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Netflix changed how content distribution; now its changing marketing · Kvetch & Release

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  Let's imagine the future of retail with a little bit of an exciting twist.
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  Imagine a shopping experience that can blend physical stores with digital magic and a seamless
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  journey for consumers. It's not actually a fantasy. Netflix is making this vision
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  of reality. Next year, they're opening their first ever retail location, and
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  it's not a typical store. It's a former department store with a futuristic,
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  interactive spin where you can explore and purchase products that are inspired by your favorite
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  Netflix shows and movies. So imagine walking into the upside Down and Stranger Things
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  and there'd be products associated with that, or maybe the Crown where you'd be
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  browsing merchandise from the monarchy. This is reality retail meets Hollywood magic. It's
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  a really interesting take on how the streaming giant has changed not only the way
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  that we watch and consume content, but also the way that it is marketed.
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  And this is why I wanted to bring on filmmaker and director Gavino,
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  who I saw getting into a little bit of a back and forth with someone
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  on social media recently about how Netflix doesn't do traditional marketing in the way that
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  you know your big tent pole movies necessarily would. If that's a good thing
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  or a bad thing, we can discuss. Gavin joins me right now,
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  Gavin, how you doing. I'm doing all right, Joh, how's your
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  afternoon? Hey, it's I'm doing pretty well. I'm inside, air conditioned
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  and dry, so that is a positive. So I saw this one,
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  and you were the first person that jumped into my mind because of what I
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  was just mentioning there. You got into that back and forth about the lack
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  thereof marketing for the movie Fall Guy, and why, in your opinion,
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  they don't need to market at Netflix the way that traditional distributors do. Yeah.
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  The simplest way to break it down is if a movie costs one hundred
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  million dollars, which is on the cheap end for blockbusters these days, it
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  has to earn four hundred million dollars to break even because it needs to the
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  movie theaters the change they say it's AMC or see the placetodian being roughly fifty
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  cents of every dollar of ticket sale. And then generally a whatever the budget
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  of a movie was, the studio has doubled that budget. You know,
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  if it's one hundred million, they spent another one hundred million to advertise to
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  guarantee people go to the theater, So they need to recoup two hundred million
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  dollars, which means four hundred million in ticket sales for them to break even.
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  So it's a ludicrous amount of money sometimes, and the Vengers movie needs
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  to make a billion dollars at the theaters to break even, and they have
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  to spend, spend, spend to guarantee it. Whereas Netflix, they already
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  have your home screen, they own that, they advertise whatever they want to
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  you whenever you open your your your browser or your your TV app, and
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  they have your email list where you know, as a subscriber you're getting the
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  weekly Netflix picks and what's coming new. So it's changed the game of how
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  studios have to market. They don't have the same expenses, and it just
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  it's shifted entirely. They almost have like the home the home court advantage,
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  literally the home court being your living room. Well, I mean that's the
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  thing. There's so many times where I've turned on whatever streaming company it is,
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  but Netflix, you know, changed everything, and it's like, oh,
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  well, here's a new movie or here's a new TV series. I
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  haven't heard anything about it. It's got some good names in it. It
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  looks like it's the genre. I'm interested. Let's watch it, and I'll
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  usually end up watching all eight episodes. And you know, if it's a
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  stinker, it's a stinker. But they got my eyes because they've got my
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  home screen. As you just said, yeah, you didn't have to drive
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  to a blockbuster or go to a cineplex, and you know, put down
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  harder and money for you know, yourself and a friend or your family with
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  two children. You know, it's just like, oh, it's right there,
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  and if we don't like it, we turn off and start something else,
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  you know, which is a blessing and a curse for some films or
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  shows where maybe it takes a couple episodes or half an hour to really to
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  kick in. But yeah, this idea that they're going into physical stores is
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  kind of wild. I do you suspect something that wasn't mentioned in the press
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  is that in order for movies to qualify for the Oscars and the big awards
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  every year, they have to have played theatrical and sometimes that's just two cities.
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  And what a studio like say so many picture classics would do is put
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  an art house movie in screens in New York and LA it would run for
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  a week or two and that qualify the theatrical release. Well, Netflix has
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  two physical locations in the United States that everything that they that they broadcast there
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  will also qualify. And I imagine they're going to build their theaters to just
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  the pristine quality of the best laser projection, the biggest screens, the best
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  sound, because if you're if you're a premier company projecting your work, you're
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  not going to let it go to substandards like some theater chains are today.
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  Yeah, and it's it's really interesting. I mean, you know, in
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  major cities, the big distributors do the more interactive or experiential marketing. I
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  think I just saw that the Empire Estate Building has for House of the Dragon,
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  a big dragon that's been wrapped around it at the very top floors.
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  We don't get that kind of marketing here in Windsor, Ontario, which makes
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  sense. Maybe Detroit's going to start to see a bit more of it as
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  it's on its continual upswing, But this seems like a really interesting way to
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  sort of shift that paradigm. I could see people going out of their way
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  almost traveling to these locations that have these Netflix houses. There's only gonna be
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  two when they first open up. I gets people going to this as a
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  tourist attraction. It sounds great. It's like Disneyfying or Disneyland of movies.
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  Like if you were going to go watch this, say the premiere of season
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  five The Stranger Things, and you knew that within an hour drive from you,
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  you could go to a place where, like you said, you get
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  to walk through the upside down. Maybe they bring in some casts. Sometimes,
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  maybe there's you know, maybe there's merchandise specifically, like a popcorn bucket
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  or T shirts that you could only get at these locations. What if some
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  of the food court options that they have are catered to things from the you
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  know, like from the show, the way that Star Wars Land has the
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  cantina and cantina drinks some food. I think there's something really kind of magical
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  to that, And I think movies kind of need that shot in the arm,
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  you know, every deck we get like James Cameron an avatar in three
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  D, and it's amazing when he's shooting in three D and somebody who really
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  cares. But then the fad. It kind of turns into a fad because
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  everybody just tries to cheaply convert movies into three D and you're like, I
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  don't know, there's nothing magical about this. But anytime that's somebody is willing
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  to, you know, up the game and put in the effort to make
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  it and experience, you can't lose. We all want that. That's why
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  we go to live music concerts and that's why we travel. It's about having
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  something that's different than what you could have sitting in your living room. Well,
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  you know, it's that breath that you intake when you're like just actually
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  like surprised by seeing something, just the wow, that looks really cool.
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  I want to I want to take part in that. It's a way to
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  almost recapture that innocence and uh, just the spectacularness that that movies were for
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  us as children, and that I got to imagine is probably what helped propel
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  you into the industry that you're in today one hundred percent. And like having
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  the chance. We've lived in Los Angeles for a while, like Disney owns
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  the al Capitan Theater right on Hollywood Boulevard, opposite the Chinese theater and they
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  sound like an organist and a pianist that will play before the shows. It's
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  a beautiful classic theater, and then you're seeing the movie on the best projector.
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  They really enforce like people not using their cell phones or talking during movies,
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  and they get to do all of their premieres there and press screenings,
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  so it just feels kind of magical and they really are ensuring the best theatrical
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  experience possible. And then on the other hand, you've got Quentin Tarantino that
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  owns the New Beverly Cinema where they only show things on old, dirty,
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  thirty five millimeter print. So if you're going to watch Speed from thirty years
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  ago, it's like a print that was found in the theater basement in nineteen
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  ninety nine and shifts over to him. So you're watching it with all the
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  pops and the scratches, and it's kind of a small class it's not a
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  stadium style seat, and it just takes you back in that nostalgia as part
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  of the experience. It's like, oh, you can hear the projector flickering
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  and the motor running on it in the back of the theater. It's so
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  awesome. Bring me back to the days of being at the Palace or Forest
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  Glade cinema where you hear someone drop a bottle of beer at the very back
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  row and it plays Plinko going all the way down to the very or just
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  right when somebody's trying to strategically crack their their popcan open, and then the
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  whole theater goes quiet because the action scenes over. It's the loudest thing in
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  the room. I actually own I have two film reels from the Palace Cinema
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  that when they switch over to digital, somebody was kind enough to give them
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  to me, so I've always wherever I live Toronto, Los Angeles back here
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  in window those are always on my wall as a reminder of, like,
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  you know, the first place that I ever saw a movie, and and
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  you know my love for cinema. So would you check out this Netflix house
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  if you're ever in the area. I wouldn't have to be in the area,
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  I would. I would make a pilgrimage to see it. I think,
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  I think it's awesome, and I enjoy a lot of their shows,
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  like Stranger Things and stuff. So the idea of being able to get like
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  a you know, maybe if you're a Netflix member, you also get a
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  discount of going to these places or some sort of added bonus that only being
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  a Netflix subscriber gets you. Like it feels like like I have to check
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  out just to think about how I want to brand my own projects and stuff
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  in the future. Not that I have Netflix money, but you know it,
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  just everything inspires you on how to do things on a smaller scale that
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  can be unique or different for your audience. Absolutely, it's a crossing that
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  barrier between what we see on the screens and what we're able to take in
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  experientially with our own senses. Gavin, I want to thank you so much
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  for joining me. Just what a fascinating conversation. No problem at all.
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  I think people have to compete because there's very little reason to go to a
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  movie theater and I hate saying that as a cinema file that you can do
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  everything at home on your big, beautiful TV and sound system. So like
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  people need to step up the game of what the theatrical experience is and this
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  is one way to do it. Gavin Booth is a filmmaker and director,
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  and you can check out one of the movies that he did last call.
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  It is taking place at with which is having a local spotlight this weekend.
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  Gavin, thanks again for your time. Sounds good talking