If you haven’t heard or seen anything about Squid Game by now, you’ve probably been living under a rock.
Though the show was only released a few months ago, the South Korean survival drama is sure one of Netflix’s biggest successes in any language, hitting number one in 90 countries.
Squid Game is really an interesting case study for all Marketers. Why?
Deep diving in 3, 2, 1…
Do you remember the last time you saw a funny video on the internet, and you HAD to tell your friends? Well, it’s called “word-of-mouth”. It employs an element of viral marketing and captures the emotional aspect of the viewer.
Word-of-mouth is more powerful than paid ad campaigns because the growth is organic, and the speed of information spread is unbelievably fast. One interaction leads to one conversation, then that conversation leads to another, and on and on.
For Squid Game, TikTok played a deciding role in the proliferation of the message.
When you’re creating a marketing strategy for an international brand you know you must create different campaigns accordingly with the culture of the country. That didn’t happen with Squid Game. How come? Because the basis of this series is the basic human emotions and that is universal, no matter the cultural differences.
If brands can play it right with TikTok they can successfully approach consumers and create a “Squid Game effect”. It’s Neuromarketing 101.
It’s a myth that “serious brands” shouldn’t have a presence on TikTok and the Squid game is proof of that.
Today, it is acceptable for a large brand to comment on a post without being 100% professional. Brands need to talk and feel more like their audiences. If you’re a CEO of a big company you are not always serious and corporate, you have moments when you relax, laugh, talk about random stuff. So why your brand should always be so serious? Humanize it.
Brands that take an informal approach on this platform get a lot more attention, and if you get lucky to create a trend that goes viral on TikTok… then you can pat yourself on the back and say: “Well done”, because you just nailed it. Your awareness and engagement will skyrocket. With more than 1 billion monthly active users, TikTok registered the fifth consecutive quarter as the most downloaded app on the Apple App Store.
How does a show featuring extreme violence, Korean-only dialogue become such a phenomenon?
The series has received worldwide praise for its script, direction, acting, and set design.
“Aesthetically speaking, we created the places and displays trying to make the viewers think about the hidden intentions of squid games with us,” said Chae Kyoung-Sun, Art Director of the show in a Netflix interview.
Described by Lee Jung-Jae, the actor who plays Seong Gi-Hun, as “almost dreamlike”, Squid Game’s surreal set becomes a character of its own. When examined in close detail, each set is full of references that showcase the contradictions of modern society. Colourized — most of the time — in vibrant hues reminiscent of childhood, the architecture is used as another resource to make both actors and viewers uncomfortable.
The games are hosted in clean, minimal spaces that result in somewhat unsettling. In contrast, these scenes, dark, cave-like spaces have been created for dirtier activities like organ traffic. The outside world is portrayed as dark and cold, distinguishing it from the game world which is covered in pastel colours.
This South Korean survival drama going viral will make sense once you watch it. It’s a great TV show that will keep you on the edge of your seat, and it’s rated highly by critics. Additionally, it’s the perfect time to release such a show because audiences are bored of the copy-paste-styled shows now available on all these streaming services. There is a gap in the market, almost a need for something odd and fresh like Squid Game. An important lesson the show can teach us is that we really can’t predict what consumers want next until they show us. Squid Game created its own Blue Ocean Strategy. Well done.
This goes to show that we can’t always follow the conventional norm and depend on historic data to tell us what’s next; innovative businesses should always consider taking calculated risks with their marketing strategies. Squid Game redefined the boundaries of a TV show, revolutionizing the way we view and interact with content. Regular content can get your business mediocre attention, but a really strong concept that is intriguing and fresh can make you go viral, resulting in a lot of free marketing.
Social media is accessible to all brands: new, small, or big. Brands can easily attempt to trigger trends or buzz to get word-of-mouth going and have incredible exposure and engagement.
What lesson can we take from Squid Game marketing strategy? Your brand, and the experience that your brand provides, must be so unique and specific on your campaigns that your audiences turn into advocates and do the work for you at an exponential pace. Brand ambassadors are not just a trend, they’re a must. And Squid Game showed us once again that being different and taking risks plays a huge part in the recipe for success.
By London School of Design and Marketing
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