Campaign of the Week: Netflix Face Swap Ads Target Snapchat Users

Netflix recently released a series of outdoor ads throughout France that let customers face swap with popular characters from Netflix shows, such as Frank Underwood from House of Cards and Kimmy Schmidt from The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, using Snapchat’s face swap feature. The campaign led to over 60,000 face-swap selfies in just one week. And that success led to the campaign being rolled out in even more countries. So how would a campaign like this fare in the U.S.?

Streaming Services

In Ask Your Target Market’s latest survey, 15% of respondents said that they have streamed movies or TV shows within the past day. 16% have done so within the past week. 11% have streamed video content in the past month. And 5% have within the past three months.Netflix and YouTube were the most popular streaming services mentioned by respondents. Although YouTube isn’t a direct competitor of Netflix, there are some TV shows and movies available on the service. And it has a substantial enough user base that could impact consumers’ decisions to sign up for paid streaming services. Overall, 33% of respondents said that they use Netflix regularly. And 30% have tried it. That’s more than all of Netflix’s direct competitors like Hulu and Amazon Prime Video.

Ad Impact

When it comes to the likelihood of choosing Netflix the next time they stream TV or movies, viewing the face swap ad made almost no difference for respondents overall. Almost exactly half of those who viewed the ad said there would be a good possibility or better that they would choose Netflix the next time they stream TV or movies. And the other half said that there was just a fair, slight or no chance at all that they would choose Netflix. The panel as a whole was also close to a 50/50 split.However, just 14% of respondents said that they currently use Snapchat. So that could have an impact on people’s perceptions of the ad, especially if they aren’t able to actually interact with it or even understand it. Those Snapchat users were also more likely to be regular Netflix users. In addition, 32% of non-regular Netflix users said there's a good possibility they'd choose Netflix the next time they stream content after viewing the ad. So the campaign does seem to have a positive impact on at least one segment of consumers - and that's likely a segment that Netflix would love to target.

Brand Attributes

Overall, respondents were likely to see Netflix as a brand that reflects the kind of person they are, offers great content, is innovative, and is respectable or held in high esteem. YouTube was definitely seen as more of a value brand. But Netflix was also seen as having more value than the other paid services like Amazon Prime Video and Hulu. Those who viewed the ad were slightly more likely to see Netflix as a company that has great content, innovative, respectable and made by a trustworthy company.

Key Takeaways

Overall, Netflix’s face swap ad campaign doesn’t seem to be very likely to have a huge impact on consumers as a whole, but non-regular users did seem to respond positively to seeing the ad. The company is already more popular and more likely to be seen in a positive light than its direct competitors like Amazon Prime Video and Hulu. However, when it comes to competition like free content available on YouTube, consumers do recognize a difference in value. While the face swap ads don’t directly address the issue of value, it’s possible that they’ll having a bigger impact on younger consumers who do really look for value when purchasing or subscribing to services, since those young people are more likely to use Snapchat.You can view the complete survey results in the widget below and be sure to click “Open Full Report” to take advantage of all the chart and filter options.Photo Credit: Netflix by Avijeet Sachdev under CC BY-ND 2.0What do you want to know? If you need some consumer insights on a particular topic, let us know in the comments below and we’ll consider it for an upcoming survey post.

Results were collected on June 13 via AYTM’s online survey panel.