Netflix India: Successful Social Media Marketing Strategies and Implementation

Netflix announced their India entry in December 2015 with a premium pricing ranging from INR 500-800 per month, giving users the quality that they pay for.

Netflix being a newcomer had its share of competitors to work with, and by the time when Netflix India made the announcement, Hotstar had already made its debut on February 2015 with the Indian web version, where they were working with the deeply rooted Star Group of India and boasted in Hindi and other Regional titles.

Netflix took 18 years to become Netflix India, and when they announced their presence in India they had an already existing competition in the web showcasing platform. To this, Netflix had a marketing agenda to tap on and went about sorting out marketing strategies which have helped them a lot in tapping the Indian audience.

With competitors on the web platform and a premium pricing, Netflix’s strategy took the route of native social media and content strategy to get into the minds and favors of the Indian audience. The strategy involved Netflix using their customized communications and imbibing that in their social media presence.

Netflix’s box is fairly limited, they have their Originals. Keeping this intact, Netflix added a new look to them with intentions to grab the social presence of minds and by far they have managed to turn tables with this, lets us see how.

Netflix Played Well with the Desi Look

Netflix is foreign by birth to India, and foreigners in the Indian soil are either immensely loved or hated. The same was for Netflix and at the time of its debut, Netflix position was nearing the fag end of hate. However, the present Netflix scenario is a proof that Netflix reckoned to change of all of those presumptions.

Taking a desi style feel, Netflix went on in creating a brand of theirs with contents tailored for its Indian audience. The first beginning of Netflix India started with an interaction with the Indian audience, for which they had devoted a whole global Facebook page. This was created similar to the global Netflix account, here Netflix India went on candid and dramatically Indianizing their tone.

So there was this scene when an Indian customer threw a shade over Netflix’s #LifeWithoutNetflix on Twitter, to which Netflix counteracted in a very desi manner

Another desi look took Netflix a notch higher with their Indian feels. Netflix took the Andaz Apna Apna GIFs and did a Narcos Mehendi (henna) design.

Netflix Used Influencer Marketing

When Netflix entered India they did not have the luxury of what the other OTT platforms like Hotstar, Sony LIV and Voot had on the television or the digital network for getting marketed. Netflix had to create an independent network so as to reach to their Indian TG.

Coming to a marketing strategy that would benefit them the most, Netflix chose the path of influence marketing. Netflix joined hands with the YouTube creators as their influencers, considering them to be one of the top influencers as supported by Sprout Social in their survey with this statistic image.

Netflix looped with micro-celebrities, mostly famous on YouTube and outside of it as well, and had them featured in their digital campaigns. The microcelebrities lists as stand-up comedians, the cast of popular web-series and more, and here Netflix’s aim was to reach their loyal fans (or customers).

• The very first campaign in this did a video duo feature of Sumeet Vyas and Nidhi Singh, who had charmed the Indian audience with their popular web series, Permanent Roommates. The duo charmed the audience in this brand video of Serial Killer.

• • Not very soon after this, came Tanmay Bhatt feature in the Netflix’s Original Narcos ad. With Tanmay’s fan following base and immense acting skills, this ad had gathered great audience reach

• The latest similar ads were the ad marketing starter campaign of Alok Nath and Biswa Kalyan Rath for the new season of House of Cards. For this, Netflix had done a precise summary with an intertwining storyline featuring Alok Nath as the father and Biswa the son. This ad received critics’ acclamation.

A similar approach like the ones discussed was taken up by YouTube last year in their #SeeSomethingNew campaign, they had influencers like Nisha Madhulika, Vidya Vox and Geeky Ranjit.

Netflix’s Real Conversations in Real Time

Netflix gamed up their presence showing their existence to competitors and others like them with spontaneous and downright witty banters.

For the fourth season of House of Cards, Netflix had put up a poster similar to the one created by Hotstar for On Air with AIB. This for sure nudged Hotstar to voice on, and not shying away from the conversation Netflix had taken this up to a real conversation in real time.

In a recent happening, Bengaluru Police tweeted this Narcos meme to target the drug peddlers.

Netflix, on the other hand, saw this tweet and jumped into a conversation with the Bengaluru Police

Netflix’s Originals Banking

The OTT industry in India is severely competitive, with popular platforms such as Amazon Prime Videos, Hotstar, Spull, etc. Netflix, on the other hand, has surprisingly picked up well with the Indian audience, even with having an edge on their Originals. Most of Netflix’s hit series, when advertised with Indian flavors, have fairly presented themselves well to the audience.

When Netflix had done the ad of Alok Nath and Biswa for promoting House of Cards and series of other videos were also done in promoting the latest season of House of Cards, there was backflip where those who haven’t seen the previous season pointed them out as revealing spoilers.

Netflix looked up at how things turned and released another video featuring Boman Irani. Another video was again released where they featured comedian Karan Talwar and actor Varun Thakur showing Varun as a struggling actor ignorant about the House of Cards.

An upcoming Original film, War Machine starring Brad Pitt has Netflix popularising the move in India by looping with Shahrukh Khan and Rohan Joshi who are influencers in their own right. Netflix makes itself that one stage and screen bringing together SRK and Brad Pitt, the two huge stars of the world.

In the video, Rohan gets a good word around War Machine. He creates a curiosity with the film by bringing some interesting questions for Brad Pitt.

The biggest strength that Netflix banks upon is its Originals, Netflix has been gaining wide popularity and viewer engagement in terms of social popularity and success. Now for Netflix to gain their active users, a long run is still there to go. The future of Netflix will be worth watching as in seeing how Netflix handles its premium pricing with other competitive pricing and how they take their social success and turns into business leads.

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