Staying Original - How Netflix Continues to Innovate

Netflix has been known for disrupting its industry since its inception. Sorry, Blockbuster! But they also leverage creative marketing for continued growth of their business. Netflix marketing focuses on promoting their content rather than their service.

In 2013, Netflix launched its first original content series, House of Cards. After finding it to be successful, they’ve made numerous original series and movies, including the crime drama Narcos. Narcos was initially launched in 2015 and by popular demand was renewed for two more seasons. In 2018, instead of creating a fourth season, Netflix released a spin-off series called Narcos: Mexico.

To support the launch of the new show, Netflix created a short promotional video on their Indian YouTube channel. The video is a spoof of Narcos: Mexico centered around a group of friends making plans for a trip to Goa.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Ny6o7tnBCc

The video takes inspiration from the Netflix original, matching the dramatic, dark cinematic feel. The opening scene starts with a young Indian man watching Narcos: Mexico who asking his friend what the plans are for the weekend. The main character creates a group message to initiate plans. The group chat conversation is depicted as a serious round table discussion. When the Goa plans start to go awry, the characters even take direct advice from the show to convince their friends to go along with their plans. “Some people respond to numbers, some people respond to flattery”

As the second most populous country, there is a lot of opportunity for Netflix in India. However, Netflix has to compete with other more established competitors in the Indian streaming space like Hotstar, YouTube, and Amazon. To keep up, Netflix has started to create more original content in Indian languages and create unique promotional material like this spoof. The promo video for Narcos: Mexico appeals to Indian audiences with a cast of up-and-coming actors, recognizable to viewers.

Netflix is successful because they consistently keep their audience top of mind when creating viewable content for their platform to new marketing promotions. When creating content it’s important to always keep the audience as the focus of your efforts.

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