Roma: A Case Study of Digital Marketing

The streaming service Netflix has never made a film like “Roma”. It is a personal, black-and-white arthouse film that shows the audience an inside look at a housekeeper’s life in Mexico City. The film is a glimpse into director Alfonso Cuarón’s childhood and life while being “based on and dedicated to the domestic worker who helped raise him (Lee, 2019). “Roma” was Netflix’s best chance to win the Oscar for “Best Picture”. So employees at Netflix created a specialized digital marketing campaign to draw viewers to the movie and encourage Academy Award members to vote for the film. Official financial numbers were never released but Hollywood reporters estimate Netflix spent between $25–40 million on the campaign, more than the film’s budget and record-breaking for marketing budgets for films (Laporte, 2019).

Netflix spent that immense amount of money because it was looking for validation as a major movie studio. The technology company wanted to win an Academy Award for Best Picture to show Hollywood, directors, producers, and movie stars that it can create and support award-winning films (Lee, 2019). It also has more money on hand to spend on marketing budgets than other Hollywood studios, which are now cutting back (Laporte, 2019).

Netflix’s digital marketing campaign had all the hallmarks of other Academy Award Best Picture campaigns and it added new, innovative, and…