Stranger Things shows that it's time to upset the brand's experience



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I'm looking at a post back to Burger King Whopper and scratching my head, a tweet from Shutterstock that nods towards 'Stranger Things in store'. * eye roll * with 14 retweets and 38 i like it – oh yeah, and there's this coca-cola stuff * insert keyword here *

yes, we all talk about how Stranger Things 3 hit the screens and the proliferation of brands that have registered to be part of The Upside Down. Has this reversed the sensual approach of a decent brand experience? Brand partnerships around film and content franchises are not new; Just watch Disney Pixar, Bond, Marvel or Star Wars. But what I find in the 75 landmarks in the promotional engagement with Netflix is ​​the often disposable way that most brands take advantage of an opportunity.

On the one hand, it is the genius of the franchise, because they have brought the 80s of "flagrant product placements" to a cultural nostalgia that the children of the 80s, 90s and 00s have watched so well.

However, unlike the 1980s, social media now exists. A good experience of the brand is therefore heroic and a bad one ignored (if you are lucky). I would love to think that if Reese's Pieces appeared in an E.T. restart in 2019, the brand would engage in a much more connected conversation. Modern connectivity may have fostered the laziness of brands when it comes to jumping on the latest trend in sects.

The underlying principles of a good brand experience are quite simple. First, know your place. Do you have an authentic "in" or are you about to appear out of place? Second, is the experience culturally related in the right way or is it just because it is easy – or someone else did it? Finally, does the experience influence culture – even better, your common culture – in a positive way? If you have three vices, then you are on a winner.

I've slipped on Coca-Cola above, let's see this now. New Coca-Cola was an epic failure in 1985, so he stayed in the market for less than 80 days and so has a sense of humor – even courage – to bring him back to a parallel world in 2019. But from this first sip beside the pool of Mrs. Wheeler and guest appearances, is it relevant? It failed so much that almost nobody knew it. The extended experience of 2019 was disconnected and exhausted did not work: the site collapsed, the social reach did not match the availability in the places and they did not even thwart the "double gaffe" when all went south in social – that's only marketing 101.

Burger King had similar failures, with its application not working to support purchases, a lot of noise on social networks and nothing in the shops around the corner. Levi's launched a line of clothing that could not meet the minimal demand of its consumers; H & M suffered the same failure.

OK, Kendall does not save the world with a Pepsi, but it reminds the delicate moment when Apple transferred the U2 album into iTunes, or maybe Bond driving a Mondeo (WTF), Sky monetize on Lego's own funds for a little too long (I guess they both cash), and so on.

We need to determine if this ceases to be culturally relevant and begins to become a flagrant cash cow.

Aside from that, I like the alerts to Eggo's pop-up spoiler on Facebook and the lo-fi website; it's authentic, it's fun, it gives incentives, and it works. It's not – dare I say – exaggerated. Groan. The Baskin-Robbins ice cream chain gave life to the fictional ice cream retailer, Scoops Ahoy. This gives Stranger Things fans a physical place to communicate with the show, with meticulous attention to detail to make it look like the store looks like 1985. And still as a favorite, in ST2, Spotify has rolled out the Fashion Stranger Things, I loved it.

Over time, Nike and Back to the Future are a branded partnership that has made the transition for generations. I must admit that I have watched it for the umpteenth time recently. As a child of the 80s, I applauded Nike for its full game for Air MAG. He did not stop there and remains committed to culture through auctions of originals, commemorative editions, ongoing relationships with Michael J Fox and sales of always new and old actors in the whole world.

Back to Stranger Things: The online version of Nike Cortez "Hawkins High" was the brand's first experience following the general debate on Stranger Things until Fortnite arrived (and paid tribute to them) with their gate cards upside down). Nike is culturally relevant, connected in a relevant way and has a positive impact.

A small nugget that I found amusing while digging into it all is that despite the strong pull on our part in advertising, the brand's conversation on social networks is relatively small. Of the 8.1 million mentions of Stranger Things since June 1, only 82,000 also mentioned one of the brand's experiences. Admittedly, I did not do exhaustive scanning on social networks, but I imagine that the relative volume would still be negligible. He asks the question: what is the cultural relevance of all this? And does it stimulate business?

Karen Boswell is responsible for the EMEA experiment at VMLY & R

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