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A MURDER AT THE END OF THE WORLD | FX
A Murder at the End of the World is a murder-mystery drama series from Brit Marling and Zal Batmanglij (The OA) that follows Darby Hart (Emma Corrin), a Gen Z amateur sleuth and tech-savvy hacker, and eight other guests as they attend a retreat at a remote Icelandic location. When one of the other guests is found dead, Darby must use all of her skills to prove it was murder against a tide of competing interests and before the killer takes another life.
This campaign took home numerous GEMA awards including:
360 Campaign – Gold - North America
Organic Use of Social Media to Promote a Program or Series – Gold – North America
Content for Digital Promotion (Security Cam Hack) – Gold – Global
Content for Digital Promotion (YouTube Watchalongs ) – Bronze - Global
THE STRATEGY
While Brit and Zal’s most infamous project, The OA, focused their marketing around a “Beyonce-style” surprise drop, FX took a page from another famous pop star’s marketing playbook by seeding out cryptic clues and puzzles, à la Taylor Swift.
Our north star for the series was to produce a captivating and striking campaign guided by emotion and driven by the collective that would entice OA evangelists and murder mystery fans to tune in week over week for this global campaign that aired across Hulu, Disney+, and STAR+ platforms.
MARKETING CREATIVE
Our marketing creative was intentionally secretive, yet interactive, to stir up our audience’s curiosity and encourage fans to leverage their community to connect the dots.
At the marketing shoot, I ideated, scripted, and directed a variety of photography and motion concepts with cast used throughout the campaign including an on air spot and character video creative. We pulled inspiration from elements within the show such as morse/binary code, color contrasts of blue vs red, and environmental textures to produce visually compelling storytelling for our marketing materials.
Character Photography (Pictured on the right)
EXPERIENTIAL
Having real life extensions for the series was crucial to making an emotional, long lasting connection with viewers. Our IRL activations always had a digital extension that not only allowed all to participate, but also required fans to work together across the globe to piece together clues to unlock exclusive content and surprises.
Shortly after the premiere date announcement FX followed up the announcement with an IRL activation at The Mysterious Bookshop, where the opening scene of the series was shot.
Instagram posts informed fans to head to the New York City bookshop where they were given puzzles to decode that unlocked a sneak peek of the trailer on an iPad, hidden inside a hollowed out version of Darby’s book “The Silver Doe.”
Fans left with a swag back that included a page from Darby’s book, that when put in the freezer the paper revealed a bespoke “hacker name” that they were instructed to share to the show’s Instagram page. The hacker names unlocked a group of “shards” that fans eagerly pieced together like a puzzle throughout the weekend. Our super sleuths pieced together the image unlocking a special trailer for everyone online.
SDCC
With fans buzzing over the trailer, we continued the momentum at San Diego Comic Con through an experiential activation that brought Iceland to SoCal. Guests boarded a replica of Andy Ronson’s private jet where they were given wearable tech in the form of a NFC smart ring like the one his guests received. The ring had various touch points within the space that provided interactive moments and when tapped by your smartphone, revealed another teaser trailer, this time embedded with morse code.
As a second beat that fans at home could participate in, we “evolved” the ring to drive to a new microsite that featured a mock tech news article on Andy Ronson. That article housed even more clues that led fans to another site that featured 4 never before seen photos of Darby, Bill, Andy, and Lee with their archetypes.
DIGITAL
Though our digital experiences, we wanted viewers feel like they are a part of something bigger. We approached world building via digital in a way that brought fiction to reality through exclusive yet accessible activations.
In lead in, we invited fans to enter the scene of the crime through suspicion security camera footage that was housed in an unlisted YouTube link. The activation kicked off with a cryptic video of Darby, shared on the show’s Instagram account. We knew our detail-minded super fans would find the hidden clue in the video’s pop up window - a url that led them straight to YouTube to view “hacked” camera footage of the halls of the Icelandic retreat.
We added another layer for our deep divers via hidden clues within the timestamps of the camera footage. When decoded, the clues spell out another URL which led fans to a private Dropbox folder of Darby’s case files and materials that showed an intimate first look at her relationship with murder victim, Bill Farrah.
The stunt ignited conversations on Reddit and Discord as fans worked together to decode clues. This intricate and exciting preview gave our super fans just enough to dive in and begin to build their own theories pre-premiere without spoiling the series.
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In season, we leveraged extensive interview footage from the cast and creators and production materials to create multiple hour long pre-produced “live” episode watch-a-long streams on YouTube that allowed fans to dive deeper into the series as they streamed along on Hulu.
Viewers lit up the real time chat room on the stream, sharing their excitement for the series, connecting with fellow fans and discussing the episode and clues more in detail with their peers creating a unique experience that tied streaming to social.
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Around the finale, fan theories were at an all time high as viewers awaited the reveal of the killer. The week leading into the finale, we shared daily posts that paired behind the scenes images and insights with themed puzzles for fans to decipher together.
Once enough people had solved the puzzle, FX released bespoke, in-world creative for each of the characters that dived deeper into their back story, leading fans down a rabbit hole of new info to dissect before the final episode.
Example Puzzles
INFLUENCER & SYNERGY
To further extend awareness and conversation for the series, FX partnered with a diverse set of synergy partners, influencers, and outlets within the film, entertainment, pop culture, and true crime space to produce reaction videos, deep dives, event recaps, cinematography spotlights and more around the series.
Sample Creative
Amanda McCants (Influencer)
Jack Neel (Influencer)
Jumpers Jump (Influencer)
Screenplayed (Social Press - Cinema Outlet)
Nat Geo TV (Synergy)