Ahead of Tudum 2022, IndieWire spoke with Netflix CMO Marian Lee about her movie marketing system, “Squid Recreation,” and getting where the admirers are.
Netflix followers are about to have a busy weekend, and so is Netflix main promoting officer Marian Lee. On Saturday, the streaming giant’s Tudum admirer party will quintuple in sizing and go world.
Tudum began in January 2020 as an in-human being occasion in a person market place, São Paulo, Brazil. The Covid pandemic disrupted that whole in-person detail, but on September 24 the function is again — and it’s supersized.
Named for the streaming service’s commence-up seem, Tudum is now made up of five gatherings from close to the entire world, offering “more articles, additional demonstrates and motion pictures, far more talent,” and yes, “more information to crack,” as Lee reported in a phone interview with IndieWire.
Tudum is Netflix’s D23 and its Disney+ Working day rolled into just one. It’s not rather San Diego Comic-Con, but Tudum serves as a strong — and managed — complement to existing admirer conventions. “I wouldn’t say we really do not glimpse at all those situations, but we’re truly seeking to put our individual mark on some thing,” Lee explained. “What do we have which is definitely special below? We, just in the very last 10 decades, have actually created this enormous library of I.P. and franchises.”
Those people involve the mega-hits “Stranger Issues,” “Bridgerton,” “Squid Recreation,” and “The Witcher,” all of which will be represented at Tudum 2022. “We’re really just hoping to provide all those people fandoms jointly, celebrate them, give them a way to join straight to talent,” she mentioned. “We could possibly be debuting factors they have not witnessed right before, any sort of exclusives.”
Assembling all of that can result in inner “chaos” for her workforce, Lee acknowledged: “It’s kind of like ‘A Beautiful Mind’ mapping it out on a wall.”
“Squid Game” Year 1.
Netflix
“Squid Game” continues to be Netflix’s largest-ever world wide strike, which helps clarify why this year’s Tudum kicks off in Korea, the place the collection originated. A demonstrate like that will promote itself for the approaching Period 2, but launching a new sequence is where Lee’s advertising and marketing group can definitely glow. Even viral sensations can use a encouraging hand Lee’s toolbox contains a B.A. in Psychology from Barnard Faculty at Columbia College and 8 several years as a prime Spotify advertising govt.
The South Korean smash, which amassed a mind-numbing 1.65 billion several hours considered in its 1st 28 times, “definitely experienced marketing,” Lee reported. In other terms, the “Squid Game” achievements didn’t just occur by phrase of mouth. “It had advertising all close to the planet. Now, was [the viewership level] sudden in selected markets? Like, did we imagine it was heading to resonate as a great deal as it did in the U.S.?” she claimed. “Certainly not at the start off.”
But Netflix’s Korean advertising crew laid the “really amazing groundwork,” Lee told us, which include complete-set buildouts in the biggest nearby office shops. There was “bespoke marketing and advertising all in excess of Asia,” she ongoing, and when the exhibit definitely begun to get off, Lee’s UCAN (United States and Canada, which is what she ran at the time) workforce ramped up its efforts to “take the heat on this just one.”
And it was smoking very hot. “That’s when you observed times currently being established, and activations, and the costumes everywhere you go,” she explained.
“The Gray Man” activation at San Diego Comic-Con.
Hitchhiker Pics for Netflix
In discussion, you can explain to how a lot Lee digs a superior activation. 1 of her latest favorites was tied to “The Gray Person,” the significant-price range (primarily for Netflix) spy-vs.-spy flick starring Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans that had a a single-7 days theatrical run before premiering on the SVOD provider (which will quickly include an AVOD tier).
At this summer’s Comic-Con, Netflix designed an expertise that gave followers the encounter of becoming Six (Gosling) and Lloyd Hansen (Evans). In San Diego, followers boarded a bogus tram that bogus crashed into a pretend developing, just like a “Grey Man” scene that took spot in the Prague metropolis centre. They completed challenges to move from one particular vehicle to the up coming just before escaping to the prime of the tram, with subwoofers, rumblers, and jump scares improving the episode.
“The Gray Gentleman,” which is Netflix’s fourth most-well known motion picture on file, is a franchise that will extend with a sequel and spinoff sequence. For the movie(s), Lee is content adequate with the short significant-screen choice, but it’s not her choice.
“Netflix is the place that we want admirers to watch movies that they love, or sit down with their family members to enjoy a new movie,” she claimed. And so much, so good on the Netflix way of marketing and advertising films — which is, to say, not undertaking a lot promoting at all.
“From a marketing and advertising point of view, what we’re performing is different than big studios” who are “trying to offer a ticket,” Lee claimed. “But, again, we’re hoping to drum up anticipation and enjoyment for our [movies] so that persons can in the long run check out them on Netflix. [We’re] not concentrated on acquiring them into the theaters for the small run… for the (awards clearly show) qualifiers. To me, our followers are on Netflix and which is what they prefer.”
A zoomed out check out of Netflix’s “Gray Man” activation at SDCC.
Hitchhiker Photographs for Netflix
Tudum Korea kicks off Saturday at 11 a.m. KST, which is 10 p.m. ET Friday (or 7 p.m. PT). The “Global Supporter Event” portion starts with Aspect 1 at 1 p.m. ET/10 a.m. PT on Saturday. Element 2 starts 90 minutes afterwards.
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