The past couple of years have been a rollercoaster for Netflix, the online streaming and DVD home-delivery juggernaut. But while their business model has had its ups and downs, one thing has done consistently well – their advertising. The cross-category average Ace Score of the nearly 7,000 ads we’ve tested in the last 12 months is 519. Netflix’s 12 month average Ace Score beats that overall average by 26 points (or 5%) in a very competitive Websites category that houses huge brands like Google, Overstock.com, Bing and more. Of the 26 Netflix ads we have in our database, only 2 of them scored at or slightly below norm – the other 24 were outstanding and scored in the top quintile for the category.
The latest ads from Netflix are what prompted us to write this blog post. In terms of Ace Score, they are right on par with the other high scoring ads from the brand in the last year. But it was the Change score that really made us take a second look. The Change component of the Persuasion element is defined as the ability to change the viewer’s perception of brand based on that single ad. There are a couple of possible reasons for this sudden boost in Change scores. Not only does Netflix appear to have resolved the consumer’s issues with their online streaming model, but they have also produced some excellent proprietary television shows that have proven worthy of Emmy Nominations – both boosting viewer’s perception of the brand. Their latest TV spot promoting Netflix Kids, “1 Month Free,” boasts the highest Change score from them this year, almost 17% above the component’s 90 day norm. The ad also garnered high Desire, Relevance and Likeability scores.
The next highest scoring Change ad, “Cool Place,” was given Ad of the Week honors two weeks ago for beating out more than 150 new ads in the same week with an Ace Score 14.5% over category norm, the largest percentage gap to category norm for the period. The optional verbatim comments for “Cool Place” reveal that respondents didn’t know about this special section of their website just for children, influencing the higher than usual Change and Information scores.
Netflix also earned an Ad of the Quarter (Q2) for “Watched Ahead.” This ad earned an Ace Score of 579, 20.6% above the twelve-month norm from Q2 for the Website category and outperformed 26 other Website ads that quarter. The ad’s Desire and Relevance scores soared at over 30% above the 90 day norm and over 23% above the 12-month norms for those components within the Websites.
“Watched Ahead” performed well across demographics, but best with women 21-35 who scored it 37% above the norm. Consumers even mentioned “Netflix” by name in 22% of the verbatim responses. The ad was the 3rd highest scoring Netflix television ad we have scored since 2010.
It is always exciting to see a brand rise above its perception challenges and deliver consistent, effective ads that resonate across audiences. Netflix has definitely become a “brand to watch” and we will certainly have our eyes on them and our other Silicon Valley neighbors in the back half of the year.
