A dragon on the loose in Sydney not only set fire to a billboard, but set tongues wagging as the latest example of a faux out-of-home (FOOH) stunt using the power of CGI.
To celebrate the launch of House of the Dragon Season 2 on 17 June, BINGE partnered with Mindshare and POLY, the creative and innovation hub of oOh!media, in an Australian advertising first, seeing the iconic OOH billboard at Taylor Square in Sydney ‘burned’ by a dragon using Computer Generated Imagery (CGI) technology.
The creative concept and release of a CGI video was timed on June 17, the day of the season premiere in Australia, and featured a number of Australian landmarks ‘raising their banners to pledge their allegiance’ to the duelling factions in the series – Team Green and Team Black, followed by a dragon appearing and breathing fire on the Taylor Square site in Sydney. The billboard creative then changed to appear scorched as a result. The concept was amplified across social, influencer networks and oOh’s broader broadcast formats with the CGI video.
“The BINGE brand is all about entertainment, storytelling and getting people talking. With the launch of House of the Dragon Season 2, we had an incredible opportunity to fuse fantasy with reality in an innovative and creative way that aligns with what our brand is all about. Using CGI technology to fly a dragon in over the city landscape and breathe fire onto a billboard about the show is the perfect way to capitalise on this.”
BINGE Marketing Director Fiona King
POLY head Josh Gurgiel said that utilising pre-existing relationships with local councils and production partners helped to get the idea across the line from a physical standpoint, allowing the billboard to be quickly converted from a standard OOH advertisement to one that reflected what happened in the video upon launch.
Gurgiel revealed that POLY have been tracking the rise of FOOH “for a while now” and thinking about how it could work for their clients, but the impetus to pull the trigger on entering into the space came from strategists Alex Rog and Rob Delaney.
The pair came across comments on YouTube videos and online articles that featured FOOH, with viewers asking where they could see these activations (such as the giant mascara wand swiping ‘eyelashes’ on the front of London public transport) in real life, with many not catching on as to the fake nature of the advertisements.
“We started to think is there an opportunity to build more of an episodic creative iteration that actually links multiple creative executions as a narrative?” he said.
“Out of Home storytelling, much like House of the Dragon itself, is rich, multifaceted and provides a canvas for continued creativity and innovation. With faux OOH advertising gaining global traction, we’ve taken it to the next level and created a new concept, combining CGI and an OOH special build to drive audience interaction and engagement across physical and digital environments.
Rob Delaney, Creative Strategist, POLY
Despite FOOH being a relatively recent phenomenon, Gurgiel said that he doesn’t see it as replacing traditional OOH any time soon nor just being a passing fad, but a way for the online and offline worlds to finally come together, especially as more clients are asking POLY how they can utilise FOOH for their own marketing objectives.
“We are so thrilled to see this idea come to life! Over the past year, we have seen faux-OOH executions take the internet by storm. Now we’re delighted to bring this concept one step further, taking it beyond the social media feed and onto the streets of Sydney with a real-life creative swap after the CGI event – a concept dubbed ‘faux-real OOH’ which we love! Collaborating with oOh! and BINGE has been a seamless process and we look forward to the success of House of the Dragon Season 2.”
Sarah Newcombe, Group Planning Director at Mindshare
