Brad Minor, Etsy’s newly named chief brand officer, told us. “We wanted to make sure that we were going loud with a rallying cry to keep commerce human, and featuring our sellers as storytellers of that mission and that rallying cry felt right.”

Get in the game: The new campaign will run across TV, social, and OOH in the US and UK, and will appear during the upcoming Paris Olympics. Mondo said the decision to get involved with the summer games is part of an effort to involve Etsy in a cultural moment, noting that the Olympics are “all about celebrating and recognizing human performance,” which is also a theme of the new campaign.

The hope for the campaign, he said, is to generate brand lift and continue to establish Etsy as a place to support small businesses and buy original goods.

Read more here.—KH

Each week, we spotlight Marketing Brew readers in our Coworking series. If you’d like to be featured, introduce yourself here.

David Corns is the chief marketing officer of Opendoor, an online residential real-estate company. Prior to Opendoor, he worked in-house at agencies like Wieden+Kennedy, Crispin, Venables Bell & Partners, and R/GA.

Favorite project you’ve worked on? I have two—both of which happen to be related to the Super Bowl. One was turning Opendoor into a brand. This past February, we proved that selling a house can be so easy that you can do it during the big game’s halftime with Opendoor’s first-ever halftime showing. We helped a real Atlanta family sell their home in just 15 minutes, shattering the idea that selling a home has to be a hard, time-consuming, and highly stressful process. We hacked a major cultural moment and generated all-time highs for awareness and consideration for Opendoor.

The second one is bringing Reddit’s 5-second Super Bowl ad to life in 2021. The ad celebrated the power of Reddit’s communities during a major national cultural moment just weeks after Reddit had dominated the financial world. Typically, Super Bowl ads can take years. This one was done in a matter of days. We saw the idea, created it, and shipped it that very weekend. Great ideas are currency.

What’s your favorite ad campaign? Among my favorites would be Nike’s iconic work with Wayne Rooney. That campaign caused so much of an uproar that people thought Nike sponsored the World Cup that year. As a creative—and Buckinghamshire, England, native—that one left an impression.

One thing we can’t guess from your LinkedIn profile: I walk—a lot. Walking during meetings, walking during the morning. It’s a lifestyle.

Read more here.

Consumer preferences are movin’ fast. Keep up with what people really want to see when you download Smartly’s new survey. Dive deep into what 9,700 people in six different countries want from their ads + learn how you can deliver on their desires. Create excellence + get the survey.

Some 47% of Gen Zers favor brands and companies that support sustainability, according to March 2023 data from ISCS and Big Village. Discover how brands and marketers are prioritizing sustainability in 2024 and use this insight to inform your strategy. Get the guide.

Mergers and acquisitions, company partnerships, and more.

• Heinz collaborated with Marvel Studios on a limited-edition line of ketchup and mustard bottles that resemble the title characters from the upcoming Deadpool & Wolverine film.
• Audi inked a deal to become the official premium automotive partner of Inter Miami FC, adding to its league-wide and other MLS team partnerships.
• Honda signed on as the first exclusive auto partner of the esports tournament Twitch Rivals.