Yesterday, Medium reported that Netflix is staffing up its marketing team to help grow its ad revenue.
While Netflix is an ad-free service, they do have a growing program of product placement ads inside their shows. Now it is being reported that Netflix wants to expand this program along with their licensed character programs in Netflix originals.
Have you ever noticed all the Dunkin’ Donuts placements in House of Cards? What about Lyft showing up in the last season of Orange is the New Black? Maybe you saw the KFC placement in Stranger Things recently? These are all paid placements that companies like Dunkin’ Donuts paid for. Now it sounds like we will be seeing a lot more of them in future Netflix originals.
Netflix is also hoping to expand the use of Netflix original characters in commercials for other companies. According to reports, if you want to use a Netflix original character in your commercial it can cost you between $300,000 and $1 billion depending on who and how you want to use the Netflix character.
Netflix is not alone in this push. Have you ever watched a show and noticed that every car is a Ford or GM? That is likely because Ford or GM paid for that placement, and it has become common in broadcast TV. Other shows and networks have for years been licensing their characters to sell everything from food to cars.
Netflix seems to be hoping this is a way they can raise more revenue without needing to charge more for their service.
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