As part of my large blog following (Hi Mum!) you may notice that a lot of the adverts and marketing I talk about are things I’ve seen online and not on ‘traditional’ TV. A client got my thinking why this is.
Speaking with him this week, he has just become a Netflix user and has chosen House Of Cards for his first thing to watch. He thinks it’s a great series but what he thinks is even better, is that there are no adverts. A show which would last about an hour on ‘normal TV’ lasts only 40 minutes on Netflix. This, he thinks (and I doubt he’s alone), is amazing. He can watch 2, maybe 3 episodes after dinner and before bedtime.
We moved on from how amazing it is having no adverts to all the different series you can watch. I recommended a fair few to him and told him to also look out for Netflix adverts and trailers.
The reason I recommended this is that Netflix have become very clever in advertising their shows, as they’ve realised that the viewer is smart. We’re bored of being sold to, told why to watch things, facts and figures. For the viewer it’s all about feeling. It’s about experience. I explained that I got into watching Orange Is The New Black purely from an advert I’d seen online. It was Ricky Gervais – Superfan. It made me chuckle so much that when I next saw OITNB pop up on Netflix I started watching, and watching and watching…
With the next season of House of Cards just round the corner I wondered what they’d do to promote it. I’ve seen the trailer which already has me excited to watch, but I saw a clip online about the show taking over the Presidential Debate on TV.
The advert aired in the break of the debate announcing Frank Underwood’s Re-election campaign #FU2016. It looked so ‘real’ that before Kevin Spacey appears, you could be forgiven for thinking it’s genuine.
As evolved consumers this was a perfect way to get people watching in anticipation.
https://youtu.be/Se44ed4KBMA
