To boost its presence in Brazil, Netflix created a new award for the local market, using Facebook as its platform to amplify the campaign. This case study looks at how the video streaming firm generated social media buzz with a strong local campaign.
• Netflix creates local awards to generate social media buzz
• People voted on a movie through the Facebook app or Twitter a corresponding award lit up on the Facebook page
• Boosted content with promoted Page posts, then standard ads drove traffic to the app to boost votes
• Netflix Brazil Facebook Page fan base increased by 18% over six weeks during camapign
The challenge
Netflix wanted to add some local taste to its Brazilian catalogue. That's why it chose 10 independent movies to compete for the Netflix Award. The winning film would become available around the world by becoming part of the Netflix global catalogue.
The solution
Agency R/GA Buenos Aires developed a trophy built with Arduino technology that lit up when people voted for the movies through Facebook or Twitter.
During the Kinoforum Festival of Cinematography in São Paulo, Netflix gave one of these trophies to each one of the selected movies' directors.
Every time people voted on a movie through the Facebook app or Twitter, the corresponding award lit up and the total voting score of the film would be reflected on the app. The directors could track the voting progress in real time.
Facebook ads were used to achieve two objectives: reach and traffic. First, we boosted the content with promoted Page posts. Then we started with standard ads to drive traffic to the app. Once we had a base of fans, we used app ads (sponsored stories) for even more impact.
Results
Netflix turned a few seconds of excitement that any award can provide into a technological, fun and social experience that lasted more than a month.
The Netflix Brazil Facebook Page fan base increased by 18% over six weeks during August-September 2013. Stats rose significantly across the board*:
• daily People Talking About Netflix Brazil rose by 12,950
• daily new Likes: 177
• daily Page engaged users: 158
• daily total reach: 3,656
• daily organic reach: 207,538
• daily total impressions: 9,342
• daily organic impressions: 308,920
• daily viral impressions: 6,533
• daily viral reach of Page posts: 830,413
• daily total impression of the posts: 3,272
• daily organic impression of the posts: 310,968
There was ample coverage in local media: it reached all major newspapers (Folha, Estadão and O Globo), the major weekly magazine (Veja), one of the largest portals in Latin America (UOL), among others (R7, G1, Omelete), and newspapers from other regions in the country (Tribuna do Norte, A Tarde, Hoje em Dia), as well as Variety and AFP news agency. In terms of volume, 56 articles were published.
