You might have heard that the advertising industry is ‘cutthroat’, but Netflix is taking that adage to a whole new level with its upfront offering.
The streamer is reportedly putting advertisers and marketers into an interactive “Netflix Experience” where they can experience the shows for themselves, including everyone’s favourite Korean thriller – Squid Games.
The upfronts are taking place at New York’s Pier 59 Studios on May 16. As well as Squid Games, advertisers will be able to walk through rooms and experiences built around series like Stranger Things and Netflix Is A Joke.
Netflix may be new to the ad market but it isn’t afraid to make an impression. As the owner of some of the most hyped global shows in recent times, the streaming giant has an arsenal of creative IPs at its disposal.
This will be the first time that Netflix is holding an in-person upfront. It planned to host a physical presentation last year, however it later scrapped the event due to fears there would be a protest linked to the Hollywood actors and writers strike. It ended up doing a virtual presentation instead.
Headway In The Ad Market
Netflix has begun to make progress in the advertising market since launching its ad tier in November of 2022.
Last week it was announced that Netflix had signed its first global advertising partnership with Expedia.
The multi-market travel campaign will filter through countries including Australia, the United States, Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Brazil. Expedia Group and Netflix also announced that Expedia Group are alpha measurement partners in the United Kingdom and Brazil.
The streamer has made a noticeable shift to a more transparent business model to attract and retain advertisers.
At the end of last year, it released its first publicly released engagement report, What We Watched.
The data drop covers all titles on the platform that had at least 50,000 hours between January 1 and June 30 this year.
“That’s over 18,000 titles, and nearly 100 billion hours, capturing more than 99 per cent of all viewing on Netflix,” Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos said at the time.
Some buyers in Australian were skeptical when Netflix first launched its ad offering, saying the streamer was “building the car as it drives it”.
