As Netflix struggles to expand its subscriber base in Latin America, the streaming giant is turning to another strategy to boost profits here: licensing. Audience hits such as Bridgerton, La Casa de Papel and The Witcher have been adapted for products ranging from chocolates to clothing and eyeglass frames.
“Everyone understands that in order to build a brand, you must have a tangible share of products, so that the person you love can carry this memory. A licensed product, regardless of brand, is an emotional product. that affects your unconscious. lot”, reflects Julia Medeiros, manager of licensed products at Riachuelo.
The retailer is a partner of the digital platform in Brazil to produce clothing such as shirts, sweatshirts and jackets from the La Casa de Papel and Stranger Things series. anticipated with specification by TV news, Riachuello’s next in line with Netflix will include the clothing of Round 6, a new streaming phenomenon.
In 2016, Juliana and her team began talks with the international company. “We were the third or fourth participant in the world on Netflix. We went to Los Angeles [Estados Unidos], we trained on how we’d build it and in early 2017, we launched the first collection of Stranger Things. Licensing is a very four-way business,” says Julia.
For chocolate lovers, the Bridgerton family’s love story adventures in Marathon or Geralt de Rivia’s (Henry Cavill) The Witcher are already done with custom truffles from The Coco Show, which launched a limited edition of products inspired by the platform’s series .
“We’ve been thinking about partnering with them for some time, and we saw it was the perfect moment to create this combination between eating truffles at home and watching Netflix”, explains Luciana Guima, Product Manager at The Coco Show.
Spanish raiders and a gang of XI (Millie Bobby Brown) were also part of the collection. “The selection of the series involved research with our employees and franchisees: we conducted surveys to understand which series were more appreciated and more attractive to our consumers. With the results, we verified with Netflix that the campaign What productions will grow during the period. Series listings, we tried to think about how to have a release that would translate to each Netflix series”, says the executive.
Louisiana says this product line yielded good sales results and that the public liked the combination. For example, the play developed by Shonda Rhimes was turned into chocolate from the La Creme line, one of the company’s best-known brands.
Spanish production also inspired a line of Persol eyeglass frames. As per the report, Netflix did not respond to questions till the publication of this text.
Disclosure / Riachuelo, Persol and Coco Show
Netflix Series Licensed Products
Licensing Backstage
According to Julia, before the Covid-19 pandemic, the development of a licensed collection it took about five months. “There are a lot of things that are very confidential. You have to get the material at least six to eight months in advance, a year would be ideal. Often, this material is not ready. And which series is going to explode? It Very difficult, very unpredictable,” he says.
“Three years ago, I was looking at a movie calendar. Today, it has movie releases, series, game championships, and other stuff. We’re working with Netflix on an on-demand, very fast-response model. Started to get a slew of audiences, commentary and engagement, we turn and run off to the archives”, acknowledged the executive.
An example of this new form of production occurred among younger audiences with a line inspired by the successful musical group Now United. “We put together the collection with 30 models, which is huge for us, in 40 days, in-store. Between building, developing, producing, and arriving at the store, it took 40 days. It requires a lot of effort. And we want to make it even smaller, so that we can be in time to see what’s happening”, he explains.
Professionals point out that the process of manufacturing a licensed product begins with an immersion to understand the vision of the company that powers the work. In the case of Riachuelo, the survey is discussed with the teams responsible for women’s, men’s and children’s fashion to adapt the story and develop the pieces.
Stranger Things is our flagship of Netflix, we don’t take it out of line, let’s say. Every month we have new products. La Casa de Papel is another phenomenon [no streaming], but we didn’t have the best sales performance. However, we will have [novos produtos deles], because it’s important,” he revealed.