The concept for The Switch was informed by social listening and insights garnered from fan culture.

On Twitter, the presence of Netflix and Chill increased exponentially in 2015—from under 1,000 mentions in May to over 60,000 in August. While influencers accelerated the trend, Netflix fans joined the conversation, tweeting about their personal watching rituals: "Candles lit, bathed, Netflix and food ordered all about that Friday night chill."

Our strategy was to make it easy for fans to get Netflix-ready in one step.

We positioned The Switch as a gadget that Netflix fans can customize to fit their own rituals and timed the release around a cultural trend—the Netflix and Chill meme. Leveraging the trend, we aimed to create broad consumer relevance and press appeal for the project.

The MakeIt campaign served as a platform to demonstrate Netflix's commitment to designing innovative ways to watch better—on your terms.

The Switch communicates with users' other devices and services—setting them to a state perfect for watching Netflix. The inside contains a microcontroller, wifi module, battery, charging circuit, IR emitters, and indicator LEDs. The Switch fires IR signals to turn on Netflix, uses APIs to dim smart lights and order takeout, and interfaces with an included app to intercept calls.

We debuted The Switch at World Maker Faire in NYC on September 26, 2015, demonstrating the gadget for an influential community of makers and tech press.

Simultaneously, we released a video on the MakeIt website, engaging fans to build and customize a Switch of their own using step-by-step instructions, open-source firmware and schematics.

The MakeIt campaign is a platform for us to release prototypes that are fun, open source to fans, and completely unique to Netflix—without the risk, cost, and time associated with modifying or releasing a real Netflix product.

Within days of the launch, tech press dubbed The Switch the Netflix and Chill Button, resulting in viral attention on social and mainstream media—completely organically.

At World Maker Faire, the conference's 100k+ attendees experienced The Switch first hand. The very first media article about the project, Hackaday's The Netflix and Chill Button, picked up on the meme. From there, The Switch expanded beyond tech press, appearing in more than 250 media placements and garnering over 435 million media impressions.

On social, The Switch spread organically—fast. The project was mentioned more than 23,000 times, yielding over 200 million social impressions.

The relevance, authenticity, and open-source nature of The Switch resulted in a cultural sensation and further established Netflix as an innovative force in the entertainment industry.

We are currently working on the third installment of the MakeIt campaign.

Consumers love their Netflix shows so much that they've created elaborate rituals and hacks to make watching better.

To celebrate Netflix fan culture and demonstrate the brand's commitment to innovation, we created the perfect gadget to help fans get Netflix-ready: The Switch.

With one press, The Switch dims the lights, silences incoming calls, orders takeout, and turns on Netflix—giving fans a shortcut to watching shows on their own terms.

We launched The Switch as the first installment of the Netflix MakeIt campaign—a series of of DIY projects inspired by users' watching rituals and designed to deliver the ultimate watching experience.

Netflix fans' devotion to their favorite shows leads to comical and sometimes elaborate binge-watching rituals and life hacks, often shared on social media.

To celebrate this fan culture, Netflix wanted to create a campaign that demonstrates its consumer-centric positioning: members enjoy entertainment on their own terms.

Inspired by Netflix Hack Days and informed by social listening, we created the MakeIt campaign—a DIY series. For each project, we build a working prototype that enhances fans' watching experience, and we release instructions for makers to create their own.

The Switch was the first installment of this campaign.

Upholding Netflix's reputation for innovation, but limited by product integration restrictions, we needed to make authentic prototypes that were technically robust, but also simply designed and engineered to accommodate open-source access for fans.