The show's name says it all. Sticking to our fearless roots, FX needed to define and showcase what was Taboo.
With Tom Hardy leading FX's twisted period drama, we were determined to create content that struck fans in all the right (and wrong) places. There's only so much time and space to accomplish all of this in a gif, but with the show's massive star power and haunting London scenery, there was more than enough material to work with. The goal quickly became to make strong, ominous gifs that stopped fans in their tracks. Whether you tuned in each week for the hour-long episodes, or were simply searching to see what the show was about, one gif was all you'd need to get the idea: this show is not for the faint of heart.
The London-based period drama called for a massive set on location, so FX took full advantage of the on-set photographers to capture hundreds of unit photos that were utilized strictly for social.
The social team worked directly with print designers to create a style guide of colors and treatments that captured the show's tone. From there, each photo was individually treated to match the ominous aesthetic of this Taboo world.
To take our gifs a step further, still shots of Tom and other cast members were rendered with special in world effects like smoke, fog and fire to create custom cinemagraphs. The end result gave fans a taste of the dangerous world of Taboo, if they only dared to enter it.
The customization of these assets paid off. Within the weeks leading up to the shows premiere, 6 custom pre-season cinemagraphs garnered nearly 355k views on Facebook alone. The gifs continued to outperform for the remainder of the season, and several remained in the top performing content on both Facebook and Instagram, making them a pillar in what turned out to be a killer social campaign.
