Netflix was going live with Season 4 of Stranger Things in India after a gap of over three years, and the excitement and anticipation of the show were at an all-time high.

While Stranger Things is a globally recognised series and has tapped into select Indian households, Netflix wanted to build it into the social fabric of Indian pop culture. The objective of this campaign was to give all of India a taste of the Strangest experience through a unique journey crafted from start to finish.

Our agency was tasked to develop a unique activation and experience by building on 360 degrees strange ecosystem to drive curiosity and awareness amongst the masses in India.

The campaign needs to address the following, how could we get the fans even more excited and make the launch of the fourth season an event to remember?

We wanted to get the fans buzzing and talking about the upcoming Season 4 and decided to do something as crazy as the show itself.

An immersive one-of-a-kind experience was planned for fans, influencers, and the press, from a unique-customised-bus ride to curated food and topped off with a visual spectacle of a light show and custom music at the iconic Gateway of India.

We opened a rift on the Gateway of India, one of the country's most iconic monuments, and covered it with vines, taking the fans of Mumbai with us to the Upside Down.

Stranger Things has built a cult following among “large niches” of Indian culture, where people felt a part of the global phenomenon that the series has become. Furthermore, Netflix is known for having built its reputation within the Indian market as a worldwide brand with solid international content. Still, it could not break into the more significant Indian consumer mind space. This campaign aimed to bring this globally grossing show to the masses in India via a one-of-a-kind activation through curated experiences, customised focus, and unique projection mapping on one of India's most iconic buildings that further entrenched the sense of belonging to a community for Indian fans of the show, though similar coordinated events across the globe.

We decided to tell the story of Stranger Things from Season 1 to Season 3 by casting state-of-the-art projections on the iconic Gateway of Mumbai in front of thousands of show fans.

The projection took an unexpected turn when we got the audience to experience a rift, opening up right in the middle of the iconic monument and covering the entire structure with vines, precisely like it happens in the show.

The projection ended with a short teaser of Season 4 and an eerie reveal of Vecna, the big bad of Season 4.

As part of the build-up, we took select fans on a unique journey by converting a regular bus into a ‘Stranger Things Bus’ that went around town. It was covered with vines and had iconic memorabilia from the show that could be interacted with.

Given the activation's scale, environment, and objective, one of this campaign's critical measurement matrices was the show's total viewership and demand within the Indian market. Post the campaign and activation, Stranger Things saw a dramatic increase in its demand, propelling it to become one of Netflix India's most-watched shows.