What Happened
Netflix has launched a YouTube pre-roll campaign in France to promote the debut of the classic sitcom Friends on its service. Working with Ogilvy Paris, Netflix tagged some of the top-searched videos on YouTube and created pre-roll spots from Friends footage that are contextually relevant to the content that YouTube viewers are about to watch. For example, viewers set to watch a makeup tutorial would see a pre-roll ad with Joey’s Japanese makeup while those searching for cat videos will see a clip featuring Rachel’s hairless cat.
What Brands Need To Do
Earlier this month, the Lab’s research team partnered with Zefr for a joint study on the effectiveness of running video ads alongside contextually relevant content on YouTube, which found that contextually relevant ads can improve the ad experience and drive as much as 63% higher purchase intent (read the full report here). This clever pre-roll campaign from Netflix is tapping into the power of contextual relevance we explained and quantified in the study. More brands should consider improving their video ad effectiveness by tailoring their ads to the contexts with which they are served.
Source: AdWeek
Header image courtesy of Ogilvy Paris’s YouTube
