HBO built creepy ice billboards heralding the grisly return of ‘True Detective’

Much as it was in Season 1, the central crime scene that kicks of Season 4 of HBO’s “True Detective” is pretty gnarly—as Alaska investigators find bodies frozen in a block of ice. The HBO marketing team found the grisly tableau to be irresistible fodder for two out-of-home billboard activations they designed this month, with help from agencies MAP360 and Arsonal. The boards themselves feature giant ice blocks, with abandoned shoes and cold-weather clothing frozen into them. The billboards, which revealed more as they melted, were on display Jan. 7 in Los Angeles and Jan. 8-9 in New York, giving passersby a disturbing tease of the new season, which premiered Jan. 14. The scrawled headline—“How cold do you have to be to run out in the ice without any shoes?”—is also taken directly from the show. And the spiral mark is a throwback reference to Season 1 of “True Detective” back in 2014. Alex Diamond, VP of Originals marketing at HBO and Max, told Ad Age that the echoes of Season 1—in the show and the marketing—are no accident, as the network looks to both revive interest in the “True Detective” franchise (which has been off the air since 2019) and attract new viewers as well. “The new season presented an exciting opportunity for the show to re-enter the zeitgeist,” Diamond said. “While the show was at the forefront of the prestige TV reinvention in the 2010s, it's now harder than ever to break through the entertainment landscape. So, for the new season we launched an event-level marketing campaign designed to reach original fans of the series and new prospective audiences.” “True Detective: Night Country,” as Season 4 is called, is a kind of mirror of Season 1. It’s anchored by female leads Jodie Foster and Kali Reis and is set in Alaska, while Season 1 starred Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson and was set in Louisiana. “There are many narrative tiebacks to the original series throughout this season,” Diamond said, “so we wanted to ensure that anything we put into the world showcased the connected but unique nature that could resonate for core ‘True Detective’ fans, as well as casual viewers.” Diamond said the primary challenge was curating props and copy lines for the campaign that provided a glimpse into the show without revealing too much. The boards revealed themselves slowly, with the blocks of ice containing the boots and clothes gradually melting—and being chipped away—to reveal the headline. “Within that final reveal, we also incorporated a QR code leading fans to an AR filter, allowing them to virtually place themselves back beneath the ice,” Diamond said. There were a few production challenges. In L.A., restrictions on width and unpredictable wind forecasts posed limitations, while unexpected warm weather and rain in New York delayed the launch, Diamond said. In L.A., the team used chainsaws every few hours to actively reduce the size of the structure, sparking excitement and curiosity among onlookers. In New York, weather considerations impacted the planned three-day activation, “allowing for the natural creation of ‘beautiful damage’ that evolved with sun exposure and time,” Diamond said. The frozen billboard in L.A. was located across the street from The Melrose Trading Post, at the intersection of Melrose and North Ogden. In New York, the billboard was on Mulberry Street between Houston and Bleeker—and the creative extended onto a second adjacent unit to maximize impact. Diamond said passersby were intrigued, “as people wanted to learn more about what these structures were built in support of. Once people discovered it was for the new season of ‘True Detective,’ several organic conversations were sparked, which further extended to social media, press and more.”

HBO built creepy ice billboards heralding the grisly return of ‘True Detective’

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