SITUATION
Netflix first came onto the scene guns blazing, overturning industry after industry: video stores, DVDs, and finally cable. It revolutionised the way entire generations watch television with high-volume on-demand streaming.
Yet over time, Hollywood’s original disruptor had become the incumbent in the category it helped launch. Its runaway growth started to lose steam as new streaming services popped onto the scene, from beloved brands like Apple and Disney, to niche brands catering to a variety of tastes.
To date, Netflix had leaned on its product to do the heavy lifting: people signed up for the service with the season’s buzziest show (which, most of the time, was Netflix). Yet with more competitors crowding the space, its subscriber numbers swung wildly season to season, as people abandoned ship every few months for the streaming service with the show that most caught their eye. This not only challenged Netflix’s market share but also amplified customer acquisition costs.
Netflix knew it needed to future-proof its position as the category leader by keeping subscribers pressing “renew” each season.
CHALLENGE
We needed to move Netflix from a popular product to a beloved brand. What could one of the world’s most well-known companies say about itself to win over hearts and minds?
THE DIGGING
We dived into dissecting Netflix’s DNA - reading interviews with the founder, binging their content (no complaints there!), analysing their internal “culture book”, and holding a 2-day workshop with key stakeholders. We simultaneously dug into the brand’s competition - from streaming platforms like Hulu to Hollywood with a capital “H” - a land that manufactures most of the world’s stories. We looked at tropes, cliches and themes, but also into the numbers around representation, overshadowed by anthemic calls for “diversity” at Oscar acceptance speeches. And we explored the changing landscape of consumers, who were rapidly shifting their viewing habits as well as expectations of media brands (Spotify x Seth Rogan controversy, anyone?)
WHAT WE LEARNED
Despite paying lip service to diversity, Hollywood still plays by an outdated rulebook. Consider: in a given year, women never have more than 33% of speaking roles in films; of the top 100 films of the last 10 years, 96% were directed by men; of the 100 top films in 2017, only 33 had a female lead or co-lead (of those, only 4 were non-white and 5 over 45 years old).
As a brand with disruption in its DNA, Netflix has always challenged Hollywood norms as a matter of business. And when it comes to representation, the service has long been a champion of under-presented communities in TV/film, empowering women, people of color, LGBTQ+, religious/cultural minorities, people of various abilities, and creators from outside the US to tell their stories and find an audience.
STRATEGY
Issue a call-to-action to challenge Hollywood’s antiquated formula for representation.
IDEA
Make Room - a rallying cry to celebrate creators outside status quo.
The message came to life in a 60-second film created by, and featuring, those underrepresented by the industry. It was fronted by a diverse cast of Netflix stars: Nigerian-American actress Uzo Aduba from Orange is the New Black, LGBTQ+ comedian Hannah Gadsby, and indigenous-Mexican actress from ROMA, Yalitza Aparicio.
The film announced the campaign platform, and was followed by social strategy that included asking actors, directors, writers and other industry icons “Who Made Room for you?”, creating a relay of posts thanking and honoring those who’ve helped others break into the industry. It also included making “room” at film premieres, festivals, and large industry events by creating spaces for minority publications and photographers at the front of the velvet rope.
IMPACT
We struck a loud chord and ignited a global conversation around diversity; within 2 weeks of launch, we were featured in 40+ publications around the world, and earned 9.5M+ organic impressions. The campaign became Netflix’s most successful brand campaign to date from an earned media perspective.
And it helped cement Netflix as THE must-have streaming brand, with 3+ consequtive years of subscriber growth following the campaign launch.