How Netflix Is Resonating With ‘Stranger Things’ Fans Through Experiential Marketing

As a pop culture phenomenon and the network’s most popular English language original series in its history, Netflix’s Stranger Things has become a key asset in keeping subscribers. The fourth season, which debuted in early July, achieved more than one billion hours of viewership within its first four weeks and has become the network’s most popular English language original series of all time.

Rather than resting on its laurels, however, Netflix, in cooperation with experiential marketing specialists Fever, is applying sound marketing principles to develop a deeper relationship between fans and the show by running “Stranger Things: The Experience” in Brooklyn, New York and San Francisco (wth additional cities to come). On Wednesday, acclaimed actor and series regular Matthew Modine made a surprise appearance at the New York venue, much to the delight of participants, providing a classic example of a brand building resonance with consumers.

As put forth by branding guru Kevin Lane Keller in his brand resonance model, brands build equity via a series of steps that can be conceptualized as a pyramid in which one step builds on the next. Initially, a brand needs to build deep awareness and salience, followed by a focus on getting across to the customer what makes the brand unique. Next, the brand needs to gain reactions from consumers in the form of positive judgements and feelings about the brand based on experience with it. The last step to maximize brand equity is to build resonance, which Keller and Swaminathan (2021) state is focused on “the ultimate relationship and the level of identification the consumer has with the brand.” The idea is that in today’s highly competitive markets that brands need to dig deeper to make consumers feel “in sync” with the brand.

The American Marketing Association defines experiential marketing as an approach that directly engages consumers and invites and encourages them to participate in a branded experience.

As observed by consumer futurist Blake Morgan, it can be difficult to measure the success of programs focusing on customer experience, but recent data shows that they do pay off, with one study showing that companies with a customer experience mindset achieve revenue 4-8% higher than the competition. This has led to an increase in the use of a variety of experiential techniques , including outdoor art installations featuring the brand, creatively designed pop-up shops, brand presence in booths at spectator events, apps that feature the brand artificial reality and/or virtual reality experiences and virtual experiential marketing, among others.

With so many options, it is not surprising that experiential marketing, which had grown rapidly for a decade prior to Covid-19 dictating a slowdown is again growing at a substantial rate.

The notion of delighting loyal fans with the experience of personal interaction with Modine, the real-life actor who plays Dr. Martin Brenner on the show, at Stranger Things: The Experience, exemplifies how a brand can use experiential marketing to build deeper relationships with customers. By providing a special experience for those physically present as well as a feel-good story for those exposed to media coverage of the event, deep loyalty can be fostered.

Since Stranger Things follows a group of friends who fight against mysterious forces, the experiential event is billed as bringing “the Upside Down to New York City” and allows fans to unlock their powers and help save 1980s Hawkins, Indiana where the show is set. The experience includes a visit to Hawkins Plaza where fans personally experience a storyline developed by the show’s creators in which they need to unlock secret powers to fight off lurking terrors to help save the town. It is during this part of the experience that some fans were able to see the real Dr. Brenner.

I had a chance to speak to Modine, who clearly enjoys interacting with the show’s fans and understands the power of interactions with fans, prior to the event. In describing the shows fans, he states, “The global legion of Stranger Things fans is really like no fans I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting. I’ve met them at comic-cons in different corners of the world and they’re always so passionate, funny, and enthusiastic. It will be cool, and I’m looking forward to surprising them at Stranger Things: The Experience in Brooklyn!” Modine also noted that these opportunities to interact with the fans are rewarding for him and others involved with the show and that was thrilled to be able to participate.

Modine makes a crucial point about changes in the media environment the course of his career in noting that globalization and advances in technology have had a key impact. He observes:

“I’m blessed to have been steadily employed in this profession for four decades. In that time - the industry has been transformed by new distribution platforms and social media. Netflix is in over 190 countries. Today, when you have a successful Netflix series, it “streams” you into the homes of people all around the world. That’s an incredible global audience. A byproduct of this amazing success is that the audience for the show is generally very young. So, I’ve captured the imagination of a new generation. And that’s a good thing!”

There is much more opportunity for a television show to become globally successful today. Modine says that earlier in his career the upper number of countries that movies could hope to be successful in was about 60 compared to almost 200 today. He also believes that social media has allowed for more interaction between celebrities and fans and views it as a positive development in that the interaction allows fans to feel closer to the artists and that it fosters loyalty.

Consistent with having a passionate fan base, near the end of Stranger Things: The Experience, people move to an immersive food and beverage and retail hub. Here, they can explore and take pictures of various elements of the Stranger Things world, including everything from eating ice cream at a shop shown on the show to playing in an arcade the characters frequent. In short, they get to experience elements of a show they very much enjoy.

Modine’s affinity for the Stranger Things fanbase is obvious. When I asked him about the success of the show and what makes its unique, he points to the time period saying, “Initially, I believed Stranger Things’ success had to do with its time period. The show takes place before social media, mobile phones, the internet. Before 9/11, before the wars in the Middle East. Before the rash of horrible school shootings. For our audience, the 1980s must appear as a much less complicated and innocent era.”

Clearly, Stranger Things is doing many things right, and Netflix’s supporting marketing efforts are setting it up to be a highly valuable long-term asset.