They could come across it in an airport
security line when plopping their belongings into a tray that asked “What would
Wednesday do?” Or see the title character in the Uber app when they ordered a
ride. Or they could encounter it on TikTok, where seemingly everyone from
Ukrainian soldiers to hip grannies were performing the title character’s
arm-jolting, addictive dance set to the Lady Gaga song “Bloody Mary”.
Either way, the marketing resources Netflix
dedicated to the show helped to make it a global sensation. The push included
Netflix shifting its social media resources from sites like Twitter and
Instagram to TikTok after the amateur dance videos went viral. There was also a
campaign in which local markets around the world adapted the slogan “What would
Wednesday do?” to their country’s taste and culture.
The streaming service said the show’s eight
episodes were viewed 1.24 billion hours in the first 28 days they were available,
making it the second most-watched English-language series on the service, just
behind the fourth season of “Stranger Things”.
For the movie “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery”, there was a widely publicized (including TV commercials) one-week
theatrical release on Thanksgiving that generated a reported $15 million in
ticket sales. After that, a Los Angeles-based escape room and a handful of
murder mystery dinners across the country — and more commercials — helped to
keep the word-of-mouth alive until the expensive star-studded sequel debuted on
the service at Christmastime. It racked up 279.7 million hours watched in the
first 28 days, which Netflix said made it the fourth most-watched
English-language film on the service.
Marketing titlesNetflix’s marketing tactics are indicative
of an evolving strategy for a company that is facing a much more competitive
streaming marketplace — and trying to serve an increasingly fickle audience.
The new tactics also come as Netflix has introduced an advertising tier and is
cracking down on password sharing as it contends with a maturing US market. It
has also essentially replaced its original creative team, opting for executives
with broader tastes to serve a global marketplace. To sell this evolution of
the world’s largest streaming service, the company is relying on Marian Lee,
its third chief marketing officer in three years.
“I’m trying to enable creativity, because I
want to bring all of this content to more people around the world,” Lee said in
an interview at Netflix’s headquarters in Los Angeles. “I also want the rest of
Netflix to understand what the marketing strategy is: We support the content
organization.”
She spent the previous night staying up
late to finish the reality show “Full Swing”, saying she cried in her bathroom
when it was over.
“I’m watching everything, and I’m going to
tell you where I think this is really going to pop,” she said.
“I’m trying to enable creativity, because I want to bring all of this content to more people around the world.”
For all of Netflix’s success over the
years, the company has never quite found its footing in marketing. That is
primarily because the company’s core tenet is that the streaming service itself
is its greatest marketer, and spending on expensive commercials or
advertisements does not always improve viewer engagement.
Netflix’s marketing budget has remained
fairly consistent, increasing to $2.5 billion in 2022 from $2.2 billion in
2020. But Lee’s 400-plus global team has enacted a subtle change in strategy,
in which many of those dollars have been shifted to focus on individual titles
as opposed to the branding of the streaming service itself.
Budget too small?Still, the amount of money set aside for
marketing remains relatively small, considering Netflix spends $17 billion a
year on its programming. And when filmmakers and showrunners grouse about
working with Netflix, the complaints are often aimed at the marketing
department, which they feel can be limited by its budget. It is an issue
traditional studios have tried to capitalize on, arguing that they may pay less
upfront for a project but that they will spend more in marketing to let people
know when it is coming out.
“The legacy studios spend more on
marketing,” said Tripp Vinson, a producer of the Netflix “Murder Mystery” films
starring Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston. The first movie came out in 2019
and the second became available to Netflix subscribers on Friday. “But as a
producer, what do I care about? You’re implying that the more you spend, the
greater chance you have of getting your audience in that legacy, traditional
marketing way. Well, I know from ‘Murder Mystery’ 1, whatever Netflix did to
market this movie, the amount of viewers that I got, that’s what I care about.
And they were astounding numbers.”
“The legacy studios spend more on marketing. But as a producer, what do I care about? You’re implying that the more you spend, the greater chance you have of getting your audience in that legacy, traditional marketing way.”
For “Murder Mystery 2”, the streaming service
added a second premiere at the Eiffel Tower in Paris, international billboards,
and commercials during the NFL’s divisional playoffs. It also partnered with
the social media star Mr Beast to offer an unwitting couple a surprise trip to
the Paris premiere. The first movie landed back on Netflix’s Top 10 list a week
before the release, and expectations inside the company for the sequel are
high.
Rewriting the rulesNetflix’s chief content officer, Bela
Bajaria, pushes against the notion that the company had not aggressively
marketed specific shows and movies in the past.
“I think the tension may be with people
feeling like there is only the traditional way to do it, and they don’t realize
we market in so many different ways,” she said, noting the service’s social
media channels reach 800 million people globally.
Netflix’s film chair, Scott Stuber, said
the marketing department under Lee was more in tune with the content side of
the company. He noted that he was particularly impressed by her nimble approach,
like her ability to maintain buzz for “Glass Onion” after its theatrical
release.
“I like someone who actually knows the old
playbook, but also is very interested in how to rewrite the rules for the new
playbook,” he said.
