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Future of TV Netflix Marketing

Netflix to spend over $1bn on marketing in 2017 to entice subscribers with its originals

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By John McCarthy, Opinion Editor

April 18, 2017 | 3 min read

TV streaming company Netflix is to heavily invest in its marketing drives in 2017 to entice subscribers in a bid to drive it past the 100m members waypoint.

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Netflix to put $1bn into marketing

The company said during its first quarter announcement that it was going to heavily invest in the marketing behind its original shows such as House of Cards season 5 (which was subsequently delayed to a Q2 release). For the $1bn it plans to spend on marketing, about 600% of that will be spent on content.

Furthermore the company said It was going to invest in programmatic ads to help it deliver “the right ad to the right person at the right time”.

The company has relied upon unusual marketing drives to garner attention around Black Mirror, A Series of Unfortunate Events, The Defenders, Orange is the New Black and Narcos. Additionally, it will look to touch down with potential subscribers through its partners, underlining the Comcast Watchathon that ran in April as a prime example.

The company is reliant upon marketing to attract viewers to its exclusive content, to do so it will target potential cable cutters to attract a new generation of viewers still to make the leap to its archives. In the first quarter of 2017, it added $2.5bn of revenue, in addition to attracting 5 million new members, bringing the total to 98.75m.

Along with the announcement, the company announced that it has renewed its deal with Adam Sandler to produce four new films, on the back of news that since joining subscribers have watched half a billion hours of his original content.

From the product side, the company recently abandoned the five star rating system for a simple thumb system which it argues will encourage more reviews and help surface the best content.

Future of TV Netflix Marketing

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