The anthology series has been a cultural staple ever since the radio programs of yore, and dominated TV in the 1950s and 60s with classic shows like The Twilight Zone and Alfred Hitchcock Presents.

They became fashionable again in the 80s, with horror anthologies like Tales from the Crypt alongside revivals of Alfred Hitchcock Presents and Twilight Zone.

Now the anthology series is back in vogue, with FX leading the new wave, thanks to Ryan Murphy’s American Horror Story kickstarting the trend. The show’s fifth season, “Hotel,” premieres Wednesday October 7, and is now joined on the network by Fargo, its second season bowing Monday October 12. Come February 2016, FX will add a third limited series with Ryan Murphy’s American Crime Story: The People vs. O.J. Simpson.

FX’s joined in the anthology game by more networks every season. HBO’s True Detective wrapped up its controversial second season in August. NBC and FOX are bringing back Heroes (September 24) and The X-Files (January 24), respectively, in the form of limited series, and the list goes on.

Stephanie Gibbons, President, Marketing and On-Air Promotions, FX Networks, credits anthologies’ reemergence to their versatility, relative short time commitment and brand loyalty.

“It’s an incredible, malleable and powerful paradigm,” she said. “It provides the benefit of retaining the awareness and the investment from a previous season, yet it allows you the flexibility to change the program to keep people interested. It never gets old. It keeps morphing. You shed what’s no longer useful, and you bring in new elements that make you better. It ultimately adapts beautifully to the television landscape.”

While the cast, storylines and locations differ, the challenge is to retain the show’s unique atmosphere in every facet of the campaign.

“It’s about making sure that the tonality and sensibility are playing into the brand of that program. [It’s] titrating the familiar versus the new in the exact right concoction so it’s satisfying in regard to what people want to re-experience. But it’s thrilling for what they have yet to experience,” said Gibbons.

American Horror Story’s marketing campaigns have become known for their short, disturbing teases each summer. Even with a new horror playground every season, each teaser is unmistakably AHS.

“If you lined up all the spots and the prints on the wall, you would see that everything fits together. You see that it’s from the same genus; yet you also see strains where there are subgroupings in palette,” said Gibbons. “Each show has its own personality, like siblings in a family. You detect the genetic similarities but it’s not hard to see that each child has a mind and soul of its own. That’s what we try to do.”

The show’s campaigns began in earnest at Comic-Con, where FX’s “Fearless Arena” amalgamated all of their brands in one space, with a live action snow globe photo opp for Fargo and a cash grab contest in an art-deco hotel for AHS.

This year AHS’ focus has been on Lady Gaga coming to the show, whereas Fargo continues to be inspired by its region and culture. Going into its second season, the marketing has shifted to reflect the subtle change in the show’s DNA, from needlepoint to quilt.

“The first season was very focused on the snow and the tundra. This season there’s breaks in the ice, and there’s warmth of spring,” said Gibbons. “It’s slightly different. When we go into the show, all of those nuances might not be present to you, but they influence us consciously and subconsciously into the elements that we create.”


That includes a Survival Kit shipped to 20 cold weather markets as part of a local on-air news promotion. The Kit includes mittens, traction gravel, first aid kit, water, flashlight and a blanket.

Fans in LA, NY and Chicago will get the opportunity to try waffles on a stick thanks to the Fargo Waffle Wagon.


“It’s that fulcrum point of what happens when good, wholesome people encounter pure evil and the catastrophic results of that, and the strange ironies and dark humor that comes from that intersection,” said Gibbons. “We’ve made it our passion to find home-style malevolence by twisting things that are inherently benign and comforting to have a dark underbelly.”

Anthologies allow marketers to tackle universal themes like love and war or fear and loneliness, each year, but in different ways.

“You take those themes and the moment you change the location, or change the individuals that are experiencing it, you create a whole new story. Those themes are universal, yet those stories are idiosyncratic and individual. That’s what we try to do with the creative and the marketing. You know it’s different but you still recognize the brand beneath it,” said Gibbons.

Thanks to their format, anthologies are ideally suited to appeal to today’s TV audiences.

“It plays into people’s short attention spans. If you look at the glut of potential content, there’s not enough time to experience this renaissance of television. There are so many great programs to spend time with and not enough length of your life to get it all done,” said Gibbons. “What this allows people to do is to come in at the beginning of the season and leave fully and completely satisfied.”

Until the next season rolls around.

“If I loved that experience, it’s not over. It’s not done. I can come back again. It satisfies whatever your appetite is,” said Gibbons. “They tend to build loyalty because it’s not too much. You don’t have to wait another 9 months. You get that sense of closure, but it’s not over. It begins again. It fits with where we are now in terms of our consumption patterns,” said Gibbons.

Given their relatively short commitment, and the satisfaction of a close-ended story every year, anthologies are DVR power players amid the original content boom.

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