Strategic Campaign for Netflix

Student Discount

Executive Summary/ Keynote: As cable television becomes obsolete for millennials, Netflix and

other streaming services have become more prominent as a source of entertainment. Since the

launch of Netflix’s streaming services, their prices have been slowing creeping up. Their basic

plan has risen from $7.99 to $8.99 and the company intends to increase its premium plan from

$13.99 to $15.99. This might make their customers upset and cause more and more people to

“mooch” off of other people’s accounts, which is something that already takes place a fair

amount today. This campaign is aiming to provide college students with a Netflix discount. This

discount will be $6/month for Netflix’s basic plan with a free first three months. Hulu and

Spotify have partnered for several years now by giving college students both basic Hulu and

Spotify Premium for only $5/ month. Netflix is popular for its lack of commercial breaks, which

is something that a basic Hulu account does not provide. With the correct marketing and public

relations plans, this campaign will help Netflix reach a whole new demographic of customers

who probably have been sharing accounts with their friends and family.

Overview of Campaign: This will be a year-long campaign consisting of web advertising, print

advertising, and television advertising throughout the United States. The target audiences are

college students and parents who have children in college. Because college is a time of

independence, many parents might want their children to pay for their own Netflix accounts

especially because the company is offering it at a low price of $6/ month with the first three

months free.
Media (National):

 Front page of Netflix.com: To reach customers who may not know about the new services

 Magazines: Entertainment Weekly, TV Guide, US Weekly

o May not be earned media. If articles were to be written via paid media, these articles

could be about how Netflix is finally giving into the fact that they are popular among

college students, who typically have their parents pay for their accounts for them.

Now that a discount is being offered, Netflix is sympathizing with the financial

struggles of college students.

 TV advertisements: short blurb at the end of Netflix show ads about the new services

 Social media: Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat

 Posters around cities: A simple poster advertisement to share the exciting news of a student

discount. Apple and Hulu have been very transparent about their student discounts for years,

so Netflix would be “jumping on the bandwagon” by showing that they care about college

students. These posters would also create a word of mouth affect because their purpose is to

merely inform.

Social Media: Netflix’s Instagram has over 14 million followers. A simple post advertising the

new services will reach millions of Netflix users. Because the target audience is mostly college

students, it would be beneficial to get a star from a show on Netflix like KJ Apa or Ross Lynch

to do a video about Netflix having this service. Hearing it from a star their age will hopefully

persuade students to purchase the service. Twitter and Instagram are becoming similar mediums

in that one can post a picture as well as a caption. Consequently, a similar type of advertisement
as the one mentioned previously could be used for twitter as well. To make it more fun, the posts

can include a hashtag. For example, #NetflixLovesCollege.

Press Conference/ Promotional Partner: It might be a good idea for Netflix to partner with a

music streaming site like Apple Music. Hulu has partnered with Spotify for several years now

and many college students have taken advantage of the student discount. Within the first few

months of the campaign, Netflix Marketing Executive will do a press conference announcing this

exciting, new service. Netflix has never offered a discount like this one, so it will gain plenty of

traction from the media.

Radio: Netflix should market this new service on Radio stations like Z100 or other top 40

stations because that is where the target audience will be listening.