A new teaser trailer is out for Game of Thrones season 5, but it didn’t debut on YouTube, HBO’s website, or another online video destination that you might expect. Instead, the ten-second clip was released via Twitter’s native video player in a tweet from the official Game of Thrones account.
The video was tweeted on November 25, 2014, with some cryptic messaging about a raven bringing “The Sight.”
The raven brings #TheSight. Receive the power at: http://t.co/9fNrrJIGHG https://t.co/LknnRX0f4D
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— Game Of Thrones (@GameOfThrones) November 25, 2014
The link included in the tweet sends fans to a promotional website called ThreeEyedRaven.com. On the site, Game of Thrones fans can sign up to receive visions of the future about the show (aka “The Sight”) via Twitter or SMS. While the video pointing to the equivocal website destination is throwing GoT fans into a tizzy, we’re more fascinated with the clip’s delivery method.
Recently, Twitter announced it would introduce its native video player sometime in 2015, a move that only makes sense since the company has seen such success from Vine, the six-second social video app the company purchased back in 2012. We’re obviously still a few weeks shy of 2015, so it’s clear Twitter is testing its native video player with some key partners (like Game of Thrones) in advance of opening up the capability to all (or at least a large subset of) its users.
In addition to the GoT season five teaser trailer, we noticed the new video format on some other Twitter accounts, as well. For example, we saw one of Michelle Phan’s more recent tweets include a native Twitter video. Note the typical “YouTube” or “Vine” labels usually seen when a Twitter user links to a video on one of those platforms are nowhere to be found.
I still believe in magic because of you… pic.twitter.com/y6Fn9TgOdi
— Michelle Ph∆n (@MichellePhan) November 26, 2014
We’ll be curious to see what other brands and personalities start using Twitter’s native video feature the closer we get to 2015. Until then, be prepared. Winter is coming.
