Stranger Things is Netflix’s biggest series, a true pop culture phenomenon around the world. But because Season 4 had been delayed for years due to the pandemic, super high expectations had been set for the new season launch. We needed to raise awareness of the show for the mainstream audience, but at the same time we wanted to do something super fan-centric to keep the loyal fans excited.

We took advantage of the fact that the trailer had already been produced and would be broadcast during one of the country’s most watched TV shows, like a Brazilian Super Bowl for audience figures. And then we added just one extremely simple detail that's also fully related to the new season's plot. What looked like just another standard Netflix watermark logo, blinked in and out: "S.O.S. BRAZILIAN NERDS. STRANGER THINGS ARE HAPPENING. WE NEED YOUR HELP."

Using ‘80s technology, we turned a current-day trailer into a new, innovative and exceptionally low-cost idea. And the idea made for, and aimed directly at, the “nerdiest” fans even engaged the mainstream audience.

ST fans are the “nerdiest” and extremely proud of the title. They are into digging around and finding even the smallest signals to unravel any mystery. So our strategy was to turn their restlessness into our biggest asset.

Throughout the series there was a special way that the “nerds” used to communicate: morse code. So we decided to use that same resource to send a message that would never go unnoticed by the fans.

We added just one extremely simple detail (that's also fully related to the new season's plot) to the trailer that would already be broadcast during the finale of one of Brazil’s most watched TV shows. It was a morse code message hidden in the Netflix watermark logo. While the blinking Netflix logo in the upper corner may just have looked like part of the spot, it was actually a message straight from 1986 recruiting Brazilian fans to fight together in the darkest battle of the series: "S.O.S. BRAZILIAN NERDS. STRANGER THINGS ARE HAPPENING. WE NEED YOUR HELP."

With just one commercial airing on broadcast TV we achieved 25M views and 666K direct interactions. A fan even cracked it using a Python code. The response was so overwhelming that the idea made for, and aimed directly at the “nerdiest” fans also caught the attention of the mainstream audience on social networks. People even stopped talking about the finale of the show that was being broadcast at the time to talk about Stranger Things. Incredible levels of engagement started within the nerd community and even reached fan clubs around the world. And the news invaded all the main media channels.