#NetflixCinema, the Home Theater
May 20th is National Streaming Day, and Netflix cannot afford to lose any more ground to Disney+, Paramount+, Hulu, and Peacock. There are many competitors in 2021 who are competing for subscribers from Netflix. Consumers are not going to pay for all of the streaming services at once, especially when consumers have been leaving cable in droves to avoid paying large amounts of money for televised entertainment.
In light of the COVID pandemic, the market for home streaming applications is larger than ever before. Additionally, new televisions are becoming less expensive, and many consumers who can are making the living room their new theatres.
Netflix is doing what they can to acquire and develop additional content. Meanwhile, the social media team will do what they can to regain ground against the competition and remind consumers of why they need Netflix. In this scenario, Netflix is setting a goal of increasing total subscribers by 1% by the end of the second quarter.
In the second quarter, Netflix needs to increase social media engagement for the purpose of demonstrating that a large number of people are remaining with Netflix and have no plans of going any where.
The social media team’s goal for the second quarter is to have 500,000 Instagram posts with the hashtag #NetflixCinema. The original idea was to use #NetflixTheater, but there might be confusion and multiple posts with #NetflixTheatre instead. While the focus would be on Instagram, due to the platform’s size and function, we should also plan for the campaign to be active on Twitter as well, where we will share different content related to the challenge.
The challenge promoted would be for people to share a picture of where they watch Netflix with a title of a show or movie that they are watching on Netflix, for a chance to win $10,000. This way, Netflix is able to reuse and share user generated content, continuing the promotion of the challenge. The peak effort of the challenge will include the purchase of some advertising on Instagram on May 19th. May 19th is the day prior, but is also a Wednesday, the day where most Instagram users check on their accounts.
For instance, an Instagram user can share a picture of their laptop in their bedroom or their family room entertainment setup and include that they are watching the new show Shadow and Bone on Netflix, including the hashtag.
The goal of reaching 500,000 Instagram posts with #NetflixCinema would have to be met by June 30th, 2021. Selection of a winner for the contest can occur that day as well.
How do we measure our success and whether or not the Netflix investment is worth the effort? We can measure the metrics of our Instagram and Twitter campaigns, and through a bit of analysis, we will see if our efforts were worth while.
The number of impressions will let us know in how many feeds we were present, and the number of likes, retweets, comments, and replies will let us know in how many opportunities we were successful. The engagement rate will let us know that they are paying attention to what Netflix is doing and that they are still with Netflix. The key here is for the Netflix social media team to read through the comments on the posts and gauge qualitative measurement, such as overall sentiment in replies and comments.
One of the true measures of success will be how many posts include the hashtag, as it will show social media users the examples of content on Netflix, along with the various ways that people watch on the service.
Return on investment would be measured by calculating the increase in revenue from new subscribers, reducing it by the cost of the prize money, advertising and overhead for the campaign, and dividing that new number by the cost of the prize, advertising, and overhead. Efforts made to reduce the cost would include encouraging users to generate content and asking them for permission to share that user generated content, as well as limiting advertising to peak times and days.
Overall, social media will help the overall business goals as the challenge will serve as customer vocalized satisfaction with Netflix. Netflix can also determine the direct effect on new subscriptions with a quick survey asking new customers where they heard about Netflix. The #NetflixCinema challenge can prove to be a great way of increasing engagement to support the overall business goal.
