Netflix is now making money, but its problem is that a 13% growth rate actually represents a slowing down, so the markets aren’t particularly happy and share prices reflect this. The streamer has also struggled to find new, water-cooler hits recently, which hasn’t helped its creative profile with industry types, so there’s been a reactive clear-out of executives.
All of which makes this statement campaign by Mother, in partnership with Netflix’s Brand Creative Studio, an important moment for the streamer. The result is three big budget commercials that show just how far people will go to watch their favourite shows, while encouraging viewers to “Find the thing you never knew you needed.”
“Axoloti” is a widescreen, wildlife showcase:
“Hypersleep” is a new take on 2016 sci-fi romance, Passengers, but this time with a mission to watch K-Pop Demon Hunters:
“Dawn” is inspired by old horror with a nod to more recent shows like What We Do in the Shadows:
Aarti Thiagarajan, senior director at Netflix Brand Creative Studio, said: “People come to Netflix trusting they’ll discover something new to love, often something they didn’t see coming. We wanted to celebrate that moment when you get hooked. So we started with the things real fans do, like staying up for one more episode or blowing up the group chat about a new obsession, and turned them into a campaign as entertaining as the shows and films that inspire them. Because once you find the thing you never knew you needed, it’s hard to imagine life without it.”
Nick Hallbery, ECD at Mother, said: “A brand platform for Netflix had to represent the quality and craft that goes into every piece of entertainment featured on the service. ‘Find The Thing You Never Knew You Needed’ gave us permission to make three films that feel completely different – different worlds, different genres, different kinds of obsession – but all deliver that same feeling of finding something you weren’t looking for and suddenly not being able to let it go. Quintessentially Netflix, crafted in a quintessentially Netflix fashion.”
Netflix is in search of a hit show, and in the meantime, these three ads show at least they know good creative when they see it.
MAA creative scale: 8
