What makes video ad campaigns trend?

By Krati Trivedi

It’s no secret that ad campaigns are an important marketing strategy for all kinds of businesses that want to increase brand awareness and profits. In this regard, digital and video ads are today emerging as highly powerful.  Hence, more and more brands are now transitioning from traditional broadcast and cable TV ads to digital ads. One such interesting example is Netflix. 

Last year, Netflix India launched a TV commercial (TVC) showcasing how the standards for an arranged marriage have changed. The TVC features the prospective groom’s family asking the prospective bride about her preferences on what are the movies and shows she watches on Netflix. Well, that’s surprising! Instead of the traditional questions like, “Can you make round rotis?” or “Khane me kya bana leti ho?”, etc., the questions during the matchmaking session are changing.  

So when the groom’s family asks the girl what she watches on Netflix, she replies, “Hum Saath Saath Hain, Hum Aapke Hain Kaun, We are Family and K3G (thrice)”. The answer leaves the family in awe and makes them emotional that they have found the perfect match for their son. 

On the other hand, the answer leaves the boy in awe who rolls his eyes in surprise until the girl whispers to him that she also watches Stranger Things, Money Heist and Narcos. And when the boy asks her, “Squid Game?” – the girl emphasises “of course”. This leaves the boy’s face lit up and the TVC ends with the one-liner, “Sabki pasand vala Netflix, apni pasand vala Netflix” which promotes Netflix India’s  #NetflixForAll campaign.

Well, the main objective of this TVC by Netflix was to make the audience aware of their price drop where the viewers can watch their favorite tv shows and movies on mobile app, laptop, tablet or TV at Rs. 199 per month only! Also, it served an additional purpose of letting the viewers know about the movies and shows that are on Netflix, in fact, in many Indian regional languages.

But the question is how did this video ad campaign reach millions of views?

First, the brand hit right on the changing perceptions of arranged marriage in India – meaning the messaging was to the point for the generation Z. And secondly, it’s not too hard to observe why video ads are so popular these days. Simply because, it’s an easy-to-digest format that gives viewers’ eyes a rest from the over-abundance of textual information online. 

Video is an engaging content format that not only gives viewers a real-life picture of what’s going on; it’s also easy to share across multiple platforms. Finally, as per industry reports, consumers also claim video ads help them make better purchasing decisions.