Friends has been available for American Netflix subscribers for more than a year, but the streaming service’s French users only recently gained access to the classic 90s sitcom, and that international expansion led to a clever ad campaign. Netflix teamed up with ad agency Ogilvy Paris to create pre-roll ads that match Friends scenes to specific searches on YouTube.
To create its campaign, Ogilvy identified popular video topics on YouTube and matched them with relevant moments from Friends. Joey’s Japanese lipstick commercial, for example, was paired with YouTube’s endless supply of beauty tutorials, while “The Routine” found a home in front of dance videos. In other cases, Ogilvy remixed Friends clip to fit current trends like Drake’s “Hotline Bling.” The ad agency gave a visual explanation of its strategy in a video it released to accompany the campaign.
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Ogilvy’s claim that its Friends campaign is “the first pre-roll campaign that is responsive to the videos you’re looking for on YouTube” isn’t quite accurate; brands like ESPN/ABC and Burger King have created YouTube ads that target the specific videos they precede. No matter the novelty of Ogilvy’s strategy, however, its effectiveness cannot be denied. Viewers are more likely to watch “self-aware” pre-roll ads, and once they do stick around to watch a full ad, they’re more likely to remember it.
Will the campaign have a noticeable impact on Friends’ cultural appeal in France? It would be hard to pin down a rise in the show’s popularity to these specific pre-rolls, but Ogilvy’s ingenuity should still be commended. Perhaps, as Netflix expands Friends to other international territories, relevant pre-roll ads will be there for those viewers, too.
