“Netflix N chill”
I will in this blog post talk about the success of the meme, I am sure many of you have heard about, “Netflix and Chill”.
The origin leads back to the social media channel twitter. A tweet were posted regarding how “Netflix and chill” it is just and invitation to hook up rather than watch a movie. Many must have felt this way as this tweet got re-tweeted content got featured on other social media channels, and before you knew it everyone was using this meme. Even communities and events were created on Facebook with more than 23 000 people attending.
Netflix even jumped on the wagon taking advantage of the meme s popularity and released a Netflix and Chill button that would enhance your viewing experience by diming lights, ordering take out and putting your phone on silent.
They also encouraging customers to create their own Netflix and Chill button and sharing their experience, creating a bond between the business and consumer.
Its difficult to say whether or not this meme has resulted in a positive outcome for the company Netflix, however its free exposure and the fact that a vast amount of their target market are talking about their brand has to count for something.
A university student in Texas, Okasheh saw his opportunity to launch a product based on this meme a condom called “Netflix N Chill”
He said the following: “I saw a couple memes have been floating around, and I was like, ‘Oh my God, I think it would be hilarious to quickly sell condoms”.
Pablo Rochat is another student who also happened to be the host of the Facebook event Netflix and Chill in US, saw the opportunity to launch his app knock knock, which lets you connect with people in the immediate area, which resulted in a huge success for his business using the Netflix and Chill events to sign up people to his app, by providing freebies.
Although the meme is on its way out it left behind a great opportunity for free exposure and room for innovations.
What do you guys think? Is meme watching a good way to do market research?
ninanetland 
Interesting viewpoint, Nina! These days we see this trend of memes proving to be a great source of market research as seen in the case of Netflix and Chill and also Straight Outta Compton. Opportunities identified from such memes are generally successful because of the relevant nature and the ability to connect with the users. So I personally feel that we as marketers should be on the lookout for such opportunities but also keep in mind that at times the content of the memes can be sensitive in nature in which case we need to be selective and smart in the effective usage of the content.
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Hey Nina,
You totally got me on ‘Netflix N Chill’ and also agreeing with Kanish, interesting viewpoint.
The fact nowadays we are flooded by crazy hilarious endless memes, I think it’s pretty rad that businesses like Netflix took it as an advantage rather than seeing it as backfire to their company’s image (which reminds me of Kim Kardashian’s Papar magazine cover, I think in a way she kinda took an advantage of the memes for popularity sake). I read it somewhere awhile ago about having a great sense of humor can earn you more followers and how companies are leveraging memes to create some sort of viral marketing. But I guess, again, It all depends on the DNA of the company, some companies might not be happy about memes addressed to them and some might actually embraced it.
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The blog post’s great, especially in that it highlights the importance of harnessing the ‘energy’ of public perception towards a business. Consumers who feel great attunement to products will, as a rule of thumb, act to maximize their sense of participation with it. However, not all memes are necessarily beneficial, such as the countless examples of Scumbag ‘X’ when referring to a firm’s indecisiveness.
The short-form nature of memes also makes them ripe for astroturfing, something important to consider going forward.
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