How Did Stranger Things Kickstart the Future of Product Placement?

Stranger Things is the series that broke audience records on Netflix. After the launch of its third season on July 4, 2019, it became the most-watched show on the platform just four days after its release. As tempting as it is to dive into the plot in this article, I won’t, because that’s not the point here—and I’m sure your time is valuable. To give you a bit of context, it’s a story set in the 1980s in a small, remote town in the United States.

I’m bringing this series to your attention because it is probably a textbook case of what future collaborations between brands and entertainment content will look like. We keep repeating it with the same conviction: advertising will always exist, but acceptance of its messages will keep declining as long as ads continue to interrupt the content people actually want to watch.

Becoming part of the content people seek out—that’s what smart brands are now aiming for.

Stranger Things: A Turning Point in the Brand–Entertainment Dynamic

Season 3 of Stranger Things showed how the union of advertising and entertainment can help both sides solve their respective challenges, by leveraging each other’s firepower.

The effectiveness of product placement has been proven for over 30 years. One classic example is the appearance of the brand Reese’s Pieces, whose sales jumped by 65% after their iconic role in Steven Spielberg’s E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.

But these integrations offer much more than short-term commercial results. Today, authenticity and emotional connection are essential for marketers. In Stranger Things, Coca-Cola seized the opportunity to reposition its Coke product in 1980s America, a time when soft drinks and junk food were far less criticized than they are today.

While brands obviously gain a lot from well-thought-out product placement, the value captured by entertainment content is probably even greater. For its third season, Stranger Things signed more than 75 brand deals, extending their integration far beyond the episodes themselves. Throughout the season, the Duffer Brothers’ series featured clothing lines from H&M and Levi’s.

Where Netflix and Stranger Things really hit hard was in keeping the series in public conversation well beyond the usual lifespan of a release. By pushing Coca-Cola to relaunch its old Coke drink (which was a marketing failure when it came out in 1985), and getting Burger King to release an upside-down burger in its box (the “Upside Down” being a key element of the plot), Netflix managed to keep Stranger Things in its audience’s mind for much longer.

It’s as if the roles had been reversed: brand ads act as promotions for Stranger Things, while the episodes of the series become long-form commercials for the brands.

With production budgets of more than $8 million per episode, Netflix series are not only designed to satisfy subscribers hungry for content; they’re also meant to push the rest of the population to subscribe to the platform. The omnipresence of Stranger Things partnerships across various products and services is designed to reach a broad audience and spark interest everywhere.

A more acceptable and sustainable advertising model

While the overexploitation of data has kept increasing consumers’ rejection of advertising (61% refuse to be targeted based on their previous browsing history), 57% of Netflix subscribers say they would leave the streaming service if it adopted an ad-supported model. The model used in Stranger Things is probably the most acceptable—and most sustainable.
Creating advertising that integrates people’s favorite content is a win-win for both the brand and the show.

We’ve entered an era where entertainment needs brands just as much (if not more) than brands need entertainment.
And if you’d like to create collaborations that truly make sense, we invite you to discover our Brand Services offering.