Since its arrival in Italy in 2015, Netflix has become an entertainment leader in the country. However, despite 9 million subscribers and the wide variety of shows offered, the platform experiences a significant decline in views every year during the week of the Sanremo Music Contest, Italy’s biggest cultural event. So, since beating Sanremo in screen time was impossible, the brand's main objective became to leverage the festival's resonance to its advantage. Furthermore, instead of trying to retain users on the platform by showcasing content already available, Netflix needed to promote shows releasing in the week following the Contest itself.

Even before facing the Sanremo Music Contest, Netflix realized it simply couldn’t compete with such a strong rival. Instead of fighting to keep users on the platform, the brand decided the only way to stand out in the conversation in a country that was so obsessed with the Sanremo Music Contest, was to… Be obsessed with it, too. So, as millions of people went on to watch the Contest, Netflix ironically surrendered to its rival, admitting its supremacy by sending hundreds of real-life versions of the Netflix profile icons to the city of Sanremo, so they could “watch” the Contest too. In a moment when all the country’s eyes were focused right there.

Every February in Italy, all conversation is overshadowed by the Sanremo Music Contest. Netflix had to find a way to be present on the radars of its core target, Gen Z and Millennials, in a moment when the platform loses millions of users. It needed to increase its share of voice by using third parties other than itself, to leverage the festival's resonance to its advantage.

Netflix decided to acknowledge that people would be watching something else for that week, so the brand would simply bid farewell until the next one.

To do so, Netflix created an unbranded PR stunt that involved the city of Sanremo throughout the whole Contest, supported by online communities, influencers, and organically covered by the news; a TV commercial released in prime time on the same evening, at the peak of the buzz, revealing Netflix was behind the stunt and capitalizing on the attention.

During the five days of Sanremo Music Contest, Netflix flooded the streets of the city hosting the event with hundreds of flashy Profile Icons, turning them into its main media to maximize visibility during a moment of high attention around the Contest and the city spaces where it takes place.

The unbranded Icons walked around key locations, which were crowded as usual by press and fans alike. Taking advantage of this heightened level of attention, the Icons were noticed— and organically shared—by national TVs, passersby, and influencers working for our competitors. The on-field headquarters of the Icons were strategically placed in the hotel where the majority of the artists were staying, prompting them to become organically interested in the Icons. A TVC released during the Contest revealed that Netflix was behind the operation, sparking interest and conversation in the audience of the event. Which is basically the whole country.

“Who’s watching?” became the most successful campaign related to the Sanremo Music Contest ever launched by Netflix in Italy. It generated around 100 articles on local news broadcasters; an estimated reach of 45 million in earned media and 30 million impressions, with 93% positive sentiment: 35% more than the Contest itself, which stopped at a mere 58% positive sentiment. During the Sanremo Music Contest week, nobody was watching Netflix, but everybody was talking about Netflix.