Monday, February 18, 2019

Winner take all Marketing at Netflix

Netflix is on a warpath to disrupt the film and movie industry as we know it, yet some of the marketing decisions made by the company can become a new norm for other digital platforms and film studios to spend their marketing budgets. 
First off, the amount of original content created by Netflix (and subsidized by shareholders while the company barely makes any money) stood at staggering $10 billion in 2018 and over 700 original shows and films were created/aired last year. The marketing budget is expected to grow more than 50% to $2 billion annually. Yet the company, similar to movie studios, is betting on the movie and TV shows ahead of time. The debut of "Stranger Things" was preceded by $50 million advertising blitzing campaign on Facebook and Netflix estimated to spend close to $25 million for "Roma" Oscar campaign. While other shows barely get any coverage and most of them never show up on users Netflix front page or get any meaningful coverage.
While Netflix has found many creative ways to spend its marketing dollars, it so far shunned promoting its own content before the start of its shows, whereas HBO and Amazon Prime run those commercials before the start of their shows.
Netflix has to walk a careful line with producers since the marketing department with a few in charge might alienate many of those content creators who are not getting any coverage yet usually Netflix demands quick turnaround for their shows and films. Amazon Prime, Hulu, and other streaming services can steal away this "disgruntled" talent if Netflix continues to bet in a big way on a few horses.

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