Two years ago, Netflix launched one of its most popular international TV series to date: La Casa de las Flores. Teaming up with Manolo Caro, one of Mexico’s hottest directors, the series has not only become one of the country’s most talked-about shows because of its star-studded cast – including legendary soap opera actress Verónica Castro – but also because of its huge cultural and social relevance due to its open and positive portrayal of LGBT topics. The series’ third and final season made its debut last week on April 23rd.

The pandemic has significantly shifted the way audiences are spending their time, with a 57% increase in usage of streaming services and a 47% increase in time spent on social media, according to DataReportal. With more people at home using streaming services, brands can no longer rely on OOH and other flashy stunts to promote their content with relevance and fuel social chatter.

With our attention spread across many channels, and even more competing entertainment options, it’s important to understand how content performs differently on each with a fit-for-format approach. By tailoring social content to user behaviors that are unique to a given platform, brands can maximize effectiveness. Despite linear TV being a more traditional format, Netflix – in partnership with Circus Marketing, who merged with MediaMonks earlier this year – demonstrated how brands can extend the value of content to digital audiences with a fit-for-format strategy, just as it did by creating an ode to the classic TV special by celebrating La Casa de las Flores before its final season premiere. 

Extending the Experience

La Casa de las Flores rapidly became a phenomenon thanks to its careful portrayal of social topics and willingness to tell stories that viewers may not commonly see in the media, depending on where they live. Given its popularity and propensity to get people talking, Netflix decided to give fans a space to reflect on the series and create a dialogue through a TV special that extended into social platforms as well. Circus Marketing worked on the ideation, scripting and creative direction for the special, and executed in partnership with Plataforma who led remote filming and small crew shoots to work within recommended safety guidelines.

Hosted by the series creator, the special aimed to generate buzz for the upcoming season by connecting fans, turning them into active participants by voting on the best and most shocking moments from previous seasons. The very same digital channels that viewers use every day became the stage for the special, with cast members chatting in video calls (both in and out of character), fans contributing through polls, WhatsApp audio and other social content. Taking this digital format over a traditional production approach enabled us to create the program within local safety guidelines. “What is really exciting is not just the project itself, but the timing and how we approached the strategy to reach these goals,” says Bruno Lambertini, Founder of Circus Marketing. 

“We used animations, audio, polls, fan art, tweets and other types of social assets to connect with users on different platforms and in different ways,” says Israel Rojas, Content Lead at Circus Marketing, noting the importance of using an omnichannel strategy to reach such a wide and varied audience. The special itself took different forms based on where viewers saw it: without standard television ratings and regulations, for example, the YouTube version was uncensored, clocking at 40 minutes in its entirety. From there, we were able to develop dozens of smaller, snackable assets distributed across social channels.

Not All Platforms Were Created Equal

What makes La Casa de las Flores really special is that while it may fit in the classic format of a telenovela, it’s widely viewed as a millennial soap opera. Given this reaction, we knew the special couldn’t live on TV only – it would have to meet its audience in the very space where they meet and discuss the show itself: online.

To prepare fans for this event weeks in advance, Netflix shared hundreds of snippets for social media, each one adapted to different platforms. This content was shared on the series’ official social media channels on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, but also through influencer activations. “Not only did we create a 40 minute long video format, but we also took that to different platforms and levels from a single production – with fit-for-format,” says Yaneth Velázquez, Global Head of Client at Circus.

“Social content is really important when creating fandom,” says Velázquez. “We’re creating clusters of people looking for a show – spaces where you can consume content and extend the experience of watching it.” During the first 72 hours after launching, the special program registered over 2 million views on online platforms.

People go to various platforms for different reasons. What works on Instagram won’t work on TikTok, even for the same user, because the way one engages with content on each differs. By building upon the way that viewers discuss cultures and shows across different platforms, the La Casa de las Flores special successfully built impact in the leadup to the series’ third, final season. It serves as a great example of how a fit-for-format mindset is important to maintain relevance when casting such a wide net on digital audiences – especially when people are looking to connect with others and engage with them sharing their love for the show.

With the La Casa de las Flores TV special, Netflix delivered a piece of content that adjusted to the current times, pivoting OOH and other experience-led social campaigns into the means available today – cleverly rethinking the creative process to create buzz, connect with viewers and give these shows and social movements the interaction, engagement and recognition they deserve.

Hace dos años, Netflix lanzó una de sus series de televisión internacionales más populares hasta la fecha: La Casa de las Flores. Al asociarse con Manolo Caro, uno de los directores más populares de México, la serie no solo se ha convertido en uno de los programas más comentados del país debido a su elenco repleto de estrellas, incluida la legendaria actriz de telenovelas Verónica Castro, sino también por su gran relevancia cultural y social debido a su abierta y positiva representación de temas LGBT. La tercera y última temporada de la serie se estrenó apenas el pasado 23 de abril.

Esta pandemia ha cambiado significativamente la forma en que el público pasa su tiempo. Los usuarios reportan un aumento del 57% en el uso de servicios de streaming y un aumento del 47% en el tiempo dedicado a las redes sociales, según DataReportal. Si bien más personas están utilizando servicios de streaming, las marcas ya no pueden confiar en OOH y otros stunts llamativos para promover su contenido con relevancia y fomentar la charla social.

Con nuestra atención extendida en muchos canales, e incluso en opciones de entretenimiento más competitivas, es importante comprender cómo el contenido funciona de manera diferente en cada uno con un enfoque de formato adecuado. Al adaptar el contenido social a los comportamientos de los usuarios que son exclusivos de una plataforma determinada, las marcas pueden maximizar la efectividad. A pesar de que la televisión lineal es un formato más tradicional, Netflix, en asociación con Circus Marketing, que se fusionó con MediaMonks a principios de este año, demostró cómo las marcas pueden extender el valor del contenido al público digital con una estrategia de formato adecuado, tal como lo hizo creando una oda al clásico especial de TV, celebrando La Casa de las Flores antes de su estreno de temporada final.

Extendiendo la Experiencia

La Casa de las Flores se convirtió rápidamente en un fenómeno gracias a su cuidadosa descripción de temas sociales y su disposición a contar historias que los televidentes no suelen ver en los medios, dependiendo de dónde vivan. Dada su popularidad y propensión a hacer que la gente hable, Netflix decidió darles a los fanáticos un espacio para reflexionar sobre la serie y crear un diálogo a través de un especial de televisión que también se extendió a las plataformas sociales. Circus Marketing trabajó en la ideación, el guión y la dirección creativa para el especial, y ejecutado en asociación con Plataforma, que dirigió la filmación remota y los rodajes pequeños del equipo para trabajar dentro de las pautas de seguridad recomendadas.

Conducido por el creador de la serie, el especial tenía como objetivo generar expectación para la temporada final al conectar a los fans, convirtiéndolos en participantes activos al votar los mejores y más impactantes momentos de las temporadas anteriores. Los mismos canales digitales que usan los espectadores todos los días se convirtieron en el escenario del especial, con miembros del elenco platicando en videollamadas (dentro y fuera de personaje), los seguidores contribuyeron a través de encuestas, audios de WhatsApp y otros contenidos sociales. Tomar este formato digital sobre un enfoque de producción tradicional nos permitió crear el programa dentro de las pautas de seguridad locales. “Lo que es realmente emocionante no es solo el proyecto en sí, sino el momento y la forma en que abordamos la estrategia para alcanzar estos objetivos,” dice Bruno Lambertini, fundador de Circus Marketing.

“Utilizamos animaciones, audios, encuestas, fan art, tweets y otros tipos de activos sociales para conectarnos con los usuarios en diferentes plataformas y de diferentes maneras,” dice Israel Rojas, Content Lead en Circus Marketing, y señala la importancia de utilizar una estrategia omnicanal para llegar a un público tan amplio y variado. El especial en sí tomó diferentes formas en función de dónde lo vieron los espectadores: sin clasificaciones y regulaciones de televisión estándar, por ejemplo, la versión de YouTube no estaba censurada, registrando 40 minutos en su totalidad. A partir de ahí, pudimos desarrollar decenas de activos más pequeños y de fácil consumo distribuidos a través de diferentes canales sociales.

No Todas las Plataformas Son Creadas Iguales

Lo que hace que La Casa de las Flores sea realmente especial es que, si bien puede encajar en el formato clásico de una telenovela, es ampliamente vista como una telenovela millennial. Dada esta reacción, sabíamos que el especial no podía vivir solo en televisión: tendría que encontrarse con su audiencia en el mismo espacio donde se encuentran y hablan sobre el programa en sí: en línea.

Para preparar a los fans para este evento con semanas de anticipación, Netflix compartió cientos de fragmentos en redes sociales, cada uno adaptado a diferentes plataformas. Este contenido se compartió en los canales de redes sociales oficiales de la serie en YouTube, Facebook, Twitter e Instagram, pero también a través de activaciones de influencers. “No sólo creamos un formato de video de 40 minutos de duración, sino que también lo llevamos a diferentes plataformas y niveles desde una sola producción, con un formato apto”, dice Yaneth Velázquez, Global Head of Client en Circus.

“El contenido social es realmente importante al crear una base de fans,” dice Velázquez. “Estamos creando grupos de personas que buscan un programa, espacios donde puedan consumir contenido y extender la experiencia de verlo.” Durante las primeras 72 horas después del lanzamiento, el programa especial registró más de 2 millones de visitas en plataformas en línea.

La gente va a diversas plataformas por diferentes razones. Lo que funciona en Instagram no funcionará en TikTok, incluso para el mismo usuario, porque la forma en que uno interactúa con el contenido de cada una es diferente. Al aprovechar la forma en que los espectadores discuten culturas y programas en diferentes plataformas, el especial de La Casa de las Flores generó un impacto exitoso en el período previo a la temporada final de la serie. Esto sirve como un gran ejemplo de cómo una mentalidad adecuada para el formato es importante para mantener la relevancia al lanzar una red tan amplia en audiencias digitales, especialmente cuando las personas buscan conectarse e interactuar con otros al compartir su amor por el programa.

Con el especial de televisión de La Casa de las Flores, Netflix entregó una pieza de contenido que se ajustó a los tiempos actuales, orientando a OOH y otras campañas sociales guiadas por la experiencia en los medios disponibles hoy en día – repensando inteligentemente el proceso creativo para crear expectación, conectarse con los espectadores y dar a estos espectáculos y movimientos sociales la interacción, el involucramiento y el reconocimiento que se merecen.

Seemingly as soon as the Thanksgiving leftovers are put away, consumers rush to retailers online and off to get a start on their holiday shopping—at least in the US. But late November ushers in the biggest shopping season throughout the Western world, influenced by global digital retailers who have set a new pace by creeping the holiday calendar earlier and earlier. Still, it’s not too late to develop a relevant holiday campaign to reach consumers.

But don’t fear—it’s also the season of miracles, and brands still have time to get into the holiday spirit with influencers. Whether you need to quickly implement a campaign from concept to market or simply want to add a dash of spice to one that’s already in the works, there are still ways to cut through the blizzard of information overload in the cluttered holiday season with the aid of influencer partnerships.

They’re Agile & Up-to-Date

One of the biggest benefits that influencers bring to the table in a holiday campaign is that they are agile by nature; well-versed in what resonates with their audiences, influencers have strong, authentic and creative voices—and can deliver in short time. In fact, partnering with a handful of influencers is a great way to co-develop a robust collection of content needed to keep your brand at top of mind in the lead-up to the holidays.

But in addition to providing scale, the flexibility that influencers bring to the table can also give your brand an edge against holiday-season competition. Shoppers have a rising interest in searching for the most up-to-date recommendations: Google highlights that “Best” and “right now” searches have grown 125% over the past couple years. Influencers have the speed and agility to weigh in on the most current trends or topics that their audiences care about, engaging them with an authoritative voice that consumers trust.

They’re Authentic—If You Let Them Be

As they begin working with influencers, many brands become concerned that they must relinquish some control of the message to someone else. Trust is key to safeguarding campaigns from getting muddled in rework and repeated review cycles—and is key to ensuring the deliverables are made on-time in the short and competitive holiday season. Realizing this, we’re ardent supporters of the idea that influencers are their most authentic when they have creative freedom in developing their content in partnership with brands.

This is the approach we used in an influencer campaign for a major UK insurer. The brand wants to raise awareness amongst Millennial and Gen-Z audiences, because some of the products and guidance they offer—such as cybersecurity and travel—are highly relevant for these audiences.

“The challenge for this brand is that they have a super strong cyber offering for consumers but mental availability in the category and for the brand themselves is low among Millennials and Gen-Z,” says Alistair Vines, Business Lead at MediaMonks.

For the campaign, influencers were briefed on the desired content, which was planned out in a quick creative phase. Overall, influencers were able to create authentic content (within some guidelines) because they bought into and endorsed the message from the brand.

The result is a coherent campaign that tackles several cybersecurity issues, delivered in a way that relates to the target consumer groups (one piece of content generated over 4,000 likes in just two days). And because the influencers produced their own content, the whole campaign was developed from brief to launch in just five weeks.

They Offer Intimacy

In addition to expanding reach, partnering with influencers can also help tailor your brand to emergent search and shopping behaviors. According to holiday insights from Facebook, mobile shoppers are 1.85 times more likely to seek gift inspiration through Instagram. When focused on millennials alone, that number jumps even higher: they’re 3.19 times more likely to. The findings show how social media is increasingly important to consumers as they research purchases.

Google also presents interesting insight on digital shoppers’ search behavior. “People indicated they are more than 2X as likely to add items to their basket and 40% more likely to spend more than planned when they identify the shopping experience as highly personalized,” they note. When brands hear “personalization,” they might think about recommendation engines and highly targeted creative—essential components of any campaign, ecommerce platform or overall brand experience. But influencers can also accentuate personalization through the intimacy they provide to their audiences, helping online shoppers find the gift inspiration and ideas most relevant to them and their needs.

The statistics mentioned above might inspire practical KPIs that brands can achieve through influencers: gain mindshare, increase awareness and drive new sales. But it’s important to remember that connection is critical to influencer success; the branded content shouldn’t feel disjointed from that which an influencer routinely offers to their audience.

From delivering cross-channel content quickly to injecting intimacy and authenticity, influencers fit several strategies for brands to connect closer to audiences old and new. This can be with a campaign built from scratch, or an added layer on top of an existing one. Either way, influencer partnerships make a great way to build relationships in the season of togetherness.

While traditional advertising was once the go-to strategy for driving awareness and large reach, the one-size-fits-all approach to creative is no longer effective for maintaining a close relationship with today’s digital audience. Because consumers crave personalization and relevance, brands that are truly customer-focused realize the need to tailor their content for specific formats and channels in which they engage.

Look at it this way: just a single piece of creative limits your ability to impact a wide audience that comprises a diversity of needs, or to provide distinct cultural relevance across many markets. For example, a celebrity ambassador might be perfect for one market, but virtually unknown in another; alternatively, markets may celebrate holidays unique to their culture.

Accounting for these variables requires brands to rethink the way they produce content. Many brands are still quick to implement a project-based approach that can result in inefficiencies to rework, transform and adapt—sometimes ending up with a disarray of many vendors, disconnected campaigns and an inconsistent consumer experience. But even those that have already begun with a traditional “big idea” can extend its value by adapting it into a fit-for-format digital campaign without simply cutting things down.

Instead, a more integrated approach begins by pulling together strategy, media planning and creative ideation from the start, aligning brand and partner on the same page. This empowers both teams to produce versatile, format-ready deliverables capable of accomplishing each campaign goal with just a few shoots done in a week or less, rather than scheduling several shoots a month or getting bungled up in rework.

Format-ready digital content also gives brands the opportunity to learn what type of messaging is most effective for their audience. “The outcome is much more measurable,” says Brett Stiller, Creative Monk at MediaMonks. “The brand can see what’s most effective.” These learnings can be applied to tweaking the assets the brand already has, or can inform the next campaign to make it even stronger.

Iterating the Fit-for-Format Story

Philadelphia Cream Cheese is well-known and deeply loved by many, but the product’s wide appeal and versatile reach means there’s a lot of ways to enjoy it; different countries each have their own favorite cream cheese-based snack, and while a bagel is a staple of American breakfasts, it just won’t cut it in England. Aiming to provide a mouth-watering message, Philadelphia needed a partner capable of adapting a selection of hero TVC scripts that could appeal to a variety of regional appetites.

Putting its extensive global knowledge to the test, the team was able to deliver over 900 assets from one week of shooting, enabling the brand to broadcast just 14 weeks after briefing. We achieved this by taking careful consideration of the many touchpoints that exist along the consumer journey—aiming not just to build awareness, but to direct consumers through the purchase funnel and across digital platforms. For this purpose, it’s important that a creative partner truly understands user behaviors for each format and is able to help your brand influence key decision moments for consumers.

Brands can take a similar approach to expanding their traditional campaigns into digital. Too often, the tactic that some brands use is cutting down their existing creative and trying to force it within the different social formats. But when Calvin Klein sought to expand the reach of a traditional campaign for their Eternity for Men fragrance, they knew they could provide a more meaningful and authentic message to consumers by building a social campaign from scratch, with thematic ties to the original creative.

This also offered an opportunity to refresh the brand, ensuring the digital campaign’s extension in reach would make an impact. “It nodded to the brand, but wasn’t fully ‘Eternity’ as you’ve known it before,” said Stiller. “Part of the work was updating that ethos, aesthetic and tone—extracting the stories from it and letting it reach into the right space.”

For example, while the original TVC focused on Jake Gyllenhaal, the digital one followed influencers as they reflect on the different roles they play in their lives, and how each affects their concept of masculinity. “The influencers are easier to identify with, as their lives are more attainable than a traditional celebrity,” said Sara Tunstall, Senior Content Producer at MediaMonks, “While celebrity fits the context of a TVC well, this approach is more natural to social.” Focused on what makes each subject unique, the campaign offers several opportunities for audiences to connect.

Planning and Trust are Key

The integrated production method can help brands extend the value of their core message and combine reach with added relevance, but the hyper-efficient process succeeds best when campaign needs and KPIs are carefully planned out at the start. Trust is key for any partnership, and careful communication and planning ensures that the creative team has the freedom to adapt a message in all the ways that make sense for the channels in which it lives, while easing any anxieties the brand may have.

For example, we understand that brands may feel overwhelmed by the need to review the high volume of assets made available with integrated production, which is why we’ve made tools in the past to streamline that process for them. If the brand is already well aware of elements or messaging that resonates best with their audiences through iterative testing, establishing those insights early on can ease the need for rework.

Integrated production offers a great way for brands to meaningfully expand their ideas and drive impact. Breaking down the “big idea” offers several possibilities to relate to audiences no matter their interests or channel of choice, helping to augment a brand’s goal to extend reach. With strong collaboration and trust between parties, brands can enjoy a much more efficient process for producing content that provides value to their audiences and achieves a faster time to market.

Brands have felt the pressure from digital-native, direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands in more ways than one. A primary advantage that DTC brands have over others is that they’re closely aligned with consumer data. The benefits to this are two-fold: first, it’s enabled them to establish stronger, more relevant marketing strategies with first-party data. Second, it provides insights needed for product development, placing the brands’ focus and output squarely on customers and their needs.

Popular DTC beauty brand Glossier, for example, leverages its close connection to consumers to innovate new products—like its dual makeup remover and face cleanser, inspired by insights that its customers washed their face in two steps by using two different products. It’s an example of how the brand places its customers at the forefront of product and brand strategy, whereas the focus of legacy CPG brands may lie in retailers.

Achieve Greater Storytelling with Integrated Production

Digital-native brands are well-versed in telling their brand story effectively through social media. Without other outlets at their disposal, they had to build buzz this way, and it’s that do-or-die struggle to build a brand in an intensely competitive digital environment that has allowed successful digital-native brands to establish the customer relationships envied by other brands, who have struggled to translate their identity into digital.

And this is where most brands have faltered in their story: eschewing digital-first content for the traditional “big idea.” While an impressive TVC is still useful for broad reach, it’s ill-equipped to achieve the relevancy required by today’s consumers, who are trained to tune out information that doesn’t immediately purport to serve them.

“These brands tend to create a more traditional piece, then re-edit to tell a story in hindsight,” says Olivier Koelemij, Managing Director at MediaMonks LA. One need only look at a widescreen TVC awkwardly clipped into a vertically consumed, 6-second social ad to see why it doesn’t work.

What brands should do instead, says Koelemij, is connect data and media strategy with creative ahead of moving into production. This enables a strategy for producing content that’s fit for format. While that might sound overwhelming for brands that aren’t fluent in the nuances of different channels and how users interact on them, Koelemij assures brands that “This approach is often cheaper and more efficient, because it’s easier to post-produce.”

There are many other ways brands can achieve more for less.

Efficiency isn’t just a matter of getting things done quickly. It’s transforming your production process into actionable results. “Efficient creative drives tangible business effects, is instrumental to cultural change or integral in the achievement of brand purpose,” says Louise Martens, Global Head of Content Studios at MediaMonks. By investing strategically in the right channels and adopting smarter production processes, brands can better validate their purpose and draw in audiences with greater relevance.

Begin Your Creative Process with a Channel Strategy

“Where the sweet spot lies in integrated production is connecting creative and media strategy before production,” says Koelemij. “The focus should line up with the media spend.” This equips brands to build content tailor-made for the different channels they’ll support over the course of a campaign, rather than treat them as an afterthought—promising greater relevance and effectiveness in the process.

“The problem lies in not thinking about your channels and audience when initiating creative,” says Koelemij. He suggests focusing on a creative insight (much like the big idea that traditional brands are so used to thinking about), but following through with several “little-big” ideas that are optimized per channel.

So, what would a good YouTube-first video look like, for example, opposed to a cut-down TVC? We made a whole series of them for feminine hygiene brand Always. CPG brands have perhaps felt the biggest competition from DTC brands, which have built brand loyalty through direct customer relationships that traditional CPG brands tend to miss out on.

Still, best-in-class creative provides brands the opportunity to build valuable customer relationships. In this case, the goal was to help Always strike a bond with girls as they fielded questions about their first period or other concerns about puberty. Our video series, titled “Girl Talk,” features episodes that dive into these topics through the questions that young girls may feel too embarrassed to ask friends or family about.

Taking the form of an upbeat quiz show, the videos fit well within the context of self-researching awkward questions. With a fun format and cheerful animations that look like they’ve jumped right off the pages of a marble composition notebook, the videos serve as a great example of what can be achieved by planning and executing the entire process efficiently—through ideation to production and finally editing in animations for an added dose of relatability.

To help brands achieve this faster than ever before, we opened a new production studio as part of our new Venice Beach office in Los Angeles, California. The all-white photo studio is versatile and easily customizable to a brand’s stylistic or content needs, including multi-camera interviews, gorgeous tabletop shots and straight-to-camera scenes. With two full editing bays on premises, teams can immediately post-produce or edit film and photos while shooting simultaneously, offering a more streamlined production process.

“You can walk in with your actors and team in the morning, then exit at the end of the day with all of your assets—all optimized,” says Koelemij. And that’s another benefit to producing transformable, fit-for-format content: you can quickly adapt the content depending on what works and what doesn’t.

“Fit-for-format ideation blows traditional creative concepting out of the water in terms of results,” says Martens, mentioning how online retailer Chewy saved $10K in just a week after we re-edited and optimized their creative into a YouTube-first format. Brands that take a more strategic approach to their channel strategy, and integrate it into the earliest phases of the creative process, can likewise optimize their production to drive results.