NETFLIX: TURNING BILLBOARDS INTO BILLIONS OF IMPRESSIONS

Morning!Kick your feet up. Grab yourself a nice iced coffee. It's been a hell of a week. So have a relax whilst you're reading this - you deserve it! I'm currently on a 5-hour drive to Georgia for a week at the beach. So, enjoy my best efforts of trying to concentrate whilst the whole car is chatting.

What you're about to learn:

- How Netflix used billboards for their social campaign.- Why it was a genius decision.- How you can do the same!

Est. Read Time: 5 minutes, 42 seconds

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Company Overview

Valuation: $93 Billion (Source)

Revenue: $29.6 Billion (Source)

I'm not going to bore you by explaining what Netflix is or does. We all know what Netflix is, we all pay for it. You, me and 225 million others. It's the most popular streaming service in the world and they aren't slowing down anytime soon.

HULU, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, and Disney+ have a combined following of 14.5M on Instagram.Netflix on the other hand? 71.5M (across all Instagram accounts).

They aren't just a great streaming service.They're great at social media too.

Here's one of their best social campaigns to date (and it wasn't even on socials):

Breaking Down The Strategy

Over the last 5 years, billboards have been completely written off. Digital marketing has taken over and people are too busy shouting about it to pay attention to a billboard on the side of the road. But honestly, it's no surprise when most OOH campaigns don't provide the ROI that digital alternatives do.

Or at least they didn't...Until people started adding a social side to their OOH marketing. Now let me show you how...

Back in 2020, Netflix purchased a billboard out in Hollywood and added the message shown above.

Netflix's Head of Brand explained that the idea for the campaign came from the marketing team's search for "New avenues to reflect fan conversation and talk about titles and talent."

But those conversations weren't expected to be had whilst standing staring at the billboard. They were intended to be had on social media. This wasn't an OOH campaign, it was a social one.

Which is clearly shown by the way Netflix comes up with the messages for the campaigns, again this was explained by Somers (Head Of Brand):

The photo you just saw was Netflix's first test of the idea. They thew up a message, in very un-spectacular black text. Then they took photos and shared them as perfect bite-size pieces of content across their socials.

And I don't say perfect lightly, the message is the most important thing here:- It's empowering- It's easily relatable- It has personality- It gives the brand a storyBut most of all...- It's shareable.

The photo went viral on - test completed. So, Netflix continued to utilise the billboard for further social campaigns.A topic from one of their shows is going viral on Twitter? The next day they'll have a message around the topic on the billboard. Example: The film "Don't Look Up" was gaining traction on socials. The next day Netflix had the following up (a reference to the film).

It might not seem like much, but it's genius for a few reasons:1. Connection with consumers 

The campaign allows Netflix to deepen their connection with customers in an extremely unique way. Everyone is talking about Steve from Stranger Things? Netflix adds a message saying "Protect Steve". Now, Netflix is able to get involved with the conversation. Not to mention, just look at those analytics (on FB by the way).

2. Push Shows

No one likes to be out of the loop. So when all your friends are reposting a billboard saying "Protect Steve" on their socials, and you have no idea what's going on - what are you going to do? Go watch Stranger Things of course. There's no better way to convince someone to do something than FOMO.

3. Making Them The OG's(Look at me using these trendy terms!) The billboard style is clearly mirrored off the old  American cinema billboards that tell you what film is playing. Why does this matter? Because it associates them with that era as if they've been around forever. It's the perfect mix of "cool kid" messaging and "old and trustworthy" presentation. Netflix wants to be the "Ford" of the industry - not the "Rivian" (Rivian are like a bad version of Tesla). 

I know what you're wondering though... how well does the billboard REALLY do on socials.The answer: Pretty damn good!It's estimated their Hollywood billboard alone has generated 850 million impressions across socials.Nearly 1 billion people seeing a billboard? Completely unheard of, but that's the power of social media!

There isn't just Netflix usign this billboad to social media strategy. I swear I see a new viral billboard campaign every day - especially on LinkedIn. 

Here are a couple of my favourites:

Nike - 3D Billboard: We're seeing these 3D billboards go viral DAILY on social. The ad plays for 15 seconds on the billboard but is played millions of times across socials.

Harry Dry - Kanye West Story: Harry put these billboards up for 24 hours in 4 locations and they instantly went viral on socials.  

Thursday - Taking Over London: Not sure how long these stayed up, but it was a combined campaign to "Turn London Pink". These billboards went MEGA viral on good old LinkedIn.

Are billboards back now they're being used for social campaigns? Or are they just a passing fad?Who knows.

What I do know though, is right now, using billboards for social campaigns is WORKING!

We've seen what other brands are doing, but let's be honest, the thing you're bothered about is how you can do the same.So let's have it!

How To Implement It

You don't have to reinvent the wheel. The strategy has been laid out for you. It works. So, the only thing you need to think about is what you want to put on the billboard.

It's also much easier and cheaper than you'd think too. I pulled this price chart from Harry Dry's breakdown of his "Kanye Story". They are from a few years back so maybe they're a little bit more expensive now - inflation and all that.

I can't tell you exactly what to put on your billboard, but I can give you some things to think about:

• How can you get off the fence? Virality doesn't come from sitting on the fence.

• What's trending? Netflix is constantly changing their billboards to fit what people are talking about.

• What will help drive traffic to your site? There's no point having a viral campaign if it leads to nothing.

And some important requirements:

• It's on brand - the last thing you want is for it to misrepresent you.

• It's targeting your audience - there's no point having a campaign that kids love when you're selling to people 50+

• You don't get cancelled!!! - a genuine consideration in these times. Don't trade your reputation for a few likes.

I know this is a little bit broad. So if you want specific advice, just reply to this email - I promise I'll reply :)Right, that's all for today!I'm going to finish watching UFC London in peace. Your dearly beloved, — Niall

P.S. What did you think of this one? Top work Niall / It was alright / Wish I never read it

This has been a breakdown of Netflix's Billboard marketing strategy. I hope you have learned something and can implement a similar strategy in your business!

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