Apple TV's 'Severance' is a Masterclass in World-Building
Here are our top moments where they broke the fourth wall of Marketing
In full disclosure, I’m knee deep in Severance. Like Reddit threads and all. SO, I am hopelessly biased, with respect to the story, the makers and everything they touch.
That being said, I like taking a Marketer’s lens from time to time and look at a creative project for its potential for brand-development and world building.
Severance is a remarkable case study on world-building, much like all good fantasy/ sci-fi is, however, Severance takes the “show don’t tell” approach to another level, in that it is able to blend the lines between reality and fiction and play with casual realism.
Before I got any further, this newsletter is best enjoyed by someone who already has watched the show and either doesn’t care for spoilers or is caught up with the latest episode, which at the time of writing this newsletter is “Sweet Vitriol”.
1. Improv? Live theatre? Real? Fantasy? Let’s blend the boundaries : Immersive, delightful and a small taste of Lumon in the real world
Imagine the MDR team at work, popping those scary numbers into buckets of tempers but doing this live, on your way to work, at the train station. In what is my favourite immersive marketing experience, the Marketing team at Apple TV’s Severance set up a cubicle at Grand Central Terminal in New York with the actual cast members from MDR team portraying their severed roles, diligently working as the bustling station continued around them.
They recreated Lumon Industries office with a retro-futuristic design, and even went an extra mile creating fake application forms inviting people to “get the severance” procedure!
Immaculate. **chefs kiss**.
2. Fictional Creative Assets in the Real World: an actual book, a “leaked” email, reinforce story lines and create a mega-world of fan-theory and ripple effects
The "Rule of 7" suggests that a person needs to see an ad at least seven times before they remember it or engage with it. However, building sticky, immersive assets, and content that bridges the various mysteries of your show’s narrative invites emotional investment like no other, giving people breadcrumbs to go Hansel & Gretel over.
Severance used this approach masterfully by expanding its story beyond the show:
The You You Are – Remember Ricken? Or shall I say Dr. Ricken Lazlo Hale, PhD, his book is actually available to read on Apple Books, a real, in-universe book. You wanna know what caused the MDR uprising? Now you can.
The You You Are on Apple Books in written and audio form 
Chapers in the The You You Are The Lexington Letter – A fictional “leaked” document takes a storyline and expands it into the real world, suggesting a hidden conspiracy, blurring the line between fiction and reality. Real conspiracy fuel for the Reddit-verse!
By creating assets that feel like artifacts from the show's universe, Severance made marketing an extension of the story itself, keeping fans engaged without needing seven exposures.
3. Show, Don’t tell: Creating a Sense of Realism
What’s a show about workplace without a LinkedIn narrative? Instead of simply relying on dialogue to communicate Lumon’s unsettling corporate environment, the LinkedIn page allows Severance to subtly illustrate the company’s twisted nature through visual storytelling.
There’s videos, there’s employee announcements, there’s even downloadables - the engagement is through the roof with (real) people dropping their ‘Praise Kier’ in the middle of the workday - so Lumon is literally always watching (you).
Oh, by the way, need some music to refine to? Apple TV collaborate with ODESZA to create an eight-hour playlist called “ Music to Refine To”. Not only it is the duration of an average work day, it has a one minute break built in between hours 5 and 6 with the chapters as follows (ends with Mark turning off the lights for the day in the MDR office).
0:00 - Innie Entrance 1:00:00 - MDR File Assignment 2:00:00 - Initiate Refinement 3:00:00 - Refine Clusters 3:38:45 - Music Dance Experience 4:00:00 - Sever Distractions 5:00:00 - Revere Kier 6:00:00 - Purify Data 7:00:00 - Outie Departure
In the end, is this all working? How we measure success.
As of March 13, 2025, Season 2 of "Severance" has accumulated over 3.055 billion streaming minutes, according to Nielsen and generated more than $200M for the tech giant.
(Parrot came to these figures via its Content Valuation methodology, which uses a formula to correlate audience demand with subscribers and therefore revenue. The system also examines how shows and movies generate value for streamers in markets across the globe.)
This chat shows how popular Severance was as compared to an average TV show in the US. For example, a show that is more 32x more popular achieves the “exceptional status” and only 0.2% of shows achieve that status.
This is relative travelability from home market in other markets. In the home market the likeability is always 100%. If the likeability in another market is 50% that means that it was has 50% of the demand in this market relative to the home market.
This chart shows the increasing or decreasing popularity of the show.
More than anything, if years from now I see Lumon colours or logo on a billboard or Severance-related Marketing anywhere it will take me a few seconds to wonder if it is real or an extension of their sharp world-building, not very far off from their eerie plotline. And that’s something very hard to measure.
If you loved this newsletter, feel free to share with another Severance fan. Your outie will be very proud. Merci & Praise Kier!