GIGIL Philippines inserts ‘Ninong’ into Netflix Christmas trailer to promote new films
Christmas is a big occasion in the Philippines, and Netflix wanted to promote 6 new film titles that were totally unrelated to each other.
GIGIL were tasked with the job and took inspiration from the person most associated with Christmas in the Philippines, and made him the campaign handle: ‘Ninong’.
‘Ninong’ is the Filipino word for ‘godfather’: the man who acts as sponsor to a child during their Catholic baptism. In the Philippines a person’s godfather is expected to give money to their godchildren at Christmas. That’s why they go into hiding during the Christmas season, Filipinos joke.
GIGIL’s campaign gives Filipinos the chance to find him…in the Netflix Christmas trailer featuring the 6 new titles that launched during Christmas. The agency cheekily inserted ‘Ninong’ in the frames of the trailer to make it look like he was really there when they were shot.
And they challenged Filipinos to try and find him – so they ended up watching the trailer over and over again till they were convinced to see the films. Entertainment film trailer meets brand advertising, a la Netflix.
The trailer was shared 17,000 times and ‘Bridgerton,’ ‘Sweet Home,’ ‘The Midnight Sky,’ and ‘Hello, Love, Goodbye’ all landed on the Top 10 list of the most watched Netflix films in the Philippines in December 2020.
