Press

Dive Brief:

• Netflix, in promotion of Marvel’s “Iron Fist,” its new original series, is launching a digital campaign on Sunday, March 12, that is a “complete site takeover” of the website theChive, according to details provided to Marketing Dive.
• The takeover of theChive is an effort to reach its audience of 33 million, which is mostly comprised of males 18-34 who are interested in gaming, entertainment and contact sports. The main character in Iron Fist is a martial arts expert.
• The campaign will include an exclusive clip from the show and will be supported by original editorial content from theChive. The campaign messaging can be accessed by entering a keyboard code similar to game cheat codes, or by entering “Danny Rand” in the search bar on theChive’s desktop or mobile site.

Dive Insight:

TheChive is a male-oriented entertainment web site and app featuring a photo gallery, videos and a social media presence. Users submit more than 5,000 pieces of content daily. The Netflix promotion isn’t the first studio campaign to tap into the brand’s loyal audience. Previous efforts include FXX’s “The Simpsons,” Sony Pictures’ “Sausage Party” and “22 Jump Street,” and Fox’s “Deadpool.”

When a website or social media platform has an audience that is heavily skewed toward a very specific audience, such as theChive’s heavy skew towards a specific gender, age and set of interests, it makes sense to take advantage of a marketing blitz like Netflix’s “Iron Fist” promotion when the audience and product cleary line up, as they do in this case. And given past studio campaigns around similar situations, it’s likely that Netflix had access to metrics proving the value of running its own takeover of the site.

Streaming video overall is coming from a place of strength. Netflix’s customer growth from last year’s Q3 exceeded expectations, and separate reports from January found streaming and over-the-top services in solid shape with a Parks Associates study reporting 63% of broadband households have at least one OTT subscription and the Digital Entertainment Group finding streaming revenue outpaced disc sales in 2016 for the first time.