How AKQA channelled Netflix's core beliefs into the brand's first global OOH campaign
Diego Machado and Hugo Veiga, Global Chief Creative Officers at AKQA, had been working with Netflix since 2014, and the brief for the streaming platform’s first ever global brand campaign landed on their desk in 2020, right before the pandemic. The resulting campaign included a series of out-of-home billboards in over 27 countries around the world.
The concept of One Story Away was made more poignant by Netflix’s growing role in its audience’s lives during the pandemic, but, as Veiga and Machado explain, a successful marketing campaign should be informed by its context, not rely on it. The campaign scored three Pencils at the 2021 D&AD Awards, including a Yellow Pencil for Art Direction. Here, Veiga and Machado talk about what it takes to create a global OOH campaign that speaks to more than a handful of people, and how a great marketing campaign has the potential to change working practices for the better.
Tapping into global networks to tailor the campaign
“Netflix was our founding client when we started in São Paulo, so we’ve been working with them since 2014,” says Veiga. “Back then, they only had three originals, so we were partnering with them at the same time that they started producing a huge amount of originals across the globe. In 2020, right before the pandemic, they invited us for a pitch process for their first ever global brand campaign. So we tapped into the AKQA network, bringing strategy from Tokyo, Venice, Copenhagen, São Paulo and London as well as our US studios.”
To make sure that the campaign felt cohesive but specific to every country, AKQA looked for a flexible framework that could be adapted to each territory. “Finding a concept and execution that could travel was the main challenge,” says Machado. “Once we got to One Story Away and the progress bar visual, we had a framework that you could edit, so if you’re in Brazil where the tension was about race, we can make the story connect to that moment. If you're in Japan and the tension is about comedy, it’s a completely different thing. You can change the framework and maintain the same level of empathy.”
One Story Away, AKQA
Contextualising an OOH campaign during a pandemic
“We needed to create something that was aware of the moment the world was in, but we wanted a campaign that would be atemporal, something that could live for years,” says Veiga. “We couldn't present something that didn't make sense for the moment we were all in; when we launched the campaign we were in a moment of isolation, unable to connect with each other. ‘We're only one story away’ was a nod to Netflix’s timeless stories, but made sense for the context we were living in. That was our most powerful proof of concept, in a way.”
Both new media and out-of-home advertising needed to reinforce the brand’s universe
“We first launched the campaign using traditional media, because we wanted to reach markets in very different maturity levels,” says Veiga. “We had the main film, we had short films talking about the concept, we had the out of homes and countless different images and title options that could be adapted to each country.”
After the initial rollout, AKQA used social videos and activations to take audiences behind the scenes, while reinforcing the campaign’s universe. “We had actors from Dark talking about Stranger Things,” he explains. “We had talent from Netflix titles sharing their favourite moments from other series, explaining how [watching them] shifted their perspective.”
One Story Away, AKQA
Basing the concept on the brand belief system
“[When we received the brief] it wasn’t just about the campaign itself,” Machado explains. “Netflix wanted to find its brand belief system – for consumers, but also internally. Because we’ve worked with Netflix for years, there are certain things we understand as part of the culture, but how do you explain that to someone outside of it? So part of the work was finding these guidelines. We saw [the campaign] more as consumers – the traditional TV ads, billboards and prints, but also all the social and editorial that was produced, and how we approached the talent and directors.”
“This belief system was more than just a marketing concept,” adds Veiga. “For a producer from Netflix to give the opportunity to an upcoming director from another country means that we're only one story away from giving these talents a global platform. So, this belief system is really something that goes beyond content – it’s something that partners, the universe of people around Netflix need to understand intrinsically. Well, the end result will be some sort of content on the platform, but it also translates to the product designers and technologists that Netflix hires. ‘We're only one story away’ is something that can, and should, change the way decisions are made.”