My role: Social Strategist and Sr. Social Media Manager
I deleted years of American Horror Story Instagram content on their official account for a stunt.
Shorty Award Finalist + Audience Honor and 2x PromaxBDA Winner
In a crowded TV landscape, a great show doesn’t always guarantee big ratings. From the moment an announcement is made to the very last seconds of the series premiere, a show must generate excitement, momentum and impact across social media.
With the pressure to ensure success of one of its most profitable franchises, we worked with FX Networks to kick off pre-season buzz for a brand new season of American Horror Story.
Objective: Create a disruptive social campaign that could grab fans attention and keep them during the weeks leading up to the season premiere of AHS: Apocalypse.
Social strategy: American Horror Story had millions of followers already, and a rabid base of fans itching for more content. So we would start on Instagram with something AHS had never done before.
We Dropped A Bomb On Our Followers
The idea: We deleted (actually, archived) every single Instagram post on @AHSFX.
As conversations and speculation heated up among 2 million followers about why every post had been “deleted,” we posted a single video, full of static, menacing images, and a hidden clue. This was followed by additional videos that ultimately revealed a contest URL introduced by Sarah Paulson.
The results: Over 5 million video views, more than 1.6 million likes and comments, and a growth of 200K followers in under a month. It ultimately drove millions of viewers to tune in on premiere day.
On August 14th, 2018, we unleashed the Apocalypse, instantly wiping years of American Horror Story Instagram content with the push of a button.
Almost instantly, all 2 million of the show’s followers were plunged into the darkness, scrambling to figure out what had happened—perfectly mirroring the new season’s post-apocalyptic theme.
With interests piqued and attentions captured, we began the next phase of our post-apocalyptic stunt: filling our channels with cryptic posts, seemingly full of nothing but static.
The savvier fans began to notice secret clues embedded in the static: clips, visuals, fragments of words.
