Netflix
Turning Netflix UK&I from a dry listings guide to the most loved brand in the UK, using social media to acquire and keep subscribers.
(then repeating the approach in the US, Italy, Australia, the Nordics & South Africa)
Approach: Make Netflix’s social channels as entertaining as the content on the service. Become a best-loved voice in UK entertainment, online and chatting to fans when they’re chatting to each other. Hire entertainment obsessives to run the channels. Support brand campaigns with lightening-fast reactive content that tapped into cultural conversation.
Results:
Grew UK social following from 119k to 2.5 million
Won Netflix ‘Best Loved Brand in the UK’ - (eConsultancy)
Grew Netflix accounts for We Are Social in US, Italy, Australia, Nordics and South Africa
Role: Editorial Director
Agency: We Are Social
In detail
The goal was to stop people cancelling their subscription once the big show they loved was over. The plan was to do this by making people fall in love with Netflix the brand.
But Netflix was using its social channels like a TV listings guide and no-one falls in love with a listings guide. If anything it just reminds you of all the shows Netflix doesn’t have. So we came at the challenge like massive entertainment fans and we created content for massive entertainment fans. Our content was nerd-level chat, deep in the in-jokes, meme-heavy and served with personality.
We grew the Netflix UK following from a community of 119k to an army of 2.5 million and won Netflix the accolade they really wanted — best loved brand in the UK. Then I applied the same model to help We Are Social win and manage Netflix’s social presence in the US, Italy, Australia and the Nordics and to help launch Netflix in South Africa.
Our approach was all rooted in a deep knowledge of our user base. We were obsessed with fans. Because we understood our audience we could use junket time with talent to make things our audience really cared about, whether that was Ron Howard narrating fan tweets Arrested Development style, Claire Foy and Matt Smith getting heated about tea, or a 10 hour version of JaJa DingDong. Netflix’s social channels became known as entertainment.
We tore up the community management schedule and made sure our team of writers was online when our audience was, not just from 9 to 5. We empowered them to be bold and stand up for Netflix’s progressive values. This was good news for us, but bad news for trolls. We received on average three marriage proposals per week. We brought more users into the Netflix world. And we kept subscribers in the Netflix family.
Role: Editorial Director, Head of Editorial
Agency: We Are Social
