QUEEN’S GAMBIT AND “THE NETFLIX EFFECT”

Most of you have probably heard of the Queen’s Gambit limited series, but for those of you who don’t know it, this is one of the most successful series of 2020. The story of young chess miracle girl Beth Harmon, who became world champion, unexpectedly captured the hearts and minds of millions of viewers.

Netflix reported that Queen’s Gambit is its biggest limited series yet. In the first 28 days, it was watched by 62 million households worldwide, which was immediately named “The Netflix effect”. But what does that mean?

• The Queen’s Gambit novel only hit The New York Times bestseller list 37 years after its release.
• Google’s chess searches have doubled, while searches for “how to play chess” peaked at nine years.
• Inquiries for ‘chess sets’ on eBay are growing by 250% and Goliath Games says chess sales have increased by more than 170%.

Unlike the popular horror movie IT, Queen’s Gambit did not have a social media marketing strategy. Netflix barely mentioned the release of the series on official accounts.

How did they achieve this global success?

The series has apparently succeeded through a word-of-mouth strategy. The Queen’s Gambit collected almost 230,000 mentions in 30 days, of which the positive mentions were almost twice as many as the negative ones.

To sum up the whole blog:

When your product is amazing and your brand already has an extensive user base, marketing can be left to customers.

Word of mouth is more powerful than any marketing technique: people trust others, not brands, and most of all, they trust their family and friends who like to recommend and advise what to wear, what to look for, and what to buy.

When your product is good, you can also trust that your brand advocates will show up out of nowhere and jump on the train.