Marketing is the Surprise Guest Star in Netflix’s Emily in Paris
(Originally written in January, 2021)
In Netflix’s new show Emily in Paris, a young woman moves to Paris from Chicago to work at a fashion PR firm and finds success leveraging experiential and influencer campaigns for her clients. As I binge watched the first season, I couldn’t help but notice how non-traditional marketing ideas were central to the storylines. While the show exaggerates reality a lot, it also makes a statement about marketing and advertising; experiential and influencer marketing tactics are the most effective ways for brands to authentically connect with audiences. Below are some of the most memorable examples of non-traditional marketing from the first season of Emily in Paris, along with some relevant real world examples for reference.
Interactive Installations (Episode 5)
In this episode, Emily’s boss Sylvie makes a pitch to Hästens, a Swedish luxury bed company, but the client is not impressed with her traditional marketing idea. Emily then pitches her idea for an interactive campaign showing the beds at well-known Paris locations. The client likes her idea and Emily to activates a “social media installation” at La Place Dalida, placing the bed on the street for audiences to engage with and share on their social channels. Emily’s idea is reminiscent of one of my favorite IKEA activations from back in 2013 when the brand turned billboards into real bathrooms, complete with actors brushing their teeth and styling their hair at Paris’ Saint Lazare train station. You can read about it in this article on The Drum.
Introducing Brand Rituals (Episode 8)
In this episode Emily’s friend Mindy has friends visiting from China. When they are out partying, they celebrate by spraying each other with expensive champagne. Emily is inspired and, when she has the opportunity to pitch a potential new vineyard client, suggests they create a new ritual with their surplus of champaign. Her idea is that the vineyard should create a sub brand of Champagne that is exclusively promoted for spraying and can become the “Spray of Paris.” Emily’s idea of a brand creating or endorsing a ritual around their products has proven to be effective popularized by the Ice Bucket Challenge to promote awareness for ALS. Similarly Getting Iced is a ritual created to encourage drinking Smirnoff Ice.
Guerrilla PR Stunts (Episodes 9 and 10)
In episode 9, two avante-garde fashion designers who go by the name Grey Space show up to the AFL auction to bid on a dress that Emily is modeling. They proceed to pull off a publicity stunt by shooting her with paint and shocking the audience in the middle of the show. This concept is reminiscent of Banksy’s self shredding artwork at Sotheby’s last year, and shows the strength of leveraging a live stunt to generate press and talk value.
In episode 10, Pierre returns the favor to Grey Space by creating a PR stunt of his own, hijacking the outside of his former venue and presenting his new collection directly on the street in the middle of a crowd. The audience loves it, and his disruptive stunt goes viral making him the toast of Fashion Week. Pierre’s approach in this episode is reminiscent of more immersive fashion shows that have become popular over the past few years and demonstrate how more experiential and non-traditional approaches to presenting fashion are generating buzz, creating more press and translating to sales.
As the examples above indicate, Emily works with brands to tell creative stories through stunts and real world experiences that invite participation, feel culturally authentic and generate social media shares. If Emily in Paris is any indication of how Gen Z wants to be marketed to, brands should take note and put a bigger emphasis on non traditional marketing campaigns and projects in the coming year.
