For the launch of the second season of Vikings on History the brief was simple - establish Vikings as the Superheroes of their age and achieve the same (record breaking) ratings as the first season. The second series had already premiered on Amazon Prime so we had a real challenge on our hands. 

 

To answer this brief it was important that we focus our approach on the intricacies of the audience. We had to reach out to fans of season 1 but also to fans of the superhero genre. The campaign idea was very much rooted in the language of the genre, 'Betrayal is the price of power'. We wanted to establish Ragnar as our flawed hero and took stylistic inspiration from iconic superhero movie posters coming out of Hollywood.  We set him up in a striking yet slightly vulnerable pose to highlight the threat of betrayal that hangs over him from season 1. We also made use of a traditional symbol of power, the tattoo to communicate his status and the branding of the series. 

 

The graphic novel summary of the first season (which ran as a cover wrap in Sport magazine) acted as a perfect catalyst to draw new fans to the programme whilst reminding our existing audience of the return of the series. It was a first for History to advertise in this manner and an innovation we all felt very proud of.

 

We achieved some fantastic results for the show, increasing live viewing by 33% with a series average of 250k, 40% of these viewers were new to the channel.