digital social experiment for good
NETFLIX
Situation
Netflix came to Kate, at Zeno Group, wanting to generate buzz around young adult show releases to stretch their cultural relevance and time in the spotlight. The show they wanted us to release? 13 Reasons Why.
challenge
13 Reasons Why was destined to cause a stir on its own based on the show’s content. Netflix had psychologists involved warning them about the mental health danger of releasing a show about suicide. Our challenge quickly became — how do we make this show release a cultural moment that did good?
insight
Even though parents are supposed to be “in charge”, they often lose confidence in their parenting skills as soon as their kids become teens.
Strategy
Show parents that empathizing with their kids is parenting them.
Solution
By encouraging parents to take a “Walk in Their Shows”, we offered up an approachable way for parents to start tough conversations with their kids by consuming and reacting to the same streaming content.
We designed the work to have legs beyond a single release announcement. The omni-channel approach was three-pronged.
We started with our insight, and developed mediagenic research which validated the thinking. We got our first round of buzz by releasing the research to the media and through social media.
Then we followed up by conducting a social experiment video where we cast real parents and teens, had them watch the show at the same time, but apart, and we captured their reactions after the screening. The video was also released to media, Netflix influencers and on Netflix’s social media channels with paid dollars behind it.
Finally, when the show released, we gave parents a guide on how to talk to their teens about the show via various digital content, extending the legs of the campaign. This content was released to influencers and on social channels.
Even though the campaign generated hundreds of millions media impressions, the biggest success was steering the conversation about the release to a place of constructive positivity and relevance, where it could have easily become notorious.
Digital Creative Assets
Digital flow chart to help parents have conversations
Digital inline ad conveying survey results