FX channel brings out the dead – and ice cream – in marketing stunt at Sydney Opera House

Drama channel FX and ice cream brand Messina will open a pop-up store at Sydney Opera House next weekend, while a giant rotting hand will protrude from the Opera House steps, in a stunt to mark the start of season 6 of The Walking Dead.

Messina has created a new range of flavours based on character’s in the apocalyptic zombie-strewn series, with the pop-up store open on both Saturday and Sunday.

Meanwhile, the 4ft decomposing hand will be installed ahead of the Sunday morning advanced screening of episode one of the new series. A gang of “zombies” will also roam the area.

FX will air the first episode next Monday, directly after it is shown in the US.

FX marketing and digital media manager, Jamie Zarzycki, said the show has become a phenomenon and predicted another jump in viewing figures.

Across the first five series, The Walking Dead experienced an average audience growth for the channel of 25% each year. Season one achieved an average audience of 94,000, and held its audience for season two, while season three saw a total audience rise of 68% to 158,000.

The fourth series in 2013/2014 increased a further 14% to 180,750, and season five attracted the highest ever audience numbers for the program – up a further 16% to 210,000.

Zarzycki said brands such as Holden, V energy drinks and Mazda came on board as the series’ popularity grew, with Asahi and Activision also major sponsors

“At the start it wasn’t a particularly easy sell as you are talking about zombies in a dystopian society set in an apocalyptic wasteland,” he said. “But quite a few brands are now getting involved.

“The Walking Dead continues to be our tentpole sponsorship opportunity amongst our premium drama offering and we see increasing interest and commitment from advertisers with each successive season.”

Zarzycki described the series as “water cooler TV” that generates significant levels of social discussion.

The idea for the rotting hand sculpture on the Opera House steps came amid discussions with organisers of the Graphic Festival which is being held in Sydney.

Declan Lee, co-owner of Gelato Messina, said: “Making bloody fingers and edible brains from gelato was right up our street, so when FX came to us about the project we jumped straight into the kitchen to test how we could make something scary and delicious in one go.

“Fast forward a few days of tasting, testing and layers of chocolate gelato, we’ve made a Messina version of Carl’s Chocolate Pudding and thrown in some added surprises.”

It is not the first time the iconic venue has been used by Foxtel to promote its forthcoming series. A giant dragon appeared on the steps in April ahead of series five of Game of Thrones.