Netlix’s Digital Marketing Strategy As Told By Social Media Engagement

 It is well known that Netflix’s twitter responses are often a part of their Instagram strategy. A sassy response, pop culture relevant memes, a hilarious misnomer and politically motivated clap backs are hallmarks of the content giant’s digital marketing strategy – a tactic that has positioned the company well among millennials and the Gen-Z population even when its content has missed the mark. Where other social media accounts shy away from multiple replies, retweets and controversial messaging, Netflix uses this as an opportunity to build community leverage. While these digital marketing strategies are important for customer engagement, they are also an important differentiating factor as streaming wars ensue and media platform competition grows.

 

Vulture Magazine writes brilliantly about one of Netflix’s most recent (and widely successful) campaigns. In September 2020, Netflix kicked off its first-ever global brand campaign, a 27-country promotional effort built around the tagline “One Story Away.” “Netflix will be attaching that phrase to digital, TV, and billboard advertisements around the world, starting with a 90-second video spot that combines clips from more than two dozen of its original titles and narration by different members of the company’s creative family (including director Ava DuVernay in the United States). All of the ads will feature Netflix’s familiar red progress bar, an artistic tool meant to underscore how the progression of a storyline can change how viewers see things.”

This campaign and Netflix’s social media strategy may not seem to have much in common but there is an important digital strategy at play. Netflix has been moving away from a content platform to being a content creator. These strategies of polling users, engaging with them and aggregating existing content allows Netflix to gain further insight into customer preferences (both through A/B testing but also through the volume of responses and the high engagement they receive), which prove vital in the expansion of their content offerings.