Stranger Things is one of Netflix's most famous titles, but in order to turn the Italian launch of season 3 into a national event, we couldn’t only rely on our younger target that was already in love with the show (18-24 y.o.). For the first time, we had to talk to those who actually grew up in the ‘80s in Italy. A generation still faithful to national TV, which makes it hard for Netflix to find its space.

We were asked to widen the audience of Stranger Things and make the launch of the third season a mainstream conversation. In the client’s words, we had to “make Stranger Things Netflix’s biggest show ever.”

Main objective: create a relevant bridge between Stranger Things and the Italian audience and connecting the ‘80s as seen in the show to the ‘80s in Italy.

Thanks to an unprecedented partnership with Mediaset, we changed the daily TV schedule of Italia1: the 3rd biggest TV channel in the country and a true icon for 3 generations of Italians. We filled it with a massive dose of fun nostalgia able to connect the show to the Italian ‘80s.

We started with the unexpected return on screens of Uan: a pink puppet — face of our target’s childhood — who was the protagonist of an incredible journey to Hawkins, Stranger Things’ hometown. The backstory of Uan was our silver bullet in order to make the Show’s universe closer to the Italian context and to engage with people still faithful to national TV.

The natural target of the show is both broad and mainstream, but the audience of season 2 was for the most part younger (18-34). This told us that there was still room to grow, including those who were born in the early 1970s. The first step was to find a way to engage the Italian X Generation by hitting the nostalgic button. We started with a fertile and meaningful overarching message “In the ‘80s the strangest things happened” and then we brought it to life thanks to an unprecedented partnership with Berlusconi’s Mediaset, one of Netflix biggest detractors.

Thanks to this unexpected partnership we were able to bring back the ‘80s on National TV and to integrate the brand into the conversation. The story of Uan was the peak moment of the campaign since it allowed us to shift this? ?conversation on Netflix social channels.

For an entire day, we turned Italia1 upside-down through a full takeover designed to bring Stranger Things on the national TV thanks to 9 movies that inspired the show, 4 fake-product commercials and tons of bespoke contents linking the Italian ‘80s to the Show’s universe.

Netflix's social channels were the meeting point for this huge TV stunt’s audience.

There, people found an editorial plan designed to expand the experience and turn it into an online conversation under the hashtag #Stranger80s.

Timeline: the TV stunt was on the 3rd of July. 24 hours of ‘80s extravaganza.

In the previous days, we gave some clues online getting our fans ready for the

Placement: Italia 1, part of Mediaset Group.

Netflix Italia social channels (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube)

Scale: The campaign was scaled on Italian ground only.

Reach: on television, the campaign had an overall reach of 50 millions.

Online, the social amplification on Netflix channels had an organic reach of 30.5M with more than 1M interactions and no paid media at all.

Engagement: ‘80s cult programs grid had a visible impact on Italia1’s performance by supporting shares throughout the whole day: 9-21 time band share rocketed by 18% compared to the same day back in 2018 day. Despite the fact the campaign didn’t start on social, it engaged with people as a social activation.

Impact: on the takeover day, 22M Italians were glued to their screen, increasing the audience of Italia1 by 20%.

Press defined the idea as an unprecedented event for Italian television, like Corriere della Sera titled: “This collaboration is a kind of historical event for Italian television.