About this project
In March 2024, Netflix released a new series, 3 Body Problem, based on the award-winning, critically acclaimed, multi-million-copy-selling science-fiction phenomenon published by Head of Zeus – The Three-Body Problem.
This Netflix Original Series was developed by the creators of Game of Thrones, and this posed a unique opportunity for Head of Zeus to:
- Sell books to those who watched the Netflix series but didn’t know about the book
- Convince those who knew about the book that they should invest in the series
Results Overview
Paid social media ads
1.37 m
Impressions
13k
Clicks to retail
No. 1
on Audible
Podcast advertising, Fandom advertising and influencer marketing
1.96 m
Impressions
15.5k
Clicks to retail
Our Approach
This was a fast-paced, exciting campaign to work on, requiring close collaboration with the client to make the most of a sales opportunity – and succeeding! We kept track of campaign performance throughout, before rounding-up in our final report to the client.
After client discussions about the budget and objectives, we started by briefing the wider awareness-building elements, through the podcast creative and the best placement for digital ads, thinking carefully not only about the messaging but also how the VO artist would chime with the largest segment of the potential audience.
Next, we developed the targeting and copy for ads on both Meta and Reddit. We chose Reddit as we knew that fans would be keen to discuss the series on this forum and felt it was a useful opportunity to position the books close to the debate.
We were able to incorporate both book covers (original and TV tie-in) across both campaigns, and the ads were optimised to work with both.
The ads ran in the UK and Germany, and we worked closely with the Head of Zeus team to maintain agile optimisation according to market response. Since there was such a whirl of activity and increased sales, we extended the ads to support both the best-selling audio edition and physical books.
As the campaign continued, we identified that a lot of people were looking for trusted opinions on the book vs the Netflix approach and so decided to work with two micro influencers, both keen SFF fans, to add to the discussion online, get their own communities involved and use the content within TikTok Spark Ads to reach a wider, relevant audience.
The Result
On Meta, the campaign resulted in 845,000 impressions and 11,000 clicks to date. In addition to this the Reddit ads created 453,276 impressions and 1,173 clicks. Over on TikTok the ads drove 72,000 impressions and 679 clicks. So in total our campaign resulted in 1.37 million impressions and just under 13,000 clicks from paid social media ads.
Podcast advertising pulled in 255,000 impressions, whilst over on Fandom (one of the largest entertainment sites and fan community platforms with 63% subscribed to Netflix), there were 343,406 impressions and 2,720 clicks.
Across the podcast advertising, Fandom advertising and influencer marketing there were a total of 1.96 million impressions, and 15,500 clicks to retail.
“Working with Gemma, Emily and the team on our campaign for The Three-Body Problem, around the release of the Netflix show has been fantastic. There were a lot of moving parts and short notice deadlines to the campaign and everything was handled brilliantly. I don’t think we could have achieved what we did without them!”
Jo Liddiard
Head of Marketing, Head of Zeus
“Working closely with the dynamic Head of Zeus team and seeing the books connect to the Netflix show so successfully across different audiences, platforms and formats has been fantastic!”
Maykn Team
