For Lee, the marketing magic lies in listening carefully to what fans are talking about on social, particularly TikTok where Netflix has 35 different accounts and “billions of impressions.”
“We have an engaged fanbase across our social channels globally,” she added. “Our teams are so connected to what each of our fandoms are doing and saying in these channels, so they’re able to spot something that’s bubbling from far away and capitalize on that.”
“We don’t do the same thing on every channel; what works on TikTok might not take off Instagram,” she said, noting the latter was a platform for discovery based on internal TikTok data that found 52% of users had discovered a new actor, movie or TV show on the platform.
In turn, this interactive relationship with followers is influencing not just what happens on Netflix (TikTok virality drove Margaret Qualley series Maid to skyrocket back up the Netflix charts a year and a half after its release), but also its future marketing strategy.
Case in point: the Wednesday TikTok dance challenge, inspired by a scene where lead Jenna Ortega performs an eccentric dance routine to the 1981 single “Goo Goo Muck” by The Cramps. Ortega’s choreography inspired fans to recreate the routine using a sped-up version of Lady Gaga’s 2011 song “Bloody Mary.”
Netflix isn’t afraid to take risks. We work fast and pivot if we see something else working better.
Marian Lee, CMO, Netflix
Gaga got involved in the discourse with her own interpretation and subsequently, the track was used to announce Season 2. “The team here is incredible at pulling that thread the whole way through. They don’t just let conversations happen online … they push the momentum straight back to Netflix,” Lee said.
Lee has also been focused on bringing conversations off-screen and offline by investing in physical events tied to original Netflix shows, making the imaginary world real.
These have included immersive soirees such as The Queen’s Ball: A Bridgerton Experience, which is currently accepting guests in 10 cities across the U.S., and Squid Game: The Trials, a live interpretation of the dystopian game show-style competition featured in the Korean blockbuster series.
