With Netflix joining the long list of digital brands using print, the phenomenon of ‘reverse publishing’ is one of the biggest developments in brand content.
The latest digital brand turning to print to reach a new audience has been announced as Netflix. With a market value of $21.2bn and a global user base of 150m, the streaming service hasn’t had to do a great deal of marketing – print or digital – instead preferring to plough much of its profits into making its own content. So the launch of its own magazine has come as a bit of a surprise.
With a working title of Wide, the 100-page publication will include features, interviews and articles about Netflix-produced content, focusing on the people that create it. But rather than targeting its millions of users, the magazine is aimed at the highly competitive Hollywood awards community, promoting its shows and stars in the middle of voting season for the upcoming Emmys.
“Netflix has spent hundreds of millions of dollars in pursuit of Hollywood awards,” writes Lucas Shaw in Bloomberg, “which help burnish the image of the streaming service’s still-young studio in the eyes of consumers and the entertainment industry.”
This new marketing gambit aims to use a print magazine to provide a crucial point of difference when it comes to influencing an extremely hard-to-influence audience. By delivering a traditional magazine to the Hollywood community instead of a digital-only campaign, Netflix are looking to forge a deeper connection, as well as offering a physical object that acts as a permanent reminder of the brand and its programmes.
More detail at https://www.twosides.info/UK/reverse-publishing-the-hottest-trend-in-hollywood/