Squid Games and Creative Marketing
Updated: Aug 6
In today’s era of internet communications and binge-watching, the ways in which we consume content are changing faster than ever before while it became increasingly difficult for marketers to stand out with exciting content and catch the attention of young tech-savvy generations.
In this context, creativity became a game-changing opportunity for local businesses that often lack budgets to increase their exposure and engage with their audiences. Creative marketing is the art of communicating unique messages in an inventive and original way. In fact, Netflix is gradually becoming the uncontested champion of creative marketing since the digital platform creates and promotes its own original content regularly to keep its subscribers engaged.
The recent release of the TV show Squid Game is the latest example to highlight how businesses can capitalize on a growing trend to leverage their marketing communication at a low cost.
Available on Netflix since mid-September, this Korean TV show became the No. 1 show on the streamer in 70 countries, including the U.S. Brands were quick to jump on the opportunity with inspired marketing stunts to set themselves apart. The giant Starbucks stamped its logo on biscuits to recreate the honeycomb challenge from the show while Domino’s Pizza and Visa have recreated the game’s invitation card. An effective marketing strategy at a fraction of the cost of traditional advertising campaigns. Adding to the buzz, Squid Game star Jung Ho-Yeon has been named Louis Vuitton's latest global ambassador for fashion, watches, and jewelry.
The BBC’s in-house creative agency BBC Creative is the undisputed champion of the unconventional TV marketing campaign, from its immersive Dracula billboard with bloody stakes to a burning billboard for Sir David Attenborough’s Perfect Planet.
Although movies and TV shows have immense marketing potential, another format is gaining ground across marketers: the meme.
The term meme was coined by Richard Dawkins in 1976 and referred to a catchphrase or jokes based on pop culture. Memes became a popular way for Gen Zners to express themselves online. Although creating a meme is easy (free meme generators proliferate on Google), the message must be carefully crafted to avoid a potential backlash.
When Facebook suffered an outage of about six hours last Monday, businesses suffered along with it. But marketers were already on the starting block to benefit from the crash.
