Fresh off the Empire building business, this fall FOX is on a mission to try new things.

In addition to its returning programs, FOX has five new shows coming this fall: Minority Report, Rosewood, Grandfathered, The Grinder and Scream Queens. To break out of the over-crowded TV landscape, FOX is upping the ante on social media, exploring fresh initiatives, and starting their marketing campaigns earlier and earlier.

“It’s been a crazy year because, in my experience at FOX, we have more launches happening at the same time than we’ve ever had before,” said Laurel Bernard, FOX’s EVP of Marketing.

They also have one particularly huge mainstay.

“Empire is kind of a force of its own right now,” said Bernard of the show that returns Wednesday September 23 at 9/8c.

This past weekend, in conjunction with their sponsorship partners Lincoln, Pepsi and Twitter, FOX hosted an #Empire season 2 premiere event at Carnegie Hall, featuring a gold carpet, musical performance and cast Q&A.

“It’s the kind of stunt that shows how we’re setting apart Empire and giving it this platform for a whole different kind of content distribution than we normally have for a show,” Bernard said.

That platform includes a themed Saks Fifth Avenue clothing line and a gold bus touring around the country all summer searching for the next #FoxEmpireArtist.

With Empire and Morris Chestnut’s Rosewood locking down Wednesday night, FOX has turned its attention to Tuesday, hoping it has found the next hit comedy block with Grandfathered and The Grinder.

The sitcoms have inspired a joint campaign that includes pilot screenings at Dry Bar, candy giveaways at LA’s Dylan’s Candy Bar, special “Mommy” screenings across the country, and two-sided shopping bags at Ralph’s and Kroger.

During the #BeYourFoxySelfie event on September 28-29, fans that have uploaded pictures of themselves into the key art for Grandfathered could appear on FOX’s Time Square billboard.

“We’re just trying to be hands-on and make people feel personally invited to watch those shows and not just media invited,” said Bernard.

FOX hopes their efforts create a potent Tuesday night cocktail.

“Tuesday night is forming to be this special and interesting night with young females. We feel like we can pull them all the way through the whole night,” said Bernard.

To stand out, FOX has ramped up its social media investment.

“We’re more heavily invested in social platforms than we ever have been before,” said Bernard. “The promise of the data behind social media is starting to catch up. We can see the proof in the pudding that it’s working.”

There’s no greater proof than Scream Queens’ loyal engagement.

“Scream Queens has been really unique in how early we started it. We’ve seen a trend in starting earlier and earlier the last couple of years. I think everybody in the industry is feeling out how to start earlier,” said Bernard.

Usually May upfronts is ground zero, but FOX knew they were picking up Scream Queens well before then, allowing the network to dive in.

Ice [S]cream flavors are coming to LA shops, Pressed Juicery crafted a “killer” juice blend for Fashion Week and a promotion with Glam Squad, an on-demand app-based beauty provider, sold out in minutes.

Buzzfeed will show us “how to stand out at a funeral,” fans can design t-shirts in the Tumblr Design Competition, and Scream Queens launches a national Snapchat filter on its premiere date, Tuesday September 22 (at 8/7c).

FOX and Comcast have partnered on a content piece featuring creator Ryan Murphy that will run in Comcast’s households on their Barker channel. During the piece, Murphy will also discuss FX’s American Horror Story.

“Since American Horror Story is on our sister network, we have been able to leverage what they know on that audience. We’ve been heavy on FX the whole time. Because there are so many great things to tie them together and they don’t compete with each other in a live tune in time, we’re able to take advantage,” said Bernard.

Given the wide breadth of strategies, it’s hardly surprising Scream Queens is at the top of the social buzz charts.

“I think it’s proven, and helped us understand, that social has become the predominant media type to get our core young female audience in the door and give them a voice,” said Bernard. “It’s also proving to be a great avenue to reach out to the older audience that has nostalgia for Jamie Lee Curtis and a love of horror shows.”

FOX contrasts its social movement with a renewed emphasis on print, including a limited LA/NY run four page spread with a pop-out knife.

“In a world where nobody talks about traditional media anymore, we love print for this show. We have a huge cast and amazing art, and we want people to suck it in,” Bernard said. “It’s just one of those shows that’s easy to keep coming up with more fun things to play off of.”

Scream Queens’ successful head start spells a trend for FOX. “I think everything we’re doing that allows us to lay groundwork earlier is something we’re going to continue to manifest in future campaigns,” said Bernard.

In describing FOX’s new schedule, Bernard said, “We’re building nights and a throughway for people. There are a lot of things that tie these shows together, giving people who are avid FOX fans a reason to come back and be loyal.”

“We’ve got some stuff that’s so high profile and exciting, that I think we’re going to bring people into the fold whether or not they’re regular FOX fans,” said Bernard. “That’s what Empire did. It brought people to FOX that aren’t normally there.”

FOX wants every show to be an event like Empire. “That was Dana [Walden] and Gary [Newman]’s mission this year: to choose shows that have that sticky, noisy element, so we could make audiences feel compelled to check our stuff out when there’s so much to choose from.”

FOX hopes the audience following Empire will help them build another. Or five.

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