Netflix, a top creative agency in the world of online video streaming, wins the Internet every year on April Fool’s day with their genius, indirect social media marketing strategies. You see, most companies take their brand development strategies straight to Twitter or to Facebook to start a discussion, but Netflix’s brand development strategy instead lets the discussion begin on its own.
How? With really great gags that people can’t not talk about online. Here are their two most brilliant social media marketing stunts.
2013’s Fake Genre Suggestions.
The first of Netflix’s Internet-winning social media marketing strategies debuted in 2013. The movie streaming service included a cycle of different implausible movie and TV categories on the homepage. Each time users logged in, they’d find a category, like “Movies That Are In English But Still Require Subtitles,” “Reality TV About People With No Concept Of Reality,” “When You Watch Netflix, It Watches You,” “Movies Featuring An Epic Nicolas Cage Meltdown,” or “Movies Featuring Fruits, Vegetables and Fungi.”
Some categories, like “Movies Starring Estelle Getty And Some Other Guy,” were only one movie suggestion featured tons of times. In this case, it was “Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot,” starring Estelle Getty and Sylvester Stallone (the other guy).
2014’s Phony Original Content.
For their April Fool’s Day 2014 social media marketing strategy, Netflix decided to ride the wave of their original content, which had been met with critical acclaim by releasing two pieces of original content: a 73-minute film titled “Rotisserie Chicken,” and the 20-minute short “Sizzling Bacon.”
Given the context of this social media marketing tactic, you’ve probably already guessed it, but each film only showed the titular food cooking for the entire length of the video.
While such social media marketing tactics can only be gotten away with on a day like April Fool’s Day, there is a lesson to be learned. If you want your social media marketing strategy to succeed, you’ve got to do something that will make people talk — something that will start a buzz. See this link for more.
