Pop-ups and special events are a good way to draw demand for a promotional campaign. That blink-or-you’ll-miss-it aspect drives demand. Things like traveling tours where a branded bus stops at tourist destinations in places all over the country to hand out promotional products, or a pop-up to promote something like an album drop or new TV show have been proven to work.
Netflix, which has done plenty of pop-ups and limited installments, is taking the idea of these immersive merchandising experiences and making them permanent, bridging a gap between a normal brick-and-mortar store and an event.
They’re calling it Netflix House, according to Bloomberg, and they’ll debut in 2025 with “a mix of retail, dining, and live experiences.”
The way Netflix has created fully branded immersive experiences for people to buy merchandise from their IP’s like “Bridgerton” and “Stranger Things” shows that they know how to create a themed event. Doing it on a permanent basis show that those events work enough that they trust people will want to go more.
Bloomberg also reported that Netflix doesn’t see this as a merchandising revenue stream, however. This is a promotion. So, that means that it most likely will be a stationary place with a rotating merchandise selection to capture whatever hype is buzzing around Netflix shows at the time.
It’s not unlike something like Disney, but on a smaller scale. Think about the way Disney and Universal Studios theme parks use the merchandise stores to sell products from old and new movies and TV shows. What Netflix is essentially creating is just a gift shop.
But, since Netflix is a brand that exists in the digital age, it has to have a new and trendy name, rather than just saying they’re opening a gift shop.
What this says for distributors is that immersive experiences and pop-ups work. They work enough that Netflix is betting on them on a permanent basis.
