How We Helped A New Era of Dragons Take Flight
Social Campaign
8 WEEKS. 9 REALMS. A FIERY FIRST SEASON OF DRAGON ADVENTURES.
With a new, diverse cast of riders and dragons, Dragons: Nine Realms was set to expand the How to Train Your Dragon franchise through a 6-episode series on Hulu and Peacock.
Inspired by fantastical new dragons and their fearless human riders, we set out to create a Dragon-scale social strategy that would bring fans into new realms — and the franchise to new heights.
As the Dragons and their riders geared up for a first season of adventure, we focused on a few primary goals of our own:
- 1) Emphasize the show’s accessibility for all ages, and all fans of the franchise–not just kids
2) Create breakout content that differentiates from the rest of the franchise and other DreamWorks IP
3) Lean into relatable themes: modern-day families and relationships, adventure and imagination, technology
Inspired by the Dragons’ unique abilities and personalities, we charted a social strategy that could captivate fans of all ages, all while living up to a devoted fanbase who was excited for this latest installment in the How to Train Your Dragon universe.
Client DreamWorks
Project Dragons: The Nine Realms Social Campaign
What We Did
- Social Strategy + Ideation
- Social Campaign + Engagement
- IG Content + Stories
- Still Content
- Video Content
- Copywriting
PERSONALITY QUIZ
In the series, a new generation of riders and dragons pair up. We extended this narrative to Instagram, where we invited fans new and old to take an interactive personality quiz to pair them with their own dragon partner from the show.
DRAGON SIGHTINGS
There's nothing as awe-inspiring as a dragon — which is why we created a 4-part content stream where dragons broke the fourth wall and appeared IRL! Expanding past the Nine Realms, our "dragon sightings" dropped winged beasts into real-life locations—a first for the franchise, given this was the first time the story occurred in modern-day.
IG MINI-GAME
Given all the action in the show, it was only fitting to create a bit of action on social, too. Our interactive Choose Your Own Adventure Instagram Story mini-game allowed fans to hop in and chart their own dragon-riding journey through the skies.
SCALES, TEETH, AND CLAWS
To sustain engagement, our calendar was filled with additional content beats that explored the new places, faces, and storylines in the series, including a "Storyboard vs Screen" behind-the-scenes beat, character cards for the new dragons, and a watch party challenge for our biggest fans.
STICKY STICKER CONTENT
Coinciding with tentpole hero content for the campaign, we invited fans to explore the world of The Nine Realms with a custom Giphy sticker set, allowing users to assemble their own UGC adventures on social via IG Story.
DRAGON-RIDING TO NEW HEIGHTS:
Across the eight-week social campaign, the community rallied around our new Dragon riders, providing DreamWorks’ new series with an engaged audience across our four main platforms:
- 13+ MILLION IMPRESSIONS
- 1.2 MILLION ENGAGEMENTS
