Bringing 1880s New York Opulence to modern day social media was no easy feat. We were tasked with making Season 2 of The Gilded Age a grand affair, to grow the social pages and the fan base a tremendous amount and keep them engaged throughout the season.
We examined fans through a microscopic view, putting ourselves in their shoes when it came to plotlines they wanted to see evolve, beloved characters return to screen, and all the drama to unfold. We were also challenged to make our accounts worth following by all fans and keep them coming week over week, and to include surprise and delight elements as a payoff for all followers.
Knowing that a large amount of our fan base was live on Facebook, we launched an official The Gilded Age Facebook page as a central hub for fans to chat through their theories for the season, express their emotion after watching episodes, and keep them tuned in for what was to come in the following weeks. Text prompts, exclusive images, exclusive interviews with cast, and merchandise giveaways created a swarm of engagement. Through our copy tone and how fans were interacting with each other online, we were able to boost our following by taking learnings from existing fan group pages, and conducted deep research on how to keep them tuned in on our pages.
On Instagram, we focused on releasing sharable content like reels of the best/most dramatic scenes. With our clear eye on the fanbase, we were able to identify moments from each week's episode and isolate them as social sharable clips we knew the fans would want to relive and share across social. Each week, we highlighted the real history of New York by creating history focused Reels, that connected back to each episode's subplots. We gave the costumes a moment to shine with a social series detailing the costume designer's beloved gowns, with real sketches from production to share with fans. We kept our Instagram Stories for sharing real time information about the cast, talent events and series, that fans could keep updated with on a day to day.
Launching amid Hollywood strikes posed challenges as talent participation was delayed until mid-season. Despite this, fans remained engaged through Story polls, text prompts, and exclusive content. As the strikes concluded, excitement for weekly episodes reached unprecedented levels, with The Gilded Age becoming a focal point in larger social conversations. Weekly releases turned into highly anticipated events, fostering lively discussions in comments, Facebook groups, and #TheGildedAge on X. Throughout the season, social volume grew steadily, averaging a weekly increase of +18%. In its debut year, The Gilded Age firmly established its presence on Facebook, boasting over 20M Impressions, a 31.61% Response Rate, and 201K Engagements, making the TGA Page the primary news and conversation hub for fans.
Keeping fans engaged with episode teases, talent EPKs, and reactive prompts/polls resulted in exponential audience growth, accumulating over 90K total followers by the end of the campaign. Season 3 reached an all-time high of excitement, with the announcement becoming the most engaged post of the campaign (1.5M Views, 1.3M Impressions, 54K Engagements). Post performance continued to increase throughout the season, notably through a well-tailored clipping strategy. On Facebook and Instagram, total video views surpassed 40M, a remarkable 1,000% increase from Season 1. Multiple Reels received over 1M views, and clips were consistently reshared into Facebook groups, enhancing their visibility.
