Netflix Taiwan
Stranger Things: Season 3 Launch
THE TASK
Stranger Things Season 3 was about to drop and we needed to come up with a launch campaign in Taiwan to boost viewership of the show.
THE CHALLENGE
Despite it being an instant global phenonemon, Stranger things was struggling to perform in Taiwan, even after 2 seasons, because the horror genre isn’t a popular one amongst locals. With the 3rd season due to release, the pressure was on for the show to finally have a breakthrough in the market.
THE WAY IN
Consumer Truth: Adult loneliness is rampant amongst our target audience in Taiwan, but is rarely spoken about. Taiwanese city life is hectic. In the hustle and bustle of it all, it’s tough to forge new and strong connections with others.
Cultural Insight: There’s a deep love for all things nostalgic in Taiwan, particularly things that reminder them of their carefree younger days - songs, TV shows, movies, snacks, street foods. They, in fact, yearn for the friendships they had in those days and that forms a strong foundation as to why nostalgia appeals to them so much.
The Opportunity: While the reason for Stranger Things’ lack of popularity in the market is because of the understanding that it’s a sci-fi/horror show, what they don’t realise is that at it’s very core it’s a show about strong childhood friendships. We needed to get them to view Stranger Things in a brand new lens; one that was perhaps sepia-tinted and evoked warm, fuzzy feelings.
THE SOLUTION
We created a campaign rooted in 3 things that we knew would be a hit amongst them: Mandopop songs, friendship and karaoke. Together, they formed ‘Sentimental Things’.
Using 5 popular, yesteryear Mandopop songs on the theme of friendship (loyalty, enduring strength, overcoming all odds together), we created a series of sentimental karaoke music videos for these songs using emotional scenes from Stranger Things to prove the point that everyone in Taiwan had gotten it wrong - that Stranger Things has always truly been about the power of friendships.
We then teamed up with popular street buskers in Taipei City to bring these new karaoke music videos to life, and provided branded pop-up collaterals to decorate their spaces. Viewers and passerbys were encouraged to take photos of the buskers and themselves and share them onto social media.
We also ran a social activation, to generate more hype over the music videos, by polling users on which song best spoke to the true strength of friendships.