Welcome to Berk. We have Dragons.
To capture the blockbuster action, breathtaking visuals & emotional storytelling that defines the How to Train Your Dragon series we were tasked with crafting a definitive experiential introduction to the 2025 live-action reimagining. Our Powster vikings set out to build welcometoberk.com, an interactive microsite designed to bridge the emotional nostalgia of lifelong fans with the curiosity of a new generation.
Setting out to make the legend of the Dragons and Vikings REAL, we wanted to move beyond the animated feel and set the stage for something altogether more mature, photorealistic, and cinematic – fitting for this stark evolution of the franchise.
Rather than a standard marketing landing page, we aimed to elevate the digital-standard by creating a high-fidelity, value-add online destination that functioned as a true extension of the film's world-building, and seamlessly integrate global ticketing and showtimes into an immersive narrative journey, to turn digital exploration into box-office momentum.
By treating the island of Berk not as a movie set, but as a geographically real atoll on the "Meridian of Misery," we aimed to earn the trust of a protective fanbase through meticulous craft, detail, and a deep respect for the source material.
Our strategy centered on the core insight that HTTYD fans don’t just watch the films – they want to inhabit the world.
To do this we moved away from passive video content, and embraced full-on fan-fuelled organic discovery, based around three core strategic pillars:
1. A Living, Breathing World: To make the experience feel truly visceral, we created a fully explorable geographically accurate WebGL 3D island from scratch based on reference imagery complete with handcrafted Viking ships and wooden village huts to capture the life and comings-and-goings of the inhabitants living on the island. We also integrated real-time night and day location data and sensory weather patterns giving each fan a unique, personalised experience each time they visited Berk.
2. Authentic Cultural Immersion: Tapping interactive hotspots around the island, fans would explore 5 distinct environments from the movie, immersing themselves in a cinematic world full of features and digital artifacts.
Technically, this was our greatest challenge as our digital artists had to manually enhance raw 360° set scans and bring them to life – meticulously removing production equipment from hundreds of individual photospheres, adding layers of atmospheric dust, embers, and a spatial soundscape to ensure total immersion.
Within each location, fans entered what was in effect an interactive museum of Viking lore:
3. Global Rollout The microsite was localised for 10 key international markets, synchronised with the film’s major milestones:
The campaign soared to success, proving that immersive digital experiences are the key to, and extension of, modern franchise storytelling.
Unprecedented engagement:
Supported by this digital foundation, the film became the 2nd highest-grossing film in the franchise and the 8th highest-grossing movie of 2025, earning over $623M at the global box office.
By treating the digital audience with respect and providing a living world to inflame their interest, we helped Universal Pictures to make this a record-breaking cinematic event, as the franchise continues to expand with the sequel in 2027!
