Stranger Things is one of Netflix's most famous titles, but to turn the Italian launch of season 3 into a national event, we couldn’t only rely on the young target that was already in love with the show (18-24 y.o.). For the first time, we had to talk to those who actually grew up in the Italian ‘80s.

A generation still faithful to national TV, a place in which it is hard for Netflix to find its space.

We were asked to widen the audience of Stranger Things and make the launch of the third season a mainstream conversation. In the client’s words, we had to “make Stranger Things Netflix’s biggest show ever.”

How? By building a relevant bridge between the show and the Italian context, and by leveraging on nostalgia to bring back those stranger years in the most impactful way possible.

The idea was bold and simple: to bring back the '80s on national television by creating a unique story able to connect the show to the Italian context and its characters.

Thanks to an unprecedented partnership with Mediaset, we changed the daily TV schedule of Italia1, the 3rd biggest TV channel in the country and a true icon for 3 generations of Italians, and

filled it with a massive dose of fun nostalgia able to connect the show to the Italian ‘80s.

We started with the unexpected return on screens of Uan: a pink puppet — the mascot of an unforgettable children program on Italia 1 and the face of our target’s childhood — who was the protagonist of an incredible journey to Hawkins, Stranger Things’ hometown. The backstory of Uan was our silver bullet to make the show’s universe closer to the Italian one.

The natural target of the show is both broad and mainstream, but the audience of season 2 was for the most part younger (18-34). This told us that there was still room to grow, including those who were born in the early 1970s. The first step was to find a way to engage the Italian X Generation by hitting the nostalgic button. We started with a fertile and meaningful overarching message “in the ‘80s the strangest things happened” and then we brought it to life thanks to an unprecedented partnership with Berlusconi’s Mediaset, one of Netflix biggest detractors.

Thanks to this unexpected deal, we were able to bring back the ‘80s on national TV and to integrate the brand into the conversation. The story of Uan was the peak moment of the campaign since it allowed us to shift this huge TV stunt into a conversation on Netflix's social channels.

For an entire day, we turned Italia1 upside-down through a full takeover: 9 movies that inspired the show, 4 fake-product commercials and tons of bespoke contents linking the Italian ‘80s to the show’s universe. Netflix's social channels were the meeting point for the audience of this huge TV stunt. There, people found an editorial plan designed to expand the experience and turn it into an online conversation under the hashtag #Stranger80s.

The TV stunt was planned on Italia1 (part of the Mediaset group) on the 3rd of July.

But Netflix's social channels had a fundamental role too.

In the previous days, we gave some clues online getting our fans ready for the strangest '80s invasion ever. After the stunt, we kept fueling the #Stranger80s conversation with social content strongly linked to the world of the show.

The campaign was launched on Italian channels only.

Total reach on TV: 50M

The takeover had a visible impact on Italia1’s performance with 22M watchers on the 3rd of July (+20% compared to the same day in 2018).

Online, the social amplification had an organic reach of 30.5M, with more than 1 million interactions and no paid media at all.

The perfect integration between adv and editorial content allowed us to reduce the drop in audiences during adv breaks from a standard 10% to an incredible 2%.

Despite it was a TV event, the campaign engaged with people as a social activation.

During the takeover, fans turned Netflix’s social channels into a second screen experience and lived the campaign as transmedia storytelling.

Storytelling which engaged both Stranger Things’ teen super fans and ‘80s addicted, raising hype for the new season, ‘80s nostalgia and a cross-generation dialogue.

Press defined the idea as "a historical event for Italian television".