Goal Movie launch
Industry Media & Entertainment
Market Benelux (NL-BE)

 

Collaborating with Netflix on a personal message from Ferry to the user directly.

 

Performance

 

3 Million

of total impressions

 

125% +

increase in-view time

 

The sentiment & idea

 

A personal message from Ferry that is directed to you, the WeTransfer user, while downloading- or uploading your files. Before we got to this idea we also tried other directions. Ultimately this was the idea that aligned best with the brand and our approach.

Our main objective was making users curious about the trailer, so we offered a unique experience that creates both awareness and enthusiasm for the movie, but also guides them towards watching the trailer. We came up with the idea of a personal voice memo and asked Netflix to provide it to us from the one and only Frank Lammers himself.

Aligning with Netflix’s way of thinking.

 

What would be the most logical place to promote the movie Ferry? Thats right, they put the Ferry aka Frank Lammers face on a life-size Ferry boat. This is a great example of what Netflix is about. They are known for their “meta” marketing approach. As you can imagine this really set the bar high. It was the challenge to align that thinking and come up with something equally special.

My role

 

For this project I was the Lead Designer, leading a small team of 5 designers and 2 developers.

Main responsibilities were;

  • Stakeholder Management (Sales, Ad-tech, Engineering)

  • Stakeholder Management with the client (Netflix)

  • Pitching & presenting & feedback rounds with the client (Netflix)

  • Design reviews

  • Streamlining design iterations

The Design Process

 

  1. Kick off with client

  2. Defining KPIs & Metrics, Campaign goals.
    (Brand Awareness, VCR, CTR.)

  3. Ideation Phase & Research
    (Mindmaps, Lotus flower technique, Moodboards)

  4. Visual Ideation
    (Sketches Figma, Art Direction, Component library)

  5. Presenting 2 rounds of ideas with client
    (Including iterations)

  6. Developer Hand-off
    (QA)

  7. Campaign Launch

Brainstorm and ideation phase in Miro

Visual moodboard & Art Direction

Ideas & Explorations

A personal voice memo from Ferry to you

After putting all that emphasis on all characters we realised that Ferry is the one it all came down to. He is the real star of the movie, and it was right under our nose the whole time. We realised less is more in this case. We stripped everything and the one character that remained was Ferry.

We decided to be cheeky and asked Netflix if Frank Lammers, the actor, was willing to provide us with a voice memo speaking to the WeTransfer audience directly.

Final iteration

 

Next steps were crafting the UX flow and developing the experience to make it ready for launch. I designed the components and build a flow for two different scenarios. One where the user was active and one where the user stayed idle. Eventually a notification would appear that would prompt the user to click and see what happens.

The result

👀

The overall wallpaper performance was excellent in terms of viewability, in-view time, interaction and engagement.

🔁

We got people excited more than 24.000 times to listen to ferry directly on their computer. Of which 1.368 times a replay. Of which more than 100 times even 3 or more replays.

▶️

Although the voice-memo was the main attraction, we also got people to watch the trailer many times as a result of the memo leading users towards it.

📈

The CTR on this wallpaper greatly exceeded the average benchmark we used.

😍

Netflix loved the creative strategy. Users thought Netflix was behind it instead of WeTransfer which means it fits their brand really well.

🎯

The execution resonates very well with WeTransfers users.

See the live result and interaction of the campaign here. (Recommended to watch on desktop only.)

Social Impact

 

The campaign was shared many times by WeTransfer users within the benelux market with much enthusiasm. The funny thing is that users thought Netflix was behind it instead of WeTransfer. Then you know you reached your goal, because it means it really worked well with their brand.

Learnings & Key takeaways

 

Save ideas for later. 🍪

If needed, put your idea back into your vault of goodies. There were times where I had to kill so many ideas, simply because there wasn’t enough time, budget or patience from the client. That’s often a reality and that is why being flexible and adaptive as a designer is a key skill to have. To kill an idea doesn’t mean it is bad concept.

Be picky in your decisions. 🧐

It was really easy to show too many ideas for a fun objective like this. But the more ideas we proposed, the more confused the client got and was indecisive. As designers we have the tendency to show more, but there is power in keeping your options limited to a few strong ideas. It’s best to let go, if your idea doesn’t serve the best experience for the client or user.

Trust your gut. 🔮

When you have that hunch, don’t ignore it, trust it. The voice memo was one of our first ideas, but we rejected it at first because we simply assumed it was too difficult to realise within short deadlines, due to such a big dependency on external factors. We decided to be bold and ask anyway and we realised it was very easy for Netflix to provide the memo and to make it happen. Once we think beyond limits a client might actually be willing to work together with you to make it happen.

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