Young.Monks

Media.Monks partnered with Cannes Lions and Netflix for the first time to create Young.Monks, an internal competition that invited hundreds of Media.Monks creatives to participate internationally and answer one of two briefs. Our idea made the shortlist in the Innovation category out of nearly 500 participants.

Challenge: What can we do to reinvent the way we launch new and existing titles?

Idea: In order to break through the clutter of mass media consumption, we need to promote Stranger Things Season 4, as well as other Netflix shows and movies, in a new and engaging format that allows audiences to not only observe, but also participate.

Into the trailer

Netflix will innovate the standard trailer to be an entirely immersive experience called Into the Trailer. Immersive trailers will invite users to not only watch, but instead step ‘into the trailer’ and experience the story for themselves while interacting with teasing elements from Stranger Things Season 4. 

Users will have the choice to explore four new locations from Season 4: Creel House, the Lab, California, & Russia. They’ll then take part in a 10-min long Choose Your Own Adventure style virtual activity and get teasers of the story along the way. 

The Into the Trailer platform will function as a microsite off of netflix.com, netflix.com/intothetrailer, where users can virtually walk through the settings of Season 4. Think 360° photos meet Google Maps. For example, users can click through the hallways of Creel House, turn around in the space to look for hidden Easter eggs, and hear sounds in their surroundings like voices getting louder and softer as they move. When they reach important check points they’ll be met with a vintage screen that allows them to choose their next move, making each experience tailored to the individual.

Social media

Netflix will use platforms like Instagram and TikTok — where the majority of the target audience is spending their social media time — to share 15-30 second walkthrough videos of the immersive trailer on their profiles. The walkthroughs will lead up to a checkpoint and then leave the viewer at a cliffhanger. To experience the rest of the trailer and get juicy hints for the new season, they'll be prompted to visit the Into the Trailer microsite. 

OOH

Netflix will create a digital 3D billboard of a portal to the Upside Down to bring Stranger Things to major city centers, in a format that combines OOH, experiential, and social into one. The billboard will be impossible to ignore, being made to look like a giant vine-covered portal has opened on a building facade. At the center of the portal, there will be a strategically placed 3D QR code, so when bystanders take photos the QR code will automatically scan in their camera apps and direct them to the Into the Trailer microsite. After all, Stranger Things fans love the unexpected.

Partnership

Meow Wolf is an arts production company that creates fun, immersive and otherworldly experiences. Their existing locations in Las Vegas, Denver and Santa Fe create trippy worlds that transport people to an alternate dimension, making them the perfect partner to bring the public to the Upside Down. 

We’ll partner with Meow Wolf to create an in-person version of our immersive trailers in Los Angeles, California — the Golden State is a central location in Season 4. Similar to the online experience, the pop-up will be broken into four sections based on the four main plots/locations of Season 4: Creel House, the Lab, California, & Russia. 

Designed to bring people even deeper into the world of Stranger Things Season 4, participants can wander through the rooms of Creel House, interact with guards in Hopper’s Russian prison, open the door to Eleven’s room in the Lab and more. At the end of each section, participants will be shown a sneak peak of never-before-seen Season 4 clips that take place in their respective sections, giving them exclusive teasers that will encourage them to share their experience across social media. This exclusive in-person pop-up is the perfect bonus to extend our immersive social campaign from online to IRL.