What Judd Apatow did for freaks and geeks, he did for Love - the quirky Netflix dramedy series in which Los Angeles hipsters navigate the tricky waters of interpersonal relationships in the modern era. Filled with his unique blend of warmth, humor and insight, this untraditional love story is targeted to the same upscale, sophisticated audience that turned his Girls, Trainwreck, Bridesmaids and more into ratings and box-office success.
It was imperative to get the digital marketing right to help drive viewership and gain new subscribers. Conveying the show’s subtle, dry sense of humor without resorting to dialogue would be a challenge, especially in international markets. Netflix turned to our agency as a digital partner who could help communicate the specific tone of the show whilst meeting the needs of the global market as well as the exacting standards of Apatow.
Achieving these goals and solving this storytelling challenge required a great deal of strategic forethought and planning. We began conspiring in October in anticipation of the February premiere, ideating on how early print and A/V concepts could be extended into the digital space. This “digital first” thinking enabled Netflix and all of their creative agencies to hone in on the marketing concepts that would work best across different mediums.
Once the concepts were selected, we developed and directed a green screen video shoot with the talent (as part of a larger special shoot effort coordinated between multiple creative agencies) to create a library of setups that could be used in all aspects of the digital campaign. Based on our ideas for takeovers and banners, we captured the characters awkwardly “never catching each other’s eye” along with a variety of emotions and gestures that could be woven into digital and social gold.
Once the shoot was complete, we went to work creating banners, takeovers, mobile units and digital billboards.
We began by creating a global dynamic “toolkit” so our banners could be modified to meet the individual needs of all international territories. Unique to our work for Love, these units resolved to a title treatment that featured a “never-ending endframe”, which had not been done before. Because this feature wouldn’t be allowed on all publishers, we ensured that it could be turned on or off dynamically, or set to play upon user rollover as a fallback option.
To maximize Netflix’s marketing dollars, all of the videos within the online media campaign were hosted on YouTube. Using this innovative approach, we coded the units to detect the user’s bandwidth to deliver the most appropriate resolution.
We created a custom piece for RollingStone.com. A video wall unit featured an intro video with character videos on the left and right of the masthead, custom shot to appear as though they were reacting to the ad’s content. As the motion plays out, animated arrows appear and introduce them by name.
We created a cinematic pin for Pinterest that animates on user scroll. As the user scrolls down the page, the custom pin features an animated version of the title treatment with each letter displaying a revolving set of animated icons. Once clicked, the piece resolves to the two main characters walking across the screen with the title animation playing behind them.
Netflix’s Love became a fan favorite and critical hit, and was quickly renewed for season 2.