Vecna may have finally met his match, as the Stranger Things kids have a new ally in the last battle for Hawkins: Gatorade.
In the premiere episode of Stranger Things Season 5, which debuted Nov. 26, Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) gears up to face big bad Vecna, and as part of her training routine, she has a glass bottle of Gatorade to refuel her “battery” for the fight. It’s a product placement that takes on greater significance as the show creators, Matt and Ross Duffer, look to bring the ’80s to life.
“The way we work with the Duffer Brothers is, we’re not actively selling placement into the shows themselves,” Magno Herran, vp of brand marketing and partnerships at Netflix, told ADWEEK. “Their view of products in the Stranger Things universe is to really paint a better picture of what the ’80s were like. You’re able to contextualize it much better when you recognize a certain brand that appeared in the ’80s.”
Herran noted that the ’80s feel is pivotal for brands within the show, but it also helps bring the series to life in the real world. For instance, Eleven’s same glass-bottled Gatorades from the show are also returning to select real-life locations. The same goes for Doritos, which appears in the show and also launched a Stranger Pizza x Cool Ranch flavor, complete with retro packaging.
“It became a really creative exercise, thinking about how you extend that one idea that happens in the show very naturally and authentically into the real world and into the hands of the fans,” Herran said.
Heading into the final season, which is rolling out in three installments, with episodes still to come on Christmas and New Year’s Eve, Herran said Netflix had no shortage of brands looking to be part of the show’s last run. However, the marketing department worked with the Duffer Brothers and their teams to hone in on the brands and executions that made sense as the campaign rallied around the idea of “one last strange ride.”
In some cases, that was literal, with Netflix hosting immersive Stranger Things bike rides such as the Netflix x CicLAvia: One Last Ride Fan Event. According to Netflix, the event had 50,000 fans on hand to enjoy biking, photo ops, activations, and giveaways from partners such as Doritos, Chips Ahoy, Dum Dums, Gushers, Benetton, Jazwares, Nike, Converse, Displate, and Dr. Squatch.
In other cases, the team had to get creative for brands that weren’t endemic to the show but could still help tell the story. For instances like those, Netflix’s ad tier comes in big, with sponsorship placement putting commercials ahead of the show on the ad-supported plan, where they can lean into ’80s nostalgia and create a more engaging ad experience.
