A Fan-Driven Netflix Immersed Advertisers in Its Biggest Hits at Cannes Lions

There was no shortage of eye-catching beach installations and pop-up activities to lure advertisers’ attention during this year’s Cannes Lions festival. Overlooking the bustle down on the Croisette was a giant red ‘N’ perched atop the JW Marriot. There, Netflix set up home for the second year running, with one objective: to treat advertisers as they treat their consumers, like fans. 

“We are a consumer-friendly brand and we like to think of our consumers like fans,” said Magno Herran, Netflix’s vice president of global marketing partnerships. “What better way than to communicate with our advertisers who, by the way, are also fans, the exact same way that we do with our actual fans? That’s why everything we do is experiential.”

The rooftop space was transformed into multiple areas inspired by Netflix’s global roster of shows, with help from independent experiential agency, Seen Presents. There was a boulangerie by day and champagne bar by night, courtesy of ‘Emily in Paris’; a romantic, wisteria-draped swing and old-timey photo booth in the style of ‘Bridgerton’; the iconic living room from ‘Stranger Things’; and plenty of games inspired by Netflix’s varied sports shows. Each of the vignettes was clearly designed for social sharing by allowing fans to step into and interact with the settings and objects they know and love, even Thing (that’s the autonomous hand) from the smash hit ‘Wednesday’. 

The selection of represented shows, or “streams” as Netflix bills them, was deliberately global to address and acknowledge the global demographic of its audience and Cannes Lions’ attendees. When setting up the space, the team “literally [thought] what would we do for a fan? Let’s do the same thing for our advertisers,” Magno said. 

Sport had a big presence and Magno confirmed that it is “a big initiative” for Netflix. “We wanted to tell the drama behind the actual sports and introduce our audience to the athletes and tell their stories,” he explained. “We did the PGA show [‘Full Swing’], we did tennis [‘Break Point’], F1 [‘Drive to Survive’], and you start to get a glimpse of who these people are. And that has brought in a new audience.” This strategy has definitely been a hit, especially with ‘Drive to Survive’, which created a new audience for the sport among women and introduced F1 to America. 

“We thought about the sports moment that fans are going to care about and how we can give them more. So we did a Nadal versus Alcaraz match [‘The Netflix Slam’] in Las Vegas which is exactly what fans want. We’re growing into the sports space and we’re applying the same filters: how do we act as fans of sports?,” he added. 

Netflix’s presence at last year’s festival went so well that the team didn’t need to mess with the formula too much this time, with the location becoming “quite iconic” for them. Magno concluded: “We just improved on it by making small tweaks on the concept which is ‘experience Netflix’ versus ‘let us tell you about it’.”