"Severance" cast appears in Grand Central Station

Imagine it:

You're heading to catch the train home.

You've been at work all day and are slowly shaking off the professional 'You' and turning into the 'You' that exists away from the office desk.

You know, the one on the couch streaming shows or sitting around the dinner table with your family.

But at the train station, there's a large glass box. And inside it are the characters from your favourite Apple TV show: Severance.

In case you haven't seen it, Severance is a dystopian show about workers who decide to completely separate their work brains from their home brains.

When at home, they don't know what they're working on. And when they're at the office, they have no idea what goes on in their life outside it. These people are under constant surveillance from their employer, "Lumon Industries."

Enter the January 15 stunt at Grand Central Station.

Inside the glass box at the train station, the Severance cast were hard at work in an office that was a perfect recreation of the show’s set.

And, even though the walls were glass, the characters appeared to have no idea they were being watched.

The stunt went viral.

Passersby took to social media, posting photos and videos of the pop-up. News platforms jumped to report on the story.

Given that Season 2 began just 2 days later, this stunt came at the perfect type to build hype around its release.

Now I'm not suggesting your brand will have the budget to pull off a stunt of this level. But you absolutely can create a viral moment around your brand.

So, here are 3 things we can learn from the Severance pop-up that you can use to begin thinking about yours.

1. Make it sharable

In our social media-fuelled world, online discourse is everything. So whatever your stunt is, design it to be captured and shared.

This is something the Severance team aced. They created a visually impactful set designed to both grab attention and be easily seen. This meant commuters were able to take videos and pictures to share online.

Those online were then able to share the captured media and add their own entertaining captions—meme-ifying the event (which is a highly effective way to go viral, seeing they're the internet's unofficial currency).

(My favourite Severance re-tweet: "they got adam scott standing in the corner like he’s nicole kidman in babygirl #severance".)

2. Engage your dedicated audience

Severance creators certainly managed to scratch the brains of their audience. How? By including "painstaking recreations" of the show's set and props.

Think: the exact desks used in the show, a red ball from a Season 1 scene, a Lumon Compliance handbook...

By focusing on details such as these, the pop-up creators ensured this was a stunt not created just to hook in new fans.

Instead, it shows they care about the fans they already have and want to offer them an experience that honours the excitement they feel about the new season.

They know how long everyone has waited for a new season (2 years!!). So they're ready to give the people what they want.

This detail-oriented approach shows the value of keeping audiences front of mind when creating a marketing stunt. Instead of just planning something you or the marketing team think is cool, think about your target market and what they really want.

3. Go deep

Lastly, the Severance pop-up shows us the importance of putting in the work and making your stunt intentional.

I mean, they managed to stay so on-theme and purposeful through the design of the experience.

By placing the box in Grand Central Station, they managed to capture commuters going through their own kind of Severance moment—transitioning from work to home.

And the design of the stunt itself was completely on-brand, capturing key themes of the show.

I can't really put it any better than one fan did on X:

"i actually have a crazy amount of thoughts about the severance actors playing their characters in a public glass box with fans everywhere filming, to market a show that is about privacy, identity, and what it means to be a person under constant surveillance. just genius"

Indeed.

So, if you're going to bother creating a stunt, make sure it's worth your time and effort.

Think deeply about what you're doing, and try your very best to connect it to what you're promoting in as many ways as possible. Plan for the right location, time, and design.

This will give people something to delve into (and post about!).

Honestly, I think the Severance marketing stunt is pretty brilliant.

Not only did it come together perfectly, but it demonstrates the cast's real care for viewers and dedication to the show.

As Time's Eliana Dockterman puts it: "The fact that they all participated in the stunt speaks not only to their dedication to the show but also to a willingness to meet the audience, literally, where they are."

And, as someone who hasn't seen the show, it's completely convinced me to start.

Tonight, my plan is to turn off my work brain, enter the Severance universe, and join the fandom.

-Maggie, Copywriter