Game of Thrones to advertise in League of Legends

HBO is advertising the next season of Game of Thrones in Riot Games’ League of Legends.

Vice president of eSports and merchandising at Riot Games Dustin Beck told [a]list daily that the three week-long campaign leading up to the premiere of the fourth season could include website takeovers in addition to the featured logos you can already see in the Championship Series broadcast. Beck also said that Riot Games is working with HBO to produce a mash-up trailer, and that it was given exclusive sneak peaks into footage that haven’t been seen before.

“We got a cold call from HBO because they thought that there was going to be a great overlap between our players and their demographic of people that watch Game of Thrones and this was a good way to explore reaching that demographic through new media,” Beck said.

As Beck explained it, the advantage to advertising with League of Legends is its focused strategy. “We’re not working with a ton of different brands,” he said. “There’s not going to be the kind of sponsor overload you get when you look at NASCAR for example. You see a car that’s littered with various sponsor bugs and it’s very hard to focus in on what logo you’re looking at.”

Other big companies that advertise with League of Legends include American Express and Coca-Cola, both of which sponsor the game’s Challenger Series.

Earlier in the week, League of Legends creators Brandon Beck and Marc Merrill won the Pioneer Award at the Game Developers Conference awards show.