Stranger things: this is the advertising strategy Netflix has filled the series of brands like Lyft and Coca-Cola
Start like any other Coca-Cola ad.The soft drink brand logo is at the bottom when two teenagers buy a snack in an vending machine.A young couple kisses next to a can of the popular drink.A teenager baby from a soda while he goes to his seat in the cinema.
Only it is 1985. The city is the fictitious Hawkins, Indiana.And adolescents are characters from the original Netflix series "Stranger Things."
Netflix collaborated with Coca-Cola for the announcement, issued in cinemas and online, on the occasion of the return of its successful original series "Stranger Things", which returns on July 4 with a third season.The spot was directed by the creators of the series, Matt and Ross Duffer.The collaboration, one of the largest in Coca-Cola, also included the limited resurgence of an obsolete product, New Coke, which appears in the new season, as well as bottles, cans and other elements inspired by the series.
Coca-Cola es una de las docenas de marcas con las que Netflix está trabajando para promocionar "Stranger Things" a través de licencias o campañas de marketing más amplias. Baskin-Robbins tiene sabores de helados temáticos de "Stranger Things". Burger King tiene hamburguesas Upside Down Whopper. H&M tiene una colección de ropa inspirada en los estilos de la serie. Nike lanzó una colección de zapatillas especiales.
Netflix said he had agreements with around 75 brands to promote "Stranger Things," as previously reported to New York Times.
The collaborations are examining the tastes of the people to captivate them outside Netflix with the franchises of the streaming platform, as well as their willingness to accept that Netflix productions are associated with brands, according to people close to marketing efforts byFrom Netflix to Business Insider.
The search for marketing partners by Netflix also occurs at a time when the streaming giant is trying to maintain its base of 148 million subscribers in the US, and that grows continuously abroad.
"It's not a matter of dollars," said Stacy Jones, general director of the Hollywood Branded marketing and entertainment."They are doing so for spectators to subscribe or register in Netflix."
"Stranger Things" is one of Netflix's greatest successes and cultural reference points.The series is also a fertile land for collaborations with brands.It takes place in the 80s. The creators (the Duffer brothers, fans of pop culture) have wanted to display a list of products of the decade, such as the board game dragons and dungeons, the polaroid cameras, the syrup of the Mrs.Butterworth, the Waffles Eggo and the Coca-Cola cans, to evoke the spirit of the eighties in production.
After the first season of "Stranger Things", Netflix took the opportunity to work with brands thus obtaining a greater exhibition from the series and attracting spectators and subscribers to the platform.The streaming giant is actively looking for more offers of this type to get attention to original products such as "Stranger Things", "Glow" and "queer eye".
Las marcas tienen una larga historia de patrocinadores de programas de televisión, remontándose a la década de 1950, cuando los fabricantes de jabones como P&G patrocinaban dramas, más conocidos como "telenovelas".
But collaborations, such as the marketing agreements that Netflix is cutting, are more common in the film business.It is easier for brands to launch a campaign around a theatrical premiere date than for a full season of a series.With the films there are no conflicts with the advertising sales teams of the Network since they can have exclusive agreements with brands that could prevent individual productions from being associated with competitors of these.
Audiovisual streaming services such as Netflix, where there are no ads and episodes are often launched simultaneously, the movies business resembles more.
"For me, streaming looks much more like films than television programs," said David Nagel, veteran director of the consumer participation area in Baskin-Robbins."There is that moment in time, that launch period. And with the arrival of television binge, people can see complete seasons in one or two days. Create a much more intense sensation of that movie."
Netflix has resisted advertising on its platform
Netflix, like other premium entertainment channels such as HBO, has often resisted anything that can make its original products seem too commercial.It does not show traditional ads, although other executives speculate that it is only a matter of time that Netflix enters the advertisement business.The original productions produced by Netflix, such as the case of "Stranger Things", usually do not include the paid placing of ads, although other Netflix originals can contain them.
Outside the platform, it is a different story.The increase in brand agreements outside the Netflix service occurs when the streaming content giant is trying to continue growing and facing greater threats of rivals such as Amazon and Hulu, and emerging ones like Diney and Apple.
Netflix is spending most of its eight -digit content budget on original series and films, since it is more expensive to obtain licenses from programs belonging to foreign studies.Companies such as Disney, Warnermedia and NBCuniversal reserve a majority of their programming for their own services.
Last year, Netflix spent almost 2.4 billion euros in marketing, 65% more than the previous year, due to the greater launch and promotion of its original works.
Marketing Upside Down
When "Stranger Things" was broadcast for the first time in 2016, Netflix made its own promotions of the series, including a four -hour live on Twitch in which influencers appeared playing games of the 1980s and ending with an advance of the advance of theFirst episode, in addition to a 360 degree video experience of the character's house byers in the series.
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The first season had outstanding brands such as Eggo, but the Frozed Gofres company owned by Kellogg's did not have to pay to become the favorite food of the character Eleven.The Duffers wrote it in the series on their own.Eggo also did not promote the series until the first season of this was released.In addition, Eggo shared recipes inspired by each episode of the second season and lent Netflix a video of an advertisement of the brand corresponding to the 1980s to be used as the Super Bowl advertising spot.
The interest in "Stranger Things" grew after the series premiered thanks to very favorable criticism and a strong diffusion of this mouth to mouth.
Approximately three months before "Stranger Things" returned with the second season, the Lyft company approached the Netflix marketing team, directed by Barry Smyth.The group focused mainly on agreements to promote Netflix service in conjunction with device manufacturers and other partners.
Halloween is one of the biggest nights of the year for Lyft.And the second season of "Stranger Things" was scheduled to be broadcast during that festive weekend.Lyft, who said he was presented to Netflix thanks to the United Talent Agency Marketing entertainment agency, saw an opportunity for the two companies to work together to create an experience around the series.
"Stranger Things" was one of the most anticipated programs of the year, "said Austin Schumacher, Lyft entertainment and culture marketing director." We wanted to give our community a unique experience.We wanted to take advantage of a cultural moment.And it seemed that Netflix would also make sense of our audience. "
Netflix told Lyft that he had not really done anything like a program before but was open to ideas.
Lyft's internal creative team presented some concepts for experiences inspired by "Stranger Things" that would be lived both inside and outside the Lyft application.The creative teams of the two companies worked together in the campaign.Lyft and Netflix shared the costs, said Schumacher.
The campaign included a "Stranger mode" from the Lyft app that offered users free journeys by Los Angeles and Philadelphia during the week in which the series was launched, as well as a strange experience by car for some passengers.
The collaboration with Lyft was one of the biggest treatment that Netflix made with a brand to promote an original production.
Since then, Netflix has closed agreements with brands such as Lyft for the "Glow" series, the Humphry Slocombe ice cream shop for "queer Eye" and dozens of brands that have agreed licenses and agreements with "Stranger Things."
The result
Netflix normalmente no ha cobrado por estos acuerdos. Las colaboraciones están obteniendo una gran difusión del servicio de streaming en los canales de marketing y con el público que Netflix no pudo comprar. Coca-Cola, Baskin-Robbins y H&M han llevado a Netflix a las tiendas físicas, por ejemplo, y la colaboración con Whopper puso a "Stranger Things" en algunos restaurantes de Burger King.
"These moments and channels that brands have, and that advertising cannot buy, are what these streaming platforms are trying to take advantage of," said Julian Jacobs, co-director of the Marketing Division of the Talent Agency of the Talent agency of theUSA.
Amazon Studios has signed similar agreements with brands such as Maxwell House around original productions such as "the wonderful Mrs. Maisel."HBO also associated with Bud Light to promote "Game of Thrones" at the 2019 Super Bowl.
As Netflix spends more on marketing to focus attention on their largest original productions, the agreements are also taking advantage of the money that other merchants are already spending.
Summer is the ice cream season and when the Baskin-Robbins company increases its commercialization to a greater extent.Netflix approached Baskin-Robbins in April to talk about a possible collaboration linked to "Stranger Things."The third season premieres in the middle of the summer and part of it takes place in a fictional ice cream shop called Scops Ahoy.
Baskin-Robbins spent a little more than it usually uses in marketing during the summer months to promote "Stranger Things" and himself.
"We made an excessive investment in this property," Nagel de Baskin-Robbins said."We knew that the return of the series was something that was going to make people really excited, something like the preparation for 'Game of Thrones'."
The ice cream company, which has previously promoted films premieres, also invested in "Stranger Things" with personalized flavors, products and a television advertisement in the hope that "maybe it may make us a little better," as Nagel said.
Baskin-Robbins is not the only brand that expects to take advantage of Netflix's productions that hit the cultural climate of the time.
"Each customer we are talking about, every new sales conversation we have, is promoted by those who want to talk about collaborations about streaming content, and more netflix than other platforms," Jones said in Hollywood brand."Again and again, Netflix shows that it appears as the main content distributor of the moment and the brands know it."
The average expenditure for the types of joint marketing campaign linked to films or television programs that Netflix is now doing can range between 500,000 Eurosoproximably and almost 5 million euros, Jones said, depending on the way in which the content is linkedto brands, digital television, and other activities.
The marketing approach of Netflix partners
Netflix is approaching the marketing of partners as film studies do.It is selective regarding the films and series with which it connects marketing professionals, and focuses on stores or companies where brands are naturally linked to content.
Netflix staff is reaching a greater number of brands directly instead of making creative launches of merchants as they did with Lyft.
Smyth has a small team of approximately five people, whose headquarters are in Los Angeles, which is developing partner marketing ideas to bring brands that add to the broader programs campaigns.They also work closely with the global group of consumer products led by Christie Fleischer, who joined Netflix from Disney in 2018, to take advantage of the existing license agreements, such as those with Nike or Lego for "Stranger Things."
The collaboration with Baskin-Robbins began with the consumer products team, who communicated with Nagel in Baskin-Robbins through LinkedIn to talk about a license opportunity linked to the Scops Ahoy ice cream shop that will appear in the third season.
"I thought someone was spending a joke inside the company," Nagel said when he was contacted by LinkedIn.
The agreement grew from that moment.The associated marketing team got involved.Nagel and other people from Baskin-Robbins traveled to Los Angeles to read the scripts of the new season of "Stranger Things" and see how Scops Ahoy was joining.Baskin-Robbins sought among its own files to see how the brand's ads had been made and produced in 1980.
"More than just a commercial collaboration, it was a love work for us," said Nagel adding that the Duffers established the authentic tone of the eighties in their production."We have a lot of fun with that."
Since June 1, Baskin-Robbins' announcement in collaboration with "Stranger Things" has been broadcast 899 times on American national television.The campaign will last until the end of July.
Netflix is preparing to work with brands outside its platform, but it is another story when it comes to the platform.
"The question is what they will allow on their platforms," said a source that works with brands and entertainment companies closely."The efforts of 'Stranger Things' regarding these brands are a bit experimental. If the market rejects this, they will do it. But it seems that the market is rejoicing with these efforts."